Ice Clime Bing

Even though I'm no good at it, I've been slowly starting to ice climb.  I've traditionally skied straight through the winters, but ice climbing is a necessary skill in the summer and something that I've wanted to work on for a while.  That got me motivated to start, and since then I've been hooked on it.  It challenging, scenic and cool.  Although, I will admit that it feels a bit like pussyfooting when you only have a 10 minute approach and end up pissing around in one little area.  That aside though, I think I'll end up climbing more as time goes by.  It would be nice to work up to leading ability in a few years.

This weekend, Erich's ACC trip was sort of thrown a curve ball when his coleader Justin broke his leg. I can't lead on ice, but I volunteered to step in if Erich changed it to a top rope trip.  That was the original plan, but since the participant list suddenly shrunk, we ended up climbing a multipitch on Saturday anyway!

After forgetting my harness (twice!), we got rolling out of Edmonton.  It was just three of us, Erich, Louise and myself.  We got into Rampart and BS'ed a bit before calling it a night.  We were starting up the trail around 8:30, on the approach for Meltout.  I was getting some major chirps about my ski boots, but those soon were quieted when I broke trail up to the climb.  It was a great time in the warm weather and sticky ice.  The second pitch, though, was rather "soggy" as Erich put it.  I climbed a significant portion of it holding my tools by the head, the ice was that sticky.

Erich on the second pitch of Meltout

Me at the first belay

The view across the valley, towards the Columbia Icefield.  Surprisingly little snow in the area.

Louise finishing up the last pitch

We were done early, so we sat around at the bottom and enjoyed the sun for a while, then went back to the hostel.  I read for a while, the other two had naps.  After a HUGE dinner (I've never felt so full), we headed out to the sauna which, although built for hobbits, was real nice.  I think Erich and I were in there from about 9-12, pounding pils and BS'ing some more.

On Sunday we stopped on the way home at the Cline River Gallery which was pretty cool.  Lots of interesting lines in there, I definitely want to go back.  I got mega pumped on the 4+ there, even though it was apparently in about 3+ or 4 shape.  It was long and tiring to swing on.  I clearly have to work on my technique so that I'm more efficient...

The Cline River Gallery.  Some walkable ice on the left with some steeper short bits above, and then the mixed overhang in the middle.

Where we spent most of our day.  It's apparently a 4+ but it was definitely is 4 shape or easier.  It kicked my ass, I have to get in climbing shape!

Poking Around

I've been on a good streak of weekends recently.  For the last weekend of January (capping off an all-weekends month), I headed out for some skiing with two great friends, Fiona and Lukas.  We were pretty slack on the plans, but decided that we'd head somewhere down 93S on Saturday.  As Lukas and I drove down to Calgary, we bounced a few ideas off each other and eventually decided on a certain spot that neither of us had been before.

I spent the night in Fiona's basement which was a real nice place to crash.  Got some cool conversation in with her fam too, they made me want to take up backpacking again!  Anyhoo, we left town at a relaxed hour on Saturday and spotted our area from the highway.  The day began with some challenging routefinding through copious deadfall.  I was confused by the size and quantity of the fallen trees until Fiona pointed out the fact that most standing trees were missing their uphill branches... to heights of 50ft+!  Something huge must have absolutely obliterated the area in the past, transporting mature timber to the bottom of the mountain and with enough of a powder cloud / shock wave to blow branches clean off trees!

We eventually moved into an avy path and had some fun lapping the bottom half.  The area seems to have some narrow paths, but as I learned these can be a bit bushy in spots.  Still, we had great turns in totally untouched snow with no wind effect at all.  It was pure dreamy!

Skinning up in the fog.  An inversion layer moved around the valley through the morning.

Down the Valley

Another line for another time.  Fiona in the foreground.

