2005/2006 conditions are HERE

2004/2005 Conditions (see ice screw posting below for info on the screw)

Please drop an email to [email protected] if you climb something and don't mind sharing it, it's our reports that keep this current. Pictures are good too, see note below about how to submit 'em, thx. wg.

Note: It's probably obvious by the "stellar" design of this site, but it's an amateur effort on a good day and run by a poorly trained monkey the rest of the time. YMMV.

Avalanche Conditions: This is very relevant, most of these climbs are in avalanche terrain to some extent. As usual the Rockies are an intricate range with surprises, a little paranoia is a good thing.

Hydrophobia (Ghost)  through the Waiparous approach beta here. 

Barry "Bubba" Blanchard, Ice etiquette, a proposal WG Note: As Bubba suggests, please write your intended route in the dirt on your car or leave a note on the windshield, this is especially important in the early season, thanks.

The Ice Pages: lots more info about ice/mixed action in the Rockies.

http://www.live-the-vision.com/wwwboard/index.shtml A bulletin board site, lots of good reports with the occasional internet idiot.

http://www.rockies-ice.com/conditions.php has a regular list of routes done by Sean Easton and others, good for recent conditions.

2003/2004 Ice Conditions are here for historical info.

2002/2003 here.

Ice Reports

It's May but we're still at it. Last water ice climbed May 14 so far, free BD ice screw for whomever sends me the last route of the season, and it's not going to me.

Photo Note: If you send me photos could you please make the file name less than 30 characters, Dreamweaver explodes with more than 30charcters in the file name, thanks. Format would ideally be climb_date_yourname.jpg, or else I'll just guess (not a threat, a reality). Yeah, bring those photos on! Thx. wg

Photos: Accesible in Links by month below, LOTS, thanks!

2005/2006 conditions are HERE

Conditions below are for those interested in what's in at what times.

June 23rd, Ice Screw Contest, Will Gadd

May 14, King's Creek, Pierre Descoteaux

I went for an early morning solo climb in King Creek this morning.There isn't much in there anymore but I
still manage to climb a 30-35m pitch of WI 2 to 3 that could probably take medium screws. I can't send the
pictures yet but I'll work on it. Hopefully the ice crew is still up for grab...

May 12, John Eyre March 29 photos of Weeping Wall if anybody wants 'em.

I don't know if anybody is interested in this stuff but we were travelling the Icefields Parkway on Mar 29 '05 around 1:30 pm and
managed some decent pictures of a couple of un-identified climbers. The pictures turned out well so I thought I'd let someone who climbs know about them. I thought the climbers wouldn't mind seeing them but I don't know who they are of course. I couldn't wait until they got to the highway, we were parked next to their Jeep Cherokee, as my wife and son wanted to get moving.
The pictures are on my website if you'd like to have a look. The one's on the site are heavily compressed of course: http://eyrespace.com/images/index.php?folder=/Icefields_Parkway/

The originals are pretty fair quality and would be suitable for printing and there are alot of them. If anyone wants the originals they're welcome to them. It was a very entertaining 30 minutes so if I can give something back well great.

May 10, K-Country, Randy Colwell (photo up later, it's a rather anemic but still definitely water ice pillar, so right now these guys are in first place in the free ice screw chase!)

Denis Pelletier and I are still clinging to the idea that there’s low elevation moderate ice to be climbed in May!  Our plan was to climb Tasting Fear (WI 5, 35 m) along the Galatea trail. However, when we arrived this AM, we found the trail closed.  We had checked the K-Country trail report website on Monday and it didn’t say anything about this trail being closed!  After a short discussion about “moral flexibility” and whether the signs applied to ice climbers (i.e., the closure notice referred to “hikers”), we decided to head across the highway to see if Wedge Smear has anything to offer in May.  There’s a bit of ice left – a nice 25 m ice column which is essentially between the mixed routes Wedged Between and Atomic Wedgie was available for a few laps.  We climbed it from both sides (to extend the climbing day past 11:00 AM!) then headed back to Calgary for much deserved pizza and beers!  Randy…

May 3, Stanley, WG

We went up to do the mixed routes in the Thriller area. Nemesis might, if one were bold and early, still be sort of possible. The rest of it is gone. Skis still a good idea from just past the bridge over the creek to the headwall, iso slush in general. Several big wet slides had come down on the west/southwest exposures. We did climb 30 feet of ice to reach the base of the mixed routes, which weren't too mixed after the first 30 feet. There are still people climbing real ice but it's getting very, very late...Ice screw still waiting for the latest water ice ascent!

April 19, Front Range Ice, Eli Brager

There is still front range ice to climb. Evan Thomas Creek on Apr. 19 has Snowline very large and thick, Chantilly Falls still climbable, and
Moonlight & 2 Low 4 Zero not so much. Not a lot of info here, but still a lot of fun.

April 19, Parkway (and Sorcerer posted April 21!) Randy Colwell. Click for photos

I forgot to send pictures of The Sorcerer taken on April 14th.  David Marra and I climbed it and it was in great shape and will be around for a while. The pictures don’t show the cornices very well, but they were there and although relatively small, still pose a risk, so beware…Approach was straight forward in my 4-Runner or on foot via North Ghost.

Came down the Parkway today (April 19) after a few days at Berg Lake…took some photos of some of the classics in spring conditions…Randy (WG Note: The Pencil is fat and bent in the photo but still there, amazing year for Mr. Pencil).

April 18, Nemesis: Colin Wooldridge, Eric Hanson and myself (Lise Beaulieu) climbed Nemesis on Sunday (photo up April 21). The approach was 2hrs. The boys were on skis and I was on snowshoes. We decided that snowshoes was the better choice. Don't bother walking in unless you want to posthole, it is full-on winter conditions in there.

Nemesis is in great shape. Bottom pitch goes from thick to thin with rock showing depending on where you climb. Upper pitches are still fat. Starting to get abit slushy on the upper portion. We belayed behind ice curtains for pitches 2 and 3, a tad nervy getting around those! Should be in good shape for another weekend.  Be sure to check the avi conditions before going in.

Very fun!!

April 18, Grassi, Brad Winter

I was in grassi lakes on Thrus and again today the ice was in great shape. and even snow covered today.

April 15, Field, Everett Fee

Doug Nelson and I climbed Massey's at Field yesterday. It was in superb condition -- good plastic ice, with a few dinnerplates on bulges (par for the course). We were the only climbers around that area (for a change). There was one other party at the other end of the mountain (rapping off High Test at ~2pm); presumably, they climbed Guinness to get to High Test. From what we could see from the highway Guinness is still in great condition.

April 14, Various, WG

The season is starting to wind down, not so much due to lack of ice but lack of interest. Yesterday we climbed rock at Grassi while two others climbed excellent ice on the shady side (Grassi is still really good for ice, and the rock is on too, perfect!). I'll keep posting reports if anyone is mad enough for ice to still be at it. I'll offer a prize of a BD screw for the person who sends in the latest report on a pure water ice route this season. Note that I'll be the judge of what a pure ice route is, no seracs, alpine ice, only water ice that's a "climb." I'm sort of curious how long the season here really is...

April 11, Carlsberg/Field, Jason Kulsky Two Photos here

3 of us climbed up approach ice directly under the route (roped up) which was starting to get rotten.  Another party rapped off Kronenburg and beat us to Carlsberg - we waited for them and climbed up after.  Ice was in okay shape, but starting to get pretty sun leached.  Topped out in the sun.  While we were gearing down after the climb, big round of rockfall came down from below Kronenburg and bounced down through the forest (lots of death blocks).  Likely would have wiped anyone out on the traverse approach.  Scary!  Its definitely spring out there - watch out for falling ice and rock!  Another week of warm weather may take those climbs into the realm of the unclimbable (for sane individuals anyway).  Guinness still looked good.  Road under the beer climbs was cordoned off but it wasn't immediately apparent why (perhaps avi hazard?). We only saw one other vehicle parked for the Mt. Dennis climbs. Kronengburg looked climbable, but for how long; Pilsner was hanging in there, but again for how long. Massey's was thinning out from last week; the 2 other guys I climbed with this weekend did Cool Spring the weekend prior and said the left was good, middle and right were 12 inches of icicles to get to any decent ice. I think most have called it quits for ice at this point, but I'm hoping for a couple more weekends.

April 11, bunch of new routes, thanks to everybody who re-sent 'em...

April 6, Gravsports Update, WG

First of all, sorry for the lack of updates--I obviously haven't been able to update despite several people sending stuff in: reason is, my computer got stolen in the Calgary airport on the way home from Brazil, took a while to get it all back together. So, I'm back up and at it, my apologies to those who sent stuff in, I had it all done on the flight back home and then lost it all with no backup of the stuff for the last two weeks (that was on my iPod, also stolen...). Anyhow, it happens, all sorted now, but if you sent anything in during the last two weeks please re-send it, be nice to fire some updates for the last two weeks. Especially new routes, especially Dave Marra, thanks!

Ice: There's still lots, we had some cold weather during the end of March that rebuilt things, here's what I've heard through the ice telegraph: Hafner is somehow still good (watch for falling rocks from the dirt over the climbs), Stanley still generally there, Polar Circus is still reportedly there as is Sea of Vapors (same with most stuff on Rundle, Professor's same as it ever was this season but wetter). Weeping Wall is still there but weeping hard in the sun. Not sure about Field (although the lower-angled routes often stay solid into May) or the Ghost. East and north-facing stuff in the Ghost is still good to go. This is the time of year where things are really dynamic--often decent frozen slush in the morning and Slurpee-style slush by noon. It's still fully winter on the stuff that's high and north facing, while there's green grass starting to appear on the lower and south-facing routes. Be extra careful of routes with south/southwest facing bowls above them (and remember it only takes one side of the bowl in the sun to make it avalanche), there are some very large slides coming down along with some growling slush monsters (yep, that's a technical term).

April 3, Transparent Fool new routes, Sean Isaac

Not sure if anyone is still psyched on more mixed climbing this season but recently put up a couple fun new mixed routes to the right of Transparent Fool. I have looked at these for awhile but the ice is rare to form so if keen go do them. Both are really fun and may not form again for some time. Thye involve a mixed of bolts, bomber trad gear and asthetic ice features. The ice on the lower part of Good Friday is slowly melting out but is still climbable and pretected with stubbies and a deep hand/fist crack on its right edge. Check out a photo topo of Good Friday at Louis's website www.mountainx.ca <http://www.mountainx.ca>  . A good trail is presently packed up.

April 2, Shades of Beauty, Chris Haacke

Climbed Shades of Beauty on Sat Apr 2. Fat and a little brittle in spots. Still in amazing condition.

April 2nd or so, Various, Will Mayo (not sure if this conditions or a press release or an April Fool's joke or what, but it sounds like these guys had some fun, WG)

CANMORE, AB - Visiting self-described "Latinos" Victor Eremita and Frater Taciturnus have completed the first leg of their whirlwind tour of North American climbing venues in the Canadian Rockies.  The partners spent several days climbing together on the Stanley Headwall and at various locations along the Banff-Jasper Highway.  Also at the Stanley, Victor soloed "French Reality" on March 30th in 4 hours and 27 minutes car-to-car and soloed "Nemesis" on All Fool's Day in 4 hours and 45 minutes car-to-car.  Victor indicated that both times include smoke breaks.  The duo ran up the lower pitches of Polar Circus on March 31st and reached the fractured and cancerous Pencil around mid-morning.  Victor started up the snow slope to the right of the Pencil and once he was level with the top of the Pencil a tractor-trailer sized cornice from atop the rock buttress high above and left of the cleft that is the top of the upper ice on Polar Circus let loose, crashed down the enormous precipitous limestone wall, and pulverized the snow bowl above the Pencil with an explosion that would make any avalanche ballistics junkie writhe with envy and feelings of gross inadequacy.  The snow cloud entirely obstructed Victor's view of the upper section of the route; but, fortunately for them, the snow in the bowl was bullet and did not slide and Frater was able to scamper over into the cave behind the Pencil before a runaway runway trolley-full of suitcase sized chunks of ice came tumbling over the pile of rope that separated the two climbers.  THEY GO!  Continuing their jet-set sojourn, they crashed at my pad in VT, and this morning there they went, off to MuthaGunks for some more tough love.

March 23, Borgeau Avalanche Control (from March 11 but worth posting), Tom Wolfe

"There is no control done on Bourgeau Left bowl--never has been and probably never will be, despite the prevailing myth that it seems started with Jojo. However, there is on occasion control done on Bourgeau Right bowl as this path threatens the parking lot."

March 19, Various, Chris Morris

I got snowed out of my couloir attempt so we turned tail to the North Drywood and climbed Fluffy saves the Day on Saturday the 19th. The
climb is in very good condition with blue plastic ice and all of the approach ice is in. The gasser next door is looking good as well.

March 17, wg note

Lots more new routes just came in, I'll put 'em up as soon as I have the chance. Incredible year for new routes! I'm in Brazil where it's 35C (stupid hot US) everyday with crazy humidity, a day ice climbing sounds unbelievably, massively good, keep the cold facts coming!

March 16,Takakaw Falls, Jason Billing

Save yourself the slog.....I skied into Takakaw falls today, however it is not there anymore. I guess the 3.5hr round trip ski with a sac full of gear can be filed under training.... go rock climbing!
 
cheers, Jason

March 14, Stanley Headwall, conditions and lost gear, Chris Brazeau

sending out a prayer.....climbed french reality on sat. and left our rack at the top of the second and last mixed pitch. rapped past that belay on the way down with nary a thought to the rack. so big reward if anyone picks it up. it is in awesome shape. most routes on the headwall also look to be in awesome shape. attempted to climb stairway to heaven as well on sun. maybe 5cm. of new snow on parkway (there was no snow on the stanley), wind was blowing and transporting but approach was fine. maybe up higher things are different. didn't climb last pitch of stairway due to megapump factor. could only see 6 bolts before the ice, looks very nice. enjoy...

