stinkyclimber

Thanks for the latest intel. With the forecast - low FLs - i suspect it it will be good to go in 2 weeks. The challenge is always guessing how good the ice is in the middle - the winds there, esp at the corner of Sphinx Bay, are high, keeping the ice thinner. Such a joy to hit scary-thin ice under powder halfway across. There are lots of soggy boots and even swimming stories, so definitely don't fuck around too much with this. All that to say, if the ice close to shore feels dicey, then forget it.

Yep, just go into Guest Services, just beside the regular ticket kiosks, and ask for a b/c pass. they will ask to see probe, shovel and beacon. that is all. with W/B all on RFID now, the one-ride tix aren't as easy to abuse (i.e. run laps in-bounds) because it is set to use once to get you to the top lift. they are about $70, i believe. not cheap, but compared to the $120 full freight, it is a deal, i guess. Duffey Lake is pretty nice too, and free - head up to Rohr/Marriot Basin or into Cerise Creek - easy to find info and maps online. Both are easy 90 min skins from the road to the alpine and lots of lap options.

Maybe things have changed, but we used to just bring a big-ass bolt cutter and cut the locks off the cable car and ride across in style (always remembering to bring your own lock so you can lock it on the far side so some scumbag thieving climber doesn't take it back across, leaving you stranded). The locks were big and hard to cut thru, so one year one of us who worked at a lab brought a big cooler full of liquid nitrogen to freeze it off. Turns out tempered steel does not become brittle at extremely low temps. But it was awesome pouring 4L of that shit off the top of the tower. Karma got us tho - one year we came back to our car and someone had stolen the racks. Others used to have their batteries stolen. Sounds like paying the guy for as boat ride is the ticket.

Underworld, your post above is quoted in this Globe and Mail article. http://tgam.ca/Dta4 Sounds like no one is still quite sure how this happened.

Awesome trip to a seldom visited winter destination. Kudos especially for avoiding the use of any points of aid (especially, the airborne variety). A burly trail. The canoe looks easier than futzing around with the stupid cable car.

I think Will Ferrell captured it in a tweet he sent yesterday (even tho Oprah denies it): "Lance Armstrong confesses to Oprah on drug use. What i$ it about her interview$ that make$ everyone $pill their gut$" Also: Lance probably knows he has a douche-bag problem (specifically, that the entire world thinks he is a douche-bag) and Oprah's specialty is helping douche's un-douche themselves, as long as they say the word "sorry." And LA needs to undouche himself because he desperately wants to continue his recent focus on elite triathaloning which he can't do until he can get himself unbanned from all Olympic-regulated sports. Undouching will lead to unbanning. I wish him the worst of luck. Asshat.

I was just looking at some trip planning options and checking out the MCR reports at the ACMG and came across this doozy. Bummer if you had your sights set on Edith Cavell. But would have been awesome to see. The mother of all trundles. ------------ "Ghost Glacier" hanging on the N face of Edith Cavell just to the left of Angel glacier, fell off the mountain sometime last night before 0530hrs. A tsunami ensued when it impacted the lake below. The torrent left ice chunks in the parking lot and road, took out some small structures and the picnic area, and left 3' of gravel in places. Cavell road is closed until further notice. Garth Lemke Visitor Safety Specialist -JNP ACMG assistant ski ---------------

When the Silverhorn is in that kind of condition, it all depends on your comfort on mid-angle alpline ice (50 degrees? not that steep). If you plan on belaying, then 2 screws for each belays= and maybe 1-2 max for each pitch. If simuling, then maybe 5-6 should get you up it without stopping. Two tools will make it faster but it has obviously been done with one. For NF - again, depends on your comfort. Most will want 2-3 screws per pitch. For the rock band: try to avoid the rock and stick to the gully or snow ridge to the right of the gully. To get into the gully, there is 5-10 ft of rock. If the gully is out, then the rock is easy, but shit. Really shit. I can't underscore how shitty it is. Loose, downsloping shale shit. In other words, classic Rockies munge. I suppose a few nuts, a cam or two. Maybe a small pin or two. I can't remember. The rock is shit so don't count on a lot of pro. Fortunately it is easy. We had to take the rock to the left of the gully. It was a pitch and a half. I don't think pickets would be useful - not that much snow left by the looks of it. I'd do the NF over Silverhorn, esp if the gully is in (you can see it from the road). Not that much harder and WAYY more asthetic. But both are fun - a fun peak. Check out the ACMG site for really up to date weather and route conditions.

