Ice Skills Week

Spent an awesome 5 days ice climbing in December with Aaron, Tyler, and Kory on the Ice Skills Week.  I had spent time in the mountains with all three of them before on various climbs & courses, and knew it would be a super fun week with lots of enthusiasm, laughter, and perhaps the occasional crude joke.  Everyone was keen to get some experience leading on both single pitch and multi pitch terrain, and the avalanche hazard was nice and low so we had lots of great options. 

On Monday we started out by getting nice and pumped at Haffner Creek.  Most of the day was spent top-roping and honing movement techniques as well as working on strategies for placing ice screws in steep terrain.  We also worked on some of the other critical leading skills like downclimbing, clipping draws with big gloves on, anchor building, and consciously relaxing on the ice tools.  Downclimbing in particular is a skill that most climbers neglect to practice but is super important to get yourself out of a tight spot without falling.  We finished the day dangling from our arms on some of Haffner's classic mixed climbs. 

 

Mixed climbing at Haffner

Doing some practice leading on the steep ice at Haffner

Tuesday we took advantage of a rarely formed climb called The Water Hole, as well as a new climb higher up the mountain side.  The day involved 4 fun pitches of climbing as was a great way to go through all the multi pitch skills such as anchor building, choosing safe belay locations, double rope techniques, multi pitch rappels, and generally avoiding rope clusters with climbing teams of 3 or more.  The first two pitches were fun WI 3 ice, which was followed by a very cool but unprotectable pitch of really thin ice.  A short rock scramble and half hour hike led us up to a great pitch of WI 4 above treeline with good views over the Bow Valley.  This upper pitch may be a new route this year and was first climbed a few weeks before we were there.  Descending back down the climb gave us more opportunity to work on various skills.

                                                   Climbing the ice above The Water Hole

With everyone feeling strong and confident about their climbing techniques we decided to spend the day doing as much lead climbing as possible.  We headed into King Creek in Kananaskis and surprisingly had the place to ourselves.  There are a number of nice WI2 & WI3 climbs and everyone took advantage and did some lead climbing.  Leading on ice is a serious proposition with potentially high consequences in case of a fall, so I never pressure anyone to lead, but these guys were keen.  Everyone climbed with really solid pick placements, placed good screws, and kept a cool head, the keys to doing it safely.

Leading into a cool little cave on a route at King Creek

Wanting to put all the new skills to work we headed up to the multi pitch climb Rogans Gully near Banff on Thursday.  Most of the climbing is reasonably moderate so it was a great place to give everyone the chance to lead on a multi pitch route.  After the short approach, Kory took the front and did a great job leading up the first long pitch of ice.  A few lower angle but really neat pitches up a winding canyon brought us to the next steep section.  Aaron took over and cruised up the next harder pitch, which involved two steep sections of ice and a tricky topout on snow covered rock.  Some more low angle climbing brought us to the final 45m pitch where Tyler took over and was faced with some surprisingly rotten ice near the top of the pitch.  Despite the lack of good ice for screws near the top, he kept a cool head and looked solid as he took us to the end of the route.  A fun scramble and rappel down the rocks to the right took us back to the car. 

Belaying below the first steeper pitch on Rogan's Gully.

Leading the steep middle steps on Rogan's Gully.

For the final day we decided that finishing off with a good pump on steep ice was the priority.  We headed up to the mega classic Guinness Gully (WI4) and moved quickly up the main pitches of the route.  Wanting more, we continued up the gully to Guinness Stout (WI4+).  A couple of easier pitches brought us to the main attraction, a sustained 45m section of near vertical ice.  After 5 days of climbing it was a good challenge and workout for the arms, but the techniques we practiced throughout the week allowed everyone to do really well on it and enjoy the climb.  

I look forward to doing more climbing with these guys in the future, and wish them luck on their continued ice climbing adventures!

J. Mills
CRAG Head Guide
www.cdnalpine.com

Thriller (M9) & Dancing With Chaos (WI5+)

Let the ice bashing begin!  After a bit of a slow start (by my standards) and a few days of drytooling up at the Playground Crag, I finally made it out to practice my favorite sport, ice climbing!

For my first attempted day out at the start of November, my friend Cian & I set our sites on the rarely formed Silver Lining (WI6, 5.9) which he had scouted out earlier in the week.  After a campfire night on the David Thompson Highway, we get up early and headed out to the Icefields where we met our other buddy Jody Sutherland who had driven all the way from Squamish that evening!  A casual 2 hour hike brought us to the base of the route wondering how we would get off the ground.  It was super frustrating because the entire route looked fat for hundreds of meters, except for the 15 meters of slightly overhanging & unprotectable rubble at the start.  A few false starts and half driven pitons later, we headed back to the car.  It's rare to have an ice season that doesn't start with taking the gear for a few big walks! 

