Ice and snow-days leading up to the snowpocalypse

     Well its been awhile but I have been on the road for the past couple weeks so here is a long overdue update.  After ice climbing in banff before christmas i spent a few days in red deer and the rest of the time out at buffalo lake.  My dad and I got lots of cross country skiing in both in red deer on on the perfect wind scoured conditions on the lake.  But before long the mountains started calling to me again and it was time to pack up the ice gear, sharpen the tools and head to the rockies once more. 

sunset ski on the lake

some shots of me and my dad doing the x-country thing.

I was back in kamloops on the first giving me a day to pack up some extra things and grab some food for my first class of the new year...ICE CLIMBING.  We packed the schools van the on the second and met one of our guides...the always entertaining Dave Edgar.  We started off with a couple days in jasper some people in our group learning the basics and a couple of us working on our steep ice technique.  Our second guide was the very knowledgeable Sean Isaac, guidebook author and Black Diamond athlete.  Between Daves constant ranting and Seans calm instruction the whole group was leading grade 2-3 ice after only four days.  We visited maligne canyon tangle falls the cline river gallery and two oclock falls as well as an unknown waterfall we found when we were looking for shwarts falls.  This course was probably one of the best ive had here so far and i feel my technique has been greatly improved.  Our guides were very knowledgeable and always entertaining.  

me climbing some mixed ground at the cline river gallery

Sean Pickersgill at the belay on two oclock falls

Dave Edgar showing us his badass side by climbing all day with no gloves.

Sean Pickersgill on lead two oclock falls

At the base of the climb after our multi-pitch day

We got back from the rockies and after repacking the bags I went to bed and woke up early the next morning to once again head back to the rockies...this time it was me and Sean Pickersgill and Angela Forseille(two of my classmates).  On our instructors recommendation we planned to spend the next week committing our new skills to muscle memory.  We roared off to golden and upon arrival at around 3 pm we headed up the six pitch route green gully.  Sean lead the third(crux) pitch in the dark and with easier rambly terrain ahead we decided to bail early and make some dinner.  We climbed the next day at cedar creek seeps in what felt like -30 with the windchill, we built a fire and did a few ice routes as well as a drytool route.  The next day we spent the day in the white swan natural hot springs which where very relaxing.  Angela was leaving the next day from lake louise so we stopped off at marble canyon to climb the tokkum pole.  Marble canyon can be seen from the boardwalks above and bridges that cross over it, but if you have some climbing skills you can rappel into the bottom of the canyon and climb back out!(the fun things we get to do as climbers!)  We spent the morning climbing various lines up the tokkum pole and then climbed out and headed to louise to catch angelas bus.

unloading at the truck

Sean working the more difficult line on tokkum pole

Angela climbing out of the canyon

Sean dug a cave from the back of the pole out

Sean high on the climb

Angela rapping in

 Me climbing on the pole

Sean

Angela left leaving us four more days of climbing...we probably should have gone with her.  We headed up to rampart creek hostel on the icefeilds parkway.  The first day we got on Meltout, a classic WI3 route that has two pitches of real climbing and then a pitch of easy rambly ice.  It was a fun but fairly short day out and then we were back to the hostel for a sauna and dinner!

Sean leading pitch 2 of meltout

That night the snow began to fall, and it didnt stop.  We woke up the next morning to a huge dump of snow and more snow coming down hard.  We decided to climb the waterfowl gullies due to their low avalanche danger.  Plans changed however...Just past the wardens station we found three cars stuck and spent the next couple hours getting them out.  After that fiasco we were faced with the decision of whether to climb or not and ended up opting out due to our uncertainty about the possibility of smaller avalanches happening on the steps in the gully.  That day the highway was also shut down however our friend harrold at parks opened the gate for us.

Our stuck friends

Sean waiting at the park gate

parks letting us through

The days then began to run together into a mix of endless cups of tea and the canadian alpine journal.  We set up a toperope on some drytool routes on a rock face behind the hostel and waited for the highway to open...On our last planned day of climbing our hostel host nick said that he talked to a guy driving by that said the highway was open.  It was late but we packed our bags and drove off to the weeping wall.  We pulled into the parking lot below the wall and started up the approach trail.  Soon we realized that i forgot the rope so sean kept breaking trail and i ran back to the car and grabbed the rope and almost made it up the trail when i heard the sirens from parks...After a little chat with two parks guys who informed me that indeed the highways where NOT open i ran back to the base of the climb and told sean that we were shut down once again.  The next day we waited until 5 for word that the highway was open and with bags pre packed we were out of there in a flash...well driving through robson provincial park was some of the worst road conditions i have ever experienced but soon we were stopped for two hours because of an accident and then drove a good portion of the drive back to kamloops moving 20km/h following semi trucks.  We arrived back in kamloops at 4:30am and thought the last part of our trip was kind of disappointing it was a great trip and a lesson was learned...ALWAYS BRING SKIS!!!

Sean at the base of the weeping wall

School has started again for a week and then we have ski tour for a week so i will keep posting as things unfold!