Trip: Joffre Lakes area, British Columbia - NW Ridge of Joffre (up to 5.7/8) Date: 7/16/2012 Trip Report: Sorry, no photos, but just some brief route notes since the interwebs is a little sparse on this route. Climbed the NW Ridge of Joffre a few weeks back. The ridge itself is fairly long, and mostly hiking and fun, easy scrambling. A fun outing but a little gruelling for my out of shape, Eastern-Canada trapped body - 5KM and maybe 4K vert. We had planned to spend 2 days and do the Joffre enchainment - Joffre, Matier, Slalok - and so decided to bivy on Joffre's summit. The weather was awesome, we had bivy gear, why not. Bad call - we were woken at 6am by thunder. Fuck. Joffre and Matier are far and away the highest peaks in the area - lightening rods. Instead of finding and descending the Aussie Couloir into the gathering gloom, we figured we would reverse the first part of the ridge, on known ground, and then downclimb one of the long gullies down to the Matier Gl just above the icefall. Fortunately the rain held off until just after we finished the 3 raps and the one pitch out of the upper notch, althogh we were accompanied by buzzing bees and static-hair. At one point Andrew remarked that every time he held up his axe, it buzzed; we agreed the best solution was not to hold up his axe. WTF is up with t-storms in the coast, esp. at 6AM?! I expect this shit in the Rockies and Kootenays. Anyway the descent down the gully was fine, altho the downpour and endless steep snow downclimbing made it less fun. Then out the endless switchbacks of the Joffre Lake trail, passing tourists on the way up wearing shorts and sandles and asking, "is it slippery up there" while getting soaked and exhausted. Info on the route: There are 3 very short pitches, each separated by scrambling, in the final 1000ft of the ridge: the first is 10-15m of 5.6-5.8 (depending on how high the snow is), and then other two are each 15m of very exposed mid-fifth. The are 4 fairly big gaps in the ridge to negotiate. The first two notches are easily turned on snow slopes on climbers left (with no snow, might be chossy enough to choose to rappel), although judging hy all the rap slings most people don't bother taking 30 seconds to look around for an alternative. The third one is a chossy and exposed but very doable downclimb. There is one mandatory 20m rappel into the final notch. It is out of this final notch that you encounter the three bits of 5th class ground. Getting off of this peak is not easy. The easiest ways off are: - the NW Ridge - 3 raps and one short pitch out of the upper notch, plus some tricky downclimbing and scrambling, then a major bushwack at the end...in short, not easy or simple. To avoid some of the downclimbing and all the bush, descend the gully down to the Matier Gl from the second highest gap. We had one short rap, but with the right conditions and picking the right line, it will be steep snow or choss all the way. - the SE ridge (or face?) which is all 3rd and 4th class, but if you have never climbed it, involves some tricky routefinding. Get off line, and you are into rapping steep, complicated terrain. This descent takes you to the Anniversary Gl. side of the mountain - look at the McLane guide for this one. - the Aussie Couloirs, easy with enough snow, but chossy death gullies without. Be sure to pick the right the gullies - there are others that cliff-out. Brings you onto the Matier Gl. Gear Notes: 50m half rope; axe; handful of gear; rap slings (there is some in place, but this route isn't done too much, so don't expect to re-use much). Approach Notes: We approached from the old logging road just east of the Joffre Lakes parking lot. Walk east along the highway for 100m from the parking lot, then another 300-400m along the old logging road. then head up. The first 100m is hella-steep 5.bush. Then it is just plain old steep BC bushwacking - mostly open forest with manageable undergrowth, dodging the odd cliff band. It is a ridge so just keep going up - you'll hit the alpine eventually. Alternatively, go up Joffre Lakes trail, then up onto the Matier Gl then up a steep gully to the ridge - not recommended for approach, but better for descent. Stay left of the icefall - mostly scree and slabs, up to the waterfall, passing it on the right, on steep snow. Then you there. Without snow, getting past the waterfall is the crux - usually gross downsloping slab and choss.

The old Scout camp parking was always a good place for an illegal bivy - well screened from the road by trees. They put bolders on the drive way just far enough apart to sneak a Suby in. That was a while back so it may not still be disused. But otherwise, I have found Buck's places work well. Up closer to Louise, the Louise overflow campground, a few KM south of Louise, is perfect (unless the main one if overflowing, which case rangers will be at the overflow). There is a greenway path thru Canmore - hydro right of way? - we bivied on once, and when we woke up, local homeowners walking their dogs and going for their morning runs had to deke around us. Not classy. Oops. It looked good in the dark. Whatever you do, do NOT try to sneak in late to one of the K-Country campgrounds. They look like the honour system for payment, but the province has contracted out the enforcement to a private company. Those biatches come by at 2AM to check for payment. Illegal bivies in this area work best in August because it gets dark earlier. It sucks in earluy June when you have to wait till 11PM for it go get dark. Anyway, like Buck, I have been woken by rangers quite a few times (once when we slept on the side of the access road to their Jasper operations office...another ooops), and they have never done anything by moved us along. Have fun