March 14, Polar Circus Slush and more lost gear, Ian Shavalier

I climbed up to and including the first pitch above the pencil on Polar
Circus Sat, too warm, too sunny on the upper tiers, placed lots of perfectly
useless screws in the six inches of rot and slush, better wait 'til it cools
off. If anyone goes up there I lost a Grivel Rambo w/BD lockdown leash
somewhere on the approach, if found please email [email protected]
Thanks!

March 13, Lady Wilson's Cleavage, Pete Minions

Attempted to climb Lady Wilson's Cleavage but it was running heavily and the ice was rotted out. 3" fresh snow over hard crust - made for relatively easy approach. Had to bail before 30m crux pitch when small step collapsed under weight leaving us looking at a stream running down slick rock - not worth getting soaked.  Hiked over to check out Ice Nine & Happy Days but both pillars had fallen down.  Wilson Major looks like it still has ice but not sure how to get there with Lady Wilson out?  THANKS Pete

March 12, Various, Brooke Blackwater.

Here are some routes we did or observed (or hiked up to and backed off!!) over the last two weeks. Good times...

Cold Choice (Feb 26th) - It was in and pretty fat but getting worked hard by the sun. Just after sun-up it turned into a shooting gallery of rocks and ice. Still may be in? Don't bother unless it gets cold and cloudy.
Murchison - In good shape. Lots of variations to do. Getting wet by early morning.
Daddy's a Psycho - In pretty good and easy condition. Sun leeched.
Virtual Reality - Good climbing up to the business pitch. There is still a decent amount of ice bit it's detached and heavily sun affected. Scary!
Lacy Gibbet - Good and wet. The last pitch was a huge column of "beer bottles held together with rubber cement" (stole a line from your Norway story Will). Not much pro to be had on that pitch.
Candle Stick Maker - Fantastic! Go do it. Make sure to do the lower pitch too. A WI4, 4+, and 5 pitch awaits you. Classic Ghost features.
Crowfoot Falls (Mar 3rd) - First Pitch was fat, good and wet. An interesting, harder variation could be done out left (drier too). Snowpack up to the upper pitches (WI4 and 3 resp.) was really good. There have been several days of high winds out there since then so be careful!
Twisted - Cool route. Great shape. We avoided a part of the 2nd pitch column by doing some rock out right and then stepping back in to the ice. Some of the ice column is pretty thin and detached.
Sacre Bleu (Mar 7th)- Did Professors and hoofed it over to SB gully. In doing so we set off a rather substantial slab avy that I managed to body surf out of. Huge winds above and bad omens were enough to send us packing. The route looks to be in amazing shape though. Wait for the snowpack to settle a bit?
French Reality - In great shape. First pitch (sketchy low angled thin ice/snow). Second (beautifully iced up rock corner - very fun climbing - bring pins and sm/med cams). Third and Fourth (Awesome steep califlowers). Mr. Hurlot looks to be in good shape as well. Thin ice down on the lower pitches...maybe a little more commiting than FR? Snowpack up to the route is reasonable but use caution.
Political World - In great shape!

March 10, General, Will Gadd

Yes, there is still lots of ice but anything south-facing is taking a beating with all the sun and warm temps. In the last few days people have climbed:

-Hydrophobia, Sorcerer. Great conditions. Cryophobia not looking too good.

-Polar Circus: Sun-baked on the upper tier, get on it early or get scared. The Pencil is a Douglas fir.

-Panther Falls is sort of climbable, but not anywhere near grade four. The Cineplex is good.

-Sea of Vapors is good to go, bring a bike for the ride in, good riding conditions.

-Cascade is gone, but Professor's is OK.

March 9, lots of new routes

In no particular order: Dread Circus (big new route on White Pyramid)Hafner Cave, NE Couloir of Murchison, WI2, 5.6, II, King's Creek New Routes (sounds good!), New Black Prince Routes, Feb 15, 2005,

-March 7, Bourgeau Left, Christina Brodribb
 
Borgeau Left is out for the season.  The bottom pitch fell off sometime on Monday.

Feb 28th, Rod Colwell, various (photos here)

I live in Winnipeg and go to the Rockies once a year to ice climb with my brother. Thanks to him I have embraced the sport. I wish I could make
it west more than once a year, but not to be. We have a 20 meter ice tower here in the Peg that I climb on. (run by the St Boniface section
of the ACC. www.cesb.net) On Feb. 22, 23 & 24 I made my annual pilgrimage to Calgary to climb with my brother. This year we climbed
This House of Sky, Yellowbird and Professor Falls. Along with us on Professors was one of my brothers climbing partners, Denis. A great guy
to climb with. Thanks Randy, for the great leads on the awesome climbs. We had three great climbing days, fantastic weather, and lots of fat
ice. I can't wait until next year!! Climb safe the rest of the season you guys...Rod

February 23, Shades of Beauty, Lise Beaulieu (done 21st)

Very nice fat shape. Pitch 2 has a 30m section of vertical sustained Gr 4 that hasn't been climbed yet. Easier sections on the right hand side
have seen traffic. Solid V-threads at the base of each pitch for stations and raps.

February 22, Ghost, Tony Swain

Saturday we climbed the gully below Aquarius since there was a party on Sunshine (it looked airy and white). The ice leading into the Recital Hall was very thin and since we didn't have any rock gear we left and drove around to the North Ghost. GBU was fat, the Indifferent is in, and Angel Eyes looked pretty good. We went into Valley of the Birds since we heard the Yellow Bird was fat. Dead Bird was thin but climbable. The ice up to Yellow Bird was fat but brittle. Yellow Bird itself had a party on it so we just did laps on the ice below. We didn't get further up the valley but we talked to some folks who did and they said that conditions were good, considering the weird weather we've been having.

The road into the N. Ghost is good on the west side of river. Cross over right away and get onto the berm. The east side has a big drift that ate our
Jeep Liberty on the way out. There was a solid layer of ice with bottomless, non-sticky fluff below. (That's the technical name) Once we broke through the crust we were stuck up to the doors. Any digging just made the Jeep settle further down. Luckily we got a ride out as the sun was going down from some nice climbers from Seattle. The next day was spent digging and towing so no climbing was done in perfect weather. You have to love the Ghost!

February 22, T2, Kim Heidel

Well I finally got up to T2. It was, well...humbling. The rock section was about 4 or 5 meters to reach a huge overhung ice roof (bottom of where the pillar broke off). This was definately the crux! You had to pull a full on body tension move to reach up over the lip to a good pick hole. Then a couple of pull ups to lock offs to get high enough for a foot on the ice. I had to aid through that section. A combination of nerves and then lack of power. Someone else had placed a screw in the overhung ice so it was easy to draft a screw into that hole and get onto the ice. The rest of the climbing was sustained, fun, and straight forward. The rock section was not really run out at all. The are three fixed pins all of good status and an Abolokov just as you leave the cone of ice. The line with the bolt is off to the right and obviously a much harder line in thinner years. I did notice a couple of fixed pins higher up as well. All in all a good day; three Frenchmen sung their way up SOV so it was entertaining as well!

Feb 21, WG Note-I've been new-routing in Norway for the last while so the ice pages suffered, back up to speed, sorry for the delay.

Feb 13, Various, Garth Lemke, Photos

Hi Will, att are feb 13 ice photos. I tried to get tabernac and other stuff but wx not cooperating. Thru the hazy mist, it looked like tabernac not touching down. I think photos from 2 weeks also showed this but can't remember. I will try to get better look at it next few days. Let me know if these come thru ok. Spindrifts coming down polar circus today. The photo of the pencil doesn't show it well but there is a big ol crack at the top of it. It still looks well supported at the bottom cone but this was from the hy.

Feb 12, Finishing Hammer Gulley, Pete Minions

We climbed Finishing Hammer Gully on Saturday February 12th. This route has seen lots of traffic recently as there is a good, short trail in from the parkway. Unfortunately most of the low angle ice is covered by snow so there was only maybe  80+m of actual ice climbing (not quite the 200 listed in the guide book).  Still on a clear, sunny day it was very picturesque and the views of Waterfowl Lakes & Mt. Chephren were unbeatable as advertised - highly recommended!!

Feb 12, Professor's, Jerome Chin

Last posting from us, going home tomorrow after a fun week. Climbed on Professor's Falls today, first pitch is a total drip monster. Recommend walking up left to trees above pitch and making short rappel down left side of rock into base of second pitch which is in fine condition. Next two pitches are wet but not dripping. Back next year.

Feb 8th, Bow Falls, Massey's, Balfour, Jerome Chin

Today (Feb 8) we broke a new snowshoe trail to the Bow Falls amphitheater. The snow was very deep just below the climbs but avi risk is minimal on the approach. We
climbed Gorbi Falls but Bow Falls and Uli's Revenge are both good and fat. Big cornice hanging over Uli's. Very cold in there, no sun at all. Climbed Massey's yesterday, fun climb but dripping down center. Left two good V-thread for full rope raps (any chance for bolts?). Climbed at Balfour Wall two days ago, lots of good ice.

Feb 8th, a ghost story, Brad Winter

Good adventure...

Feb 6, Various, Kim Heidel

Here's a quick update on some ice. Spent the weekend around Field, the ice is really good around there right now. Pilsner (the pillar) is cracked near the base but supported and definately climable. Left side of pilsner is in fat. Carlsberg is really fat, easily accomadates 2 parties. Kronenourg is not at all in FA condition, and is a steal at WI5
the line being more to the left. Twisted is pretty much a pure ice route. Super Bock is in solid; Guiness, Stout, and High Test are all in fat condition as well. Mossy's is mixed to start but basically a complete ice route (if you exit left onto the ice you don't need rock gear). All of Massy's could be climbed at WI3 if you climbed it on the right. Cold Choice and Cold Comfort are looking really good and thick, a definate tick once the avi conditions settle (didn't see Blessed Rage due to cloud cover). Haffner Creek is loaded with ice still; it's almost not possible to do Half 'n' Half because the curtain is so wide and hangs down so far! Cheers...

Feb 5, Ghost, Brad Winter (And a Ghost Story soon...)

Went into the Ghost to go to the valley of the birds. The appraoch was snowy but straightforward, however if anyone had found a black
running board (truck part...) I will give beer as a reward for getting it back. I drove by GBU and it looked like it was rebuildign nicely from the bad
weather. The apporach through the canyon in the valley of the birds was snow and sections of dead bird were snowy. The ice is had now and brittle. Yellow Bird is very wet and chandellery, and is big and fat.

Feb 2, Bourgeau Left, Mark

Climbed Bourgeau Left on Sunday Jan 30. First three pitches were in stellar shape. Last one was fat but ice had a lot of snow and air in it. Definitly a bit tricking trying to find good gear. Totally sweet day though. Definitly recommend it before it comes down.
Mark

Feb 2, Karin McNeil, Bourgeau bowl NOT bombed.

Apparently the bowl above borgeau has not been bombed contary to Mike from Idaho. I spoke with the wardens this afternoon.

wg note--Always a good idea to call the wardens if you have any questons about climbs that receive avi control such as Polar Circus or the Bourgeaus, plus they just generally have good info and are often climbers. The number for Sunwapta Warden Station is 780-852-5383 for climbs in Jasper National Park.

February 1, Various, Brad Wrobleski

Kitty Hawk looks great....bowl has slid (most others in the area are rotted out). Nothing but the Breast is gone, Ciniplex is pouring with water/ Panther gone. Masseys looks good. Pilsner is strange--looks like rotten dentures. Carlsberg looks good, Super bock is blue and fat. Snivelling is thin to gone. Weeping Wall left and right are good, center looks OK..all wet. Bridalveil looks ok...little grey. Totem pole looks good. Ice Nine gone but I suspect it never came in this year, same with Happy Days. for what it is worth Two O clock falls is fat blue and no snow!! you can go mt biking in the David T area! I think Elliot LH looks ok. Cie la vie is fat and blue

Polar circus looks great, upper WW is ok...a little grey/white, Guiness Gully is good. Looks like most of field has slid. Silk tassel is on its way out

The trail to ciniplex was snowed in when we got there...looks like we were there first there since the monsoon. Broke trail through a one
inch rain crust Political World looks great, not sure about the approach slope

ps...there is ice on the exit of musashi but in general the area looks and feels like mid april

Jan 31, Field, Robert C. Lee

Field: plastic ice in general, major climbs have slid. Pilsner: centre pillar cracked, so climbed WI 5 left pillar. Kronenberg: steep groove/chimney that allowed butt plants, great in general but with some crappy ice. Carlsberg: fat and pumpy, climbed in one pitch. Thanks to Aaron B. and Red Bull for a great day of steep ice!

January 31th, , Weeping Wall Complete, Jeremey Kroeker

Brent peters and i had a great, long day on the weeping wall this weekend. the central pillar is sun-bleached (duh) but offers interesting climbing through mushrooms on the left side of the cave. the slopes above were hard packed and made for an easy approach to tales of ordinary madness. we got scooped by a party of three from france. they got the best/steepest line on the left through the over-hangs. we climbed on the right up a free-hanging pillar that had some mushrooms and steep,
well-protected ice (once you get through the free-hanging bit.) we added a sit-start to the route that increases the difficulty by at least two number grades. just kidding. WG Note--Grin...

January 28th, Parkway, Kim Heidel (photos)

Drove up to the Icefields today and saw that most of the ice has faired well during this last vicious cycle. We got up to Oh Le Tabernac only after seeing for ourselves that the majority of the bowl above had slid. Route is standing up well considering it sits in the sun all day, a couple inches of snowy slush over pretty good ice. We did have to hide from the numerous rock bombs coming down on either side of the route though as the sun was melting all the little drips and smears above. You can find good shelter under 'Mercy Buckets' for belaying and no rock fall came down the ice route. Good day out, +14C in the sun!

