Matt Kidd

Trip: Duffey Lake Rd. - Loose Lady Date: 2/15/2009 Trip Report: Short TR, sorry no pics. Mike and hit the road around 6am Sunday morning from Vancouver and headed up with a general plan to hit something on the Duffey. On the way up we met Ben and brought him from Squamish to meet Rob from Whistler with the thought that we might all climb a route together. As it happened Rob and Ben decided to head to the D'Arcy area and Mike and I decided to head for the Duffey. Looked to be several parties on the Rambles, and Carl's Berg looked really good and had noone on it, but Mike wanted to have a look at Sychronicity, which looked fat but possibly a bit white on the highest pitch or two. I talked Mike out of it because of the late start and so despite there being two other cars at the base we headed up Loose Lady around 10:45. The lower pitches were in good condition and we left the rope in the pack. Briefly met the other two parties on the lower pitches (nice people but didn't catch any names) and found the final pillar looking quite impressive. The final pitch was formed in two separate pillars with the right side slightly less steep and the left steeper and significantly more featured. I led the first pitch which was largely easy grade 3 with hero ice with a short exit section of interesting mushrooms to the belay at the left. Once up close it was clear that the only way to get up was via the left side as the right was a cold shower. When Mike got up to the belay he said "Looks pretty wild. I'm going for it." Glad he did because I wouldn't have. With a shrubby sort of belay I asked Mike that he get a screw in as quickly as possible, and off he led. The final pitch started on clear ice with poor protection for about five meters up to a cave with the first good pro. From the cave it traverses onto the steep and highly featured final pillar, which has good rests but difficult/awkward moves and placements, the occasional sketchy hook. Mike led it in fine style. When it came to my turn I found it more difficult than I anticipated, and was glad to be on a top rope. The crux for me was gaining the pillar from the cave, and had to grab the back of the pillar to lean out far enough to get a placement for the traverse. After gaining the pillar the climbing was fun and difficult, definately the most technical ice I have climbed. Really enjoyable. A 60m rope stretch rap to climbers left got us down in one, and one more rap for the final grade 3 pitch and a bunch of down climbing got us back to the car for 5:30. Fantastic route and thanks Mike for leading that last pitch! Found some gear on the route. Would like to return it to its owner. Claim by identification. Sounded like Rob, Ben and his friend had a good day in D'Arcy, lots of stuff in. Go get some. Gear Notes: Standard Approach Notes: Nice easy approach

Looked to be fairly recent. Claim your schwag by identifying which items were left and how they were marked.

Anyone interested in beautiful custom furniture should walk through "The Joint" here in Vancouver. http://www.thejoint.ca/ The website doesn't do the work justice.

Still lots of ice up there. Plum is fat. Whisper Falls was fun - good ice until the easy finish. Worth the trip.

Doesn't take much to figure out when it's a bad idea, either. The guide is quite clear about the potential for avy aside even from applying one's own common sense. The picture is quite impressive, though.

I have done that to little success. Recent trips out using the square knot seem to have solved the problem for me. After a bit of walking and the usual loosening that occurs with all boots I tightened them up and threw in the square knot. Worked well. Thanks for the input all.

You should try to buy or borrow the guide. It will help you with all the approach details. If not there will certainly be someone with it at Rampart that would be able to lend you a glance, but sounds like you're only going there after a day of climbing.

These laces have always aggravated me as they slack off and come undone much too easily. Has anyone found a good replacement lace that solves this problem?

Do the micro puff and the DAS size the or did you buy different sizing? Looks like a good deal on the DAS buy never like buying anything that I haven't tried on. I do have the micro puff and I have to admit that I have rarely wanted any more warmth just as you suggested...

All the above are good beginner areas. Balfour wall has the most variety of TR difficulties of the above. Two O'clock falls is very mellow multipitch for beginners. There are much better skiers than I around here but I enjoyed skiing on the Wapta. Heading into Bow hut area... For day trips I am sure there are many more places to get in some turns but I enjoyed the terrain on that one.

It's still early young man.

http://www.rei.com/product/725399 Check this before you go for possible reports on conditions - http://www.westcoastice.com/ I might be free to get out as well depending when you are going. Fire me a PM if you are interested.

I used to climb trees on the North Shore. By far the majority of the work was for views, and we were still topping trees all the time. :tdown: It got depressing to be on the wrong side of things (I like trees) so I got out of the business. The most interesting situations that we were in the middle of (and there were disputes ALL the time) were in stratas. The strata would have hired us for topping/removals and you would have two groups shouting at us and each other. One would be telling us to cut and the other would be calling us nasty things. Good times.!

Looks like a good one Braydon. I take it you found some tools?

As sick as everyone probably is of hearing about Proportional Representation you have to suspect that it would get more people out to the voting booth. Everyone seemed surprised at the 6% for the Greens when polling put them as high as 14%, but many fewer are inclined to vote when no seat is forthcoming. The Cap and Trade is about setting strict limits on pollution and I would bet my last dollar you won't see anything like that out of Mr. Harper. The whole Green Shift phenomenon was a disappointment to me. Clearly showed that you don't have to argue against the facts, just aim to muddy the waters. If Dion was as strong in English I think that this might have played out differently. I'm expecting that the Conservatives will treat these results like they got a strong mandate to govern. It will be interesting to see what is tabled (probably crime legislation). It will also be interesting to see how the Liberals choose to behave. Clearly they can't bring the house quickly, but they did get punished for failing to bring any real opposition to Parliament.

Good TR, great hair. Way to get it done.

I am not a strong skier and have used the mountaineering boots setup for quite a few approaches. Maybe a good skier could manage better than me but I end up on my face more than I'd care to admit. I will add my vote to the others.

Common strategy, apparently...

Interesting - I had a different take. I thought Harper stayed poised but was short on substance. Dion I thought communicated better than I heard him throughout the campaign. May was stronger than I thought she would be. Layton has always been strong. The Barbarian thing was funny. Collectively I think that it favoured the Liberals. If the Conservatives get successfully painted as right-wing evangelicals then the "Natural Governing Party" is the only party left in the "center".

Thanks but I actually don't have cable...

Impressive, but what about my link. Concerning the debates - I generally like ours better. Something good about having more than two people talking... and I was pleased with the thrashing our PM took.

We do one in each official language. This is the only one that I can understand.

Wanted to watch this but was busy watching our English Language debate, which is more important to me. Anyone have a link for me to an online recording?

PM sent