Lillooet 11-12/01

[Dru]

So there were lotsa ppl up there and im probably the first one to make it home so I get to write the TR and everyone else replies to it

 

Went up Saturday AM with Don and Janez leave Chilliwack 5:15 AM arrive Lillooet 8 AM. Pretty warm and raining in the canyon on the way up. I had hoped to persuade the boys to try a new rt in the Canyon but based on these conditions it would have been so suck.

 

Ate Reynolds (brown, scrambled, sausage ) then went about 10kms up the bridge and we climbed this very long gully with a series of hidden steps above the Xwisten reserve (this is about half-way to Jade Falls on the north side of the rd.) Don and I had tried this last week but the first step was too thin then. Now it was fat and wet. There were about 3 belayed pitches in the gully all of which were soaking wet shower baths and I was glad not to lead any of them but accept the speed TR and stay only soaked instead of fully inundated. On the 3rd lead Janez had water running in at his neck & wrists and dripping out of his pants after filling up his plastic boots

 

Anyways there were about 3 belayed pitches (3+ 4 4) and lots of rambling and Wi2 and unfrozen gully bed as well and the elevation gain is like 600-800m or something... long walk off and back to the car well after dark.

 

Lotsa ppl in town Saturday night and it was not too much of a party scene. we went namedropping in Dinas where the talk of the night is that Jia and Chris G are working The Theft as a mixed route, have it half-bolted and had to fix ropes go back to Whistler to get more bolts Then in the Vic some local woman tried to pick up Don with an unusual technique.... if I recall rightly she said "I only drink beer when I'm pregnant"

 

Today Don and Janez went off for more guidebook research in the Duffy and I got a ride with Fern and Kellie. We snooped around in the Fraser and Thompson finding it was much wetter and warmer in the Fraser than the Thompson. Ended up climbing After The Gold Rush again. First pitch was wet second pitch was still nice and icy. i found another dozen geodes or so, the last curtain starts right in a bed of them. Bring a rock hammer

 

Mysteriously enough Polish Bob showed up on Saturday night or at least his car did but several cars received the calling card (attached) even before he arrived??

Edited January 12, 2004 by Dru

[Dru]

 

Kellie leading ATGR p1

 

 

Fern leading p2

 

 

Kellie gets in some "train"ing on the descent

 

The attachment was found on the approach

[jja]

The drive down route 1 erased all evidence of your so called calling card, so w/o photographic proof, I am still unscathed.

 

Did Honeyman falls on Saturday. The first pitch was mostly dry, with splashing water in the middle. Led up the left edge on mostly dry ice with so-so pro. Cracked led his second ice pitch ever to top us out bypassing the gusher in the middle on the left again. Tossed the rap ropes over the edge and right into the water.

 

Was gonna do cherry ice, but a bunch of people were on it so drove out to bridge to check out some stuff. For those wondering, the log jam, boulder, 2x10 combination is still in place for NnG. Got back into town with some light left so did cherry ice (bring two ropes and rap, the walk off sucks).

 

On Sunday, drove out early to do salmon stakes against dru's best wishes. shoulda listened. Crossed the river with garbage bags, and headed up the crap gully, in crap wet warm weather. Ice was all wet and crappy, decided it was better to head down the crappy gully in the morning when it was 35F instead of later in the day when it would probably be 40F and raining crappy boulders. So we bailed (we were the only car in the bridge canyon).

 

Drove to marble canyon and had some fun watching Wayne1112 pull some amazing shit on tr. And for his 4th day on ice ever Paul led the dihedral.

 

 

Look Mom, NO GORTS !!

[cracked]

[mounthay]

did cherry ice on Sat and immediately regretted not bringing up the second rope. Walk off not great though it felt good topping out of that gully into dry air. Depending on how safe you want to be it could be rather time consuming relative to the rappel. Climb itself was very wet on lead. Req'd 10-13cm pro.

Rambles left on sun took bigger pro than CI but was getting wet. Was super first thing in morning, dripping water from the steeper stuff in the afternoon.

[cracked]

Climb itself was very wet on lead. Req'd 10-13cm pro.

I placed three 16cm express', but no stubbies.

 

It was somewhat wet, but nothing like Deeping Wall the next day (jja realized the merits of scholler in a waterfall, and spent the next few hours being cold. Need goretex )

[Fromage]

On Sunday, drove out early to do salmon stakes against dru's best wishes. shoulda listened. Crossed the river with garbage bags, and headed up the crap gully, in crap wet warm weather. Ice was all wet and crappy, decided it was better to head down the crappy gully in the morning when it was 35F instead of later in the day when it would probably be 40F and raining crappy boulders. So we bailed (we were the only car in the bridge canyon).