January 28th, Various, Mike from Idaho

We had an interesting week here...unfortunately we are leaving today to go back to Idaho. We did and observed the following:
 
Field -
    Massey's - good, fat, and wet
    Rest of Mt Stephen stuff is pretty much non-existent
    Carlsberg - fat and wet
    Guinness - fat and wet. 1st pitch was in fantastic shape
    Kronenbourg - nice, stable column touching all the way down...never seen it like that before
    Rest of the beer climbs look exceptional. Witnessed a huge slide above Heineken....SCARY!! Most of the gullies look to have had major slides already
    Cold Choice looks huge and Comfort is in too. Might want to give the massive amounts of snow above the routes some more time to bond
Sunshine -
    Bourgeau Left was great! 1st pitch took mostly full length screws. Last pitch center line was cruiser and nice. Wet day out there. The bowl above was bombed according to the wardens. We did have some stuff flying down around us from the melt above.
Right hand looks ok in spots.....Mixed Alpine route in current condition
Parkway -
    Aimless/Pointless Gullies -  Beautiful and fat ice on the 1st pitch right gully. The left was about 40' to snow ledge...looked nice though. Snow up on the parkway is DEEP. Up above the second pitch there are still loads but the snow looks to have consolidated a bit. We skied up there but snowshoeing would work too. Otherwise bring post-holio vaccine.....waist deep!!
    Bow Falls looks thinner than I've seen it in recent years but still plenty good to climb. Both it and Gorby's have a fair amount of snow on the routes itself.
    Uli's looks good and almost touching.

January 27th, Full Parkway, Garth Lemke (photos)

wg note--Garth is the public safety Warden at Sunwapta, which explains his detailed information on areas that are closed, thanks to him for providing this. The Parkway is now open after being closed for longer than I can ever recall it being closed.

Gist of conditions: -40 Wx before the last storm did a number on a few, some hanging icicles fell off with cold temps. Last weeks pinapple express disintegrated what remained with rain and continuing warm temps. Ava. activity still persisting in many gullies either with loose warm sz's 1-2's or pockets of slabs. See recent ava bulletin. Alot already slid right after the storm but windloading and warm temps continue to produce avalanches of what remains or did not slide then.

Icefields highway sask xing to jasper still closed since last monday night. Crazy ice. Hys expect it to open either tomm (thurs) or Friday; however, may have another rain event that would put things back to square one. Message could be, check ahead to verify road conditions/open and watch the wx. Another wx event will instantly close the rd stranding people in their tracks. I was stuck in golden last week for 4 days.

I included slopes above (in the photos)... cuz people are always asking whats going on up there for avalanches. If you can not tell from the photo, no new natural
ava up there that I could see thru binos. We bombed up there jan 21, 8 bombs various gullies working from weeping wall to polar circus. only one sz 1.5 in gully above weeping wall thus one can assume it did not clean out. Looking up polar circus where you can see a piece of the gully above,
it is loaded. We are stating in the current avalanche bulletin that anything that did not slide from storm should be highly suspect. We kicked off a sz 2 behind marmot 2 days ago (marmot pass) in windloaded feature. There are lots of natural triggers going on right now such as cornice
falling, water weeping from rocks, snowballs out of rocks. I was suprised nothing has released on the cirrus upper stuff but without standing in the
trigger zone, one can only make extrapolated assumptions. Take that for what its worth.

Janaruy 27, New Route near Fortress/Opal Ridge, Greg Cornell

“The Chinook Chute” WI3R, 165m FA- Greg Cornell, Jan. 2005

January 26, General, WG

After a month of really crazy weather things are starting to settle out. The avi hazard is generally lower, and most of the roads are back open (the Parkway is still closed from Saskatchewan River Crossing to Jasper but is supposed to fully open today, crazy quantities of ice on the road!). The extreme rain/freeze/tropics/-40 combinations have both laid in some interesting ice and destroyed the same. Cascade has fallen down and is currently not a climb (note the really huge debris piles in the middle and at the bottom), but Sea of Vapors still looks good, as do the other routes like Professor's (again, check out the huge debris piles for an illustration of why this route is bad in high avi hazard conditions). Hafner is still in surprisingly good shape, and the Hoar House cave has a full compliment of hoar. Neolithic is substantially different than it used to be, as is Cave Man, but both are still climbable at M10- and powerful M11 respectively. Overall the ice weathered the crazy weather pretty well, the concern now is sudden heating and avi hazard, about normal for the Rockies this time of year.

January 24, Ghost, Brad Winter

Jan 22nd This house of sky. The ghost approach was pretty straight forward but a stuck jeep was spotted just past the STD area. the day was very warm and everything was wet. the route itself was great even if wet. Once we exited the narrow canyon portion we had a look at the upper pitches on bowl. It was very wet with rotten ice.

Jan 23rd GBU, A late start on a warm day put the waterfall in waterfall ice climbing. The route is still fat except the central curtain is missing. The ice of course was soft and required digging to find pro.

January 23rd, Yellow Bird, Mike Warren (photo in a minute)

Craig and I climbed Yellow Bird in the Ghost yesterday. There's approximately zero snow anywhere and the drive in was pretty straight-forward. Yellow Bird was pretty wet but the ice was fantastic.

January 19, New Raphael Slawinski Routes

http://members.shaw.ca/raphael2/words.htm. These are cool, especially the line on Amery.

January 19, Bearspirit, Kevin Dyck

If someone is planning on going to Bearspirit they might want to take a wrench. The nuts on Woody (which no longer has any wood incidentally) were all backed off, some of them at least a half inch. They’re finger tight now but could use some torque.

Jan 19, Slaughterhouse Extension, JD LeBlanc

New extension to Slaughterhouse 3 new bolts allow you to access the ice lip at the lip of the rock roof. We dropped the curtain on Saturday - very easily 3 kicks - I'll send the AVI link later. WG note--Joe has a bunch of videos and such up here, Slaughterhouse one isn't up yet but will be up shortly as "ice 9 will not be forming this year.AVI"

WG January 19 Note--The Avi Hazard is still extreme pretty much everywhere, and both the Parkway (Lake Louise-Jasper) and highway 1 are currently closed. The street in front of my house is awash in water, amazing, when I left on Thursday it was -36 and today it was +10 here in Canmore.

January 18, Evan Thomas, Curt Hegel

Went into Evan Thomas on Sunday(Jan 16/05), with J. Kulsky and Kirsten. Climbed snowline. It was fat and full, but quite picked/stepped out on the first long pitch. Moonlight is quite fat and full as well, with a steep pillar on the first pitch. 2low for zero is thin.
Second pitch of snowline is much shorter, but consolidated ice. Don't think too many people bother with the second pitch. Fun route!
Chantilly falls is quite full, fat and blue.

January 17, Expert's Choice, and photos from Lise Beaulieu

"Expert's choice is in great shape. Right side is not in. Central lineis in fine Grade 6 shape. Bullet proof ice at the start and very wet
with big ol' mushrooms to navigate."

January 17, Joe McKay Report

The usual McKay-flavoured commentary, good.

January 16, Canmore Ice Climbing Festival Press Release

It's happening March 3-6

January 15, New Route on Curtain Call wall, "Call of the Beef Curtains, WI 4thin, 5.7, 120m Oct 31/04 David Marra and Chris Meyer"

January 12th, Various, Will Mayo (photos)

Inspector CT, Esquire and I took a quick trip to the great white North over New Years.  We were greeted with an arctic cold front which shattered our alpine delusions of grandeur.  We went ice climbing.  We climbed the Pencil and the rest of Polar Circus together on New Years Eve (the same -25C day that brought the Terminator crashing down - we ain't too 'telligent!).  We failed miserably in the Cineplex on New Years day in -28C temperature after attending the most raging and enjoyable New Years Eve party of all time at RO's.  We ran away like shivering little mice from the ice fall below Slipstream after witnessing an enormous serac avalanche crash down in the cirque to the north of us and fill the basin floor less than one click distant with a cumulus cloud of debris.  WE GO!  There were seven major serac avalanches during the course of three hours as we approached and ran away - apparently seracs don't like -32C temperatures either.  We climbed Sea of Vapors, which is in wi5 shape and very fun and beautiful.  After Chris returned to SLC, I climbed in the Ghost with MM (who is a world-class driver, it turns out).

January 11, Another Conditions Site and update from WG

http://www.rockies-ice.com/conditions.php has a regular list of routes done by Sean Easton and others, good for recent conditions.

Also, I was off in an uncivlized foreign country last week (Switzerland, grin) and unable to post updates, sorry about that, back up to speed now if anybody is climbing in this icebox!

January 9, Various Photos, Drew Brayshaw

A couple of conditions photos from the Parkway area for you from New Years. I don't think the mixed project in Peskett Creek is finished yet (still had a fixed line on it) but looks like it will be a classic when completed.

January 4, Lost/Found stuff in the Ghost, Janez Ales

helmet, GTX pants, and (???) [email protected]

January 2, Helmet Falls, Andrea Kortello

Broke trail into Helmet Falls on the 28th with some good looking americans. a nasty slog. took us 8 hours to get in but its a highway now and it was just over half that time (< 5hrs) to get back out again. the climb itself has an initial section of low angle ice, then maybe 150m of slow swimming up a bottomless snow gully to get to the main falls. the falls werent anywhere near as filled out as when i was on it before (march 2002), but it is still huge and wide. overall the ice was ok, alot of it was very wet, some of it was rotten, but there were some good lines that were mostly dry. we took the right side. Near the top (4th pitch from the snow gully) there is a short steep 2 tiered curtain with overhangy bits. we didnt get past it. it might be easier to deke around to the left? it was getting hard to see by that point. hats off to the hard folk who can get up that route and back to the car in a day, not me, it took 2.5 days and i'm beat.

Dec 30th, Boom Lake New Route, Stephen O'Brien

Climbed a probable new route up at Boom Lake in early December.  I haven't seen any info so I assume the guy I climbed it with didn't report anything.
 
About 100 meters right of red commie star, BTW red commie and birthday present are in, brown star is alot more ice than normal

Dec 27th, Weeping Wall, sally michelmore

Well the weeping wall is in great shape and the weeping pillar is a lot of fun with the three pitches going at around 4+, 5+ and 6 respectively.  
If you intend climbing anything on the upper weeping wall - especially the weeping pillar, do me a favour and please look out for my glove! : ( i dropped it halfway up and we could not find it on the way down. It is a black diamond Ice glove, XS...... with a viper android leash on it!!!! thought it would be around the base on the snow, but may be somewhere on the rock band on the left - it was dark so could not look properly! please call 760 2910 or email [email protected]. I would be more than grateful if this could be returned!!!!
sally michelmore

Dec 25, Oh Le Tabernac, Mark Taylor (photo up, nice shot Mark)

Climbed Oh Le Tabernac on the 23rd, was in great shape. A bit mushroomy but took good screws for the most part. Totally worth doing. Have a good one.
Mark Taylor

Dec 24, Raven's Call, Jeremy Kroeker

suppose you usually post routes that are in, but in case anyone is planning on making the drive to Radium to check on ravens call let me spare
them the effort; it is not in and it looks like it won't be in for a long time... unless we get some prolonged cold weather.

Dec 21, Stanley Area, JD LeBlanc

Lots of info on new routes, opinion and entertainment: http://www3.telus.net/Climbing_Sport_Mixed/

Dec 20, Lineham Falls, Scott Harms

Just to add to Joe McKay's post. Dave Fuller and I went up to lineham falls on Friday morning the 17th. The left line looks in fantastic shape, but we allotted to climb the right line as we did not have any kb's for the start of the left line. Attached photo showing conditions.

Dec 19, Weeping Wall, K. Heidel

Climbed Central Pillar on Lower Weeping Wall Sat., by far the driest line right now. Birthday Present looked pretty good in Snivelling, didn't look like anyone
had been on it yet. Icefields are going off!

Dec 19, Waterton, Joe McKay (Photos and avi notes up here in a few minutes)

Climbed the left hand of the lineham falls (December 18th). Went in with the famous Blair Piggot. About a hour 20 approach. Started in with skis but they got heavy and there is little snow for the first third forcing you to take them on and off. Blair wore his all the way in and were of more use on the way out. There is a trail punched in all the way to the falls so skis are not needed. after the next snowfalll if it is of any significance may be of more use.

Right Lineham: Pretty casual with a exciting finish the last ten meters. The last bit has formed while the wind blew giving a weird twisted formation 3+-4. The rest below is only grade 3

Left Lineham: Reported by Blair to be in excellent shape, a couple knife blades were handy on the first pitch. there is a few meters were it is a bit thin but not dangerous. Rest of the climb excellent ice. Rap anchors in on both climbs

Dec 19, Various, Eric Gratz

Went in today the Ghost on saturday. Climbed Deadbird and Yellowbird both are in good shape. Yellowbird is a little wet. Seagul wasn't in very good shape. The Eagle was dripping. It started raining around Sunday morning 3am? and was still raining when we left at 9. Driving conditions were okay.

Dec 18, various, Kevin Dyck

The pencil is fucking huge but really not that big of a deal. We ran out of time so didn’t climb it but Transparent Fool is twice the size. I guess the rarity of the thing makes it significant. , lower weeping wall is just that unless you’re off it by noon. We did the first pitch of the right side in the morning but bailed as the shower began.

December 17, Ghost, Bad Yanquis

Ah, the Ghost.  When we arrived on the night of 10th is was pouring rain.  By the morning of the 11th it was puking snow. At noon the sun was out and the wind was ripping plumes off the peaks.  Sunday the drifts were building.  Saturday we messed around in the South Ghost. Sunday we split up with one group going over to Rainbow Serpent and another went poking around the nether regions to Fist and Fang.  We followed the tracks of a very determined driver who managed to drive as far as humanly possible into Claw Creek.  We walked about the last km that they drove and were entertained at the stuff they drove over and through.  F&F was great and we hiked another 600m or so above the top trying to get a view back to south but turned around when we realized how long it would take to get to the actual top of the ridge. The crew on Rainbow Serpent found excellent try tooling but the sun was sending large chunks of ice from the pitch above.  Can anyone tell us what those moves at the bolts are rated?  Also, can we get refugee status up there?  Global warming is kicking our ass.  I figure that if Dubya doesn't sign onto Kyoto we should have grounds for climatological asylum.  A small refugee camp with wood stove near Canmore will suffice.

