dave schultz Posted November 27, 2012 Posted November 27, 2012 (edited) Trip: North Joffre Creek - Swiss Wall? Date: 11/24/2012 Trip Report: Headed up to NJC looking for ice on Saturday. What a foolish idea. Early season, not a lot of snow, not super cold ... you can see where this is heading. The skin up the logging road was not too bad, followed a snow mobile track for about 1.5 miles then easy trail breaking. We made a critical mistake of heading right at the end of the logging road instead of heading left across the creek. What ensued was about 2 hrs of bushwacking, skining on top of thin snow on top of down trees, creek crossings, and other horrors ... all to gain another 1/2 mile. Then the ice looked thin and not very climbable, but the longer we looked at it, the better it looked (mirages, maybe?). Still the approach was horrible, and we never got to the start. We tuck tailed and bailed, in order to get out by sunset and at least salvage Sunday. We were rewarded with hearing one of the fatter looking corners of ice collapse as we were heading out - that would have made the day a little worse. We returned on the right side of the creek (opposite from where we started), which was much easier, faster, and less stressful. The skin back to the trucks was fast and uneventful. In the end, all it cost us was a full day of skinning, while carrying overnight packs (training weight?), with the false hope of finding ice in November (impeccable optimism?). With another foot of base the approach the left side of the creek would be cake, and with a long and colder stretch of weather the ice looked like it would be steller. For the skiers: it looked like there was TONS of great adventure skiing. Bring your avi A-Game and a competent parter, and make sure you're well rested. Several good looking lines and great bowl skiing further up the creek drainage. I will try and get a few pics posted when I figure out how to work my iPhone. Gear: we only needed skis and skins (and days packs). In good conditions it looked like a variety of screws, probably some pins, a light selection of rock gear if your into that stuff might also be helpful. Snow note: VERY consistent weak layer approx 1 inch thick, about 2 inches below the surface, and about 18 inches above the ground. Discovered in the parking area off Highway 99 and was still present as far as we got. Look for it when you head in there. BTW, this is my first TR ... Dave Edited November 27, 2012 by dave schultz Quote
mattp Posted November 27, 2012 Posted November 27, 2012 I've seen fat ice up there and there is definitely some good skiing terrain on beyond the climbs noted here. The Duffy Lake road offers a tremendous assortment of skiing and climbing thrills! Quote
jmace Posted November 27, 2012 Posted November 27, 2012 NJC doesnt happen until late in the season, maybe late Feb to early April. Dont be fooled by how close it looks, in big snow it may take you the better part of a day to go from the creek crossing to Frommage Suisse. The parking lot is kept open as a staging area for heli skiers coming home, they come back through that drainage. Besides the low snow coverage it hasnt even been below 0 at those elevations very much so far this fall. Cayoosh summit which is higher than NJC Generally there is NO ice in SWBC until late Dec and even then thats if your lucky. Quote
Don_Serl Posted November 28, 2012 Posted November 28, 2012 (edited) [bTW, this is my first TR ... Dave Dave Schultz, as in Nose in X hours Dave(where X is a very small single digit integer)? holy moses, NJC in November is a harsh intro. really, it does get better, altho this is hardly Nirvana for ice climbers (or maybe that should more appropriately be 'Niflheim"...) as one of my past ice climbing partners used to put it, the official website for coastal iceclimbing ought to be 'disappointment.com'... and another reckoned the most important piece of equipment a coastal ice climber could possess was a plane ticket to Calgary! still, it's special when it happens, very special... keep at it! Edited November 28, 2012 by Don_Serl Quote
mattp Posted November 28, 2012 Posted November 28, 2012 as one of my past ice climbing partners used to put it, the official website for coastal iceclimbing ought to be 'disappointment.com'... and another reckoned the most important piece of equipment a coastal ice climber could possess was a plane ticket to Calgary! still, it's special when it happens, very special... keep at it! Nice! "The Coast" and "The Northwest" may be challenged as compared to the continental ranges in terms of ICE but we do have some incredible scenery and we do have a lot of great climbing -- ICE included. It is especially nice when you don't have to drive 10 hours or fly on a plane and rent a car. Quote
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