Meh. I ran the Rockwall Trail last fall - it was OK. Lot of up and down. The Jasper Skyline Trail is much better, imo - 25km of continuous high alpine ridge. A great trail run, and a decent hike (the campsites are located at the lower points of the trail). I agree with Feck, tho - for hiking, Tonquin is great. Probably more interesting as a multi-day hike that Skyline or Rockwall. The area behind Castle Towers - not sure what it is called - also seems cool. Eisenhower is all 5th class for sure. I think Castle Towers too. If you want to minimize driving around, then spending your time in O'Hara is your best option. Book your site and the shuttle now and you are set. Lots of amazing options from cool valley boottoms to high ridges to high peaks.

Not sure how the winter/spring snowpack is looking. I have done Columbia as a ski trip in mid-April in an average snowpack year, and it sure felt pretty wintery up there. I think if the snowpack is anywhere near normal, then you will be fine up to late-April. My experience in the Rockies with skiing in May is that it is starting to get a little late - the snowpack and bridges rot out a lot earlier than on the coast. Having said that, I have had GREAT May ski trips on the Wapta. The main problem with later in the season on the Columbia Glacier will be crevasses lower down, below the headwall. In terms of objective hazard: the year I was there the seracs were pretty tame. I guess they change from year to year, but the hazard seemed low too. I don't remember even seeing much debris. Unless you see a mile of overhanging seracs, with fresh debris everywhere, I wouldn't worry about it at all. Definitely not worth detouring up the Sask Glacier because of it (go up there if you want different scenery and want to wade for miles). Everyone talks about the "Headwall" below the icefield itself being a slot-ridden nightmare. I didn't see any. Rope up on the way up and use your brain and you'll be fine. The real challenge up there is whiteout. Finding your way off the correct spot on Headwall might be a challenge, but still not impossible, esp. nowadays with GPS. We managed with a compass, map and dead-reakoning. I wouldn't bother going up there tho unless the forecast is decent. Not much to do or see up there unless the viz is decent. The rangers at the Icefields Centre are helpful apparently so give them a call. not sure if the centre is open yet. Also check MCR - the guides go up there lots and post conditions reports.

Yah, I got screwed over on that 4th rap when we did in a few years back. It was just after that rap route had been installed, but before the topo got around. We downclimbed the ridge up to that point (didn't know about the west ridge/face bypass higher, but the downclimbing was fine) and then I got casual about looking where I was going, and realized that the ropes weren't touching the slab below only after I was below the overhang. I could have prussiked up and gotten back on line, but decided to go for it and it was dicey. With a little swinging in to the slab timed with letting the last of the rope go thru my ATC let me drop down onto a shitty stance. Once my weight came off, the rope shrunk 10 ft up above me, and I just waited for the next one to come down and told them how to avoid my fuck up. We then went down those 5 raps - total choss bullshit. To add insult to injury, we had to go back to the col to get some shit we stashed there. Still, a fun day in the hills.

I haven't been up there, but I noticed a report on Bivouac from May 2 saying that although the lake was still cross-able at the time, they figured it might be very close to the end of the season. I have been on the lake in May, and usually travel on it becomes a massive pain in the ass - alternating layers of slush and ice that you break thru, scare the shit out of yourself, and get soaked and cold. There is still often plenty of ice underneath all of this slush, so the risk of drowning is limited. But man, skiing thru that slush is really unpleasant. The neve itself is probably OK. Just getting on and off of it will be a pain. The Spearhead is usually still a good bet at this time of year. No one on it, fast travel. Usually the lifts arte closed now, so you have to do it the old fashioned way - walk! Otherwise, check out some other options where usually snow covered logging roads make winter trips impractical - go up the Ashlu and do Jimmy Jimmy. Drive to Meager Hot Springs and scoot up Harrison Hut. These are best as 2-3 day trips.

In the early days of the snow-cat assisted sledding in Brandywine Meadows near Whistler, as often as possible I took dumps on the ski out along the groomed road, and then lightly covered the new "cairn" with snow. Being the second sledder in line would have sucked. Last week, Mike Weigle, the owner of Canadian Mountain Holidays (big heli-ski outfit in the Monashees) called for all bc sledding to be banned in BC due to all the deaths and general stupidity. In part, he cited "stress to his staff" because of all the body recoveries they were doing, including one where the victim's face had been chewed off by wild animals.