Mt Hector (attempt)

Posted by on April 22, 2011 1 comment

My friend Jonathan flew out from Toronto last week for an attempt to climb Mt Hector on a guided trip. From the airport we headed to MEC where we picked up his rental gear for the trip. That afternoon we hit the road with plans to stay at the Lake Louise HI Hostel. The drive was uneventful and he had soon settled in our hostel room which was no bigger than a prison cell. We sorted gear and then headed for dinner at the Outpost Pub in Lake Louise.

The next morning we met our guide Jeff at Lagaan’s. We’ve done several trip with Jeff so we caught up on family and adventures and headed out to the trailhead.

Parked on the Icefields Parkway at the trailhead.

Mt Hector is a pretty awesome ski mountaineering objective if for no other reason than you can literally ski straight from your car and ski down straight to your car at the end of the day. Soon we were skinning up the drainage called Hector Creek I think. Thirty minutes later we were at the gully which the guidebook calls the crux of the ascent. Not because it’s difficult but because it’s a death trap in terms of avalanche exposure. At this point Jeff decided to do a quick refresher on avalanche rescue and safety. We got out our transceivers and right away we were confronted with the rental unit from MEC malfunctioning. We had tested it the night before but we were standing next to each other when we tested it and it turns out the issue was with range  finding. The gear malfunction was the crux of this day. We couldn’t continue and so we made plans to return the next day.

We were determined not to waste the day so when we got back to Lake Louise we decided to put on the skis and go to the back of Lake Louise and try to climb an ice route called Cable Gullies. This way we got some more mileage on our skis and we couldn’t really ask for a more beautiful place to idle the time away until we went back to Hector the next day.

Cable Gullies WI2 15m

On our way to Cable Gullies we got a great view of Lousie Falls which is in great shape for this time of year. I’ll leave it to the reader to decide what’s very very wrong in this picture. Hint; it has to do with the climbers.

Louse Falls WI5 110m

That evening we headed to Banff for a big pasta meal and back early to our hostel for a good nights rest.

The next morning we met Jeff again at Lagaan’s and we were off to the trailhead and up the drainage in no time. The first interesting part of this route is the gully which gains the alpine area and meadows below the glacier. There was a ton of avalanche debris in this area so we had to take off our skis and boot pack up the gully.

Boot packing up the gully.

After we topped out of the gully we put on our skis and continued through a meadow with sparse trees which was threatened by avalanche terrain from every side. We stayed in the middle of the terrain and slowly made our way out of the trees and up toward the moraine protecting the tow of the glacier. At the moraine we had to remove skis and put them on our packs for the long slog to the top. I’ve heard in other years this moraine can be covered in snow and it’s possible to skin up. I’ll believe it when I see it!

Ascending the moraine.

Stopping for a picture at one of the clear moments we had.

More moraine.

Climbing the moraine wasn’t that bad. Carrying skis on your pack is much more stable than it looks and soon we were back on the skis and skinning toward our objective. We hadn’t gained the glacier yet but we were close. I should mention the weather was fairly unstable on this day. The sun would try to peak out every once in a while but otherwise we had white out conditions. It was also snowing on and off and a cold wind would whip up to remind us that these are winter conditions in the alpine and Spring is nowhere to be seen.

We continued to the toe of glacier and decided to stop for lunch and see what the weather would do. We also geared up for glacier travel at this point. After around 30 minutes we decided to push on in the same conditions we had faced all day. With rope on we started ascending to the summit. Visibility would come and go and I would say at the most it was 300m when it was really clear. We hadn’t seen the summit block all day. Being on the glacier meant we were skiing over and between crevasses. We stayed climbers right to avoid the biggest holes we saw looming to our left. To our right was also the east face of Little Hector. It was reassuring to have those rocks features there to guide us but on our descent those very cliffs started spitting avalanches down as the new snow was loading the gullies.

Roped up for glacier travel.

We got to within 400m of the summit and our goal of reaching the top seemed less and less likely as the weather continued to deteriorate. Jeff stopped just before a crevasse and said that poor visibility was causing him to be reactive to crevasses as opposed to proactive which is the best way to route find and travel on a glacier. All the new snow was making the descent seem more and more appealing but it also become evident that we would have to ski down on rope because of the poor visibility and the fact that our up track was disappearing a few minutes after we passed by. The best decision was to turn back. I felt good up to this point. My conditioning seemed good for this route and I feel I would have been able to make the summit if we could have pushed on.

Ropes off on our way down.

The snow quality was very nice on the way down. After a short descent with the rope on we were off the glacier and were able to enjoy some very nice turns. I have to say I found the experience of skiing in an alpine environment very exhilarating. As if by some freak of timing the skies cleared up enough to let us see where were going down and it was stunning. In fact it cleared up enough that we stopped and considered heading back up. But that lasted for about 10 minutes before it was snowing horizontally and it was white everywhere.