December 16, Various, Brad Winter

-Sunday Dec. 12 Went into grotto falls in the late afternoon and early evening. It was fairly choped out in the lower section, the upper part seemed not to get as much traffic. all in all a good little romp.

-Monday Dec. 13 Explored the heart creek area in the evening. again this area saw some traffic on the weekend. All in all the ice was good.

-Tuesday Dec 14 I did Sinatra falls. I think I found the track of the drunken guy that was mentioned in the previous post about sinatra. what I thought was a shortcut turned out to be a convoluted romp around the area. the ice route itself was great and there was no signs of any one else
on it at all. it was wet at the bottom and closer to the top it had onion skin on it. there was very ovibous signs of a avalanche that
was probably a few days or more old. it madefor a intresting slog up the last section. once I traversed to the trees there were a few
small sections of waist deep snow that could let go onto the route but most of the area appears to have let go already.

Dec 15, Weeping Wall, Terminator, Withering Heights, Anorexia, Donald Otten and Chris Martin

Did Weathering Heights Friday. Bottom is getting thin so if you want it, it should be soon. Anorexia lower pitch is non-existent. Attempted the weeping pillar Sunday, Dec 12. We got half way up and backed off as we both prefer hot showers instead of cold and the “ice” was the consistency of a snowcone. Central pillar on lower wall was in excellent shape though. Did Terminator the 13th. Climb is in great shape. Bubba was next door on Sea of Vapors following line of crap. Yes, someone took a dump down the route and they had to follow it for a full pitch! Come on people!?!?!

WG Note: Weeping Pillar was done Monday and in good condition, so things are variable up there at the moment. The Weeping Wall is filling in nicely, and the parking lot for Polar Circus was rather full today, saw people on the Pencil and above.

Dec 13, Weeping Wall and Polar Circus, Chris Joseph, Craig Mcgee, Nick Rapaich
 
Went to climb weeping wall but was a full house and feasted our eyes on the pencil along with polar circus. Excellent shape from valley bottom to last pitch. Soft ice, wet in places, slopes above have released the day before from the weekends pinapple express, not saying that the slopes  above are clean but there is quit a lot of debris in the gulley all the way to the bottom. The pencil is in stellar shape, well supported, fat and plenty of water running on the right side of it. More like a crayon than a pencil. Super fun day.

I did loose a tool off my harness rapping in the dark. Somewhere on the last three raps. Plan to retreive it in a couple of days. Someone beats me to it and would like a reward You can get a hold of me via Will.  Cheers Nick

Dec 13, Ghost, Doug Fulford

The new snow that fell on Saturday is being blown around and the usual problem drifts are now "in"!  At 9pm last night we happened across a party who had been stuck for 3 hours in the S. Ghost.  You can drive around this deep drift (the usual one where people get stuck) 30m to the east without any trouble.  

Lacy Gibbet - Fairly wet but the final spectacular grade 5 pitch is in great shape and makes the long journey worthwhile.  Expect a 2.5 to 3 hour approach.  If you go early enough you get to climb in the sun.

Candle Stick Maker - What a great route!   Miles of fun approach ice including Hidden Dragon.  The first "real" pitch starts with very cool overhanging hooks.  The top pitch is technical and great fun.  Highly recommended! PS  We lost a long Grivel screw somewhere on the route - if found I will gladly buy a couple rounds.

Dec 13, GBU, Tony Swain (photo up soon)

Sunday Dec 12th. Sunny and surprisingly warm. Water was dripping even before the sun hit and then started to pour. Still good climbing. A big chunk of the middle fell off around noon. Watch where you stand!

Dec 13, New route in Transparent Fool Area, Eamonn Walsh

Dec. 12th : Silver Tongue Devil. Pogle McTavish & Sylvain Vanier

Mmmmmm. A classic  "Frank 4" without doubt. A few exciting finishing moves round it off. Very cool overall.
 
*** On pulling the rap a small knot either formed or was not taken out and one 60m rope remains hanging from the station in cave. We pulled it taut and tied to tree to prevent it freezing in. Should any one climb STD in next few days before I return to retrieve or it collapses  I would be grateful for it's return. Drop an email to [email protected] . Small reward offered. Thanks.***

Dec 12, Whitemans, Marcus Norman

Brig and I rode bikes into Whitemans - still okay for this but there's a layer of ice on the road that's not likely to melt (be a crappy ski). The climb has running water on the top pitch but can be climbed on both sides. Good fun on interesting terrain. WG note--I asked Marcus how long the bike was, he said, "15-20 minutes. Although with studded tires maybe 10? Miguel Indurain possibly 5? "

Dec 11, Louise Falls, Jeremy Kroeker

Despite hazardous driving conditions, rain and recent snow, fully half of north americas climbing community converged at lake louise today (december 11) to test their mettle on louise falls. people were climbing all over the route and each other, setting up belays beneath hanging daggers and other parties and generally having a good, albeit horribly unsafe, day in the mountains. that being said, the route is in good shape with two distinct and interesting pillars on the top.

Dec 11, Curtain Call, Mathieu Audibert and Audrey Gariepy

We climbed Curtain Call on Friday Dec 10th. Two sustain pitches of hard ice with big overhanging mushrooms at the end of the first one. Second pitch.......chandelier pillar for about 30 metres long. It's the best route that we have done so far in the Canadian Rockies.....it's worth the long driving to get there. There wasn't that much snow accumulation on Friday but it was snowing a lot when we left.
PS.....watch for the crows.....they like to pick in the back packs!!!!!! (WG Note--this seems to be a real problem at Curtain Call, the ravens are getting smarter, Robert Rogoz adds, "just a note about the ravens on curtain call. last year they managed to open zippers on both of our pack. they dragged my wallet out of the top pocket and unzipped the pocket on the side of my wallet.") Smart birds...

Dec 11, General Avi hazard note and Parkway, WG

We've been lucky to have fairly low avi hazard this year to date, but judging from the new snow and witnessed instability the avi hazard is now very real, time to get suspicious and careful, especially on routes below big bowls--most of the routes in the Rockies. Winter is now in full force--the driving on the Parkway over the last few days made that pretty clear. Most of the classics and a few of the more unusual routes are in on the Parkway, it's a stellar season!

Dec 10, Virtual Reality, Murchison, Rene Cote (Photos)

Went to Virtual Reality today. A Party did part of Murchison Falls, which is in intricate conditions. Virtual Reality has a beautiful first part with a deteriorating second part. We bailed at the last pitch due to snowfall, wind and chunk of ice from above... Check out the picture of the last pitch! It's warm out there right now. Rain was reported in the area yesterday, as well as many natural avalanches.
Happy Climbing, Rene

Dec 8, Jasper Area, Greg Nelson

Here are some updates on climbs in Jasper...

Tried getting into the Cadomin area on December 5.  The Haul Road for Cheviot Mine has blocked the water source for White Horse Creek Seep.  No sign of anything forming there in the future.    Fully loaded coal trucks are coming out of the mine at regular intervals, which brought some complaints from Mine Supervisors regarding walking on the road.

Cadomin Curtain has not filled out, but is coming along slowly.

Tried getting into Bullshit Canyon.  Fell through the floor twice.  Retreated with cold wet feet.   The cold snap should accelerate things there and in Maligne Canyon.

Schwartz Falls was still open a week ago with ice forming on the edge of the main flow.  Should be in soon.     

Dec 6th, Silver Tongue Devil, Lyle Rotter (his photos are already up, sorry about the delay in posting the comments, bad little monkey here in the office).

Colin Woolridge, Jason Thompson and myself climbed Silver Tongue Devil on Sunday Dec. 5th. As you can see from the pictures it has more ice than the pictures Huisman had sent from his earlier attempt. It is still quite a serious lead with the crux at the top out and the last good piece at Shawn's high point. It would be nice to see this one fill out like the picture from the first ascent. And by the way, can anyone tell me who Pogle McTavish is? I have retrieved his nuts from STD.

Dec 6, Sinatra Falls, Jason Kulsky

4 of us climbed Sinatra Falls yesterday (Sunday, Dec 5) and its fat and wet.  One other party below us on the route.  Abalakovs everywhere.  Ran into a drunk guy in the woods who had a beer with him as well as a girl - he said his name was something like Van Wilder and wondered if we had seen his name in the guidebook for a first ascent on Kidd Falls.  Probably more entertaining than the ice climb!

Dec 6, New Jasper Routes, Sean Elliot

A couple of routes were completed last season and a few more just recently.  What a season its been so far, almost not looking forward to leaving for Spain in two days.  I sometimes feel like a rabid dog, so hungry for the taste of the icy flesh, the all consuming fever to sink our claw like picks into the virgin blue flow and.......but I digress.  Anyway this Ranger Creek place is really awesome, good concentration of climbs and wicked potential.  Its in the new Waterfall guide so the approach beta etc. can be referenced from there and so i'll just give an idea of where these climbs are in relation to whats in the book.  Hope i'm not making you work too hard.

Dec 6th, new route maybe not, Eric Hoogstraten (photos here)

Re: Dec 3 post. New Route in the Ghost
If you can pass this on or post it on your site. The routes that Steve has discovered in the drainage on the south side of the valley at the park boundary were climbed several years ago by Eric Hoogstraten and an assortment of partners. 3 routes lead out of the main drainage 2 of which have bolted anchors. Steve alludes to the middle set of anchors which are the only ones visible. The main flow was done in excellent ice conditions (but heavy snow pack) that required only v thread anchors. All routes unnamed thus far.

Dec 3, Evans Thomas, Martin Reuter.

Hey,  just a quick report on the Evans Thomas area...Moonlight and Snowline are in good shape, 2 Low 4 Zero was in but tight on the pro.  The creek is open in most spots but can be crossed near Chantilly Falls.  Some new snow but generally easy walking.  The Water Hole is in and had lots of people on it today.  Irish Mist is in as well but missing the middle 5m.   Enjoy.

Dec 3, Waterhole, Tony Swain (photos here)

Climbed the Water Hole on McGillivray on Saturday December 4th. Nice and easy grade 3 ice. This is the first time we have seen enough ice to climb in several years. There would be some fun mixed terrain on the left side if one was so inclined.

Dec 3, Hafner, Sally Michelmore

The hanger on the first bolt on Half and Half (M7) is very loose. Hand tightened it but really needs a wrench. There's plenty of ice pillars to climb in there as well as the mixed stuff too.

Dec 3, Terminator, Nick Rapaich, Tom Gruber

Tom Gruber, Nick Rapaich. Was on the Terminator today. It's a hook fest with feet everywhere and dry as a bone. For those that are wondering what shape it's in.

Dec 3, Hydro/Cryo, Shawn Huisman

Hydro is big, Cryo is big, not sure if it's as big as when you and Raph did it, maybe you can tell from the pics. Shelley and I did Hydro, wet
but good, crux at the bottom like usual. God I love the Ghost, hard to beat that place. Photos up soon. Nope, Cryo isn't as big as when Raph and I did it, but it definitely is climbable with that amount of ice on it.--wg

Dec 3, New Route in the Ghost, Steve Holeczi

Went for an exploratory mission in the ghost with Marco DelaSalle. Drove west past the Sliver and going to the Sun Highway to the next drainage west (not in the guidebook) the park boundary. Hiked south up obvious drainage for 20 minutes into a classic ghost hidden alleyway. One climb in the alley on the side wall has been done (WI4?) but further up we found more ice...

Dec 3, New Route on Stanley Headwall, Rob Owens

Did a variation to “A Day After Les Vacances de Monseur Hulot” a couple days ago with Brian Webster. We approached the route expecting a very serious endeavor but were surprised to see a whole lot of ice. Another jour Variant, WI5, M6, 200M, Rob Owens and Brian Webster, Nov 04

Dec 3, Parkway, Panther Falls, Cineplex, WG

Did the drive. There is a LOT of ice on the Parkway, and a fair amount on the climbs too, grin. The Weeping Wall was definitely climbable, lots of ice on the upper tier but not quite enough for the main route up there but some stuff I've never seen to compensate. Polar Circus looked fully climbable, the Pencil looked dangerous. Pretty much all the stuff that's "normally" in this time of year was plus a fair amount I've never seen. Political world is good and chubby, don't know about the lake but it is frozen, good luck. Riptide looked mostly there but not totally yet. Panther Falls is still roaring with water, but the M9 thing to the right of Musashi is in good shape and has some cool ice at the top, definitely a good route. None of the routes left of The Game are really climbable, too much water. Panther Falls obviously isn't a go either, and looks to be some time before it is.

Dec 2, New Route in Protection Valley, Guy Lacelle and Rich Marshal..

Dec 2, M?lanie Anabelle Mass?'s trip to the Rockies, a good read!

Info on routes, eating, stuff that's going on in Quebec/East, great energy. -wg

Dec 1, (done Nov) New Route on Mt. Wilson, Rivers of Babylon WI 5+ M6+ 400 m, Jon Walsh, Paul McSorley. Mt. Wilson between Mixed Monster and Ice Nine.

Sounds like a good one!

Dec 1, Homebrew and Old Milwaukee, Jon Walsh

Rich Marshall and I climbed Homebrew and Old Milwaukie today. Both are in superb shape and classic thin ice lines. All you need is a single rack up
to gold camelot, nuts, stubbies and screws for Old Milwaukie, and the rarely iced up second pitch is thin ice the entire way. Same rack for Homebrew
plus a #4 camelot. Enjoy!

