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[TR] Rockies Ice Sampler -Haffner,Ghost,Icefields P. - Haffner Creek, This House of Sky, Weeping Wall 12/5/2007


ElisifHarro

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Trip: Rockies Ice Sampler -Haffner,Ghost,Icefields P. - Haffner Creek, This House of Sky, Weeping Wall

 

Date: 12/5/2007

 

Trip Report:

While parts of Oregon were flooding, Daniel and I finished up with work in Portland on Tuesday morning and headed North. We had originally planned on dropping off our puppy with my parents in Olympia before heading up and over through Spokane, and were chagrined to find out that I5 and pretty much every alternate route besides going through Yakima was shut down. After a bit of a delay and the help of flexible family we were off! Due to our late start we spent the first night in our 4runner in Radium, woke up Wednesday morning and headed to Haffner Creek. We parked in the Marble Canyon lot and hiked the easy approach through the campground and up the creek.

 

Judging from the image, Elisif is not so sure she will fit in with Canadian women

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Ice at Haffner was climbable to the right and left of a number of mixed routes. It was a fairly warm day comparably to the colder temps this area has been seeing so the ice was fairly wet but still fun to climb. All in all it was a good day of toproping and swinging tools.

 

A view of the left side and mixed climbs in Haffner

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Daniel leading on the right

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After Haffner we headed to Canmore and set up shop at the Rocky Mountain Chalets. We were worried because this place was so cheap but were pleasantly surprised to find a clean, spacious condo-style place with three rooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and plenty of storage/drying space. It could have easily held 6 or more people and for 60CD it was a steal. Great outside covered hottub too! Any takers for a group road trip?

 

On Thursday it was off to the Ghost to climb This House of Sky. We drove all the way to just below the route and began a fun day of soloing ice step after ice step. Great ice conditions kept smiles on our faces the entire time. The temp. when we left the car was about -10F at 9am, and a majority of the pools were not fully frozen, making for creative and/or very lightly trodden hiking at times to avoid punching through. It cooled down considerably when we got to the ampitheatre and the crux pitch was somehow brittle yet wet making for a dinnerplating shower of a climb, but still exciting nonetheless. We hiked off the right side and had an entertaining time watching each other fall on our asses on the way down!

 

Ice Steps

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Crux pitch

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GBU was looking in great shape and the Drip was fat and inspiring.

The Good the Bad the Ugly (Sorry about the picture quality, my camera is old and angry it was so cold)

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View up the Ghost River

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Finally on Friday we had plans to head to the Icefields Parkway to do Murchison Falls however it was cold!!!

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We changed our plan and chased the sun to the Weeping Wall and climbed the route to the right of Snivelling Gullies. It ended up being a good choice as the sun made it comfortable if not almost warm!

 

Weeping Wall

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Elisif

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Daniel

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8x10 glossy :lmao:

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We rounded off the day by going to slideshow presentations by Sean Isaacs and Will Gadd, hosted by Barry Blanchard for the Canmore Ice Fest. These guys are not only really strong climbers but also genuinely nice, funny guys. I laughed my ass off hearing their stories. It was good to see you Roger!

 

Ice wall in downtown Canmore for the Icefest

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For our first time in the Canadian Rockies this was an amazing trip. Even just driving, especially in the parkway with its endless possibilities for climbs made us not want to come home. We'll definitely be back as soon as time allows!

 

Gear Notes:

Pretty standard really...

 

Approach Notes:

JoJo's book, Waterfall Ice Climbs in the Canadian Rockies is pretty much all you need. If you've never been up to the area it helps to have a map as well.

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Great TR .. looking forward to heading up there next week.

 

By the way, I thought THOS was beyond the road closure .. isn't there a mile marker "39" sign before the first water crossing that no vehicles are supposed to go beyond? .. you mentioned you drove right to the base of the climb, so has this restriction been lifted or did you not know/see the sign?

 

By the way 2, how were the snow drifts in the ghost?

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Neither response is unexpected but it does clearly delineate what the Government requires for the reinstatement of motorized access to the This House of Sky staging area and eventually the Ghost Wilderness boundary. Note that any future access implementation in the Ghost FLU Zone will require a monitoring and maintenance plan. This means that any motorized access concessions that may be won can easily be lost by the actions of careless or irresponsible users.

 

http://www.gravsports-ice.com/icethreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/315#Post315

 

 

:tdown:

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Nice trip, definitely a good sampler. Murchison would have been numbingly cold on a day where it was -22 in the valley. I'm surprised by the amount of snow and the fatness of the routes already this year.

 

The fine is definitely in the thousands. You have to park before the first stream crossing: basically, your tires cannot get wet. It really only adds maybe 30 min of walking to get into This House of Sky, though.

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