Spring Cheng, Priscilla Moore, Ma Yihua, Iona Yuan, Jane Howe and I converged on Canmore for a late-season ice climbing outing. The Chinook had arrived in the Canadian Rockies bringing warm breezy conditions. Temperatures were near freezing in the morning and then rose up to the high thirties or even low forties during the day. This made for pleasantly warm climbing but it was warm enough for ice to melt and routes were frequently fairly wet. The warm temperatures also made many routes off-limits due to avalanche danger and other routes were melted out and unclimbable. Fortunately, there is enough ice in the Canadian Rockies that we were able to find places to climb.
On Sunday we headed out to Johnson Canyon. At the Upper Falls the
waterfall at the far left was out. The moderate slopes at the far right
were thick and several lines were possible. Of the other meltwater
column routes only one was climbable. We rigged a top-rope anchor and
joined two 60-meter ropes. Another column was formed but had a
horizontal crack across its entire width and was melted out behind.
Johnson Canyon, Upper Falls (Photo by Iona Yuan)
Our destination for Monday was the Wedge Smear. The Wedge Smear was in
great condition. We rigged three top ropes and had multiple lines to
work with. Especially on the more vertical routes on the right side
the ice was picked out making it possible to climb without having to
swing tools very much.
Wedge Smear, left side
On Tuesday, we decided to take a rest day. I had caught a cold the day before the trip and hoped that a day of rest might help with recovering. The cold dogged me through the entire vacation. It was never so bad as to prevent me from going out and climbing but it was something of a nuisance. Iona had only scheduled a long weekend for the trip and had returned home the day before. That night, Spring and Jane cooked up one of several tasty feasts of tofu, vegetables, noodles and other healthy fare.
On Wednesday we headed over to Heart Falls. The falls had a good mix of easy and hard lines and was a good place to practice leading. We rigged two top-ropes and ran laps up the ice.
right side of Heart Falls
left side of Heart Falls
On Thursday we headed over to the Junk Yard. We climbed the main curtain of ice and the ice flow on the far side of the rock buttress on the left side of the main curtain.
Jane at the Junk Yard
On Friday we headed over to Grotto Falls. The approach is a cool
hike along a stream. The ice was still thick but it was clearly
starting to melt.
Jane and Ma hiking in to Grotto Falls
Ma in front of His and Hers ice flows (Photo by Jane Howe)
The lower part of the route
called His was melted out. Ma felt up to the task for dry-tooling the
lower part to get onto the ice.
Ma dry-tooling up to the ice on His
Hers was largely intact. Jane led the
route and then rigged up a top-rope.
Priscilla stemming between rock and ice on Hers
Grotto Falls itself was in good
enough shape for climbing but in many places the ice was wet and
junky. Aside from screws placed in good ice formed on the left wall,
ice screw placements were of questionable strength.
preparing to climb Grotto Falls
Spring on Grotto Falls
It was a great trip and likely marks the end of the ice climbing season for me.
More pictures and additional commentary can be found at http://bruce.frankweb.net/xslt.aspx?xml=trips_2008/canmore.