Dec 1, Whiteman's, Mike Charbonneau

Whiteman's is good'n'dry right now, if anyone is interested. oh yeah, Redman is still in real nice shape too...

Dec 1, Louise Falls, Peter MacPherson, Nicholas Rapaich

Climbed Louis Falls. Far left pillar out of the three is dry and friendly. Small section of crapy unconsolidated mushrooms to get up to the pillars (if you want to stay dry) and the last step is thin at the top to exit (growing fast). Nice day out.

Dec 1, Hooker, South Ghost, Lyle Rotter.

Climbed the aptly named Hooker today.  It is quite brittle and  aerated . She also broke one pick and one crampon on us.  Another party on Candlestick Maker and another on Hidden Dragon.  It may be time for an outhouse in here. 

Dec 1, Virtual Reality, Murchison, Steve Holeczi

Climbed this amazing route yesterday with Marc Piche and Lilla Molnar. Go do it!! Brittle but not too bad. 3 pitches from the top of lower angle ice
and 2 60m raps straight down (wild). Hard to say how much longer it will be in good shape for. There was a pretty good afro cuban drum sound to some of the pitches. A very small selection of pins and a few nuts might be a good addition on the rack for pro in some spots.

Murchison looked to be in good shape with the top pitch looking slightly harder than usual

Nov 30th, Cosmic Messenger, Thomas Choquette

Cosmic was hard...i'm gettin old..now i gotta drive a snow plow all winter..you should get a real job to..like the rest of us...kiddin..cheers.

Nov 30th Bourgeaus, Mark Westman

(November 28) The first two pitches of Bourgeau Left are in good condition with few thin spots- good ice, good protection, no stubbies needed. We were beaten to the route despite a predawn arrival, and so we did not climb the upper tier. The other party did not climb the final pitch, reporting lots of running water and mushy ice. The final pitch is well-formed and has a substantial mush-roof barrier that should offer some entertaining climbing.    


Viewed from the parking lot, ice on the first pitch of Bourgeau Right does not quite reach the bottom.

Nov 29th, Ghost, Shawn Huisman

Shelley and I were planning on trying to go to Hydro today but changed our minds when I saw that STD was possibly up. Good ice and mixed climbing up just over half way, when it looks like it gets a little easier. OOPS Unfortunately, the ice is delaminated from the wall at this point and it gets pretty serious, alla Uniform Queen. I still wake up with cold sweats from that baby so I didn't want any part of that, so like UQ I bailed(only once this time though, haha). Used pins (blades, bugs, arrows), a gold cam, nuts and stubby screws, bailed on two nuts. The last part will certainly go I think, just not with my fat ass on it (well it might but that's what I was afraid of). The chinook was blowing pretty good today plus the sun hits it good, so I
don't know how long it will last or how many accents it will take. Pretty cool piece of ice that should get done.

Did the drive to Hydro for shits and giggles, casual, didn't even get the chains out. Last river crossing was frozen over and should stay that way as long as some hunter doesn't bust a monster truck through it, or climber for that matter.

Nov 29, Hydrophobia, Andrew Wexler (Note-- he did this the 28th and had an epic with the river, Huisman had no problem with the same next day...)

Thanks for the last posting. Audrey G and I went into the Waiparous and climbed Hydrophobia on Sunday (NOV 28TH). The route was fat and awesome -
checking in at a solid 5+. There were threads in place and it seemed like we were maybe the 2nd ascent of the year??? As for the driving, we made to within a 45 minute walk of the climb no problem (4X4 Toyota). Not so lucky on the way out... Swilling the brews, I botched the last creek crossing and we ended up spending the night with the truck's tail end submerged about 2 feet in the icy water. Walked for about an hour this morning before stumbling upon 2 hunters who ended up winching us out. Cheers to the bushmen.

Nov 29th, Bill's drip and Blue Russian, David Fortier

Climbed Bill's Drip Sunday, it was in good shape, but a little harder than WI3 I thought. Blue Russian is a long way from forming. Left a new sling on the rappell tree at the top of the second ledge on Bill's Drip. Photos attached.

Nov 29th, Various, Colin Haley

11/25 - Superbok was in good shape, although fairly wet in a couple spots. The last pitch is sporty.
11/26 - Hiked into Professors, and although climbable it would've been miserable with the amount of water, so went to do Cascade. Cascade is lean in one spot, and has a bit of spray, but is totally climbable.
11/27 - The rumours are true, Sea of Vapours really is 4+. It's seen enough traffic that one can hook up a lot of it.
11/28 - Carlsberg is in fine shape, although pretty chandeliered. The first pitch is probably a bit harder than it 'normally' is.

Nov 28th, Racially Motivated, Kim Heidel

Climbed Racially Motivated on Sat. up at Whitemans area. Really fun route, a good option if you find all the other routes up there occupied (not likely
now!) Sounds like it is in similar shape as the FA. Good gear, a bit loose to start but improves quickly.

Nov 28th, various, Alex Krawarik

Ghost
approach is fine and very drivable
GBU thin but coming along well
This House is in good shape, first (crux) of the upper pitches is brittle
and getting beat on (11/26)

Field
Some friends climbed Super Bok 11/25

Banff
Professor's first pitch too wet to climb 11/26

Cascade was climbed the last 3 days in a row afaik (11/25, 11/26 by some
friends, and 11/27 by us). Its upper two pitches are cerebral WI3

Nov 28th, Nightmare on Wolf Street, Gery Unterasinger

For those who are planning to go to Nightmare on Wolf Sreet, the first bolt on the 2nd mixed pitch (the one just above the traverse ledge of "the day after") is missing. You have to bring your own hanger and a wrench, since most of the hangers are loose anyways. Beeing uable to produce a reliable and sheltered anchor above this pitch, we decided to retreat on a poor abalakov. Above that it looks like lots of huge mushrooms to have for those who like them! Good climbs! Gery

Nov 28th, Whiteman/Redman, Freon Thorleifsson

Went to Opal Creek on friday and did Red Man Soaring! It was beautifull, I had so much fun on the first part of that route all the way up to the ice, which was fun too! Whiteman falls however was pissing water but was do-able for those that don't mind getting soaked. A messege to ADVG-ers! don't turn in the biz-plan too late!!!he he he   And oh yeah, the approach is wet but solid like RS and the other guy said it would be!!!

Nov 28, Various, Josh "Sqoosh" Briggs

The bicycle fairy is in again. 2- 3" ice over the roof to thicker in 15 ft.

Eamon's route "Goose abuse" is still there and harder than it looks. His nuts are small and shitty. There is now a better ibebackinoff at the top of the route.

Tried the route right of Sinister street... it looks very aesthetic and hard, but the snice on the 1st pitch was too scary for me. Worth
checking out.

Eamonn note: "Josh sent in a conditions report to your site... (it's refering to his saying my anchor was bad) saying that
my nuts that he said are "small and shitty" are actually large and solid! Cause it's a strong anchor!

To which Scott Withers adds, "I have to agree with Walsh on this one. very bomber nuts, since when is a number twelve nut considered small? he must be referring to the other nut, it is a mere number ten."

Nov 27, Whiteman's Area, Kim Heidel (photo at left)

Busy Saturday at the Whitemans area, nine climbers spotted in the canyon! Red Man Soars is in exceptional shape with no run out to the ice. Attached
photo is of Shawn Huisman nearing the ice on RMS; wicked ambience with water roaring through the tube on Whitemans in the background. Great day out climbing!

Nov 27, Storm Creek Drainage, Cosban, M5, 100M M5 100metres Josh Briggs, Eamonn Walsh (and, one would assume, the mighty Cosban..).

Nov 27th, Ghost, Jeff Lister

Green angel...very thin but looking promising,  climable now but definately "x"ish Wicked wanda looked to be in excellent shape and very straight foward
All the south facing climbs such as aquarius and sunshine etc looked ok but pretty beat up from sun. Lots of water flowing through hoodoo hall and pretty warm still.

Nov 27th, Double the Power, 100M(?), WI5 Andrew Wexler, Joe Walsh, Oct 31 New route above Cosmic Messenger, looks good. Cool photos.

Jon Walsh and I did a cool rte on Oct 31 on Mt Wilson, above Cosmic Messenger. I didn't post it cause I've been waiting for Jon's slack ass to email me the photos. Anyway, we named it DOUBLE THE POWER and it's a 2 pitch, WI 5 (solid - atleast for the year's first climb). The first pitch is a mushroomy WI 4 pitch up to a cave behind a pillar. The second pitch climbs the steep pillar and then rambles to the top. Approach via Cosmic Messenger or the WI 3 to the climber's right. On Halloween, there was tons of ice up there to be had.

Nov 27, new route Nordegg Area: "Hosers against Bush" M7, J. Mills

Nov 26, Nemesis ,Mathieu Péloquin & Well

climbed nemesis yesterday, nev. 25. Climbed it in two pitches with 70 m ropes. What a great buy we did. Math climbed the first pitch on the left.
Ice was not so frendly. Screws were ok but not so much one timer as the ice was exploding ! The belayer is safe at the base of the route under a 30 cm roof. Stay under it I suggest.!!! From the cave in the middle of the route, climbed past the mushroofs and finished at the right. Very sustained second
pitch though.

By the way, we found a key for a Chrysler car at the bottom.

Nov 25, Uniform Queen, Rob Owens

Did the Uniform Queen today. Very dry and sublimating.

Pitch one: Thin  WI4. Takes cams

Pitch 2: Thin WI4: poor gear, stubbies??

Pitch 3: Was quite brittle and detached. Great gear (see guidebook) to roof and then it was 10 meters of very Xish ice climbing. Good ice once over the roof. Note: Most of the ice broke off below the roof  as we rappelled past it and is now doable safer and most likely easy than it was with the sketchy ice we had to climb. It would now be rock climbing most of the way to the roof with good gear to be had.

Pitch 4: See guidebook

Nov 25 (re: Nov 21), Pointless Gully, Randy Colwell

Climbed Pointless Gully on 11/20…first pitch was wet, but enjoyable…second pitch was dry, and in very nice shape…The birds got into my pack, and I ended loosing my wallet.  But Matt peter from Golden found it on 11/21 and and sent it to me!!  Matt – you’re a stand up guy!!  Randy

Nov 25, Cosmic Messenger, Thomas Choquette

did cosmic messenger today...its wet and pretty tough for the grade...the pound in hurts to..but there's no avy hazard right now up to or on it..so nows the time if your so inclined...there's also some wild looking mixed thing to the left of it on the north side which i haven't seen before...its not visible from the road.

Nov 25, Alpine Ice, Nathan Brown

Was up on Athabasca last weekend (Sat. November 20). Lots of fresh snow on the glacier approach to the N face. Crappy unconsolidated snow leading up to the plateau below the north face (lots of high stepping and slipping back to where you started - quite a grunt, even with snow shoes on). The North face itself was in stellar shape - frozen solid, though ice was very hard. No rockfall. TEmperature was -10C without wind chill.

We got a look at the weeping wall - which looked very thin. Around
Canmore Cascade looks completely anemic - you can see the rock
behind almost the entire waterfall.

Nov 25, This House of Sky, French Technique, Robert Lee

Linda Cook and I did This House of Sky "integrale" to the ridge and down French
Technique-- a great day in the mountains. Probably 1000m of elevation gain. Lower
THOS good ice, already getting hammered into a pegboard. Upper part- two short WI4
pitches, then a longer WI3 pitch, then snow, scree, and some snowy rock scrambling
to the ridge. Wind on ridge strong enough to blow us off balance. Amusing antics
with map- which fortunately was that Tyvek stuff so it didn't rip to shreds, and due
to impossibility of folding it I found out you can just stuff the thing in your pack
with no ill effects! Descent into French Technique beautiful and wild-- FT itself is
mostly an ice walk with a bit of downclimbing and 1 rap, thin towards bottom. Took
us about 7 hours RT from THOS parking. Otherwise ice is shaping up in N. Ghost--
e.g. some parts of GBU looked climbable. Driving conditions very good.

Nov 25th, New England Ice, Will Mayo(humor, and in case we forget how good we have it here Canada!).

Nov 24, Parkway, Garth Lemke

I am a PS Warden and will be working at sunwapta this winter again. I visit your site regularly for beta on the climbs for them adventerous days. Here are some photos taken Nov 23 of climbs around the icefield for the website. I will try to contribute over the winter when I can. Digital cameras are great.

If you ever are coming up to do them hard ones in Panther falls, Call thestation 852-5383. Or call for area
conditions anytime, we patrol the hy every morning @ 7am and try to get out
in field when we can.

cheers
Garth Lemke
Public Safety Warden
Jasper National Park
780-852-5383 (sunwapta warden station)

WG Note--I asked Garth if it was OK to post his number here, he said, "Yes, post the number. That is a big part of our public sevice / interaction
down there." That's mighty nice of him, thanks!

Nov 23, Beauty Creek, Darran Chaisson

the 3 main climbs in there are good (stanly falls SR. looks a bit "sporty") shades and Rick Blak Memorial (blue plastic ice) are both good fun. there was a lot more ice further up the valley, but we were on a bit of a schedule so we didn't check 'em out

Nov 23, R&D area, Jasob Cobb

Finally got out there! Great day yesterday (23 Nov, Tuesday)...gotta try
getting away from work for midweek romps more often. Sorry, no photos, as I
don't have my own digital yet.

R&D was well used but still in good shape with good ice. Only did the lower
bit on The Lone Ranger...fun climbing...there was ice enough for pro in
places, but you have to work for it. Upper bits climber's right were
cauliflowered and a bit dodgy (big chunk of curtain came down.) It looked
like thicker ice climbers left would allow better pro. The Chalice routes
looked to be in similar situation as an earlier post on your site. A bit
thin for great pro. As well, it's probably not a bad idea to be cautious
with regards to the approach to and between climbs, as we experienced
highly variable conditions (crusty bits and facets along with good snow)
and windslab building up in the area. Not super deep or anything, but worth
thinking about, particularly with anymore precip.