A couple weeks later, I headed out with Cian again for some climbing on the Stanley Headwall.  The route we had hoped to try didn't look well enough formed, so we opted to play on the ridiculously steep "Thriller" (M9) instead.  After a few attempts we finally made it to the ice, which felt kinda challenging for the first ice of the year after climbing a big rock roof! 

 

The Thriller Cave with it's selection of hard mixed climbs.  

Cian hooking his way through the big roof on Thriller.  

 And pulling onto the hanging icicle. 

Although bolted mixed climbs can be fun, my real inspiration comes from multipitch ice climbs in wild places.  So, I was psyched when my buddy Chris Delworth was in town and suggested we check out Mt. Wilson.  Mt. Wilson has perhaps the best selection of ice climbs on the planet, and this year things are looking fat!  We opted to try the rarely formed "Dancing With Chaos" and weren't disappointed.  The route was in great shape, and was much easier than the guidebook grade of WI6. 

Approaching Dancing With Chaos, the second thin line on the right is "Frigging With Gear".

 Chris starting up the first pitch on beautiful quality ice!

Afterwards we made a short drive down the highway to the Weeping Wall to scope out conditions.  Among others, the following routes appeared to be in good shape along the Icefields Parkway:

• The Icicle Fairy
• Bow Falls & surrounding routes
• The Shadow
• Murchison Falls
• Virtual Reality
• Balfour Wall
• Transparent Fool
• Virgin No More
• Chocksondik
• Cosmic Messenger
• Oh Le Tabernac and all the climbs above!
• Near Death
• Dancing With Chaos
• Shooting Star (not sure about upper pitches)
• Suntori (looks as fat as I've ever seen it)
• Wilson Major
• Phil Specter's Nightmare
• Cadeau Cache
• Polar Circus
• Lower Weeping Wall - Central Pillar & Right Hand Side
• Upper Weeping Wall - pretty much everything
• Whimper Wall

Enjoy!

J. Mills
www.cdnalpine.com

California Rock Climbing

After a very busy and action packed summer, my wife Jody & I decided to pack up the Corolla and head down to California for our off season.  Along the way we visited City of Rock, ID, which I would highly recommend for it's great climbing & camping among the crags.  From there we did the marathon drive to Bishop, CA where we spent a couple weeks sampling the various crags near town, and doing some multipitch climbing in Yosemite.  Jody is a photographer so her photo's are far superior to mine, check out her facebook page for a few shots from our trip! 

Here's a few of my own from our adventures!

Jody taking photos in Yosemite during a break from belaying her single minded husband...

Cathedral Spire from a climb we did on Upper Cathedral Rock in Yosemite.

Jody on Braille Book, a really fun 5 pitch climb in Yosemite.

It was a great way to wind down after the summer, now for 6 months of ice!

J. Mills
www.cdnalpine.com

Mt. Robson - Infinite Patience

Alpine climbing in the Canadian Rockies takes a lot of patience.  Years ago I lost track of how many times I've taken my pack for a hike to the base of big routes, or retreated from high on those same routes leaving behind yet another set of nuts & pitons, or even  going for a long drive and ending the "attempt" without even leaving the parking lot.  In the case of Mount Robson, I turned tail and drove away on both my 18th and 19th birthdays, which in light of having 90 pound packs and little experience was probably a good thing!  Since then I have managed to summit Robson via both the Emperor Ridge & the Furher Ridge, but have also spent a night shivering in the scree at 8000ft before descending off the Emperor Ridge, wisely turned around at the Shieser Ledges on the South Face during a winter solo attempt, and just this year got shut down by conditions on the North Face.  However, all this just makes it even sweeter when things work out and you are able to complete one of the routes you have long dreamed about.  In this case, the combination of perfect weather, perfect conditions, and the perfect partner, led to one of the most enjoyable trips I've ever had. 

Raphael showed up in Canmore his customary 1 hour late, and along with Eammon Walsh, who had his own alpine plans for the obscure Mt. Quincy, we made the drive out to Jasper & Mt. Robson. We arrived at the Robson parking lot eager to get going, but road construction delayed us for a few hours and we were barely able to make it to Berg Lake before dark.  We decided to camp at the river and start early the next morning.  Given the summer temps, we knew that the ice pitch which had been used by other parties to access the Emperor Face wouldn't be formed, so instead we scrambled around to the right and traversed back into Infinite Patience where it steepens. 

