[TR] Lillooet Jan 27-28, 2007 - Last Call Lite and Fountain of Youth 1/27/2007

[Don_Serl]

Trip: Lillooet Jan 27-28, 2007 - Last Call Lite and Fountain of Youth

 

Date: 1/27/2007

 

Trip Report:

Bouyed by colder temps returning after 4 days of springtime in Lillooet, Graham R and I headed for the Duffey Lake road early Sat morning. We were 4 hours from Vanc to the Cinnamon Ck campground, including a quick muffin and breakfast samosa stop at the Pony Express in Pemberton - the McDonalds doesn't open till 7, so I had to accept a substitute for my usual early morning ice-climbing grease injection.

 

We crossed the creek (knee deep), I with bags (suffering a bit of leakage), G equipped luxuriously with waders. The approach was straightforward (1 hr), but when we arrived below the route we were both totally appalled by the chimney that provides the normal start - NO WAY we were going to climb that! Big disappointment, since the ice above looked great. However, looking around, it seemed as if you could climb up a ways, then traverse in on a higher ledge - which is exactly what we did.

 

G led the ledge, which was easy except for a 5m thin ice section midway, and reached a big tree overlooking the basin low on the climb. A 40m rappel deposited us where we wanted to be, and a sheltered belay was made on the little cedar on the left. I got the first lead, which was stiff Gr 4 - pretty near vertical for about 10m, easing 5 or 10 degrees for the next 10m, then kicking back for the next 20m. The pitch was very wet in the centre, but fairly dry on the extreme right. G moved up 10m from the tree to allow me to similarly move up from the top of the initial ice to a better belay point at the base of the upper ice flow. This gave 1 1/2 pitches of superb undulating ice (Gr 2+ maybe?) and we anchored in the forest above.

 

We rapped 50m from a big tree on the left at top, 40m from a second big tree on climbers right to the top of the main ice-wall, 50m from an Abalakov to the cedar, and 55m to the ground. All raps were equipped with new sling and a rap ring - there was an old white sling in situ on the 2nd tree anchor, but nothing else around. The chimney looked horrendous from the rappel - 8m high, water-worn and leaning, with a big, awkward chockstone and not much prospect for gear - my admiration for Jia and anyone else who has figured out how to climb this. My recommendation, however, is to 'cheat', and to climb the ledges - the ice is wonderful - the best pitch I've done this year so far - and the approach is casual and novel.

 

Gotta get to work now, so I'll edit in details of our time on Fountain of Youth later...

 

 

Lunchtime; day 2:

 

So, the first unpleasant surprise of the day was that the Reynolds was closed (for 2 wks), so we had to grease up at (I hate to admit this...) the A&W. Only choice. Please don't kick me off the forum because of this transgression...

 

We had thought about Three Ring Circus, but decided it probably wouldn't have survived the warmth in the valley very well. And option 2, the Bullock-Amelunxen, gets sun. Soooo... what about the Fountain climbs? Fountain Blue is closed, but there are two others, both up a ways above the valley.

 

Surprisingly, as soon as we got out of the main Fraser canyon, it was a lot colder - still frost on trees, and big surface hoar. Fountain of Youth looked fat from the road, altho you can't see the upper column very well. After driving up and down a bit we decided to park down by the field just north of the main Fountain creek crossing. There is a house there, but it's unoccupied at the moment, so it seemed OK to walk across the fields.

 

The approach was fine - open forest, then steepening. Snow had slid in the gully below the route, so we were able to get our crampons on and tramp up hard snow for the upper 250m. We found ourseleves In the sun to gear up after 1 1/2hrs - its 450m up, not 350m as I 'guessed' in the guide. The route is shady, so was quite dry.

 

We wove up easy ice and snow to a tree at the left of the base of the main flow - it's much fatter now than in Lyle's photo taken during the FA (WCI pg 221). Graham got this pitch, which was lovely, undulating and dry, but a bit platey here and there. It was pretty cold, actually. There's a conveniently placed tree on the right to belay the upper pitch from. I can see what Lyle meant when he said (as quoted in the guide) that this would be "grade 5 if it were longer" - but it's not. Really, the steep stuff only goes on about 8m, but it's pretty full-on while you're on it. Then it lays back a bit, then it's just tramping up snow to a tree on the left.

 

We rapped from the little tree on the left, then from the big tree on climbers right, then downclimbed the bottom snow/ice. Again, we left tape and a rap ring at each station. The descent to the valley was very fast, and we were back at the car at 2 p.m., about 5 1/2 hrs after we set out.

 

We rounded out the adventure by taking the pleasant back-road short-cut thru Fountain valley back to the highway halfway between Lillooet and Lytton. Lotsa people out ice-fishing, but no other climbs hidden away.

