[TR] - Lillooet (Synchronicity, et al) 2/8/2004

[Alpinfox]

Climb: Lillooet-Synchronicity, Honeyman Falls, Cherry Ice

 

Date of Climb: 2/8/2004

 

 

Trip Report:

 

After a late night of drinking and shuffleboard at the "Big Time" brewery in Seattle, I drove up to Lillooet with dbb and Ken4ord from Seattle early Saturday morning. We climbed Honeyman Falls. It was pretty wet in spots, but we found a relatively dry and good-quality ice path up. We had a little trouble finding a way to rap down; it seems that most people walk off to the left down an old trail/road back to the car, but we left our packs at the base and wanted to climb Cherry Ice as well, so we eventually found a rap down. Being a novice ice climber, I led Cherry Ice and dbb and Ken4ord soloed it.

 

Here is Dave leading on Honeyman p1:

 

That night we attended the 2004 annual Lillooet Ice Fest which consisted of getting drunk with a bunch of geriatric dart players in the Canadian Legion Hall and then oohing and ahhing over some slides that Don Serl showed off in the basement. Following the slideshow, a pole-bouldering competition broke out with top honors going to Fern:

 

 

Upon leaving the Legion Hall, we noted that my car had been tagged by the mysterious "Sheep Fucker" grafitti artist. He must have known there were three of us:

 

 

We then retired to our Mile0 hotel room where we each enjoyed a tepid shower and wondered at the function of this knob on the wall...

"But this one goes to 11"

 

A painfully early wakeup eventually led to a breakfast at The Reynolds and a relatively early start on Synchronicity. We shoveled out a bit of a spot on Hwy99, parked my car, and headed straight down to the river to the log crossing. I am not a fan of log crossings, having had a couple of unpleasant adventures with such in the past, and was not looking forward to this part of the climb. However, the crossing proved to be quite secure albeit a bit of a workout. The workout continued in the snowy gully of the approach and we eventually arrived at the base of the first pitch; a pair of short WI2-ish steps. We discussed soloing this pitch, but I voted against this idea, so dbb led the first pitch, I followed, and Ken soloed the first pitch. I guess he felt pretty comfortable with that because he decided to solo the next pitch too. Here is Dave leading that one:

 

 

I led the next pitch, which Ken also soloed, which brought us to the penultimate pitch of the climb, the WI4 (or 3+) pitch seen here:

 

 

This pitch was a little rotten and fairly sustained. Ken soloed that one too. He is visible at the very top of the pitch in the photo above.

 

One more short, but steep pitch, "The Forest Pitch", and we were at the top. This route, rising from the river all the way to the canyon rim, is certainly a classic - 5 pitches (or so) of quality ice climbing in an outstanding setting!

 

Its such a wonderful climb, that all three of us are considering giving up our US citizenship and moving to Lillooet. Ken4ord, playboy that he is, has the names and numbers of several of the dart-playing vixens who offered to take him in, so we will have some initial support. As for our Canadian citizenship application, I plan to staple this photo to the front:

 

 

 

 

 

Approach Notes:

The direct and secure log crossing to Synchronicity (as opposed to the long death march through snow-covered talus from the bridge) is the way to go.

[ken4ord]

Dude nice report, it was fun climbing with you and Dave. We'll definitely have to go up and climb some of those other lines up there. Dave where is some of your shots, can't wait to see them. Oh yeah Pax, by the way the picture of the top of the route was of the two guys that came up after us, it would have been very difficult for me to be in that picture, while setting up the rappel below you while you shot that picture . Dude you shouldn't smoke so much crack.

 

To a great weekend, a beer for each of us and one for Dottie.

[Alpinfox]

Oh yeah Pax, by the way the picture of the top of the route was of the two guys that came up after us, it would have been very difficult for me to be in that picture, while setting up the rappel below you while you shot that picture . Dude you shouldn't smoke so much crack.

 

Oh! I posted a different picture than I had originally planned.

[chucK]

"But this one goes to 11"

 

Fun report. Thanks

[fern]

you better photoshop a Kokanee tallboy over that PBR can before you send in you citizenship apps

[ken4ord]

you better photoshop a Kokanee tallboy over that PBR can before you send in you citizenship apps

 

Aww come on, PBR taste just like all that Canadia swill.

[Adam_Palmer]

After learning that Lillooet hosts a number of ice climbs with fellow climbers, we drove for a few hours Saturday night and met with the BC/Washington ice climbing community in the basement of the Legion.

 

While myself and rich discussed how this whole event and people are very much like the caving community and annual BCSF meeting (except without the political/conservative/commercial agendas, we smiled and sat back as our adrenaline pumped taking in all the info and climbing pics presented with Dons slide show. Very savage like, we raced to Lyle's maps', slammed 10 bucks in his face and now we had maps pinpointing the locations of surrounding ice climbs! This was too good, its so easy I thought, not like caving in which this would end the authors life if something like this would go on.

 

Sunday was now looking like a good day, so we returned to the 4pines early because we just wanted daylight to rise so we could climb, we thought about just going that night with our headlamps, but we were tired of climbing in the dark-caving tends to do that to you- So anxiously we sharpened tools, organinzed gear so all we would have to do is roll over, stand up and we would be in the truck heading for Marble Canyon. Unfortunatley getting a good nights sleep was out of the question-let alone sleeping at all.

 

The room beside us was hosting an after hour Darts championship party (I guess), and they had all their underwear hanging from the plants outside our room, so we had to listen to a running commentary all night on whos undies were freezing...etc. They tried to get ours, but I told them that Ice climbers tend not to wear underwear to help keep light and manuverable. They thought this was an open invitation to actually investigate, however we raced into the room, bypassed them like slippery pillars seeking salvation and grabbed the axes incase they proceeded in after us. Anyways, waking up with axes in hand, we got to marble canyon and stood in line. I guess this is what its all about...

 

But it was fun watching other people, it is not very often we see others on climbs, usually we have hiked for 12 hours, crossed glaciated ridges, stumbled down down talus rock-mixed-snow-slides, and then after a 4 hour bivouac, grabbed our tools on our 85lbs packs and climbed a 1000f chimney that maybe has 65 feet of ice...Not complaining, I do love this, but it was nice for once to pull up, say hi to people, grab the rope, grab the tools, and just climb, climb, climb...Anyways, I think we did the Dihedral, moving off the the far left to make things interesting.

 

Overall, we had fun, good ice, good people!

[dbb]

The room beside us was hosting an after hour Darts championship party (I guess), and they had all their underwear hanging from the plants outside our room, so we had to listen to a running commentary all night on whos undies were freezing...etc. They tried to get ours, but I told them that Ice climbers tend not to wear underwear to help keep light and manuverable.

 

Daaaaaamn, those old darts folks never stop partyin'. Doddie is a freakin' animal

 

Here's some more pics:

 

Alpinefox making a half nude ascent of honeyman's p2

 

Ken bouldering

 

Alpinefox on Synchro

 

Alpineschotch climbing the final pitch on Synchro

 

[Alpinfox]

WOOHOO!

 

Thanks for the pics Dave.

 

 

[Alpinfox]

Hey Adam,

In the picture on the right, did you photoshop out the rope over the snow or is the rope running behind a bulge?

 

 

[Dru]

you mean he's **not** free soloing Dale's Route with those leashless tools? WTF

[Adam_Palmer]

ya I just cleaned out the rope...Why you ask? Well I am sending that pic to his family to let them know that Richard only free solos ice...!! Then when I saved it, it saved over the original file, so it is a ropeless climb for good now...atleast in the picture!