We really enjoyed the descent on the new snow.

We did take a wrong turn to avoid the moraine we had to walk up and it turned out we had to gain some metres to get us back on track. For some reason this little off track excursion really killed me. My legs started feeling really heavy and I was very slow moving on the rock and snow we had to traverse and climb. In hindsight I think most of the affect was psychological. I had reserved myself to the fact that we were skiing all the way to the car and of course in the alpine you can never make such assumptions. I didn’t want to boot pack any more and my mind was telling my body to rebel. I need to work on this.

Ascending on the descent.

Jeff and Jonathan waiting for my slow ass.

I really was having a lot of fun!

Nothing like skiing in the alpine. It's wild and exhilarating.

We got back on track and skied all the way back to the first gully and were able to side step it all the way down to the drainage and in no time we were back at the car. And yes if we didn’t have to cross the road we would have literally skied to our car.

Overall it was a fantastic day. I was with people who’s company I enjoy. I got my first taste of a big ski mountaineering objective and I felt good about being able to complete it. I’m glad because this is as easy as it gets for ski mountaineering.

Gear wise I felt I was very well prepared. My ski gear performed awesome. For having new boots I didn’t get any hot spots and the skis performed very well despite not being as “fat” as most people venture into the backcountry with. My pack was perfect for carrying skis and very comfortable. My layers were perfect and I felt comfortable all day despite the intermittent cold winds that would whip up once in a while. I still need to get a decent soft shell as my old North Face shell is worn out and not very water repellent. Also I think I need to invest in a synthetic insulation layer. My down sweater would have been soaking wet even under a hard shell and rendered useless.

I’m planning to go back in a couple of weeks to finish this route. Stay tuned.

More picture here.

The GPS track below was from the SPOT messenger so it’s very rough but gives a good idea of the route we took.


View Mt Hector in a larger map

Grotto Falls Redux

Posted by on April 7, 2011 No comments

The first time I went ice climbing was in December of 2003. I went to Junkyards with my friend Chris and did two or three laps on the main climbing area. I had rented double plastic boots and crampons from MEC and Chris had lent me a pair of ice tools and a helmet. I think at that point I had done some indoor bouldering and maybe some roped climbing at Stronghold in Calgary. I had never climbed anything outside.

Topping out on my first pitch of ice ever! Junkyards Dec 2003.

My first time climbing ice. I look happy so I must have enjoyed it. Junkyards Dec 2003.

My most memorable emotion is that I had fun. It wasn’t very cold despite how I look in the picture above and flailing my feet and arms into ice seemed totally natural. I even did my first rappel outdoors.

My first rappel outdoors at Junkyards Dec 2003.

A few days later we headed into Grotto Falls. We hiked in by headlamp which doesn’t necessarily mean we had an early start. This was December after all. By this point I had my own helmet but everything else was rented or borrowed. I now know that Grotto was in very thin conditions and it was way more vertical than anything I had climbed at Junkyards just a few days before. Chris led the pitch to the ledge and bolted belay and I followed. About half way up my crampon came off. I was so incompetent at this sport that I couldn’t even get the most important parts of it right. I do distinctly remember being able to continue climbing because there were these little foot ledges which I later learned meant the ice was very kicked out. I remember even commenting to Chris that I could have climbed it without crampons. Cocky even back then!

 

Topping out P1 Grotto Falls Dec 2003.

From there I belayed Chris on P2. Look how thin it was in comparison to this year. I know it’s comparing December to April but still. Chris would go on to place 2 screws on that pitch.

 

Chris leading P2 Grotto Falls Dec 2003.

Looking up at P2 Grotto Falls April 2011.

I put on my crampons properly and went on to finish Grotto Falls for what would be my first multi pitch ice route! From the top we had to rappel off a v-thread which was another first and pretty scary for a beginner.

Rappelling Grotto Falls Dec 2003.

His & Hers Dec 2003.

More pictures from my first ice climbing experience can be found here.

What’s interesting is that I never went ice climbing again until this season (2010/2011). I took 7 years off! I continued to indoor climb and the odd time out sport climbing. I tried my hand at some multi pitch trad climbing. Those attempts deserve their own posts. I also continued to hike but that’s about it. Then in 2009 I took a six day mountaineering course and it opened up a whole new world. Since then I’m scrambling more. I’ve done several alpine routes and having had a taste of ice climbing on Mount Aberdeen this past Fall I wanted to go out and try climbing ice again. My main goal was to get good enough to move on alpine ice very quickly. Even be able to lead some pitches. I have had almost 14 days on ice this season. I figure I’ve done around 40 pitches ranging from WI2 to WI5+. I’ve soloed Chantilly Falls. I’ve even led a few pitches. I don’t know if I met my goal for helping me move faster on alpine ice but it was a blast trying.