Oold Skool

Lukas cruises the lower angle runout zone

The fun part, the steeper (but slightly bushy) upper slide path

  After skipping back to the car, we headed into Lake Louise and met Bridget.  Hanging out at the hostel and drinking beer consumed the night, and before we knew it we were crashing at 11, totally wasted.  It's sometimes surprising how even an easier day can make you tired by the end of the day.

On Sunday, the original plan was to go after the Dolomite Circuit.  Car trouble (and associated multi-hour delays), weather and a lack of wanting to force Lukas to suffer the low angle exit from the circuit meant that we just lapped Katherine Ridge instead.  The snow wasn't bad, and Lukas and I even managed to ski a nice shot off the West side of the ridge.  It was another good day, better not because of the snow or turns, but because of the people I was with.  Nothing quite makes a great day like great partners!

On our way into Helen Creek

Lukas comes up to Katherine Ridge

Fiona being... well... Fiona haha

Lukas drops into one of the West-facing bowls on Katherine Ridge

And shreds hard on his Olive Splitboard.  Cool deal, it being built in Edmonton and all.

After swooshing back down the creek, we crushed beers in the parking lot before starting the long haul back home.  Lukas was actually able to make it out Helen Creek without splitting the board, he's got his technique pretty well dialed!  All in all, a great weekend with great people.  I can't wait to get out with these guys again!

A Weekend with the ACC

After I got back from Cali, I signed up for an ACC trip to Observation Subpeak.  I mostly signed up because it was led by Reinhold.  That guy has a pretty good rep in the club for leading well, so I thought that this would be a good way to learn leadership skills by watching.

I drove down on Friday, and pulling into the Mosquito Creek hostel, found Reinhold at least 6 beer in.  The guy was lighting it up.  I stayed up and drank with him until about midnight.  He was up right on the money at 7:30 and ready to go the next morning.  What a recovery for a guy closing in on 50!  Anyway, we eventually got going, and started up the West spur of Observation Subpeak.  This was a different way than Pete and I went last year.  Although it does require more bootpacking, it's probably a more reliable approach that's not threatened by hazard like the old approach is.

Starting up.  It was a cold but clear morning.

Slowly climbing with Mts. Patterson and Howser in the background.

Eventually, we worked our way onto a narrower section of ridge and eventually bootpacked up to the summit.  Standing there in the cold wind, looking down at a totally wind-blasted North Glacier, none of us really felt that the glacier runs would be worthwhile.  So instead, we booted back down a ways, put the skis on, and swooshed back to the road.  Not a bad day, but nothing big either.

Cool line off Observation (the real peak)

Views of Bow Peak, Hector, Temple and even Assiniboine

Forbes, Howser, White Pyramid and Chephren.  If you look close, Columbia is even poking up in between Howser and WP.

Kevin is silhouetted against the Bow Glacier

Walking down seems like sacrilege, but it's what we had to do.

Back early to the hostel, we hung out and chatted a bunch.  Trading stories of stupidity and close calls was fun for a while, then we went to bed.  We sort of decided to hit Katherine Ridge the next day, and that's what we ended up doing.

Creek crossing along Helen Creek

Helen Ridge's awesomeness.  Gotta get in there with good stability.

Walking along Katherine Ridge

Bernie and Richard coming up for another lap

Overall, twas a good weekend with some cool new people.  I'm looking forward to doing some more stuff with Reinhold, Bernie and Kevin.  I was a bit disappointed by the type of people who signed up for this "Advanced" club trip.  It was pretty darn tame.  Ah well, at least I now know what to expect if I throw a trip like that up on the schedule.  Good times with bluebird sky though, no complaints here.

California

Every year, the UAOC runs a trip to California.  They generally switch things up a bit every year, but it's always a hit.  The last few years, my family has always gone away for this time, so I've never been able to go on the California trip.  This year, though, I finally was free so I jumped on the opportunity.

On Boxing Day, I got a ride in to the University and hopped on the bus.  Then started the longest period of sitting I've ever endured.  My knees even started to hurt because of inactivity.  There were comfort stops along the way, but it still kinda sucked.  Luckily I slept for a good portion of the drive so it was alright.

