ICE ICONDITIONS N THE CDN ROCKIES

[wexxx]

Hola,

 

As a resident of the mecca otherwise known as Canmore, I can say that this season is shaping up much slower than the past 2. That said, there is some good stuff to be had. Twisted Sister, Little Bobby Onsite, and most of the stuff in Ranger Creek are all A1... Just watch the snow.

Cheers,

Wexxx

[Alex]

thanks for the update. with will in Nepal the info through the regular sources has been pretty slow

[dbb]

Alex, if you haven't seen it, there is an effert to be an interim replacement here: http://rockiesice.ascensionist.com/

 

It'll all be super fat by the time us yankee doughboys come up though.

[Dru]

Ascensionist is reinventing the wheel....

 

http://www.live-the-vision.com/cms/index...at&catid=11

[Dru]

And

 

http://www.rockies-ice.com/conditions.php

[layton]

how's the toes?

are you allowed into our country anymore?

[wexxx]

The toe is dandy... and the border isn't so bad anymore.

Word.

[jmckay]

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/517717/an/0/page/0#517717

[Alex]

thought i would post a quick note

 

General Conditions:

Warm. Its been above freezing in Canmore and even Lk Louise for the last week and longer. Its been clear and dry in the Bow Valley, but elsewhere (Golden, Columbia Valley) there is a thick "fog of death". The cool down is supposed to happen this week but its been very slow in coming, highs are supposed to be -5'ish by week's end.

 

Specific:

Field: some Dennis climbs are in though didnt see much as this was a "Fog of Death" kind of day. Massey's is in. Silk Tassel is in with very thin top out. Super Bock is in but the approach pitches are so fragile that they are scary and wont stand up to any traffic (and then you're screwed). There are some routes forming above the train tunnel outside of Field up the big hill that are new routes for sure.

 

Parkway: Pretty much what you have heard from elsewhere. Bow Falls in, stuff in David Thompson is in (from ltv), but along the parkway proper the only thing formed is Shades of Beauty, Murchison, and Polar Circus. Shades of Beauty is in easy shape, with its last pitch being wet WI3. Polar Circus approach pitches are thin, but as you can walk around them not a huge problem. The WI3 pitch above the first WI4 pitch is in 2 shape. Bridal Veil is there but rotten looking. Everything else is running water. Wilson Major is there, but the LWC is running water. Oh Le Tabernac is running water. Curtain Call was in 6+ shape when we saw it last Sunday, but I hear it fell down...no surprise really.

 

Bow Valley & KCountry:

wazzumnteer told me Little Gem was in. Other than that Sea has been climed a week ago but is very thin now. Terminator et all a far way from touching, but Postrcriptum is there. Still, if it gets cold soon enough it will stay up. Bourgeau's were in but Left fell down (from ltv). Will reform with cold weather. Cascade and other standards are all running water.

 

Radium Highway: did a really fine trip up to the Stanley Headwall. All routes are in and getting a fair amount of traffic(!! amazing how high stdrds are in the Rockies these days when people are climibing Nemesis every day early season !!). The "fog of death" was affecting this valley making vis especially tough, but we were above it all day. We did Sinus Gully, which if you do just the first pitch is a long walk for a pitch of 3. But the rest of the route (rock pitch, traverse, exit ice, walk off) makes for a really nice day! The exit ice is WI4 right now. Nemesis was looking great! Suffer Machine too, French Reality looking a bit thin. There is enough snow up there now to make the walk off off Sinus Gully av-threatened. Rapping the route is sort of possible. Hafner has formed up great in the last week. Tons of traffic of course but a great time over 2 different days. Met team BD one of the days and got to check out some prototype thingys, was cool.

 

Thats about it, there is plenty of ice to climb especially in the alpine, but you have to drive a bit to enchain a week's worth.

[BillA]

We went up to do Polar Circus two days ago and the approach pitches were all but falling down, we walked as high as we could and the ice there was shitty wet stuff with tons of water flowing. It was too warm. The upper pitches we could see looked just as wet and from our viewpoint it looked like an upper pillar might have been missing. In the time it took us to get up and then back down to where we could see the approach pitches, one of them had half fallen off. I'll post a pic if I can get them to work.

[kurthicks]

Polar Circus p.1 on 11.19

 

Weeping Wall rotting in the sun on 11.19

 

Murchisons all wet on 11.20

 

me on The Little Jem on 11.21

 

nice to see you Alex. We also saw some SWEET BD ice tool and screw prototypes at Haffner. Ergo like, but with the characteristic BD swing and a point on the handle. Gotta get some when the come out!

[miller]

What up????

 

You have foot isssues too? You and Seth...

 

-Todd

[Alpinfox]

My group climbed "This House of Sky" today in The Ghost River Valley. Good stuff; what a fun route.

 

We climbed at Haffner yesterday. Good stuff there. Led my first ever WI4 on the first day of the season.

 

Off to bed now; heading back to The Ghost again tomorrow.

 

Edited December 4, 2005 by Alpinfox

[olyclimber]

w00t! KILL ICE!!!

[Alpinfox]

We climbed "Weathering Heights" yesterday. I led the first pitch which didn't look too bad from the ground, but ended up being an eye-opening and knuckle destroying 40 meter test of fear control. Yee-haw!

 

We heard wolves howling on the hike out in the dark.

 

"Anorexia Nervousa", the climb across from ours, looked awesome. We might go back and get on that one after our rest day or we might head up the icefields parkway.

 

Temperatures are dropping now. High of -13 in Canmore today. Lots of climbs should be coming into shape.

 

[Jens]

Just got back from climbing in the cooooold on Dec.1-4 with Eric Gratz.

The lowest temp on my very accurate digital thermoter was minus 18 farenheit driving on the Icefields parkway before dawn. The ice was nearly bulletproof at some areas making picks bounce out. On the plus side, it allowed us safe ice screws but made the climbs harder than just a few days before. We busted 3 picks in 4 days.

Dec. 1-went to Stanley Headwall climbed Nemisis (very brittle ice)

Dec. 2 - climbed at moonlight area (brittle ice) Middle and right lines in. Left flow spraying.

Dec. 3 climbed lower pitches of weeping wall right (plenty of ice in and more forming fast).

Dec. 4 -climbed at Gibraltar wall plenty of ice to climb but lots of wet stuff. Also found some mixed stuff to TR. If the cold keeps up, stuff will be in nicely

Eric will post some pictures.

[eric8]

here you go

Nemisis in 5+ conditions

 

Jens battling -25C temps

 

Racing daylight to the top hard ice and broken picks make for slow climbing

 

 

Jens enjoying the sun on weeping wall right

 

 

[Squid]

[NTM]

double thumbs up from the frenchies!