Trip: Lytton/Fraser Canyon - After the Gold Rush boot destruction
Date: 12/15/2007
Trip Report:
Canadug and I went climbing up the Fraser Canyon on Saturday. This was going to be Doug's 2nd time ever ice climbing (the last was 10 years ago) and he was borrowing some of my gear and using some of his own. Among the gear he had was this old pair of "Stefan" brand single boots with leather from the ankle up, and a plastic lower shell.
On the drive up the Canyon it appeared that a lot of ice had fattened up until around Wednesday/Thursday and was now falling apart. There were a couple of good looking harder unclimbed lines in near Hells Gate but everything else was open and flowing until we got to Goldpan. I also realized around Boston Bar that I had left my crampons at home. But what the hell, we were just going to play around on a half pitch high climb so we could swap Doug's loaner crampons back and forth.
It was about -2 in Lytton with lots of snow on the ground, a really odd hard & sometimes breakable crust that is unusual for the area. We hiked up the creek a ways and tooled up at the first step. I tried to get up this low-angle, snowy flow with no crampons by chopping steps and it worked alright, it was actually kind of fun.
When Doug had come up to join me we noticed some cracking in the plastic part of his boots. A chunk had fallen off. Oh well, there's duct tape in the car, but let's climb this next little pitch while we're up here.
Up the first step
Some damage.
So we climbed the next pitch and had some fun.
But, while he was climbing, chunks of boot were raining down on my belay, and when Doug came down from that pitch it was obvious his boots were in serious suckage mode.
So we headed back down to our packs... here's how his boots liked that:
I was laughing so hard by the end, I could barely stand up! And since the gaiter straps were the only things holding the soles to his feet by then, Doug could barely stand up either
Anyways we got back down to the car and it must have warmed up to +2, everything was melting, drops of water were falling off the trees, etc. so we just headed back to Chilliwack. Short day, not much climbing but funny anyhow.
Gear Notes:
Bring boots that do not self-destruct and a few screws.
Approach Notes:
Walk 5 minutes from car to ice.