 

Jon, you were not alone out there. Ryan, Marcie, Jed and I were up on Michaelmoon, but we parked 10m off the road on a little offshoot so you probably didn't see our trucks. There was a lot of ice up there. We all got wet, but the routes were in fairly good shape and took great pro. The only dodgy bit was rapping off the 3" diameter shrubs.

 

Saturday I led Cherry Ice after watching you guys get doused on Honeyman, it felt like I was in the desert after standing under that misty spray for 20 minutes. I got a couple 22cm screws in, but I definitely recommend shorties for the first step. I also placed a 17 about 2/3 up the first step, and my worthless opinion is that the route in its current state is decent for protection. Two ropes is definitely the way to go.

 

On the way out of town in the evening (Sunday) we chatted with the woman working at the Esso. She had been listening to her police radio scanner (what else is there to do Sunday afternoon when the curling match is over?) and told us that there had been a fall at Marble and emergency vehicles had been sent to the scene.

 

Since one of the hallmarks of this site is wild speculation and dissemination of misinformation, I will continue the tradition: anyone hear about this? The woman asked if we were climbers and if we had been in Marble, but between her rudimentary understanding of climbing and what she overheard on the scanner, we weren't able to glean much more than that. So there is my 5th-hand information. Discuss.

[jja]

We left marble at around 3pm, there had been no accidents that I was aware of. There was a HUGE group of students being led by two guides, they had a about a zillion tr's up, but they were well behaved and were finished by the time we left. Hope everything turned out ok.

 

By the way icy bc has almost doubled in size since last week. There is enough ice to lead the left side as well as the right, and before too long the chockstone in the middle should be completely covered too. Alas it was the wettest thing out there this weekend.

[JayB]

On the way out of town in the evening (Sunday) we chatted with the woman working at the Esso. She had been listening to her police radio scanner (what else is there to do Sunday afternoon when the curling match is over?) and told us that there had been a fall at Marble and emergency vehicles had been sent to the scene.

 

Since one of the hallmarks of this site is wild speculation and dissemination of misinformation, I will continue the tradition: anyone hear about this? The woman asked if we were climbers and if we had been in Marble, but between her rudimentary understanding of climbing and what she overheard on the scanner, we weren't able to glean much more than that. So there is my 5th-hand information. Discuss.

 

I was there. Paco and I were descending Synchronicity along with a couple of other guys from Seattle, and we saw the emergency vehicles pull up across the Canyon while preparing for the rap below the final pitch. We saw a few more vehicles arrive as we continued to rappel, and by the time we were at the base it sounded as though the emergency personel across the canyon were trying to communicate with us although the sound was so distorted it could have been Turkish folk-poetry and we would never have known the difference.

 

Anyhow - the other party from Seattle began the descent a few minutes ahead of us, and we spotted their headlamps in the about 200-300 feet above the river bottom. We made our way to the scene and were relieved to see that the victim was conscious, responsive, and pretty lucid although obviously cold, in pain, and a bit shaken up. His primary injury was a disclocated shoulder, sustained during what he estimated was a 200-300 foot fall initiated on steep snow covered turf just to the right of the gulley he ended up in. One of the other guys from Seattle had WFR + some more advanced training for his job as a guide, so we let him take over and helped out where we could. They eventually stabilized his shoulder enough for us to get him moving - Paco set up an anchor off of a nearby tree and lowered him off of a munter while three of us accompanied him to the base of the gulley.

 

Shortly after arriving at the base of the gulley we met the rescue team - a group of Canadian Para Rescue specialists from the Canadian armed forces who were in the area to conduct some ice-climbing training and just happened to be pass directly past the scene. They attempted to reduce the shoulder in the field but weren't able to, at which point they stabilized the shoulder and assisted him back to the bridge.

 

Kudos to all involved, especially the other guys from Seattle who put their emergency skills to good use - their conduct was definitely a credit to their trade in general and Mountain Madness in particular - and the Canadian Para Rescue guys - very effective and professional.

 

So - thankfully - no major trauma involved, just a matter of escorting a fellow climber back to the road after a nasty tumble in a difficult location.

[Dru]

so the accident was in the Duffey, not at Marble

 

How was Synchroslurpee BTW?

[jja]

How was Synchroslurpee BTW?

