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SWBC Ice Conditions 01.03


Dru

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I am going to cut and paste this to Adrian Burke because I'm lazy.

 

Lillooet: it's coming in super fast. From conversation with a couple of guides who were there on Tue and Wed, things went from thin to normal/fat in about 4 days

 

Lillooet/Duffy Rd.

Honeyman. Wet but will be good in a few days

Cherry Ice in

Marble Canyon: ice farmed routes have reappeared, about 8 separate climbable ice lines on lower tier

Small Creep in

Counting Chickens in

Three Ring Circus as fat as its been for years

Synchro, Serendipity fattening rapidly, Synchro approach gully looking a bit bony

Tube in

Duffys Delight in

Tres Burly pillar in!

Carls Berg more like Kronenburg (thin)

Deep Throat in

Loose Lady In

Rambles in

Shreddie thin & hanging; Closet Secrets reportedly just ice blobs at present

Not in enough yet or at all: Twilight Tiers, Seton weeps, Out of the Vault, Waiting Game, Cut Throat, wet Lady

 

Soo Bluffs: reportedly in

 

Fraser Canyon: Jackass, Kanaka Kolumn, Sailor Bar Gully all in. Superheroes Cirque forming, right hand pillars just touching down, left side very thin

Water Music, Under the Big Top very thin

 

Hope area: Mousetrap, Medusa, Carpe Diem Better Mousetrap, all apparently in but lean and or/hollow as of Monday, fattening rapidly.

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We camped out at Marble Canyon fri night, climbed very brittle ice on saturday.

 

4762Dihedral.jpg

 

Went up Bridge river on Sunday. The gift looks like it is all in. Anyone want to do it with me, any day during this cold snap?

 

4762gift.jpg

 

Old dogs new picks is in nicely, and looks cool.

 

4762old_dogs_good.jpg

 

We hiked up Hell Creek, and climbed there. The approach was interesting, with ice breaking underneath us sometimes despite the cold temps. As I was climbing the falls, I could hear the volume of water under the ice increasing, and the air got warmer till our breath wasn't visible. Sure enough, the ice was even less reliable on the way out - the top of one 5 meter section fell away beneath my boot as I stepped on it to downclimb. We rapped some sections, down-climbed others and escaped without serious incident (other than the runs the next day from drinking out of Hell Creek)

4762hellcreek_approach.jpg

 

4762hellcreek_climbing.jpg

Edited by Bogen
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I poked around Squamish today to see what was coming in. It's all still a little scuba, but a couple more days of cold will bring it in. Lots of ice fringing Shannon Falls, good build-up on the bluffs south of Oleson Ck, U-Wall Drool was fatter than I've ever seen it tho, but the rest of the Chief was fairly dry.

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...more from the weekend (Jan 1-3/05):

 

Mount Currie - Xitolacw - Birkenhead Bridge (west end of Duffey Lake road):

 

Price of Admission - in

Nocturnal Emission - forming many strands (amazing...)

Medicine Man - well iced, but likely the typical Grade 6

 

Mount Currie north to D'Arcy:

[some of the guidebook info was 2nd hand, and many of these route seldom form, so i'll note corrections and/or clarifications in this section route by route]

 

Rusty - a nice strand (W at 4.5km)

Roadside Attraction - in well; saw climbers on it

(guidebook clarification: E at 7.5km, 500m beyond railroad X-ing)

Deception - not in (W at about 9.5km)

Candlewax - semi-in, but south facing.

(E at 9.8km; above boulder field; on bluff with power pylon)

Hollow Quest for Glory - forming

(E at 11.3km, just S of Spetch Ck Rec site)

Fourskin - in

(guidebook placement error: this should have been placed at the very north end of Hindu Flats, on W side opposite N entrance to Spetch Ck road at 12.5km, not 11km)

Rocky, Bullwinkle - in

Plum - in, but top tier still looks lean

Poole View Falls - lotsa ice, but upper tiers still lean

White Blotter - main column has touched down; upper tier not yet continuous

Whisper Falls - in

 

very cold, outflow blowing. forming fast.

 

cheers,

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Hi.

I've never climbed ice before, but my regular belayer and I want to give it a try. We're looking for a place near Vancouver (Squish to Whistler - ish) to give some TR ice a try.

I came across this and was wondering how reliable it might be this season.

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.

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Hi.

I've never climbed ice before, but my regular belayer and I want to give it a try. We're looking for a place near Vancouver (Squish to Whistler - ish) to give some TR ice a try.

I came across this and was wondering how reliable it might be this season.

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.

 

Cal-Chek usually would be in during cold snaps like this, but i don't have any first hand reports - you'll have to go looking. closer to town, by this weekend there ought to be lots of little ice flows around Murrin Park, left of Shannon Falls, and heer and there in the Smore Bluffs.

cheers,

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Went up Bridge river on Sunday. The gift looks like it is all in. Anyone want to do it with me, any day during this cold snap?

 

4762gift.jpg

 

 

Bogen,

it may just be the angle of the shot or an object (tree?) blocking the view, but to me it looks like the first pitch is quite a ways from touching down. could you see that it was complete from a different angle of view?

cheers,

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4762gift.jpg

 

For those unfamiliar with the area The Gift (WI5 - 290m) is on the left and The Theft (WI6R, 5.9 - 240m) is the fang on the right. The two smears left of The Theft are unclimbed, to my knowledge (I haven't seen them form before). The Theft looks amazing.

 

And they're all likely to get fatter as this snap continues, woohoo! grin.gif

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Bogen,

it may just be the angle of the shot or an object (tree?) blocking the view, but to me it looks like the first pitch is quite a ways from touching down. could you see that it was complete from a different angle of view?

cheers,

 

You wanna go up there with me? Pick a day!

 

4762gift_better.jpg

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The Theft isn't quite continuous, but maybe you can get past those bits??? Sorry about image quality.

 

It's a tough spot to get good pics. According to sources, "Condon and Geisler made an attempt in January 2004, adding 3 bolts to the leaner-than-previously first pitch 'so it's not a death pitch,' and installing 8 bolts on the fourth pitch to reach the incomplete column via bolt ladder/ dry-tooling/ thin ice combination on rotten rock." Maybe in similar conditions now?

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got a nice view of "easy intro" today while driving to jobsite, it is fat

 

the two unclimbed waterfalls on mt woodside are both in. easily seen on hwy 7 heading west from agassiz. looks like about an hour's downhill traverse from the logging road for two fat one or two pitch wi 3-4s if anyone is desperate.

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I climbed the Mousetrap yesterday. It was all good, all the plunge pools are solid, not too much running water by coast standards. 8+pitches, 1100' vert, no intermediate slogs. Anybody who drives past it this weekend just to join the crowds on Honeyman Falls is a dumbass.

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