Ice Climbing Jan - Feb 2012

The last month and a half has been unbelievably busy with my legal liability risk management and Search & Rescue Management classes and adventure has been calling my name! In January I managed to ice climb for a week and in February I got another week of climbing in. My friends and I explored a huge area in the Rockies including Jasper, the Ice Fields Parkway, Nordegg, Lake Louise, Banff and Canmore some of the most beautiful places on earth. The temperatures were really nice with clear blue sky's and we were surrounded by world class ice climbs.

The picture above is of a fully loaded Nissan Pathfinder with 4 peoples gear and food for a week ice climbing. 

There is something about ice climbing that just makes one feel so many emotions at once! You are excited, scared, happy, nervous yet you are absolutely loving the adrenaline rushing through your veins as you make your way up these amazing unstable formations! You are lead climbing, placing minimal screws in the ice with about 40 sharp flesh piercing objects attached to you which means a fall is most defiantly the last thing you want happening. You are swinging your ice tools into this very unstable frozen waterfall ice that is breaking at almost every swing yet your mind set is "I'm not going to fall". And to make things worse as you're always gripping the ice tools and your hands are above your head with the cold temperatures the blood runs right out which gets extremely painful! There are defiantly not many elements of ice climbing that work for you so it is really important that every move you make your mind is not wandering, you're focused and concentrated on what you are doing. NO FEELING LIKE IT :-)

This climbing area is 5 minutes outside of Jasper and there is a very popular ice walk through the gorge that we were climbing in so we created quite an audience when they spotted us climbing. As I was climbing I could hear the guide telling his group how if I fell I would almost hit the ground, he was not helping my focus!

The picture below is to show you a close up of how the ice looks that we climb, yes it is brittle.

The picture below shows a bunch of different sized ice screws which we place in the ice as we are climbing. We tend to leave big gaps between ice screw placements as they take time to place in the ice and could pump you out. But the rule is don't fall right so screws or no screws you should be fine right? Joke

This climbing area was very close to Banff and it also had an ice walk below. As we were climbing we had guys come in with some serious camera equipment and they started filming us which was cool. We figured they were from the Banff tourism information centre or something similar.

You're not a master until you've become a good teacher. And I'm teaching the world to fucking ice climb at the moment."    — Steve Haston, 1998.

The picture above is of Santiago and I at the top of a really fun super easy multi pitch ice climb called Two o'clock falls. Ready to repeal with our V thread backed up by our anchor in order to test it. 

 The picture above is of another climbing partner Kat Wood looking solid with a nice runout below.

These picture are of Martin Fipp with pretty awesome looking ice tool placements.

So whats next? Unfortunately my ice climbing is over for the season and the gear is being put away for the summer but not all is unfortunate! In 6 days I leave for Thailand for about 40 days with some climbing partners to get some early season climbing in and some deserved heat.

Fall in the mountains

To warm up for the winter season I spent a week in Alberta, in the Rockies were i climbed in the Banff area and then in the Columbia ice fields. 

My climbing partners and I were practicing short roping techniques up Castle mountain, in the back ground is highway 1.

The picture above is taken at the foot of the Columbia ice fields glacier 

One of our climbs was Mt Athabasca which is a 11,453 foot peak the 18th highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. The picture above shows the large ice ramp which was part of the ascent.

The picture above and below is the alpine sunrise, we started the approach at 4am so were in the perfect spot for the sunrise.

Climbing Expedition to Smith Rocks and Red Rocks

On May 1st 2011 we set off from Kamloops BC on a road trip we would never forget. From Kamloops we drove 15 hours to Smith Rock State National Park Oregon USA. Arriving at the camp ground at 11pm we quickly set up camp in the dark excited for our first day of climbing. 

Smith Rocks is more famous for its amazing sport climbing rather than traditional climbing so armed with our quickdraws we had 5 days of climbing some 5 star hard sport routes.

 A view across the main sport climbing areas.

One of my favourite 5.10d sport climbs, a beautiful consistent lead with crimps as pockets and smooth face features, its called the headless horsemen. Just out of the picture is another amazing climb 5.11b called popism, very sustained with powerful bolder moves. Very over hung for the first 3 bolts.

The picture above is a climb called Monkey face and this is the west face variation. It is one of the classics of the area and is 4 pitches 5.8 so finally we could pull the trad gear out. Its said that the 3rd pitch is the most exposed 5.7 in America as you step out of a cave onto a sheer face with 100meters of nothing below you. 

A picture of me a few pitches up the Monkey Face.

One of the many beautiful views from the national park.

After 5 days of an unbelievable amount of sport climbing it was time to move on. Next stop was Red rocks Nevada approximately 20min outside Las Vegas. The above picture is of our campsite, the van and trailer are parked to try block out the howling wind that seems to be constantly blowing day and night. 

 First pitch of Cookie Monster.

A view looking down and my belayer as I lead the next pitch.

Leading the crux pitch of Cat in the hat, a nice mellow trad multi pitch.

A view with Las Vegas in the top left corner of the picture, i could see the strip from here.

A hanging belay station on Crimson Chrysalis 5.9, 9 pitches an area classic although very uncomfortable stations for a party of 4  

My two strange but awesome climbing buddies 

 Summit of Tunnel Vision 6 pitch trad 5.7 runout and a runout it was!

Credit to Santiago Espinosa for the photo above. Im racking up to lead the first pitch of Cookie Monster.