Peter Way

Magnets, no matter if they be in the boot or the crampon will mean that there will be metal in the sole of the boot. The sole of the boot is made to minimize heat loss from your feet. Early explorers would pound nails through the soles of their boots, before we had crampons, to give them traction on the ice, but they very quickly got frostbite from heat loss through the nails. The soles of climbing boots are already thick and heavy enough, I think we can do without great lumps of ferris in them. And if the only thing holding the crampons to the boots are magnets, even Neodymium magnets, the crampon will quickly fall off. Peter

Yeman and I are going to Banff Feb16 to 23. I've been there a few times. You will not regret going and wish that you had more time. But for WI4 and just a few days I would suggest: Johnson Canyon on Bow Valley Pkwy, half pitch climbs side by side that can be top roped if need be, you can run laps all day, 1 mile hike on easy trail: Louise Falls, Lake Louise, 2 long pitches, you can see it from the lodge, 1 mile easy flat hike: Lower Weeping wall on Ice Fields Pkwy, 3 pitches, classic, 2 minute hike, if you miss it you are blind. These are popular climbs with easy access so you can expect other climbers, they can get hacked out. If you are looking for something more challenging you will get a lot more hiking on approach and less climbing. But no matter what you do I know you will wan't to go back. Peter

Trip: Portland to lillooet - Marble Canyon Date: 1/19/2013 Trip Report: Yeman and I drove Portland to Lillooet and back for the weekend. Long way to drive for 8 pitches of ice. Never been to Lilloete before so we went to Marble Canyon, easy to find easy to get to if you've only got a day and a half to climb . Deeping Wall and the bottom 2 piches of ICBC are pretty hacked out. The top pitch of ICBC is in good form. Air Care is short but has only just come in and hasn't seen many accents this year, it was a very cool climb. The top of Body Shop is not yet touching down but we climbed the bottom half of it and finished out up behind the right hand side of ICBC. All in all for desperate Oregon ice climbers it was a good weekend. Some climbs in Western BC and in and there is plenty of climbing going on. Whistler is warm. Check out West Coast Ice for conditions.

Gloves. Ice climbing is hard on your hands. Gloves need to be dexterous, warm protective and sturdy. All that is hard to get out of one glove. In most conditions I wear thin neoprene, they're cheap, dexterous, fairly warm and protective but they're not very water proof or sturdy. You can't belay or rap with them, so I carry a pair of insulated leather glove, but you can't set screws too well with them on. We need one pair of gloves that does it all. Good luck working on that Peter

No worry about my screws melting out I freed the wall I didn't put any in, besides it was -21 degrees C

The other guys climbed Redman but we had both hiked in there with Whiteman on our radar

Trip: Banff - How to climb ice in late March Date: 3/30/2012 Trip Report: The short answer, get out of Washington. So I took off for Canada and spent 6 days in the Canadian Rockys. I went up there by myself and had some probs finding people to climb with but that didn't stop me. Day 1 Johnson Canyon, I can get to the top of the climbs so I solo top rope 3 lines up it. Day 2 I hike to the top of Louise Falls and solo top rope 2 lines up it. Day 3 Still no climbing partner. It's Saturday so I go to the Weeping Wall, I'm bound to find someone to climb with there right. I get there early. It's cold -21C or -6F. There are 2 cars in the parking lot. I hike up to the climb and find a guided group of 12 people setting up 4 ropes and getting ready to take over the whole wall. I drop my pack, grab my tools and ropes, pick a pretty easy going line and free solo the wall. I'm rapped out by 10.30 and wondering what to to do with the rest of the day. I go do a hike at Bow Lake. Day 4 Zane and I hike the 5k into into Whiteman Falls. There are 2 teams already there, one is on the climb, we go Rock, Paper, Scissors with the other guys and win. It's a very cool climb. My lead Day 5 Zane, Barrie and I drive to Field. We climb 3 short pitches of WI3 in Guinness Gully to get to High Test, 55 meters WI5. My lead Day 6 Zane and I drive back to field and send a lift hand line up Carlsburg, 60 meters WI5. My lead. We're done by 12.30. By 3.30 I'm on the road back to Potland. It's well worth the drive. Peter Johnson Canyon Weeping Wall Whiteman Falls High Test Carlsburg

By the end of next week (march 15th or 16th) I'm driving up to Banff for a week to 10 days to get in as much ice climbing as I can. Looking to come back to Portland on or around the weekend of the 24th. I'm going up there by myself so I'm looking for people to climb with. If your up there, going that way, or interested please let me know. Peter

This is a very cool tool. I appreciate the effort you have put into this. Maps are my bible.

I drive out there last Wednesday to look at ice conditions. I looked at Strobach through my binoculars from the edge of the lake, from that distance it looks thin with some ice not touching down. I wasn't prepared to hike all the way in for uncertain climbing. Clear Creek Falls was a much better option.