Once on the route, the climbing went much faster than we anticipated, and the climbing was relatively moderate.  A couple brief mixed sections up to about M4 provided some good quality climbing, and most of the rest of it was on 60 to 70 degree ice gullies.  Much earlier than anticipated we reached the Emperor Ridge, and climbed up a few pitches of rock & mixed terrain before finding a beautiful bivi site.  At this point we realized that it would have been reasonable to climb the route as a single-push, but didn't regret our choice to camp as we gazed out on an incredible sunset on a clear & windless evening. 

The next morning we continued up the ridge and soon reached the infamous gargoyles (crazy double cornices on a very exposed ridge).  I'd climbed them once before, and was looking forward to going through them again.  Raph took the lead and set a blistering pace as we simulclimbed up, over, and through them to the summit.  Only 2 or 3 hours later we stood on the summit feeling elated, although a bit winded from the fast pace! 

The descent down the South Face is undeniably dangerous due to serac hazard, but we were able to move really quick and were only exposed for brief periods and it went smoothly.  We spent a lovely night at the hut and then down to the trail the next morning.  We arrived back at the car feeling psyched about our climb, and keen to return to the Emperor Face for a shot at one of the harder routes in the future!

For more pictures & a different perspective on the climb, check out the writeup on Raph's blog as well.  Here's some of the pictures I got:

The North Face & Emperor Face on Mt. Robson.  (Taken on an earlier trip in August).  Infinite Patience takes the rightmost snow & ice gullies on the rocky Emperor Face on the right.

 Raph leading into the start of the ice gullies.

And traversing out of the gully on 5.7 rock.

 A bit more rock.

And following me up a great mixed pitch about 2/3rds of the way up the route.

Raph continuing up some fun veins of thin ice.

Our kick-ass campsite perched above the Emperor Face with Mt. Whitehorn in the background.

Moving along the Emperor Ridge.

Raph contemplating the long stretch of gargoyles ahead!

And shortly thereafter finishing them off!

All smiles on the sunshiny summit.

 Only 10000 feet to descend.

One for the ladies!  Raph never misses a chance to walk around in his underwear.  

J. Mills
CRAG Head Guide
www.cdnalpine.com

September rock climbing adventures!

September was perhaps the best weather for rock climbing that I have ever seen in the Rockies, any month of the year!  Day after day of perfect weather & blue skies were almost too good to be true.

Throughout the month I had a number of guests join me for rock climbs ranging from introductory days at Wasootch to 5.10 routes on Yamnuska, and also did a few days of rock climbing on my own.  Here's some pictures from a variety of climbs!

 About a month ago, fellow guide Eric Dumerac put up a new route on the left-most tower in this picture of Mt. Andromache (beside Mt. Hector) and reported good quality rock.  So, a couple days later I hooked up with Mike from Nordegg and did a new route on the tower marked above.  The rock was mostly reasonable, and there was good climbing up to 5.9+.  Most of it protected well, but one pitch was pretty crumbly and serious. 

Mike leading on pitch 5 or so of our Andromache route.

Dan & Tesla joined me for another climb in September, and we chose the classic route Kahl Wall (5.10a) up on Yamnuska.  It is an excellent climb with lots of challenging sections and we all enjoyed the day!

Dan on one of the last pitches on Kahl Wall.

Spent a great couple days climbing with Chris & his daughter from Victoria.  They had some previous climbing experience, so after a day of single pitch climbing skills we headed up to Kid Goat for a multipitch  adventure.  In this photo we are about half way up the classic "Grey Waves" route (5.8). 

Chris finishing the last pitch of Gray Waves.

After an earlier failed attempt at doing a new route on the Windtower with Raphael Slawinski, we headed back up to try a new variation to the excellent 5.10a route.  After climbing about three quarters of the existing route, we moved left and followed cracks and corners for about 150 meters of climbing up to 5.9 until joining the 5.6 ridge route.  It was a fun variation with some good climbing, but not as good as the original route. 

I also had a couple larger rock climbing groups in September, including a group of 10 from the Canadian Air Force, and a group of 8 people who work together at AMEC in Calgary.  Both days were spent at Wasootch, and everyone did tons of climbing and kept me busy moving ropes around all day!  Hopefully a few of the climbers have been motivated to get into doing more climbing in the future!

Finally, Nicole & Ren joined me for a fun weekend of rock climbing.  They had never rock climbed before, so we spent Saturday at Wasootch working on various skills & techniques.  They picked it up quickly so we decided to tackle a multipitch climb the next day. 

On Sunday we headed to Kid Goat and climbed the classic route Keelhaul Wall which is one of the best introductory multipitch climbs around.  The height and exposure was new for them, but they did a great job and really enjoyed the climb.  Afterwards we did a bit more climbing near the base of the wall. 

