West Coast Ice Conditions 09/10

[G-spotter]

Adrian is going to blog format for reports this year

http://westcoastice.wordpress.com/

 

First conditions report should be up later this week.

 

I saw where Fern said the Duffy was super thin on the w/e.

 

Sumallo is forming, good to go by midweek maybe. First Time Lucky is fattest. Anthrax Ripple is all there but very thin. Cruncy Frog is about 60%. Landmark curtain is 1/4 way down. B/K is very gray (thin), upper unclimbed ice is quite impressive.

 

Hope is forming more slowly, except Mousetrap which has more water and is forming faster.

 

no idea what's up in the Fraser Canyon.

 

Heard there is some ice around Box Canyon already, quite thin though.

 

Snowline is quite high, allows access to some rarely reachable things, go get'er!

 

landmark and the BK forming

 

Unclimbed ice/mixed line above the BK

 

Crunchy Frog trying to form

[G-spotter]

Fern's pics from the Duffey:

 

 

Carl's Berg

 

Shreddie

 

Upper Rambles Right (Petersen-Smaridge dihedral)

[el jefe]

thanks for the link and the pictures.

[giza]

ICE STOKE!!!

[oldgoat]

Was in Marble Canyon today. Bottom half of pitch 1 of ICBC is a slush pile. The top half is forming but streaming with water. We didn't walk up to pitch 2 or 3 but they are forming and appear very wet. There is NO or only marginal ice on all other climbs.

[G-spotter]

Ice is now continuous on many of the "seep" style routes in the Fraser Valley, but the bigger waterfalls with higher volumes still have significant holes.

 

Should be climbable by the weekend for sure.

 

No idea what's going on in Box Canyon or up the Fraser Canyon yet.

[adrianburke]

Thanks D,

 

I have www.westcoastice.com re-routing to the new blog format now, so you can get to it via both www.westcoastice.com and westcoastice.wordpress.com

 

Cheers,

Adrian

[G-spotter]

Went for a drive today to scope. All in all fat ice is found at higher elevations on north facing slopes. If you are prepared to hike uphill for an hour or two you'll find better ce than at the roadside.

 

Hwy 1:

Bridal Falls area: Never a Bride and White Weddng could possibly be climbed but are quite thin. Other routes have holes.

 

Powerhouse Falls has large hole on second pitch.

 

Piccadilly Circus: looks thin and wet.

 

Easy Intro; lower WI2 is all there, crux pitches have large open hole.

 

The Diviner: in and fat, ditto its unclimbed neighbour (see pic)

 

Hunter Creek area:

Medusa is in.

Jet Lag looked doable but thin.

other routes in this area (Pearly whites, The Cure, Jaundice etc.) looked very thin and generally not in yet.

 

Mousetrap area:

Actual visible ice on Jah Loveth the Righteous. Not an everyday occurrence.

JLTL has ice too.

Mousetrap is fully iced (see pic) but close inspection reveals it is wet, hollow and blobby. Possibly quite hard to protect.

The unclimbed pillar high above Mousetrap is HUGE! and yellow.

 

The Sheet looked good (photo), Canton Palace to the right is about 70% there.

 

Skagit Valley:

Cruel Pools and Big Cedar are hollow and wet. Might not support body weight yet or will be wet if they do (bring extra dry boots and Goretex)

See pic of Big Cedar Falls

 

Highway 7:

Tradewinds is not there.

Tailwind upper part is in. Lower part is very thin, not really in. Might be feasible using the right-hand start.

 

Unclimbed (L) & The Diviner ®

 

Mousetrap from by the Husky station

 

The Sheet

 

Big Cedar

[G-spotter]

Graham and I climbed a 4 pitch new (?) route on the red cliff halfway from Easy Intro to the Diviner (the one with the big hanging drip that never touches down). This is the continuous flow somewhat less prominent on the right side of the same cliff.

 

Pitches went at 2, 2, 3, 2+, 200m more or less. 3 raps down from trees to climber's right, 30, 60, 60 plus some scrambling. On the last rap we found an old sling around a tree, might have been from a previous ascent or from an ascent of some shorter seep to the right during thicker times (?)

[Wild_Bill]

HOPE AREA:

 

I think if you want to do some good climbing in the Hope area right now, you're going to have to hike up a ways.

 

Climbed the first pitch of MOUSETRAP today. Wet, massive amounts of water running underneath. The second pitch was way worse (even more massive amounts of water flowing through and on top of the ice). We bailed up and right (not the easiest turf climbing endeavor). Highly not recommended right now.

 

Checked out CRUEL POOLS area. Thin (as seen from the car), didn't bother with it.

 

Climbed the second pitch of one of the climbs to climber's right of Mousetrap (the one lower down and right of the fatter looking road side climb- not especially recommended). Whatever that fatter climb is on climber's right of mousetrap looked plausible, but I'm guessing it had uninspiring amounts of water running beneath it like everything else I saw today. ...But who knows? Prove me wrong...

 

Approached the above climb (as one would for the aforementioned "fatter climb") from the very west end of that service road off exit... 165 I think? The same exit for mousetrap. Through the clearing, across the east-west drainage, then straight shot up the gully.

 

Sorry to say I didn't get a good look at much else. If this 'TR' managed to somehow inspire anyone, I have a picture of the mousetrap area on my camera somewhere in my pack that I could email later... I mean, if you really need your optimism killed, or if you just want to feel better about sleeping in tomorrow...

Edited December 13, 2009 by Wild_Bill

[G-spotter]

You should've gone up to Box Canyon.

[G-spotter]

Moustrap got climbed Sunday and Monday despite Wild Bill's discouraging report above. Still - 2 there right now.

 

Heard that Entropy got climbed o Sunday despite a report on the MCR that the bottom wasn't in.

 

Olesen Slabs and some other seeps around Squamish are said to be fat. Will see how they survive the coming warm snap (which should only last Wed-Fri if everything goes well). Heard that Matt Maddaloni climbed a new M9 (?) in the Zombie Roof area just right of Old Age.

 

Read a report that Cal-chek is fat, Mystery Roach is thin.

 

Still haven't heard any recent reports from Lilooet (except for Marble Canyon) or the Duffy or D'arcy areas. But it was -20C in Lillooet the last few days. Expect that Honeyman etc will be in soon if not already.

[G-spotter]

Details of this Maddaloni "harder than M7" mixed thing (sounds like it is still a project going by his blog, actually) are up on his blog.

 

Also from a couple of sources it seems like there is a lot of ice in in North Joffre Creek, at least 3 parties got on it in the last 2 weeks, but probably with a lot of avvy hazard right now.

[G-spotter]

Very warm around Hope area today (fourth straight day of +5-+8 C). Drove up to scope out some unclimbed lines and watched big chunks fall off them, pretty impressive.