Dru Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 Climb: Fraser Canyon Ice -Hells Gate-FA of Cerberus (600m, 160m of ice, WI4) Date of Climb: 1/15/2005 Trip Report: Stemalot, Bogen and I left Chilliwack around 8 AM Saturday morning heading for the Fraser Canyon. Our goal was a big curtain of unclimbed ice located behind the Hells Gate tramway high up in the next gully north of Hell-O Kitty, where Fern and I had climbed last week. With a freeze forecasted to end on Sunday this might be the last chance of the season to deal with some of the unclimbed ice around Hope. We parked at the pullout south of the tramway and hiked down the access road to the Fraser River, climbed over the barbed wire fences and across the bridge and hiked up the train tracks behind the boarded up tourist trap. A trail led from the tracks up and into the objective gully. The gully had knee deep snow with some short ice steps necessitating crampons. About 100m up the gully we hit the first real pitch of ice, a 30m WI2 that we all soloed. We didn't even know for sure that we were in the right gully to get to the big curtain but figured we could traverse across ribs to find it once we got high enough. Approaching the first WI2 step. Around a corner higher up in the gully we came across a pretty 35m WI3 step. steve soloed this and began regretting his choice of approach partway up. The ice was cracking and dinner plating and his crampon was making strange noises. It took him close to an hour to solo up this pitch. Adrian and I roped up for the pitch and I led up, I placed a few screws and with their mental security was able to climb it pretty quickly and bring Adrian up. Steve soloing p2 We started hiking up the gully above looking for our curtain. At a fork we took the right branch. The hiking consisted of waist to knee deep snow with downed trees, prickle bushes, short wI2 steps and thin ice over rushing creek water, which we broke through several times. We climbed out of the gully for a while and then dry tooled turf on a fun traverse in above the worst bush. It took us a few hours to slog up around a bend in the gully and finally see our curtain above, and another hour or so to make it to the base. The final curtain was a huge, fat, wide flow of green ice. Very nice and possibly even worth slogging to get to. Steve led the first pitch which was a full 60m of WI3, and ended on a good ledge about 20m below the final pillar and cave. Steve starts up p3 with Adrian belaying Steve finishing p3 I got to lead the last pitch which was 20m of WI3 to a 15m two-stepped WI4 column. Some creative stemming thankfully was found, I might have pitched off otherwise, as there was an awkward section where you climbed up to a cave and then had to pull around big fragile icicles to get back on the main pillar. I did get a fat lip from clearing icicles. Well by the time steve and Adrian joined me on top it was about 5 PM and headlamp time. We rapped 50m down the left side of the flow and built an Abalakov, it was at this time i found the hook on my hooker had broken off, good thing Adrian had one. We made another 50m rap to the base of the falls and while pulling the ropes on this one the rope stuck Adrian had to lead up to the last anchor and untangle the knot that his rope had tied in itself and then rap back down. Another hour gone. We were all cold and fully soaked by now from wet ice and snow. Around this time Steve was the first to mention the E word "Is this an epic yet?" Well we slogged all the way back down the gully, downclimbing what we could and rapping the WI3 and wI2 pitches, and with Steve's ITB syndrome acting up in his knee he was hobbling pretty bad even with all the painkillers Adrian dosed him with. Crossing the bridge and slogging back up to the highway was a blur of tedium with a major blizzard starting up to add spice. We got back to the car at 10:30, to hope at 11:30 PM and home to Chilliwack at 12:15. I was out of beer so I had a shot of rum and went to bed. We named the route Cerberus (600m elevation gain, 160m of ice climbing, WI4) after the three-headed dog who guards the gates of hell in Greek myth. Gear Notes: All the usual ice gear Approach Notes: Highway 1 to Hells Gate then access road, bridge, barbed wire, prickle bushes and postholing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordop Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 Steve, that knee thing sucks, huh! So, if you're standing in the parking lot on the east side of the river, is this that big gully straight across Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted January 16, 2005 Author Share Posted January 16, 2005 No, that is Hell-O Kitty. This is the next gully right of that, most of it is hidden from the parking lot, but you can see the final curtain high above everything else. Steve supposedly has a good photo topo, mine is a bit dark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordop Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 This the final curtain? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted January 16, 2005 Author Share Posted January 16, 2005 Yeah that is it. Map Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordop Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogen Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 That's a great pic of Steven, he looks totalled! Thanks for a fun day guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stemalot Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 hahaha, come on... I wasn't totalled by that time. I was when I got back to the car though. But, I had a great time. Thanks for putting up with my slowness and stupid crampons! Nicely made topo map Dru. I don't have a topo of our route. I just have zoomed in photo of it taken from across the valley. http://harng.com/TripPhotos/photo2.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted January 16, 2005 Author Share Posted January 16, 2005 i like that picture better than jordop's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted January 16, 2005 Author Share Posted January 16, 2005 photo topo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogen Posted January 17, 2005 Share Posted January 17, 2005 Here is Steve and Drew just before the ropes got stuck! There was a little snow at the base of the final pitches, and plenty of ice on everyone's clothing and gear. The quick releases on my Naja Cup leashes froze, so I had hard time manipulating gear. They're good tools other than that, though I admired the way Dru's quarks bit into the ice. That might have something to do with technique... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted January 18, 2005 Author Share Posted January 18, 2005 it wasnt just your leashes that froze up, your pinky rest fell off! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Which day was this on the expedition? Epic? You guys have all the fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted January 18, 2005 Author Share Posted January 18, 2005 steve's getting ready to punch the paparazzi in that picture Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogen Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Paparazzi?!?! I took way less than my usual 160 frames! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stemalot Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 I was going to play paparazzi this time, but my camera froze and I just can't be bothered with photo taking this time around. Sorry boys, I'll take photos of you guys next time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dechristo Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogen Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 You can't be paparazzi AND the Star, Steven!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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