Michael Telstad Posted Monday at 04:24 PM Posted Monday at 04:24 PM (edited) Last month a group of 7 friends and I went on a trip out to the remote Icefall Brook. An otherworldly cirque in the mountains north of Golden BC, housing likely the highest concentration of big ice routes in North America. While out there we climbed several of the classic ice lines and one new mixed route that we think was pretty classic. The new route we climbed parallels Fossen falls for five pitches up to M7 WI5+ with an A1 roof crux that we did not have time to try and free. It probably goes free somewhere around M8 or 9. Overlay of the route. You can see Doug near the bottom of Fossen falls for scale. P1: Our first pitch followed an obvious chimney system up into a cave below the beginning of a steep flare. Protection was decent, but the rock quality wasn’t the best. The cruxes consisted of a few bulge pulls with poor feet and decent snice sticks. P2: The second pitch was absolutely classic mixed climbing. The ice on the right wall was barely thick enough for good sticks, but stemming, chimneying and good rock gear eased the stress as the ice got steeper and fatter. A tunnel and a bunch more rock gear protected ice took us up to what is essentially the top of Fossen falls second pitch. P3: From here, I stepped out right and tiptoed my way up a barely-there smear aiming for a short but steep pillar above. Again, gear was hard to come by, but when I did find something it was usually good. More incredible ice and mixed took me to another protected comfortable belay stance in the back of the main cave. A scary, but spectacular pitch. Kurt said following it was one of the best pitches of mixed climbing he’s done. P4: Now under the crux, it was Kurt's moment to shine. He started by trying to climb some thin glassy ice out to the right in order to skirt the roof but backed off when the rock above looked downsloping, loose and generally really hard. Instead he opted to take the roof straight on, tagging up the drill and placing 3 bolts with a few pieces of intermittent gear. Once at the lip, he sent the drill back down and started free climbing again. As he climbed out of sight things got slow and quiet. Standing in my cave I watched rocks rain down into the abyss as a combination of snow and down plumes floated in the air from Kurt's shredded down jacket. Eventually he called off belay and I also aided my way through the roof to save time. The climbing above proved to be hard, grovely, runout and wide. The upper part of this pitch was bone dry and entirely chossy. A less classy crux than we had hoped for. The first attempt going out right that we backed off of. Kurt approaching the roof, I'm hiding in the back left corner. P5: One more pitch up a slick ramp took me up to a pedestal just above the top of Fossen falls. With no suitable cracks for an anchor, I hammered my tool into a deep pocket and tagged up the drill, drilling the only bolted anchor on the route. From there we rapped onto Fossen and took that the rest of the way down. Slogging down to the hut, we were welcomed by some cold dinner and the rest of our group already asleep upstairs. We called our route “Jumping for Joy” (M7 WI5+ A1). A phrase that Kurt's late father used often, for the simplest things in life. Rack: Double rack .2-4, handful of pins and ~10 screw including several stubbies. 2 70m ropes for rapping, but 60's are fine for the route. Edited 19 hours ago by Michael Telstad 1 1 1 Quote
JasonG Posted yesterday at 02:44 AM Posted yesterday at 02:44 AM That looks terrifying, well done in keeping it somewhat safe and sane. What a place, I had never even heard of it! Quote
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