Summer ice - near Vancouver, BC - Baker and ??

[Jud]

Hi all,

 

I was reading somewhere that there might be summer ice climbing around here (Vancouver, BC) --other than on the seracs of Mt. Baker.

 

What I read is that there are glaciers in the Spearhead Range, the Joffre Lakes region and Cerise creek region that might offer relatively easy glacial serac access (for, say, top roping to learn basic ice skills). Anyone know about these areas? (I know already about Mt. Baker.) I don't believe that Don Serl's "West Coast Ice" covers these as summer areas for ice, but I could be wrong.

 

In short, I'm looking for some good easy-access places to learn/practice on ice this summer and fall, before winter.

 

Thanks!

Jud

[G-spotter]

WCI vol. 1 covers the Joffre Lakes/Cerise area for serac practice (actually the best choice is the Anniversary, on the Cerise side).

 

Other than that what more exactly do you need to know?

 

You might find that rather than top-roping seracs, climbing couloirs and gullies offers good practice for easy water ice routes. In which case, check out the north faces of Wedge and Weart and other things like that.

[John Frieh]

How far you willing to drive?

 

I dont know about everyone else but I personally have never really found much correlation with serac/glacial ice climbing and water ice beyond they both require tools and pons.

 

Cooke City (Montana) got enough snow this winter that they should have water ice routes in around end of August... some of the stuff on the parkways might be forming up depending on if it is getting below freezing @ night or not but those are more routes than places to top rope/work out your swing.

[Jud]

Thanks, G-Spotter...Wedge and Weart: on my list now!

 

I'll have to go and have a look at Don Serl's book (WCI) tonight. But I'm curious about Anniversary --I was there last summer for a try at Matier in mid-June, and I don't recall there being any climbable ice, i.e., seracs. Maybe it's a question of being there very late in the season, i.e., August. (Lots of snow still in June.)

 

Have you been there? I'm just trying figure out where it would be. I do recall some bare glacier over a ridge to the left of Matier (not sure which compass direction, but it's to the left when facing Matier and looking up the Anniversary), but no seracs. Again, maybe a question of being there much later in summer, when the snow is gone?

 

Cheers,

Jud

[G-spotter]

Yes, later in the season, and more like lowering into a crevasse and climbing out than walking up to a serac and climbing it like you can do at Baker. It's more or less just left of center as you look up from the toe of the Anniversary, or it was when I as there. August to October offers the most ice.

 

The toe of the Joffre has real seracs but also icefall = not necessarily the best place to spend all day hanging out.

 

I guess I meant WCI 1st edition rather than WCI Vol. 1

[Jud]

Cool, thanks. Makes sense to me now. Checking last night, I realized I have the later (2003 or so) edition of WCI, and there is no mention (as far as I could tell by browsing it) of Joffre Lakes/Cerisa area for serac practice (just actual routes in the area)...so, thanks for the info.)

[Jud]

Thanks, Montana is a bit out of the way from here for now!

 

Yes, I'm vaguely aware that AI and WI are different in feel/technique, but for now I want to get started on some AI since it's easiest, i.e., it can be accessed in spring/summer/fall...my thinking is that this will at least let me transition a bit more easily into WI, having had practice swinging tools, etc.

[fishstick]

I've gotta ask...

 

Why not Baker? It's an easier and shorter drive, shorter and easier approach, has much higher quality ice and most importantly, it has 500X more boulder problems than any other local (Vancouver) option. If you look beyond the limits of top roping, the place is like a frozen Fontainebleau. Not all the routes are in shape at any given time, but unless it's unseasonably hot, you can always find quality terrain between August and the beginning of November.

 

Cheers,

 

GB

[Jud]

Totally...makes sense! I'm asking only b/c I hope to be up on the Anniversary Glacier/Matier/Joffre in a week or two for a trip. Hopefully to get up Matier (snow route), and then scout out the SW Buttress on the mountain's other side (rock, 5.7) for later on in the season...