The Ice Climbers Creed

Posted by on April 5, 2011 No comments

The Ice Climbers Creed

I was bored and as I contemplated the end of ice climbing season, Full Metal Jacket started showing on TV and so I was inspired to compose this.

These are my ice tools. There are many like them, but these ones are mine.  They are my life.  I must master them as I must master my life.  Without me my tools are useless.  Without my tools, I am useless.

I must strike my tools true.  I must strike with more force than the brittle ice can offer in resistance. I must make it stick before I come unstuck.  I will.  My tools and I know that what counts is not the grades we climb,  the gear we adorn, or the approach we struggle with.  We know that it is the sticks that count.  We will make good sticks.

My tools are human, even as I am human, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother.  I will learn its weaknesses, its strengths, its parts, its accessories, its picks and its grips.  I will keep my tools sharpened and ready, even as I am geared up and ready.  We will become part of each other.

Neither delaminating ice nor brittle ice will weaken our resolve. Before JoJo’s guidebook I swear this creed.  My tools and I are the senders of routes.  We are the masters of waterfall ice.  We are the saviors of my life. So be it, until every route has been sent and there’s no remaining first ascents.

Inspired by the Rifleman Creed. You might remember the creed from this movie.

 

 

 

Linking up moderate routes

Posted by on March 20, 2011 No comments

This past winter I’ve been reading a lot about climbing enchainments, that is linking up routes to make for very serious but fun full days of climbing. Some of the classics are Hydrophobia/Sorcerer ice climbs in The Ghost.  Several others are listed here. The one that really captured my imagination is the Mt Athabasca (North Face), Polar Circus and Directessima (Yamnuska) link-up aka known as the ultimate tour of  classic Rockies climbing.

This got me and a friend thinking. What could we link together for a very fun day out in the mountains but be within our abilities? We want to start with something moderate this Spring so we’re thinking of ice and rock and it turns out there’s quite a bit to choose from in the Bow Valley or Kananaskis alone. Like Gadd and Slawinski who wanted to do something with the “classics”  but choose climbs of moderate grade. I defer to Will Gadd to define classic in this context.

“Classic” means it typifies its genre, and is a good day out on its own. None of these routes are cutting edge in difficulty, but all are respectable routes, the sort one could date and feel good about.

To fulfil our moderate requirement we’re thinking of ice routes in the WI4 range and rock routes up to 5.6. Moonlight would be an obvious grade 4 choice but I climbed it earlier this season and we both feel The Professor Falls (III 280m WI4) would be a better choice and give us a more alpine feel. For rock I think the only choice is on Yam. THE classic yam moderate route is probably Grillmair’s Chimney (5.6), although I’m lobbying hard for Easy Street (5.4) just to give us a chance of finishing this crazy idea of ours.

We’re planning to do this in the next few weeks. Do you have any suggestions for other moderate linkups?

 

Winter rock

Posted by on March 13, 2011 2 comments

I have a friend, let’s call him Chris, who gets credit for getting me into climbing years ago. Where many people would look at my 200lb frame and think I’d make a better Rugby player (or couch potato) than a climber he sees boundless enthusiasm and a lot of heart so he encouraged me to try bouldering, then indoor climbing, then sport climbing, then trad climbing and eventually ice – and here we are today. So when he says “it’s going to be a few days of nice weather, let’s go climb some rock!” Who am I to say no?

With this statement followed by some text messages and instant messages we had a plan. Routes on Yamnuska should be clear so we planned to do Grillmair’s Chimney. The final decision could only be made once we saw the route up close so we decided to take ice gear in case we had to go to plan B which involved climbing ice.

As we pulled off the Trans Canada Highway we could see that Yam was indeed in fine shape but it was a little too late to start on any of those routes so we went to plan B. I should note that during the drive up plan B changed to more rock and plan C become ice. We looked at Doorjamb Mountain and Loder Peak and a series of cliffs with short multi-pitch rock routes. We settled on Kid Goat and a route called Twilight Zone; four pitches, 5.6. As we scanned the cliffs we kept getting teased by the blue ice on Coire Dubh Integrale (500m WI3 (M5) 5.4-5.6) leading up to Loder Peak. The fact that we contemplated it is a little insane so that’s all I have to say about that.