Cheers,

Virtual Reality, Nov 22 (climbed 21st) Sylvain Vanier
 
If you like gigantic mushrooms and cauliflower, this route is for you. JF, Matthieu & Well (Olivier) are visiting from Quebec and we did Virtual Reality on Sunday. What an awesome route. We did it in 3 pitches because of the wandering around. We did the initial 2 pitches as two rope team but we had to climb the last pitch one at a time. Quite a few routes to climb, lots of route finding and all I can say is good luck with your leashes.
 
On an encouraging note, Well broke one crampon on the approach pitches and already had one tied with shoe laces. He just got to the first belay and said to us that he didn't think he could lead. He did the route regardless. Pretty impressive.
 
Bring lots of screws.
 
Chalice and the Spoon, November 20/04 Sylvain Vanier
 
JF and I went  to do Whitemans but the WI3 approach pitch was a raging waterfall with little blobs of ice. So we went to Ranger cr. and did Chalice and the spoon. More ice then ususal but be careful for huge platted ice halfway up. The exit is a bit thin. The Blade's pillar is not very well attached at the top. A good one pitch climb.
 

Nov 22, Guinness Gully, Jeff Lockyer
First pitch is a little thin and funky but quite fun. Second step is easier to the right side (attached photo) with chandalier thinner ice through the middle. Same as per the top pitch (attached photo), we climbed to the break and then up the thicker section just right of center. Super fun !

Jeff.

Nov 22, Candle Stick Maker, Tomas Choquette

climbed the candle stick maker today(monday/22)solid 5,very wet first pitch,some excellent driving by steve got us way up the cut line,was a very good day.

Nov 22, Louise Falls and Linda Ice 9, Dave Burdick

Both are in really good shape,except for the last pitch on Louise. Top pillar on LI9 is very wet.
Fun stuff.

Nov 22, new route in Protection Mountain Cirque, Guy Lacelle.

Paradis Perdu;  WI5, 170m, FA Nov 15th 2004 by Audrey Gariepy, Mathieu Audibert, Heather Slowinski and Guy Lacelle. In the cirque just east of the east end of protection mountain. This route is app. 400m right of Super Light which look in great shape by the way.
The route can easily be seen from highway 1.  It is a good 4-5 hour approach.

Cascade Kronenbourg is in too.

Nov 22, new route in Storm Creek, Eamonn Walsh

Goose Abuse III Wi 5 60 meters , Scott
Withers, Nov 04

Located high on the right side of the obvious avalanche gully which is above
where the valley hangs a left. About 2.5 hours to the base.

Nov 22 The Silmarillion, Andrew Querner

Here's a couple shots from the Silmarillion. Climber is Will Kahlert on the 2nd ascent via direct variation. These two shots are of pitch 1. The
tighter shot is at the crux. This route is ultra-aesthetic

Nov 22, Ghost, Lyle Rotter

We were in the Ghost on sunday and the first pic is of The Sliver with Jeff Nazarchuk off of the couch and Marc Dumerac off of the Quad.  The second picture is of Burning Drowning.

Nov 22, French Reality, Bad Yanquis

This route is a bargain for its grade in its current condition.  Thanks to our friendly neighbors for sharing the great Canadian bounty.  Sorry about not tagging the vehicle with the intended route.  Will do next time per Bubba B. Thanks also for sharing your insightful thoughts on US foreign policy.  Believe me, no one could be more sorry about that than we are.  I guess the true state of international relations gets revealed when you get to their intended route before the locals. There's irony somewhere in a couple of Yanks enjoying a French climb in Canada right now.  By the way, we are from Montana not Washington which is mixed blessing because MT went for Bush and WA for Kerry.  What can you do?  All kidding aside, the Stanley is in great shape.  Pix attached.  A tout a l'heure Canadiens.-Bad Yanquis

Nov 21, Ghost, Dave Burdick

Climbed this house of skye today, including the pillars above the usual climb. All were in good shape, a little wet. River crossing was
no problem and there was hardly any snow.

Nov 21, Skypilot, Nich Rapaich (photos up)

Eric Dumerac, Dave Thompson (Retired), Ryan Creary, and myself went up to shoot the old boys on Sky Pilot. Well the photo's speak for itself to why they did not do it. Ice was fractured at the bottom and was also brittle. A little to much realistate for sale. Wise decision. It's a long haul up there.

Nov 21, Sinatra, Saddam's Insane, Dave Fortier.

Went out for an exploratory trip Saturday. Got to Sinatra Falls, it is formed, but still very thin, grey and dripping in places, I declined to climb it. I also saw what I think is Saddam's Insane, mostly formed. Photos attached.

Ian Hunt Note Re: saddamsnov21fortier.jpg

This photo of Saddam's Insane isn't that route ! Saddams Insane is much lower down on Mt Kidd in a groove on the right side of the big gully the picture sort of shows.  I think the ice shown is unclimbed unless it is part of Dave Marras route billy goats gruff as per your new routes listings.
https://gravsports.com /ice%20pages%20folder/Route%20Descriptions/Billy%20Goat's%20Gruff.htm

Nov 20th, French Reality and Nightmare on Wolf Street, Nicolas Rapaich

Tom Wolfe and myself went to climb French Reality, got up to the ledge and walked around to only be scooped by two Washington boyz. Bubba's idea of writing the name of your climb on the car should be standard. Ice looks real good as for the photo. Went and jumped on Nightmare on Wolf Street, also in fine shape. M pitched worked us and did not do the upper peer. Looks good and hard.

Nov 20th, Wedge and Evan Thomas, Fridjon Thorleifsson.

Was at the Wedge on Friday and did the Tea Party (M5), had to chop ice away from the second and third bolts, lots of ice on it! Ice was thin on the upper part but easy so we went for the trees for a belay...fun spot!
Then we went for a latenight swing-time at Evan-Thomas Creek yeasterday, met people coming out at 14:30 and they looked at us like we were nuts going in this late (they are right in a way) but thats what headlamps are for, like someone said "you dont turn into a pumpkin at dusk despite popular belive!!"
Me and Dill went up the thin Snowline. I really wish I had more than 2 stubbies cause thats what you need, I got in 3 good screws all the way up and used 2 pitons. The upper part, up to the tree that leans over the wall, was interesting at best with no screws but the climbing was good!!!
Jesse and Ben climbed 2 Low 4 Zero, it was also thin but there are more pro to be found there. Needless to say we walked back in the dark, smiling cause we knew we had Luky Lagers waiting for us...

Nov 20th, Canmore Ice Climbing Festival Meeting 7pm - Saturday Nov 20th, 2004

Nov 18, Striving for the Moon, (to the ridge, very nice photos, wg). Scott says, "Although I'm happy with Greg's and my performance (and the education we received on the descent), I don't think that our ascent qualifies as the second ascent of Striving for the Moon. (We decided to turn around due to tactical errors, not because our original intent was to stop at the top of the Big Step.) In 1992, Barry and Ward continued to the summit and down the tourist route to Moraine Lake. In my mind, a true second ascent has to be faithful to the style of the first ascent. For Striving to the Moon, it's still waiting to be done."
-- Scott

Nov 18, Nemesis, Thriller Cave, Gery Unterasinger
As of Nov.18, Nemesis is in great shape. Climbed on the right side, the route takes long screws all the way to the top, no rock gear needed anymore. There are also unusually lots of impressive curtains left of Thriller cave and above Fruitcake and left of it. Looks like lots of opportunities for spectacular new mixed routes. Checked out your new picture posting, it,s awesome. Here a little pic of Thriller area, unfort. bad quality.

Nov 11th-15, Various, Trevor Smith

Nov 11th- Two O'clock falls- Is IN, but thin, compared to normal
 
Nov 12th- Murichson Falls- big and fat all the way to the top, although many falling missiles made us retreat early.
 
Nov 13th- Edge of the world(Jasper)- In and very wet
 
Nov 14th- Bow falls- lots of ice, and lots of open water on main flow, but still climbable. Two from our group made it to the top. Rest of us played to the right of the main flow. (attached picture)

Trevor Smith

Nov 16, Silmarillon, Will Kahlert

Just wanted to add to Eamonn's description of Silmarillon. Did the seconnd ascent yesterday of the first 2 quality pitches, the grade may have dropped a bit being a successive ascent but still run out. We added a direct 3rd pitch obvious from the ground.

Classic finnish; From the second pitch, traverse over to the right free hanging pillar, happily greet the thickening ice, then follow 80 degree thin ice and a final ramp of thin ice to a rock belay small cams and kb's on snow ledge . WI 5+ R (similar in character to the lower pitches) 60m rope stretcher, no belay till ledge.

cheers Will K

Nov 15, Pointless Gully, Ian Shavalier

Climbed Pointless Gully, and whatever that short flow to its left is, Sunday Nov 14. Excellent conditions although the ice was somewhat brittle. Climbed the left side of the upper pitch, right side had a dry line also.  Aimless looks good to go.

Nov 15, Field, Hafner, Various, Jeff Honig

finally dragged myself away from home renovations for some climbing. went to
icicle fairy on the 14, (marco's post hadnt showed up yet). indeed first pitch was out but showed
promising signs of return. second pitch was worth doing. went to haffner after that in the pm and
numerous things are in again. not much for pure ice yet, but lots or the usual mixed stuff is in.
there is a large curtain forming from boyd mistery across to beyond half and half, did our best to
knock it off but needs some more work. did super bok today and it was a great day out. despite
tropical temps in canmore in am, it held in around -2 to zero in field. route is extremely wet
especially last pitch which is solid grade 5 now but excellent climbing. park at takkaka parking
it is mutch closer than from field. first pitch through rock arch is barely in and needs pins to
protect. there is a variation to the left that allows you to bypass this with 2 short fun pitches,
then a short rap off a tree back into the main gully and the upper tiers. lots of stuff on stephen
looking good, but mt denis needs some time. would be a worthy day out around pilsner with enough
ice for the mixed stuff. jeff at alpineaddictions.com

Nov 15, K-Country, Jeff Moore

Here is a little update for Blue Russian and Bill's Drip out in Kan Country. Blue Russian is and is great shape (although a little wet on Sunday(pic)), Bill's Drip was not in but could be in by next weekend. I would highly recommend bringing mountain bikes for the approach right up until you reach the drainage (we didn't), it will cut the approach time in have. Also stick to the highway looking trail as you head up the drainage (we didn't). Although it looks like a trail that would never lead to an ice climb the trail takes right to where you want to go. And finally look for a cairn as you are on this main trail above the gorge (on the left hand side of the drainage), this will be a good time to dart in the trees and start the inevitable bush whack to the routes. (photo soon, wg).

Nov 15, Palm Sunday, Thomas Choquette

climbed palm sunday today...its in nice shape,although a bit wet to start,this is a nice route that see's little if any traffic...its clearly visible above the fortress road in the big bowl on the east side...fair warning..it's a serious jungle thrash up to it...we were about 1:45 up...bout 70 minutes down....forget it after it snows..cheers

Nov 15, New Route in Jasper, Honky Tonk Woman 130m, III, M5 WI 5+R F.A. Nov.14 David Marra, Claire Macdonald, Sean Elliott. This looks good.

Nov 15, Trophy Wall, WG

Did Terminator today while friends did Sea. Terminator was the wettest thing I have ever climbed, and pretty soft but still mostly attached. It is going to be obese when cold temps hit again. Sea was also very wet, but then again it was +10 in canmore this morning, this is all going to get really good when it cools down. Replicant was falling apart, Ten Years After and Two-Piece Yanks looked sodden and pathetic. There is an insane amount of water up there.

Nov 14, Hafner and others, Paul Baker (photos up).

Made a short trip to the Rockies from the Coast, and I thought peoplemight be interested in seeing the attached pics of Haffner Creek (Nov.
11), the Bow Falls area (Nov. 13), Bow Falls itself, and what Ithink is Pointless & Aimless Gullies on the way in to Bow Falls.

Nov 14, Vapours Extendo, Jeff Moore

Here's a shot that Brent Raymond sent me recently of him launching up the Vapours extendo-pitch; it might make a good addition to the other two shots on that terminator topo page. This pitch added about 30 m to the top of Sea of Vapours and goes at thin WI4.

Nov 13, La Goutte, Tom Wolfe

Just got back from La Goutte, slightly thinner/more fragile than the last time I was there but still good, excellent ice. What a hike; I wanted a short day cause I'm feeling bagged, which it was, but manoman that's a ways for a pitch. If you go to La Goutte the quickest way there is via the Terminator Wall approach. Just as you crest the ridge right of 10 yrs after (don't go too high) drop down (across the same gully you use to approach the Terminator Wall but lower) and wrap around under the WI4/5 Terminator Approach Ice pitch (the cool-looking one that is below the WI3 one that everyone does)... angle up and right and presto you're there

Nov 13, Field, Guy Lacelle

Guiness and SuperBok are both in as of today, Guy Lacelle phone call.

Nov 13, Amadeus, Mark Taylor

For everyone who has been eyeing Amadeus, this is what it looked like on Thursday November 11th. Definitly melted a bit since the pics in October were taken. Looks a bit slushy but the ice is pretty decent. If the warm weather continues though, it might not be there for long. Someone said something about losing a tool on the way out. We didn't see it, hopefully its already been returned to its owner. Thanks for the website, makes it really easy to get motivated to get out to the mountains.

Nov 13, new route up Storm Creek And Shocking Alternative is in too plus there just lots O'ice up there, cool.

Nov 12, Shades of Beauty, Lise Beaulieu

No snow to speak of on the approach. First pitch was in decent shape. Second pitch was very wet and chandeliered which forced us to the far right on thinner ice. Third pitch was in fat shape, climbing at 3+ rather than the typical grade 4.