 

The Baker serac option is definitely more appealing as a regular option...I suppose there is a guide(s) of some sort to the serac area? I.e., books/maps? West Coast Ice (later edition) makes only brief reference to it --but maybe that's because it's easy to access and you just need to go and scout around since there's lots there?

 

Jud

[Don_Serl]

I suppose there is a guide(s) of some sort to the serac area? I.e., books/maps? West Coast Ice (later edition) makes only brief reference to it --but maybe that's because it's easy to access and you just need to go and scout around since there's lots there?

 

Jud

 

to my knowledge, there is no other coverage. but it's an easy walk up - as you say, just scout around.

 

the only routefinding necessary occurs near treeline - continue angling up left towards the lower glacier, rather than taking off up the zigzags straight up slope. cross the creek in another few hundred metres, then on the ridge beyond you can either:

 

a) cut off downhill at 90 degrees, then cross the 2nd creek to gain the flat spot on the wooded ridge which bounds the glacier on the west. this is often used for camping. the trail down to the glacier descends a wooded gully from the NE end of this camping area. this approach involves several hundred feet of descent (and re-ascent on return), but is easier, especially for newbies. or,

 

b) carry on up the trail; cross the 2nd creek, and angle up to the bottom side of a rock knob; then traverse across to the glacier from beneath this knob. this approach is shorter, but glacial recession is making it more unpleasant every year, and one generally has to traverse some quite complicated terrain once on the ice to reach the best TR'ing areas, so it's not good for those inexperienced on crampons.

 

as fishstick says, baker is vastly superior to any other venue, but you CAN find places to TR above Joffre Lakes and elsewhere. all you need is ice with easily accessible holes in it...

 

cheers,

[Jud]

Don,

 

Many thanks for the extra detailed information --it's really great to be able to hear from the author of WCI himself! (By the way, fantastic and inspirational book to a novice like myself...thanks for distilling all your experience and trip reports, and those of friends, into that book [cheers to you])

 

Jud

Edited June 10, 2008 by Jud

[Jud]

By the way, Don or anyone else --with regard to "ice" in the alpine, can someone give me a better sense of what that means (in the summer). (Here's what I'm getting at:

 

Last summer (mid-June), I was up on the PD Northeast Spur route on Mt. Matier. Straightforward snow climb; higher up, we looked for something hard to put ice screws (just for "practice"), but no luck. On the whole route, we simply used pickets or ice axes for belay anchors. "Alpine Select" describes the route as "ice".

 

Now, looking at guidebook for the AD Northwest Face route on Matier, I see that it's also called an "ice" route (as are the various couloir routes on Joffre --Twisting Couloir, etc.), but are rated AD, or D...presumably b/c steep (or 'schrund to cross on approach).

 

What I'm wondering is...obviously snow is composed of ice, but the PD NE Spur route on Matier is obviously not an ice climb: it's a snow climb...or it was for us in mid-June. But does a route like that, and like the steeper AD "ice" routes on Matier/Joffre couloirs turn into hard packed ice-like snow later in the summer, when the surface snow has melted off? Or would a route like the PD route always be a "snow" climb (using pickets for protection). A bit of a convoluted question...essentially, I understand that the AD Matier route and Jofre couloir routes are only in season as hard snow/ice climbs when the surface snow has melted off, and that the PD Matier route is pretty much only always a snow climb in summer. As for protection, is the AD route on Matier, and Joffre couloir routes (for example) protectable with screws when in season? I.e., is that kind of alpine ice like serac ice, or different...seems to me like it would be quite different...it looks too steep and hard (packed) to put pickets into a slope like the AD route on Matier, like here.

 

Just trying to get a better sense of how one protects those kinds of alpine ice routes, ones like the AD NW Face on Matier, and the couloirs on Joffre, and when they're "in season", presumably in late summer/fall.

Edited June 12, 2008 by Jud