Kid Goat it is. Chris is currently reading Exterme Alpinism so he proceeded to talk me out of taking my gaiters and even thought about leaving behind our headlamps. We have to travel light he said and besides the route is dry. I basically won’t go to the bathroom in my house without a headlamp so there’s no way I’m leaving it behind but I left my gaiters behind. Please note this for what I’m about to describe.

We head toward the dump (yes a waste dump in the Rockies) and the trail taking us to the base of the route. There’s nothing like walking next to a large heap of garbage in the foreground of one of the most beautiful vistas in the front ranges to make you hate all humanity. We note the gusting winds, I would estimate 40-60 km/h but otherwise the the skies are clear and the guidebook has clear instructions to reach the route  … in the summer. As we leave the dump behind we lose the trail and none of the landmarks are obvious under the snowy winter conditions. We end up heading into the trees and just bee lining for the cliffs of Kid Goat. I wish I could complain about the bushwacking but the snow drifts and post holing would make any bushwalking seem like a walk on a city path. At points we were wading through thigh high snow and the rest of the time we were post holing up past our knees. There’s no greater tease in the world than an unsupportive crust. Just when you think it’s going to hold your weight, the damn thing gives away and your cursing with a hard crust layer digging into your shins or thighs. These are the perfect conditions for gaiters, the ones I left behind in my car. These are also perfect conditions for proper winter boots. The ones I decided to wear but that Chris left behind because he thought approach shoes would be more appropriate. We kept bee lining because this was only supposed to be a 30 minute approach.

Finally we get to a clearing and we’re at the base of the final slope heading up to the routes. We left the car 1.5 hours ago. So much for the 30 minute approach. Ahead of us is a heavily treed 30 degree slope with thigh deep snow. Why am I all of a sudden considering avalanche hazard on a day which we thought we would be tip toeing through the meadow to climb warm, dry rock? We decide to forge ahead and this was the crux of the approach. The slope made the deep snow almost impassable but just over 2 hours after we left the car we had rock in front of us. But was it the correct route? We had no idea and because the base of the route was under a lot of snow we couldn’t look for the tell-tale cave which marked the bottom of Twilight Zone. We thought it was over to the climbers left but the slope we had to traverse looked pretty sketchy so we decided the best route is the one in front of you so let’s climb from here. We stomped out a 4 feet long by 1 foot deep snow ledge so we could gear up and got comfy in our new home. Making the transition from snow to rock was going to be tricky so we decided to climb the first pitch in our boots. Well my boots and Chris in his approach shoes. Sure enough just leaving the snow ledge to get feet on rock took several careful attempts but then Chris was off on lead.

About 10m up, having placed gear and clipped into a bolt he announces over the hallowing wind that he knows where we are. “It’s 5.8″ is all I heard after that.  Did I mention the wind had picked up a little? From our home on the snow ledge we were getting pounded by huge updrafts and gusts along the face of the cliff that would constantly force me to brace against the rock face as I belayed Chris. But he kept climbing and just below the crux decided he had to switch to rock shoes. He moved very confidently through the crux but it was slow going and at that point I realized we weren’t going to finish this route but the fun wasn’t over. I’ll skip over the boring rock climbing parts, this day was all about the approach and the conditions on what we thought would be an easy day on dry rock.

Chris eventually decided to bail. He said the moment he realized he had to bail was when an updraught was so strong that he was momentarily lifted off the rock as he was making a friction move. These were the worst wind gusts he’d ever led in and it wasn’t going to go today. But before deciding to bail  he setup a top rope so I could climb the crux. I did all my climbing in boots which was an awesome feeling. I don’t know why I feel so badass climbing in mountaineering boots. Sadly I had to hang on the crux, but I lowered to the bottom of the crux move and got it on my second try. I can’t believe how much fun it was. All my moves were confident and I felt strong despite all the ill feeling I had developed toward rock climbing this winter as my love for ice climbing blossomed. It was obvious that all the time at the indoor gym and all the ice climbing had helped. My arms were mostly in the right position, I had confidence in my feet placements, even with boots and I was constantly looking at my feet. My arms never got pumped and at one point I was so excited I was whopping and hollering into the insane wind. I knew nobody could hear me but it felt so good. Once I got to the bail anchor I got lowered and we packed up and made short work of the steep snow slope by plunge stepping all the way back to the the flatter trails. Of course on the way out we found all the right trails and realized we missed the correct turn off by about 100m which means we could have avoided some serious snow/bushwhacking.

It turns out we climbed the bottom of Grey Waves, a route to the climbers right of our objective and rated 5.8. We were nowhere near our goal for the day but it was a lot of fun. We were upbeat and the day reinforced my philosophy that outdoor pursuits are less about the achievements and more about two things above all else. Be safe so you can return home to your family and have fun so you can enjoy the pursuit and the people who choose to pursue with.

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