Lillooet update as of 2/4

[J_Fisher]

I've been up to Lillooet the last two weekends, and since the CASBC conditions page hasnt been updated in a while, I thought I'd share what I saw.

Night n' Gale, Shriek o' the Sheep look fat from the road. The Terghazi dam is releasing water. I forgot the waders and didn't feel like getting wet, so we made other plans, but have since been told there's a make-shift bridge a few hundred meters upstream.

Silk Degrees looked good 2 weeks ago but there's no 1st pitch so expect to do the rock on the right. [Called this Capricorn in my original post--sorry for the brain fart]

Michelmon looked good two weeks ago but according to the CASBC site is now off limits.

Honeyman: not even close.

Cherry ice: talked to someone who said it's was climbable but on rotten, meager ice.

Rambles: supposedly in good shape, but way crowded

Synchronicity looked pretty sunbleached from the road. Talked to a party that backed off the 3d pitch b/c the ice was thin, rotten and detached.

Serendibity looks like it's missing the bottom pitches. I'd be interested to hear from someone who's looked at it up close.

Loose Lady: did this on 2/3. excellent, challenging climbing. The 1st pitch of the pillar requires pulling multiple overhanging blobs; 2d pitch is spectacular but pretty chandeliered and looks like it's seen very little traffic.

Carlsberg: did this on 1/28. Pretty chandeliery in spots; lots of mushrooms make for technical climbing but nice stances.

Icy BC. 1st two pitches are completely picked out. 3d pitch has a really fun line on the right (left side looks like it would go but be more sustained on crappier ice).

The pillar to the right of Icy BC looks slender and shaky, but saw leads at least on 1/28.

Deeping Wall is being led but sports wildly blobby, unconsolidated ice.

Waite for Spring/Dihedral are thin and picked out, but leadable (marginally so for WFS) if you somehow get lucky and they aren't festooned with TRs (fat chance).

Conditions are really cold again, so maybe that will help to bring things back around . . .

[This message has been edited by J Fisher (edited 02-08-2001).]

[erik]

wading bridge creek is an option- also ice on night n'gale is pretty beat. john we saw you leavin town on saturday pretty fast.

[J_Fisher]

I've talked to a number of people who braved the wade (one clever party sealed their gaiters with duct tape and ran across--they claim it worked). But I'm too big a wimp to go wading rivers in below freezing temps.

Leaving town Saturday? You mean in the morning?

[erik]

yeah! in the morning little mike used one gore-tex sock and one seal skin sock. feet were dry.

then at night ran across the river with boots on.

[rayborbon]

Just get trash bags and duct tape wear some crappy shoes underneath for the wade....

[geordie]

We climbed Cherry Ice last weekend in the 40 degree weather. It was super plastic and climbing it sounded climbing an old cedar tree .. thunk, thunk. I wouldn't have wanted to test any of those screws, but it was thick enough to put in 17s without them hitting rock.

We also made it to the Rambles on Sunday. It may have been busy, but we camped nearby and didn't have any problems choosing our route. Early bird gets the worm... ( or the big fat ice)

[Lyle_Knight]

"Hi" from Lillooet. Ade gave me directions to the CC site, this is great! I've asked CASBC to use the BB format for the Lillooet Ice site, , so Adrian (Burke) doesn't have to pull together all the submissions for posting. Then the beta gets out to those who need it, before committing to the long drive. But until then, I'll try and post a copy of the update to you guys, as well.

Mildly cold weather is here, and is supposed to stick around until at least Monday, here's the text:

Today.. Cloudy with occasional snow. Snowfall amounts 2 to 4 centimetres. High near zero.

Tonight.. Cloudy with a 60 percent chance of flurries. Low near minus 7.

Friday.. Cloudy with a few flurries. High near plus 2.

Saturday.. Mainly cloudy with flurries. Low near minus 8. High near minus 2. Probability of precipitation 70 percent.

Sunday.. Mainly cloudy. Low near minus 7. High near minus 1.

Monday.. Mainly sunny. Low near minus 10. High near minus 1. Normals for the period.. Low minus 5. High 3.

We saw a skiff of snow last night, and it was -5C this morning. It's been -10C at night for the last week, and not quite OC during the day.

Phair Creek Canyon Climbed there last Saturday (Feb 3), most climbs were FAT and BLUE! And we had the whole canyon to ourselves! Break the Marble habit, give those poor climbs a rest!! The Phair Creek road is plowed for probably the last time, it's drivable by 4wd or high-clearance 2wd w/ chains, and the ice is unreal. Original route beta at: http://www.bivouac.com/casbc/newclimb.htm

It's Only Phair (7.5km, WI3, 60m): Wide and smooth for 20m, pinching into a notch, then rambling up. Walk off right, may need a rap.

A Phairwell to Arms (7km, WI5+, 60m): Same shape as the Ice Fest Poster, beauty shape!

Phair Game (4.5km, WI4 to 5, 40m): An aesthetic blue pillar to a ramp, hanging a half-hour above the road. Yeehah!

Nectar of the Gods (4km, WI3, 35m): Ramble up the left-bearing ramp to 2 fun, short pitches.

Airy Phairy (3.7km, WI3, rambly approach, 20m): The only sunbaked route in the drainage.

Just Walkin' the Dog (3.5km, WI2/3, 90m): An new addition from Ade Miller and Susan Cripps, January 28, 2001. Hike 200m up the avalanche gully on the RHS of the road, just before the bridge at 3.5km. Climb the first step and then head rightwards up the ramp to a second longer step. Descend by rapping from trees and/ or threads.

Sorry for the long first submission, had some catching up to do!

Cheers, Lyle

[This message has been edited by Lyle Knight (edited 02-08-2001).]