After a stop in Las Vegas for a few hours, we pulled into Yucca Valley for grocery shopping around 5:00 AM.  I felt sick from being on the bus for so long, and so shopping didn't really go well.  It was tough to plan meals in that state, neither Erich nor I were very enthusiastic.  By the time we pulled into the campsite a couple hours later, though, we were feeling on top of our game and instantly went to start climbing.  We went over to Feudal Wall and set up a few lines.  The rest of the exec showed up and we sessioned these lines.  Nothing hard (I hadn't touched the rock shoes since September), I eventually led a two pitch 5.7 with Andi following.  That was a nice experience, it had a properly old school feel with a standing harness belay at the top of the route.  After, we headed back to camp where Justin and I walked a ways behind camp and scrambled up a little peak.  This was by far the funnest scrambling I have ever done.  Crawling under, around and over boulders with numerous short fifth class moves in between.  Pure fun and NO SCREE!!!!

Parking lot for Feudal Wall.  Didn't take any climbing photes... cause I was climbing!

Justin lower on the scramble

The scenery is just weird.  I could spend weeks in the area just dicking around like this, scrambling up all these cool little peaks.

Really good rock climbing potential, but I have a feeling at J Tree climbers are spoilt by road access.  Nothing further than 100 meters from the road is listed in the guidebook.

The view back to Indian Cove

Sunset in the desert

That night, we finally got to party and boy did we go!  Well, actually everybody went to bed super early and we closed out the party at 11!  It felt so weird, our internal clocks were screwed up from the bus ride.

The next day, we headed to Short Wall.  I climbed a big offwidth crack to the top and set up a toprope on a 10a.  I then went over to top rope another offwidth (I suck at offwidth and wanted to get better).  While being lowered off, I got dropped a couple meters, and ended up lightly spraining my ankle as well as shredding my back.  That sort of ended my day.  Everybody said that the 10a was a fun time, but all I could do was sit around and chat.  Not bad, but a bit disappointing.

Hanging around, doing stuff that doesn't require a lot of footwork.

Around 3, we got back on the bus and drove to Leo Carrillo State Park for some warmer camping near the beach, just north of Malibu.

The next day, I took a lazy group up to a 2000' viewpoint over the coast.  Good for my ankle, as it was still recovering.  We then went down to the tide pools and played around with the sea anemones and starfish in the pools.  Pretty cool to hop around the rocks, seeing all sorts of sea creatures.  I managed to piss everyone off my singing Rock Lobster and getting it stuck in everyone's head.  A walk along the beach was a great way to end the day, before heading back to camp for supper and some wobbly pops.

Hiking up from the coast

Hiking up to the viewpoint

On top, we played a serious game of Ninja.  There was probably a solid 5 minute battle between Will and Phil

Starfish

Sea Anemone.  Unfortunately, no Rock Lobsters were found.

Cool Mussels on the Sea Cliffs

Walking into the sunset

On New Years Eve, we went surfing at Zuma Beach.  I had an epic day, catching lots of waves and even managed to ride one all the way along the break, probably a solid 45 seconds of chill riding.  The rest of the afternoon was spent on the beach, lounging in the sun and playing ultimate.  Unfortunately, I was getting too rad to take photos.  The party that night was something else.  Celebrating on the beach was awesome, then we managed to run into the same Americans that caused our campfire explosion the year before.  The next day, I became the running joke for waking up with Christine in my tent.  Thankfully, I found out that she had just crashed there due to the drunken state of her tent mate, and not due to other circumstances.  Nevertheless, Andi enjoyed recounting my reaction the next morning "What the hell happened last night?!?"

On New Years Day, we just hung around and napped.  For dinner, we walked up the beach to Neptune's Net, the restaurant featured in Fast & Furious.  Pretty good seafood there, but it was pricey.  After another day of surfing on the 2nd, we drove to Death Valley and pulled into the campsite at 11.

