Don_Serl Posted January 2, 2003 Posted January 2, 2003 i walked to base of bottom tier only; 2nd tier looked from the road to be a solid but narrow column. upper tier had lots of ice. the farmed ice has completely changed the bottom tier: there is a huge vertical drool over the prow to the left of deeping wall, and a broad sheet between deeping wall and no deductible. both "new" ice formations appear to be being fed somewhat too much water for the temperature, and so are a) pissing wet! and b) fantastically chandeliered. the ice-fishermen on the lake say there has been a fair amount of activity (probably by kamloops locals?), and there is a LOT of debris on the ground, especially under the central wall. given the wetness and aerated ice, both new formations look like full-on challenging leads, but the bottom tier has become a bit of a TR area in recent years anyway. my plea to TR'ers: 1. stick to the thicker routes so u don't trash the formations. 2. set up, climb, and get outa the way efficiently; there is not much ice, and often a lot of climbers wanting at it. 3. share TR's with other groups. this is way faster than moving sets from place to place, and allows everyone to get more vertical in over a day. 4. give right-of-way to leading climbers. 5. try to climb with a bit of delicacy. overly-TR'ed formations turn into pegboards anyway, so HOOK, don't BASH. the objective is to get the climber to the top, not the ice-wall to the bottom. 6. TR on the bottom tier only; ice from the upper tiers can funnel all the way down over the 1st pitch of icy BC, and somebody is gonna get clocked badly sooner or later as a result. back to the conditions report (from L to R): *** the 20m dihedral at the left end is well-iced. *** the nose has only patches of ice *** waite for spring is well iced *** (then comes the lefthand farmed ice; impressive!) *** deeping wall is extremely lean. i would judge it to be climbable but not protectable to the ledge at half height, OK above. TR'ers please stay off it till it ices in better, or the bottom's gonna collapse. *** DW direct very thin all the way *** (the main farmed sheet is now the dominant feature of the lower tier) *** no deductible carries only patchy ice *** icy BC is very lean. it appears too much water is being diverted to the farmed sheets, and the natural line has suffered badly as a result. the dihedral on the left side of the 1st pitch is not even continuously iced. weather was quite warm, maybe -3C, and chinooking. it was raining from boston bar on south. lillooet forecast for the next 4 days is highs +7C to +4C, lows +1C. overall, there is ice, but it isn't stellar yet - needs to get colder! plus the farming needs a bit of adjustment... cheers, Quote
fern Posted January 2, 2003 Posted January 2, 2003 That's interesting. I was there on the Dec 20th and it sounds like the only formations that have improved since then are the 2nd and 3rd tiers. There are actually 3 or 4 hoses running, Waite For Spring is farmed. When I was there I also got the impression that IcyBC was a victim of water piracy. I was also very nervous about how stable and well adhered the new central sheet would be in these middling temperatures. It'd be good if you passed on your advice about flow volumes etc. to those people who set the hoses. I think it's an interesting experiment, and it would be a lot to expect it to be perfect the first time. Quote
oldgoat Posted January 2, 2003 Posted January 2, 2003 Hey Don, what ever happened to those -20 Marble Canyon days when the only thing that was guaranteed was the screamin' barfies?? I'll pass your observations, concerns, requests, etc. on to the ice ranchers (farmers live in the Fraser Valley) but, knowing the type of trailer park boys that they are, the IV drip from the beer keg will probably take precedence over the hose lines in Marble Canyon. Quote
LillooetIceFest Posted January 3, 2003 Posted January 3, 2003 Well folks, the temps have risen a lot in the Lillooet area - looks like it is above freezing at Marble Canyon and on the Duffey. Freezing level is about 1000 metres today. Quote
Cpt.Caveman Posted January 4, 2003 Posted January 4, 2003 Texplorer and I climbed up there for a couple days. It was fatter than I have ever seen on the deeping wall. Icy BC lean but lead Waite for Spring area was fat Dihedral lean Cayoosh- Synchronicity ice all the way down but 45 degree temps we did not try it Carls berg there but lean Loose Lady there but hard looking Tube there but very hard looking Rambles some stuff too Closet Secrets not all the way in El Nino not there all the way Some guys did Oregon Jack and reported lean We came back last night. Quote
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