Nov 12, Wolverine Falls, Robert Lee

A scenic long cruise with a long approach (i.e. no crowds). "Bushwhack" portion of approach - make a rising sidehill traverse right from the end of the first switchback (after lake outlet stream is crossed)- we beat out a good trail (ignore somebody's "sucker" trail that goes directly sidehill). Climb was quite wet with some open water, but as it doesn't get sun should continue to freeze up. Overrated as WI3, more like a 2, but worth doing. Rapped off upper pitches from trees- "walk off" as described was not evident. There are ice and mixed lines in the approach valley and on the headwall above the lake that look compelling and are likely unclimbed.

Nov 12, new route at Stanley Headwall, Jeff Relph

Nov 12, Field, Shawn Huisman

Went to Field to check things out, not much to climb there yet. We climbed Twisted I think, or at least something around there. Good climbing, not alot of mixed, almost all ice but still good fun. Second pitch is around grade 5 ice I thought. The last pitch is very cool, included a shot of it too.

Nov 12, Icicle Fairy, Marco Delesalle

Attempted Icicle Fairy today, In the last couple days the first pitch, the ice fell and melt out. We climbed the last pitch only, was excellent and dry, however we traverse way right(climbers right) to gain the upper ledge which takes you to the upper pitch. With cold temps I suspect that the first pitch will be in again with in a week.

Nov 12, R&D, Brent Raymond

Some photos of R&D and Chalice and the Blade area from Nov. 11. It was
a busy day out there!

Nov 12, Stanley, Nick Rapaich (photos here)

Suffer Machine almost touching down. Climbed it with Misha today and did not finish the top half. Ran out of light. Ice is forgiving and friendly once you get on it. With the amount of water running off the dagger, it won't be long before it touches down. Upper ice looks real good. Uniform Queen looks tough. Lots of delaminated ice.

Nov 11, Twisted Sister, Jeff Perron & Sylvain Vanier
 
The walk in is pretty much free of snow. Still a good 2.5/3 Hour walk for the non-mutant like us.
 
When you get to the bottom ( walking on old wet avi debris), go to the left of some trickles of ice. Really low angle with a little roof on it. If you run into a bolt, you've found it. One pitch on decent rock with little rock gear. Small wires (2-3), Camalot #0.3 to #2. Some of the anchors might need new pins (angles)
 
The next four pitches consist of low angle frozen snow we the occasional patches of thin ice intersperse with plated ice on facets. Not much gear. Pin anchors on climbers' left (one added).
 
The last pitch is best done in one 45m ( Screw anchor the moment you it the gully) and a 15m pitch of low angle seam of ice. Worth doing. However, the climb must have sublimated a bit because in a few spot (last pitch), it is only a few cm, not even enough to put 10cm screws. Hard ice, very easy to dinner plate and dry. It was also hard to find a good anchor for the start of that pitch.
 
A long walk, still, to come back. Have fun, Sylvain & Jeff
 

Nov 11, Sea of Vapors, Colin Wooldridge

Sea of Vapors has steepened and is thinning out. First pitch is 4+, Second is 4, Third is likely 5+. We climbed the first 2 pitches of Sea of Vapors on Nov. 10 (didn't climb 3rd pitch due to dark) after waiting 6 hrs for Stanier and client (see below) to complete all 3 pitches (including approach ice and rapping). We climbed at the same pace as them - not slow, not fast - meaning you should expect to wait about the same amount of time if there is another car parked in the Trophy Lot. Good sticks, good pro, mostly dry (unlike Terminator which is pouring wet -- on the first pitch under the roof). No snow on the approach till a short ways below the wall. Is the climb the trophy all expect?? It is cool, but not outrageous. It certainly ain't worth waiting in line for.

La Goutte looks tough and very similar to Fearful Symmetry. The lower half of Two Piece Yanks looks quite thin.

Note: Mark Klassen sends, "In the immortal words of the Elephant Man: "I am not a client!" I am just lame. Larry would have failed a guide's course for letting his "client" rappel unbelayed and run all over the place unroped so he could take
pictures. ;) - Larry's "client" on Sea of Vapours

Nov 10, Nemesis, Barry Blanchard

Did the first trip of the year up Nemesis today, intricate, a touch harder than usual but a fine climb. Full length screws for the first 70m tier, climbed on the right. Started the second tier on the right then centre then right: one stubby, two lost arrows, one knife blade then full length screws to the top. Less than 30cm of snow, walked in. Happy trails, Bubba

Nov 10, Icicle Fairy, Nicholas Rapaich (photo here)

Sorry to hear about the line up but here's an alternative for those that get caught in the line up for the trophy wall. Icicle Fairy is in and fun. The warm temps have degraded the ice. Little hollow on the ice after the roof. With cooler temps it will back in fine form. Upper ice is super fun.  No real snow on the approach slope to worry about. Meltfreeze 15cm.

Nov 10, Ghost Closure/Conditions notes, Fire Dispatch Desk

Closure is still in effect and patrols through the area are ongoing. One done today by an officer (who has also stuck a tool into ghost ice a few years back) reported that the warm weather has cooked anything that is exposed to the wind or sun. The Good,Bad and Ugly is a wet wall with a pile of slag at the bottom. So hopefully climbs that are shaded will have held up better. Hopefully by the time the cooler weather arrives the bears will be denned up.

Nov 10, Trophy Wall Parking Lot, Parkway, WG

So we're in the Trophy Wall parking lot at 5:30 this morning and witness one climber's car leaving and three others already parked. Fortunately all had written their various climbing plans (Per "Bubbaquette"), so I'm back at home swilling more coffee at 6:30 in the morning. I know of at least one other group that was planning on heading up there today, amazing! Especially given the warm temps, we thought we were the only ones stupid enough to be there that early...

Also drove to Saskatchewan River Crossing yesterday and went climbing on the area testpiece, Balfour Wall, where there was ice but I can't for the life of me figure out why it was still standing, very wet and not attached to much of anything. Riptide wasn't really there but Rocketman was as good as it's looked since the first ascent. Choksondik looked pretty good too. Couldn't see much else. There were several wet slide/sluffs in evidence, but things are supposed to cool down even though it was +1 this morning in Canmore.

Nov 9, Field Ice, Darran Chaisson

well I managed to get out there before it turned dark and here's what I found: Superbok is in, Massey's and Quivering Buttcheeks are in, the Twisted climbs on Mt. Stephen are in (I couldn't tell which ones were which, but Twisted is all ice for sure)the first pitch of Guiness Gully was in, but due to a valley cloud I couldn't tell ya what the rest of the "Beer Climbs" on Mt. Dennis are doing, except that whatever ice was forming on Cascade Kronenberg has fallen down. Also the Ogden climbs were completely obscured by cloud. Silk Tassel isn't even evident and I did see a little tiny bit of ice at the top of the Waterworks, but I didn't go in there.

Nov 7, Glen Fitzgerald (?), Robert Lee

Wreck of the Glen Fitzgerald (I think. . .)

Climbed this on Saturday w/ Linda Cook, although it didn't match the guidebook description very well other than the approach time (if it is a new line I'll call it "Wreckless"). 2 hours on Ribbon Creek trail, cross creek and enter old cutblock, following game trails into valley. There are at present what appear to be 3 distinct "complete" climbs and a lot of semi-formed ice in this valley. We climbed the multipitch line to the far right-- at the top of a scree slope, beginning at a small pocket glacier (2.5 hours total). There is a thin beginning pitch that looks possible to the right, but we chose the thicker pitch to the left that actually begins down in the moat of the glacier (cool!-- we did a short rap to get to the base of the ice). Probably 5 pitches of excellent, often wet ice from WI 2 to 4, with sections of snow in-between (about 300m total), very alpine setting. Recent slide activity- looks like a deathtrap later in the season. After the last pitch that we com
pleted, there would be approximately 50m of snow to attain the incomplete base of a steep, long, thin pitch, (which would require quite a bit of scrambling first left, then back right to attain) or it looked like one could scramble left to attain some low angle thin ice and snow to go higher (if the upper pitches were climbed this would bring the total length to well over 400m). We ran out of time (don't want to be crashing through those woods in the dark- lots of bear evidence!) and thus descended after the last full ice pitch. Descent off Abalakovs, and 2 pins at one point- no in situ pro evident. A long day but a great climb!

BTW there is a climb called "Upper Level Skyway" listed in the guidebook-- there is no evidence that this climb forms-- maybe in the past?-- but I would think that this very wet year that it would be evident. . .

Nov 7, Parkway, Kevin Dyck

Jyoti and I climbed the Rick Blak Memorial Route today. Although it was one of the wettest pitches I’ve ever done it was also one of the best. Fantastic route. Shades of Beauty looks good too but we were soaked so packed it in. The ride home gave a good survey of things but there isn’t much formed. Polar Circus is close but not quite ready to go. Tonnes of ice up at Wilson Major but I’m not sure the approach gully is formed. Things above Tabernac look good but Tabernac itself isn’t even close. Midnight Rambler looks blue and fat.

Nov 6, North Drywod, Scott Harms

We were up on Saturday Nov 6,04 to check out the gasser and obliteration. Both climbs were in as well as rainbow peace caravan. We climbed the left side of obliteration. It was a little bit wet but all in all a good day. Attached photos to show condition (wg note, up in a hour or so).

Nov 6, Borgeau R. Hand, Steve Holeczi

In good shape. Bring stubbies for the 1'st pitch. Backed up 1st bolted
station with a knifeblade (The stations should be replaced). Minimal snow on
the way up,but watch the ever changing conditions above in the bowl!

Nov 5, South Drywood Valley, Chris "Mo" Morris

We went into the South Drywood Valley to check out the Easter bunnie area. The ice is forming really well with some gr 4 pillars coming together nicely. In the North Drywood Valley, Fluffy Saves The Day is touching and green, across the valley is a series of pillars that are not in the book, and will probably need a few more weeks to be climbable as they are in the sun and it is gradually getting warmer.
Mo

Nov 5, Ghost Closure Note, George Field

Looking at the closure in the Ghost, I believe that the three climbs (Sorcerer, Hydrophobia, and Venus) are technically in the closure. Even though the Waiporous is open, entering the closure from the north may cause a problem if you run into a Fish and Wildlife Officer. Just a forewarning. Thanks

Nov 5, Avi Conditions, Steve Holeczi

Just a note about changing snow conditions out there. We got turned around from climbing in the Mt.Noyes area today (Near Bow Summit). We were on a south aspect and experienced several large settlements in the alpine approaching the climb (spooky). Just a reminder that the righteous Rockies snowpack is rearing its ugly head in certain areas. Take care.

Nov 4, Arterial Sput, Robert C. Lee

Climbed Arterial Spurt yesterday-- very nice route, but 2 notes-- descent is a pain with 1 rope (I was soloing) due to sparse anchors- take 2. Also, any appreciable new snow will likely make this climb hazardous due to avy hazard-- there are plenty of slabs now-- do it sooner than later. . .

Nov 3, New Route in Ghost, Steve Holeczi

Sounds like a good one!

Nov 3, Stanley Headwall Info, Shawn Huisman. Photos up, game on at the Stanley Headwall!

Went up to Stanley Headwall today, here are some shots. Tons of ice up there. Trail in is not too bad, about a foot of fresh snow from
Tuesday.

Nov 1, Trophy Wall Info, Tom Wolfe, click here for more info and photos with belays marked.

Here's a shot that Nick Rapiche sent of Sea of Vapours, Brent Raymond climbing, as well as a shot of the Rundle Wall (also by N.R.) with some Photoshop added showing, to my mind, the best way of pitching & rapping the routes. The black spot is Brent seconding what for us was the 2nd to last
pitch (but should be the last pitch).

Vapours via Postscriptum, currently all-ice and solid WI4, works best with 60 m ropes as shown but will work with different raps (placed yesterday, Hallowe'en, by Marco & the AAC prez) with 55 m. I left a 2-pin station 5 m above the top of the ice on the right (a thin but manageable and exciting finishing pitch) last Wednesday--good for rapping, but you'll probably want to use an ice belay to bring up your second especially if you only have 55 m ropes. An additional med-large stopper hammered home would make a bomber anchor in addition to the ringer baby angle and KB. *From bolts at the top of Postscriptum, 60 m ropes bring you down to easy terrain (short WI2 step) below the WI3 pitch if you really want to get down FAST*. click here for more info and photos with belays marked. New mixed line up on the trophy wall, Koji San - M6, WI 5+, 58 metersNov 1, Banff Golf Course Road, Shawn Huisman

Was up there today, just letting you know that the gate will be closed after today. We got locked in on the way out, the golf course dude who let us out told us it was supposed to be locked last night but
somebody screwed up. Bring your bike or your golf cart I guess.

WG Note--love that golf-cart corridor, endangered species, those carts...

October 30/Nov 1, Evan-Thomas Creek Conditions, Doug Leonard and Sylvian Vanier (sorry for the delay in posting this, it got stuck in my server somehow, good info!)
 
Approach: The creek is fully running but if you stay on the left side until you are halfway between Chantilly Falls and the Moonlight wall. Then you can cross the creek on fairly big rocks. Lots of bear tracks in the area from the parking lot to Moonlight!
 
Moonlight: A fair bit of water running on the initial 30m. A bit fragile and 10cm screws with the sporadic 13cm screws here and there. Thread lightly. Put your old picks on. Little curtain above looks fine but we didn't climb it. (Daddy had to be back).
 
Snowline: The initial 15m had LOTS of water running behind plated/verglas ice so we skipped that one.
 
2 low 4 zero: The climb has ice all the way to the bottom. The initial 15m takes 10 and 13cm screws. Then you hit a ledge and the climb is more like grovelling than climbing. Plated ice, frosty snow on top of gravel and crappy rock. The occasional patches of moss you hit are a welcome. Not much gear at that point because of the nature of the rock. KB were just pulling the rock apart. Count on maybe a few runouts between gear placement. The tree used has an anchor is good and has a new cordelette with a biner. Didn't do the muddy little pitch above.
 