Trip: White Pass - Clear Creek Falls Date: 2/18/2012 Trip Report: Today, Yeman and I went up to White Pass and rapped into Clear Creek Falls. There is still a lot of ice to the right of the water fall. The farther you get to the right the better the ice is. There is no ice on the main flow. We put 2 lines up, one on the far right, a solid WI 3/4 and one close to the water fall on the left of what ice is there, it was tougher and longer with the top third of the climb soft, hollow and fragile. It was blowing and snowing like a MO, there was constant drift blowing in but it was a fun day. Take long ropes and ascenders and be prepared to jug the top 15 or 20 feet. Check out Brain J 's video on Vimeo, they rapped in a few days back with headcams on and made a good day of it. Check back later we'll have some photos up. Peter

So this weekend gone we went back up to Rainier and put another line up Nisqually Belle, WI5. The ice is still in good shape, a little bleached on the surface from the a few days of sun last week but no problems protecting it. On Sunday we went 1500 feet higher to about 8000 feet to the cliff face on the right on the Nisqually just below the bottom of the Muir Snow Field, and directly across from where the Wilson Glacier feeds into the Nisqually. This ice I have seen form up often but I've never seen any climbing history on it. We called it Nisqually Vista because of the awesome view. There is a wall of ice 150 meters across and a full pitch tall, we put a WI4+ route up it. Parts of it where very bleached out, it is in direct sun all day. There is still water running over it in a few spots so some of it is hard and fat. Sunday morning it was 15 degrees, if it stays cold up there most of the climb should stay up. By the time we where rapping down however it was hot and it became a shooting gallery. Driving out from the park Sunday afternoon I noticed someone had hiked up to Mikey's, any luck? Peter

Yes that was us. We climbed it last week as well. I put in a trip report. The ice on Nisqually Belle is still in good shape. On Sunday we went higher and climbed a line on a wall of ice at 8000 feet below the bottom of the Muir Snow Field, it was pretty bleached out in spots but still had water running over it so if it stays cold it should stray in Peter

Trip: Fat Ice on Rainier - Nisqually Belle Date: 1/28/2012 Trip Report: Nisquall Belle Saturday we went up to Rainier to look at ice conditions. almost nothing down low. Mikey's is very thin. We went up to Paradise, hiked up to Glacier Vista, went down across the Nisqually to the cliff below the Wilson at about 6500 feet. Iv'e seen this ice every winter but never got close enough to it to see if it was worth climbing. Right now it is FAT FAT FAT. We climbed a full 70 meter pitch of WI4.5 The climb is 2 pitches tall with the top pitch laid back at about 45 and pretty ugly (we did not climb that), the bottom pitch has 30 meters of WI3 and 35 to 40 meters of plumb vertical WI4.5. It is very cool and will worth the hike in. Iv'e not seen this climb in any guide book or on any web site. I find it hard to imagine that it has never been climbed because of how visible it is, it is in full view across the Nisqually. If anyone has info on it I would be interested. Peter

We are looking at going to Levenworth early in Jan if you can make it your welcome. Peter

Clear Creek falls was only climbable on the right at the bottom, on the left it was totaly open. I had to climb about 20 meters then traverse left through very lose wet ice. I must have pulled down tons of it trying to find something firm. Hopefuly it will stay cold enough at White Pass for it to continue to form up. I'm unforunatly not able to got back there till after the first week in Jan. I'd like to go to Levenworth. Peter

Trip: White Pass - Clear Creek Falls Date: 12/13/2009 Trip Report: Derek and I went up to White Pass this weekend to see what ice is to be had up there, the news is not so good. We looked at Strobach through the binoculars from across the lake and didn't bother to hike into it. There is some thin ice up but it looks bleached out. Maybe this warmer weather will bring a little moisture. Saturday afternoon we drove up Hwy 410 towards Chinook Pass and climbed on a couple of short climbs on FR 19, WI 3-3+. Sunday we went back to White Pass to look at Clear Creek Falls, we figgered it had been cold enough for it to be climbable. The Washington Ice Book was telling us it is 80 feet WI 3-4, what we found was completely different, so different that I think the author was climbing something else. What we climbed is a full 60 meters of overhung wet lose chandelier with bad to no protection WI 5-6 bastard. Hopefuly it will stay cold enough up there to continue to form up. Have fun Peter

Mikey's Gully is still climbable. Andrew and I climbed it on Saturday, it took screws well, the ice was still in good shape, a little white but hey it's late March. "Mikey likes it" looks OK too but we didn't climb on it. Bit of a slog in deep snow getting up to it.

I went up to Ranier today to look at Narada falls with the hope of finding some climbable ice but was disappointed. Maybe another couple of weeks. Anyone know what the conditions are like at Strobach?

I hear the ice looks good in Hyalite. I'm planning a trip to Cody in January and would be interested to hear about the conditions there. How bout you post someting when you find out.

I'm interested in being on the Ruth Glacier in May/June 08 with sights on peak 11300 and a few others.

I'm up for Rainier as often as possible in February/March. I'll be in Cody ice climbing for a couple of weeks in January, anyone interested in that?

I can asure you Im not Studklimber. I started out on this site a week ago looking for climbing partners for a trip to Alaska next year

eather you know the answer to a question or you don't. if you don't, don't be afraid to ask, but be careful condeming the person thats willing to give an answer.

You can climb St Helens in about 4 hours or the south ridge of Adams in about 8