 

I'll get a cpl photos up this evening. The season is a long way from over - you just have to be imaginative about where u climb - in general, the Fraser/lower altitude climbs are gone, and stuff in the sun is taking a beating. But it IS still cold higher up, and the further u get from the marine air, the better.

 

 

cheers, don

Edited January 29, 2007 by Don_Serl

[Weekend_Climberz]

Hey Don, any other observations of climbs around the area you would like to pass along :tup:

[jmace]

For the most part I dont think anything on the latest duffey report survived the heat wave. I climbed on Sgt pepper, very very wet and it got partially destroyed by a huge avalanche down its face(maybe note that in your guide)it was muddy lower down and falling off higher up.

 

Everything in lillooet town area has fallen down.

 

I was in the bridge for a look see at Night n Gale, which surprsingly had not had the same avalanche cylce and was still a tad buried. Old Dogs had a partial collapse, steristrip was looking good but very wet. Not so Burly has had its top fall off, the picture on west coast ice where Bob is climbing is gone, you can walk off right below this though for 30 m of grade 2 climbing, although it did have holes.

 

Looking at the temps in lillooet past 24 and what it felt like on the duffey and I think its warmer on the duffey than lilloet..

 

 

[Don_Serl]

agreed with Jesse - the lower stuff around Lillooet got hammered.

across the Duffey: Shreddie, Closet Secrets, and the Rambles are all high and shady, so are fine. a Bellingham group did a bunch at Rambles Sat. JM told me they saw people starting Carlsberg on Sat - it looked very do-able up thru the centre, altho 'holey' at the edges. the Bullock-Amelunxen might be OK, but might get too sunny. there's a bunch of ice on Cowabunga Dude, and there are flows over in the Waiting Game area, altho nothing continuous. Solarium is gone, but Wet Lady looks fine. while we were on Last Call, we saw somebody stop and have look at the Tube, then leave. i'm surprised to hear Not So Burly fell apart, but Red Wall Wanderers has got to still be in. it was pretty dusky as we headed into town, but Synchronicity was big and white. there's a bunch of ice in the Twilight Tiers area, but that's notoriously dangerous in sunny conditions. the Strand is still up.

 

i'd be interested to hear from JM about conditions of the various single-pitch columns out the Bridge: New Leash, Blackbird, the stuff by Mixed Master J - there was a lot of interesting stuff formed 2 wks ago... I'm sure Capricorn and Jade and Suncatcher and anything else in the sun is toast. but what about Silk Worm? and the Gift? and Shriek?

 

anybody else out there this w/e?

 

cheers, don

 

[G-spotter]

There's a huge amount of blue ice in the upper Magnesia and Harvey Creek basins, weeping out where snowmelt is funnelled over cliffs. I'm not sure exactly what is what below the Lions but we saw several things that could have been Marmalade, Ad Agents in Space etc. while looking down from Harvey. And the long-range is for cold in the shade all week up there.

[jmace]

Not So Burly, so suprised me as well, and after looking at the photo's wow so much ice fell off. While walking in, there was quite a bit of rockfall right down to the creek bed

 

Red wall: ya looked nice and blue from not so burly although the column pitch was looking awfully thin but we had no binocs.

 

Twilight tiers: not even close to the amount of ice on it last weekend.

 

Capricorn and Jade: still there but white and sunny.

 

Shriek: looked like somthing fell off up high.

 

Silk Worm: Mostly gone

Silk Degree's: gone

Gift: First pitch non existant, the next 1 or two pitches are missing sections but the upper flow is big and blue

 

I dont have my book, but the stuff just to the right and down from night n gale was missing sections.

 

not sure about black bird,or new leash, ill look in the book tonight and see if I cant place some names to the ice I saw.

 

To me it looked like something fell of just to the left of the main flow of shreddie compared to last weekend.

 

Also

 

Mile-o is booked this weekend for hockey tournaments, same for 4 pines. As of Saturday there were a few single rooms available and some cots for this weekend.

 

Also

 

Reynolds restaurant is closed this weekend so the only place to eat breakfast is A&W. Dinner spots may be hard to come by as well, there was a small tourny this weekend and Dina's was packed full. Next weekend is the last of any tournaments in February.

 

Cheers

 

Jesse

 

and if the temps fall as advertised mid week and through the weekend we should be up an running again next week.

 

[Don_Serl]

a few photos:

 

 

 

Last Call - the horrendous initial chimney is hidden in the forest; use the obvious approach ramp on the right, then rap in.

 

 

 

 

Last Call - the 'big' pitch.

 

 

 

 

 

Fountain of Youth - the 1st pitch - 40m of beautiful flow ice.

 

 

 

 

Fountain of Youth - pitch 2: short but hard.

 

 

 

 

enjoy, cheers, don

 

[jmace]

the best pitch I've done this year so far

 

 

 

Shit ya Big D !!!!!!