Chantilly Falls: Looks like verglas ( the stuff on your windshield after a cold night) at the bottom on smooth ugly/muddy slab.
 
So there you have it. If it keeps getting warmer, don't bother going in. If it keeps getting colder, the climbs should be real fat and the creek won't be the crux.
 
Have fun and use good judgement.
 

Nov 1 , 2004 Waiparous Valley Kemosabe Area, Raymond Bernard photo here Also new route, Lost in Translation, here.
Bloody amazing folks......
I can't believe this stuff isn't in the guidebook. I've climbed some of the ice described below in years past and did not believe I was a first timer to these. Nonetheless, here's what I see on this visit to this beautiful valley.....

Kemosabe needs another 2 weeks for the first pitch to come in.
The Ice Funnel is good to go.

On the south side of the valley are a whole slew of long, outrageously beautiful ice floes (see pictures).
Guestimate 4-6 new ice routes (grade 3 to 5+, 150m to 250m of ice).
Guestimate 2-3 new stunning mixed routes (150m to 200m of mixed).
Guestimate a new playpen in the cave where the bowl funnels, lots of small pillars, daggers and mixed terrain available here.

The drive in was speky. No worries at all to the base of the long straight cut line leading up to the bastion wall formation thingy. The river crossing at the start of the cut line is already getting a bit bermed up with ice on the sides. We hiked from this point.

I did do two of the ice route years ago (early - mid 90s). One of the floes coming down the funnel of the major drainage. A 2 pitch easy grade 5 I'd say. I think I did that with Frank Campbell. The other I did isn't on the pics I sent to you. It's further up the valley on the south side. A long eay rambling thing. Stiff grade 4 first pitch and about 200m of rambling grade 3 ice to it's end. I honestly don't remember who I went up there with it's so long ago now.

Nov 1, Terminator, Tom Wolfe

Did the Terminator yesterday - it's in easy WI6 condition. The first pitch has a forgiving groove and the whole thing has perfect ice. The fiercest dripping on the upper pitches can be avoided on a steeper line to the right for the most part. The whole thing is still forming rapidly, and we only saw signs of previous climbing on the lowest part of the lower pillar (below the cauliflower roof). Excellent rap slings in place...

Nov 1, Murchison, Kevin Dyck

We went to Murchison yesterday. American Revolution dropped its first curtain and the falls themselves look really good but steep. The two routes to the right of the falls are all ice but look thin and the WI6 (I’m great with route names…) to the left of American Revolution is about halfway there. Other than that there’s such a high concentration of ice up there that there’s a lot to do, even above the falls. I wonder if anyone has explored the rock climbing potential up there. The gear route potential looks great!

Oct 31, Kidd Falls, Brent Raymond (Photo here)

Went into Kidd falls today (I hadn't read that it had fallen off yesterday...) and managed to climb the route. The first pitch looks much wetter than it is and we all stayed quite dry. Thin ice though so
bring your stubbies and screamers until it fattens up again. The upper pitch is dry on top but has lots of water running underneath it and the ice is pretty aerated. Not quite its usual fat self at the moment, but doable none-the-less with good axe placements, decent ice and shitty pro. Check out the photo.

Oct 30, Various, Robert C. Lee

Kidd Falls: lower pitch fell off (boo!), Saddam's: looks sun damaged as well
King Creek: lots of mostly thin ice and mixed. Fun Scottish type gully at right edge of first main ice flow (next to rock, complete with turf plant at top!), and some large pillars forming high above.
Field, Kickinghorse climbs: have a long ways to go. Pretty Nuts seems to have disappeared due to new bridge.

Oct 30th, Arterial Spurt, Thomas Choquette

Climbed arterial spurts on oct.30..its in and thin,climbs located in a beautiful spot,feels very alpine...some notes,climbs more like 200 meters,not 150,we rapped off a very small tree at the top to one good slung chunk of ice,then to a two bolt anchor on the left...then we walked off to the south on a sloping ramp to some trees,then one low angeled rap off a tree to near our packs...approach,bout 90 minutes,we stayed right beside the canyon on the way down,mostly a trail,made it back to the parking lot in 50 minutes...nice climb with great views.

Oct 30th, Wizard's Prang, Jeff Lister

Hiked in to the Wizards Prang today,  Almost there. nothing like the guide book picture but there is ice all the way from top to bottom (albeit thin and detached)
It is still flowing quite a bit so cold weather will do it well.
As far as the approach I haven't been sandbagged that bad in a while!  It took us almost 4 hrs from the road.  I would recommend staying on the ridge on the east side of the drainage, the creek is all clogged with logs and rocks.  Also the description says to follow the drainage all the way to the climb but you need to head up a smaller drainage to climbers left shortly after some of the steps.  This was hard to see, but we had a GPS and the co-ordinates given were right on.  Also very windy like the guide book says.
Jeff

Oct 30, Amadeus, Mike Charbonneau (wg note--don't steal the frigging chains!)

Went up Amadeus on Friday, great condition, as per everyone else's comments. One problem though. It seems that everytime I go up there, year after year, I have to re-equip the
f***ing anchor (the one at the very top, on the left-hand side i.e. the two newer bolts). I even left links, chain and lockers last year and it's all gone again, except for the one locker on which I
hammered the gate ( guess it was too hard to steal that one) Could people please leave stuff on the anchors..... surely nobody can be that desperate for $15 worth of gear... ?????
( I am aware that it is very windy up there and that slings don't last very long, but links and chain don't just fly away in the wind... especially when they are attached directly to the hangers)

Oct 30, Shampoo Planet, Kevin Dyck

No go. Tony and I went up there today and he called me back just below the dagger. The thing looked magnificent during the whole approach, and only when you're directly below it it reveals itself to be this thin, barely attached piece of ice with a chossy, loose cave behind it. Someone with more experience and skill could climb it I'm sure. I have troubles assessing danger so it's good to climb with people who can be the voice of reason.

Oct 29th, New Route in Highwood pass, Eammon Walsh Looks good!

Oct 27, Urs' Hole, Andy Arts

Henry and I had a go at Urs Hole and Climbed the first three pitches. Very thin and running water. All water holes are dodgey and we couldn't get past the big hole after the third
pitch. Also the second station has only on bolt left and it is about to come off. Very rusty. Who do I ask about re-bolting the route?
See ya.

WG note--If the anchors are unsafe I'm all for putting in something functional. Not sure who to ask, if anybody has strong opinions for or against then please send a note, I'll forward to Andy directly.

GHOST CLOSURE, Oct 28 Dave Biesbroek, Kevin Wallis

Just FYI. Alberta Sustainable Resources has closed the South Ghost Area off to all users because of the
presence of aggressive grizzly bears. Here's a linkto the Goverment Info Bulletin.
Click here for a link to the story. It does not include the area of Waiparous Creek. Too bad about the closure as the ghost is starting to
freeze up nicely.

Oct 28th, Terminator Wall, Nicholas Rapaich (at it again!). More photos here

Jason Billings and I jumped on Sea of Vapours which is a Sea of Ice and is a must do. As is Sam Goes Trekking (a long journey though) Another party got on it yesterday (Vapours) Bubba, Dumerac and Tronc Terminated the Terminator. So here are the photo's.

Oct 28th, Amadeus, Shawn Huisman, stuck rope up there.

Mike and I did Amadaus today, it's in great shape, lots of ice. Anyhow, one of my ropes got stuck when we were pulling it, end must have looped around the station or something. Could you post on your site if anybody gets it down to return it to Gear Up in Canmore, or email me. There is a reward.

Thanks alot, Shawn

Oct 27th, Two Pice Yanks Note, Steve House

Just found the photo of two piece yanks. Wow. Way more ice there (obvious if you look at the guide-book photo which was taken on
the approach when we did the route).

Cool. Looks like a direct start could be a real possibility. And if someone repeats the 2 piece yanks original line, let them know that the specter in the
crack is bomber. I whipped onto it hard, then pulled the rope from the anchor and relead the pitch. But that thing is super welded, and in a good spot.
Leashless tools up there will make it much easier (traversing). -Steve

Oct 27, Amadeus, Thomas Choquette

Climbed amadeus on the 27...went as a pure ice route..although it was dodgie getting up the first bit of thin ice onto the ramp from the right..after that ..pretty straight forward..rapped off a big boulder at the top..the station on the right looked quite suspect...wierd climbing ice in oct. UPDATE OCT 28TH: i made a mistake on that trip report..the anchor is on the upper left side..not on the right as i had metioned..opps...someone should chop it and put a station on the right side..it would be much safer and easier to get to...getting to the left side would involve some sketchy moves to get to it..you could blow it right at the top and do a big pendulum...some thoughts..hope to see ya out there to..cheers.

Oct 27th, New route in King Creek, Shawn Huisman, Mike Meilickie

Mike Meilickie and I did a little new route up in King Creek. Called it "Curse of the Bambino", in honor of the Red Sox beating the Yankees and hopefully winning the World Series, 10 bolts 25m, probably around M5. Fun little bit of climbing, it is about 100m before you get to Magic Touch.

Oct 27, Bear Spirit, Nick Rapaich.

Dumerac and myself were up at Bear Spirit today. Ice is forming fast and most of the mixed are good to go. For those that want to get pumped.

Oct 26, R&D, Louis-Julien Roy

Climb R&D this morning it in great shape now take full screws all the way.

Oct 26, Shades of Beauty, Chris Haacke

Climbed Shades of Beauty on Monday....wet, thin but progressing nicely.Many other climbs in the area are coming along well...another week or so.

Oct 26 K-Country pics from Nick Rapaich, nice ones

Cool to see the progression from the early K-country pictures.

Oct 25, Ten Years After and Terminator, Steve Holeczi,

Climbed Ten years after today in great shape. THere is a little water running at the top of the route but the rest is bone dry. Get it while the getting is
good. I don't think the route will stick around in this shape for very long. We brought a few 17's which we found good placements for, a bunch of 10's and
13's as well as a small rack and some pins. Awesome route! Wind has been howling up high with some noticeable transport. Pocket slabs stiffening up
sporratically in the bowls.

T minus 2 - 3 days(?) to the connecting of the Terminator

Oct 25, K-Country, Sylvia Watson (Pics here, go with the descriptions below)

A couple pic's from a drive & walk on Oct. 24th.

The slopes above Marshall Arts look like there is a lot of snow and
there was one small slide down the Moonshadow gully.

There was a car packed at Amadeus.

Saddam's Insane was unformed
and Kidd Falls looked wet through binoculars.

Whiteman Falls is a water fall with the approach ice being unformed

R&D area

Oct 23, Oracle, Nick Rapaich

Attempted the Oracle via Touch Me if You can. Bailed after an extremely thin first pitch with pins only for gear. Oracle's in but thin. For those that are BOLD here are the photos.

Oct 23, Ten Years After (BRING ROCK GEAR), Tom Wolfe, Brent Raymond, October Photos Here

Tom Wolfe writes: when I said that 10 years after was good and fat yesterday, I didn't mean that "no rock gear" was necessary ... I used three pitons behind the pillar,
2 KBs (short) and an angle and these were my first reasonably good pieces (a long small-med angle would have been better than my baby angle, which apparently pulled easily... next person to place a good one should think about leaving it as this protects you through the crux for a long way).

All screws used were 10 or 13 cm. The ice was good for the axes and made for good, very solid-5+ climbing.

I didn't see any places for good ice belays--good screws were few and far between for that matter--so if you miss the first anchor, as I did, and if
you don't have any rock gear, you'll be relying on my 2-piton anchor... a purple TCU and Yellow Camalot back up the 2-pins.

Brent Raymond writes: Nice bumping into (and scooping...) you and Barry today. Here are some photos of the climb for your site.

Wg note: I assumed fat meant no rock gear, my mistake, hope nobody went all the way up there today with just screws...

Oct 23, Trophy Wall/Rundle, WG (Photos here).

Bubba and I had a tour de Rundle today. Watch out for small soft slabs, there are interesting pockets that may build into larger beasts.

In: Sea of Vapors is all ice but thin. Ten Years After is all ice BUT BRING ROCK GEAR. Two-Piece Yanks is in about as good as it's ever likely to get.

Sort of In: Terminator is running water but forming fast, maybe doable but probably wet and miserable, Replicant is sort of there, La Gout is just about an ice route. The Oracle looks like it might be doable but one would have to be bold bordering on stupid (good luck).

Oct 22, Smith Dorien, Mike Stuart (first blood at left, some more photos here)

Drove down the Smith D on Wednesday:
R/D looked stupid (Nick, saw your car there on Thursday and laughed to myself)
First Blood (photo) looked the best out of the bunch to climb, but to get gear, that could be another story....
Ended up doing that mixed thing in King Creek (photo) which really didn't have any ice, but was kinda fun.
Drove back out #40 - no Kidd Falls (pouring water), looked like Amadeus was formed but really fragile
Not much else, yet....
Time to find a beach.......
Mike Stuart

Oct 21, R&D, Nick Rapaich--the first post where somebody actually CLIMBED some ICE!

Oct 17, R&D, Blue Falconer

Checked out R&D area on Saturday, oct.16.  not a smear of ice anywhere in that bowl.  ---blue falconer

-WG Note--Ah, the joy of early season conditions! Good on you for checking it out, every empty early season recon is one less you'll have later in the year or something like that. I do think the season is about to explode, the temps in Canmore are perfect for ice formation at the moment...

October 10, general, WG

Yeah, it's that time of year again. This fall has been relatively wet, which means there are water smears everywhere just waiting to turn into ice. I'm sure someone has already climbed a new route or two. I was up in the alpine a lot last week, there is definitely ice, game on!

October 5, Kevin Dyck, R&D

For what it's worth, on Friday Trish was too much of a pussy to go climbing in spite of the warm temps, so I made her drive out to Ranger Creek with me to check on progress. Both R&D and Chalice are coming in nicely. Someone desperate enough could climb the thin chandeliers of R&D already, but in another two weeks it should be good and fat.