 

Jay, did you notice if the log jam across the river makes the apppoach from halfway up the road (instead of the bridge) worth doing?

[forrest_m]

history repeats itself!

another dislocated shoulder on the synchro descent

[David_Parker]

The tree we crossed on Saturday along with Pat and Matt from B-ham was pretty much right at the base of the main approach gulley which I concur was a little dicey if you took off your crampons to descend. The tree is easy and deposits you on a rock island and then it's a two step walk/jump across an ice shelf suspended over fast moving water. It is probably deteriorating and I'd hate to be the one who breaks through. It was about a 300 vert climb up a talus field, but an easy walk down the road. Probably saves 30-40 minutes though.

[glassgowkiss]

Mysteriously enough Polish Bob showed up on Saturday night or at least his car did but several cars received the calling card (attached) even before he arrived??

as clearly you can see the pic in the attachement is not my. i did tag only 2 cars and it was on sunday.

Jia is cranking up a number of quality routes. i hope that the theft dt will be as good as the right rambles (though no send last sunday).

[Ade]

Right rambles needs more ice on the slab and a second bolt by the first one to make bailing easier for them that get up there and discover that they don't fancy the corner without.

 

Kudos to Bob for trying it. Looked hard from the belay and harder still from the first bolt.

 

If anyone knows of any easier M- mixed lines around Lillooet, other than the stuff at Marble, then let's hear about them.

[glassgowkiss]

ade, you should try no deductible, easy to set tr on it. as everything else- it's not all that hard, you just need to learn new technique. like evrything else, it looks impossible at first and then it becomes more managable. for people trying to learn how to drytool- just hang a couple of tr's and figure things out. you'd be amazed to what ice tools can stick to!. little hint- use 2 hammes and even ducktape a tennis balls to avoid facial cuts.learn slow, pay attantion to details.keep your wrists and picks steady as you climb up with your feet, so your hooks don't skate off.the trick is to keep steady preassure on the tool as you gain height. sometimes what you can do is lead an ice climb and then tr the sides, using rock as much as possible.

strength helps! do some pull-ups with weights. your gear and cloths are more then 20lbs, so you should be able to crank at least a couple with extra 20 on a pull-up bar.

i haven't seen the "Farm" at blackomb, but along with rap wall they would be very good places to start. back in poland we used to go on back walls of the buildings with out icetools. so any brick walls, concrete or block would be good places to practice.

ps on our way back to littlewet we saw the emergency vehicles. too bad about the accident.

Edited January 13, 2004 by glassgowkiss

[fern]

right now the hardest part of no-deductible is the steep ice at the top. The bolted part of it is even easier than the bottom of Waite for Spring.

[Ade]

Thanks for the info.

 

I TR'ed Waite for Spring (RHS direct) and the RHS of SteriStrip a few weeks back so I've started to get stuff figured out.

 

I want to go back for No Deductable this w/e or next if the hordes aren't on it.

 

Cheers...

[cracked]

I did ND yesterday on TR. It's a really fun route, thin but good hooks near the bottom, surprisingly steep ice at the top. You can actually kick to get feet at the bottom. I'm guessing this is considered 'fat'. I still got pumped out of my mind.

[Jens]

Not that I am a route guru, but it seems like ND sports dry tooling and cramponing on rock for the a failry long portion of the start most years of yore. If you were able to kick into ice at the start, you found great conditions? I wonder if the bolts were iced over (obscured) all the way?

I think I'm headin' to Lillooet this weekend.

-------

We are sure due for a year where we WA folk can stay down here and not have to go north. Is this planet gettin' warmer or what?

 

High around 40F near Banks. Slushy slides up tumwater canyon drainages?

[Lambone]

Jens, the bolts were ice covered back before Xmas. have fun!

[glassgowkiss]

i did chop them out in Dec.

[rat]

"deep throat" is in decent shape though thin/hollow in spots. it doesn't appear to get much traffic.

 

anybody do "the gift" yet this year? we couldn't tell if the first pitch had completely touched down.

[Dru]

how was deep throat it looks cool?

 

i havent heard of anyone up the gift yet but its only a matter of time... it takes a while for the bottom to thicken up.

[Dru]

I think I'm headin' to Lillooet this weekend.

 

if you desperately need an ice fix by all means go to Lillooet this coming weekend, but if you are only going to go to Lillooet a few times this year, you might choose to pick another weekend when you see the spring-like forecast temperatures thru the week http://weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/forecast/city_e.html?WKF