G-spotter Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 (edited) Trip: Fraser Canyon & Thompson Canyon - Crucible, Retort, Jackass & Tijuana Donkey Show Date: 2/2/2008 Trip Report: So there's this climb called "The Crucible" on Highway 1 past Lytton that everybody drives past cause it never freezes up. Right? When Don was working on the guidebook he found out that Lane & partner from Oregon had actually climbed it in 2000, the only known repeat. Maybe it's had other ascents but nothing reported that I know of. Anyways it wasn't in last weekend but it looked promising. E. took a photo for me on Thursday mid-day while she was driving through and it looked like it had frozen up tight, so it was time to give it a go... the team for Saturday: me, Jesse and Graham. We left Chilliwack, drove to Lytton, hiked up the canyon to the base past a scary open pool, climbed the route. 3 pitches, first two were mostly good but with some balancy/mushroomed sections. Third pitch was dry at first but then very wet and hollow - Jesse led through to touch the top but then had to downclimb 10m to find a belay stance that was dry and solid. Beautiful rime formations everywhere BTW! You can see, behind Jesse in the last pic, what looks like an awesome potential mixed route on the other side of the amphitheatre. Once we got down we threw some debris at the ice shield at the bottom of the falls unil Jesse won the game by making the big hole. On the hike back down-canyon we found this short thin smear on the north wall that looked fun and that we all soloed, calling it "The Retort" (WI3, 30m) After the climb we hit Canyon Alpine for pie and coffee and/or burgers, then split up - Jesse and Graham to J's buddy's cabin in Hope, me home to my own bed. Sunday saw us hook up with Mike Warn for a blind date at Jackass. He met us in Hope and after fucking around waiting for Triple O's to open so I could get breakfast we drove up the canyon and found Jackass all frozen up and ready to go. Graham on p1. The second pitch was an easy snow ramp. The third pitch was a nice thick fat flow of ice. Don't think this climb is WI3+ under the current conditions, though I can see the first pitch being harder if it was thinner and less featured. It was kind of funny, Mike led the pitch, Jesse wanted to as well but the climb kind of funnelled ice down at the belay so climbing two at a time or side by side didn't work for us. Anyways Jesse ended up pinkpointing on Mike's preplaced screws, very sporty. And probably faster than Graham taking them out and Jesse putting them back in. After rapping off Jackass we nipped around the corner to climb the little pillar up and left of Jackass in the gully. It was hard and thin for its size, Graham ended up leading it, with a very delicate top out on eggshell thin hollow ice. Fortunately there was a tree 8m back from the top he could sling which made for an exactly 30m pitch. We ended up calling this one "Tijuana Donkey Show" 30m WI4+. While I was seconding I got kicked in the face by the donkey, too . Jesse thirded and Mike declined to climb it because of a healing injury to his shoulder. After that, you guessed it, back to Canyon alpine for more and . Damn fine weekend! Gear Notes: Screws and a good attitude. Approach Notes: Car, road, short walks to ice. Edited February 5, 2008 by G-spotter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrogdortheBurninator Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 nice. the pictures of that first climb look awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pink Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 nice dude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheamclimber Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 Im jealous, I hiked up Elk mtn and almost died putting up a sick new line on Hopyard Hill! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordop Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 (edited) The Crucible? Edited June 18, 2021 by jordop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanl Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 Great pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul_detrick Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 N ice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FBCC Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 Nice Pics Very Jealous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayne Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 The Crucible is awesome. it had huge features and tunnels in it when lane and I did it.Good job guys.Did you easily figure out the approach rope? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-spotter Posted February 5, 2008 Author Share Posted February 5, 2008 Did you easily figure out the approach rope? It was frozen over so much we didn't need to use either of the ropes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-spotter Posted February 6, 2008 Author Share Posted February 6, 2008 Lil;looet and Lytton both hit highs of +6 today and warm is forecast to continue through this w/e. I wouldn't hold out much hope of high-volume falls like Crucible and Jackass surviving through to the weekend, although seepage ice should be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmace Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 geuss if we get alot of warm could this be it...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-spotter Posted February 7, 2008 Author Share Posted February 7, 2008 I seem to recall when we did Closet Secrets last march it had been hitting +7 or so in the daytime for two weeks :rawk; Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-spotter Posted February 10, 2008 Author Share Posted February 10, 2008 PkZKXVbRTD8 Ta8dm9Ri0aM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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