In Death Valley, Justin and I had planned an overnight hike to the Inyo Mine.  It involved going up a rarely traveled canyon and then navigating off trail to a small pass.  That pass would take us back down to a 4X4 road, which we would follow past the mine and back to the highway.  That morning, I ran over to the info center and managed to borrow a pair of topo maps of the area.  Then, all packed, we got on the bus.  Bruce dropped us off at the highway and took everyone else to go sightseeing in Badwater Basin and at the Ubehebe Crater.  The 13 of us shouldered our packs and walked a 4X4 road to "Hole in the Wall"  Here, we got off the road and walked over an allivial fan to where we could get into the canyon.  At the start of the canyon, a few falls provided a nice distraction and a spot for lunch.  After bypassing the falls, we worked our way up the canyon.  In this stretch, there were many small cliffs and falls that needed to be climbed.  These created bottlenecks for the group, and slowed us down a bit.  Some cruising up the canyon led to a 50 foot fall which we again bypassed, then finally we exited onto a high plane.

This high plane was very difficult to navigate on.  The peaks were all small, all cone-shaped and there were very few defining features to navigate from.  No sharp ridgelines, or rivers, or glaciers to give me hints.  For this reason, I got us slightly lost, too far West.  The sun was getting lower and lower, and finally I had to make a run for a high ridge to navigate from in the failing light.  Seeing the pass finally in the distance (the pass was invisible from ground level, just weird terrain), we slowly picked our way across the desert plane toward it in the dark.  We followed a drainage toward the pass, and when it finally turned West, we stumbled on the pass.  In the dark, we decided not to descend and instead made camp where we were, at about 5100 feet asl.  The stars were amazing, we had good food, by bribing the group with chocolate, I managed to keep morale up.

Hiking up the 4X4 road

This guy doesn't seem happy to see us

Hole in the Wall

Schist formations bounding an alluvial fan.  As I told the group, this is one place where you can accurately say that "The schist hits the fan"

Typical vegetation

Freddy climbing up the falls

Lunch time

Avoiding the falls on scree

Already gaining elevation

One of the little cliffs that had to be climbed

Avoiding the 50 foot cliff

Working around another pinch in the canyon

Group shot in the canyon

Megan and Sietske taking a break

The sun's going down...

At least sunset made a good photo

 The next morning, I got up a bit early and found a good way down the pass.  I then went back to camp, woke everyone up, and got us moving.  Down the pass we went, hit the road quickly and were at the mine in about an hour give or take.

Sunrise

This way!

Pretty high camp, considering that the night before we were below sea level

A snake nest.  Really creepy to stumble on if you aren't watching your feet.  You punch through and never know if something is going to bite!

Ben at Inyo

The Inyo Mine camp

I'm a NERD

Into the mine

Freddy being brave

More nerdy engine photos

A clutch

Old gas can

A view of the Inyo Mine camp, and in the background up on the hill, the entrance to the mine itself

I could have slept in the bed, if we hadn't gotten lost!

After an hour and a half at the mine, we picked up the packs again and pounded the miles down the road and out Echo Canyon.  Along the way, we stopped at the "Eye of the Needle", a rock arch along the canyon.  Finally, we walked to the highway and then trudged back to camp, right on time: a few minutes after five.

Ben in front of the Eye of the Needle

Looking through the arch

Nic with the remainder of Echo Canyon stretching out behind

Freddy makes it up

Ben working his way across the slab

Pounding miles

Out of the canyon, getting closer to the highway

Trudging along the highway

Back down, 5100' to -180 in a day

Looking toward Badwater Basin

That night was a great party with everyone finishing off alcohol, burning up the extra white gas, and partying with the bus drivers who were a hoot!  There were also skits and charades.  All in all a good time.

For our last day, we just showered and hung out at the Furnace Creek Ranch's pool.  It was nice to relax and get clean before hopping on the bus home.