Castle Mtn - Superbrewers (III, 5.9) with Mark

In late August, Mark joined me for an awesome day of climbing up SuperBrewers on Castle Mountain.  Mark & I have done a number of climbs together now (including Mt. Louis, East Ridge of Edith Cavell, Yamnuska, and Coire Dubh) so we were looking for something with LOTS of rock climbing.  Since SuperBrewers combines Ultra Brewers & Brewers Buttress, it makes for about 16 pitches of great climbing and was a good choice for a big day out! 

After doing the approach hike and a bit of scrambling, we soon started up the first steep pitch.  I hadn't done the route in a few years and was quite surprised to find so many new bolts (mostly right beside excellent gear placements!).   I'm not a big fan of the recent trend to add bolts to old classic routes since it diminishes the adventure, and makes it harder for aspiring alpine climbers to find good quality climbs to learn important gear skills on.  In my opinion, the fact that it makes it easier for guiding is not even close to being an acceptable reason for adding bolts.  We did have a laugh though when I hollered down that I'd found a bomber gear placement and then looked up to see a bolt right at chest height!  Anyways, the climbing on the lower part of the route is fantastic and we really enjoyed pulling the steep moves on mostly good holds!  After a few pitches of 5.8 & 5.9, we reached Goat Plateau where we took off the rock shoes and walked up to Brewers Buttress (5.6).  A few hours and lots of fun pitches later we were on top enjoying the sunshine!  It was Mark's longest rock route yet, but he did awesome and was clearly inspired to do more big climbs in the future! 

 Mark looking up at the first pitch of SuperBrewers.

J. Mills
www.cdnalpine.com

Mt. Fay - West Ridge with Eric & Veronique

Had a great trip up to the Neil Colgan Hut and Mt. Fay in August with Eric & Veronique from Calgary.  They have been climbing for a few years now and have become skilled climbers on a variety of terrain, and Mt. Fay has a bit of everything so it was a fun & challenging trip!

On the first day we left the Moraine Lake parking lot and headed up the Perren Route.  This route is an excellent way to access the glaciers & hut below Mt. Fay.  It involves a fair bit of scrambling, some 5.4 quartzite rock climbing, and 30m of climbing a fixed chain up a steep limestone wall!  Once above all the rock, it is a short walk across the glacier to the hut.

 Veronique high on the Perren route with Moraine Lake & Mt. Temple in the background. 

The next morning we started at the crack of dawn and made our way across the glacier to Mt. Fay.  Since the bergshrund was too large below the normal start of the West Ridge, we climbed an ice slope further West for 4 pitches, then scrambled over a small (but loose!) subpeak to gain the start of the ridge.  The ridge has a number of sections of fun climbing on rock up to 5.4 in difficulty, and some wild exposure above the North Face of the mountain!  After a nice break on the summit, we descended by downclimbing and rappelling the same route, and then back down the Perren Route to the car.  It was a really fun trip and I hope to do some ice climbing with Eric & Veronique this winter!

Nice morning light as we leave the hut towards Mt. Fay.

 One of the rock pitches along the ridge.

On the summit with great views!

J. Mills
CRAG Head Guide
www.cdnalpine.com

Bugaboo quick hit - Divine Intervention (5.11b)

The Bugaboos is without a doubt one of the world's premier alpine rock climbing destinations.  However, despite it only being a couple hundred kilometers from my home in Canmore, I rarely seem to make the time to venture in there.  This summer was no exception, but I did manage to squeeze in one climb with Raphael a couple days after our Mt. Alberta adventure.  For our one day of climbing, we chose a newer route called "Divine Intervention" (5.11b) on the East Face of Bugaboo Spire.  The route hasn't seen many ascents yet, so some spots were a bit mossy, but otherwise the climbing was spectacular!  Given that I rarely have the chance to climb granite, I found some of the pitches quite difficult and was inspired to improve my granite skills in the future! 

East Face of Bugaboo Spire from the climbers campground.  Divine Intervention climbs a bit right of center up the smooth face.

Raph on one of the crux pitches.

Raph preparing to charge another pitch of steep climbing!

Trying to figure out where the last pitch goes!

Me leading a fun, although somewhat mossy, 5.10 pitch high on the route. 

J. Mills
CRAG Head Guide

Mt. Robson attempt & Helmet summit.

Looking up at the North Face of the Canadian Rockies highest peak, Mt. Robson.  The Helmet is the smaller peak on the left and we climbed it from the col between it & Robson.

August started with a great trip into my favorite mountain, Mt. Robson, with Aaron whom I've had a bunch of great trips with over the last couple years.  He had just returned from an ascent of Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, which sounded like a really cool journey.  The weatherman assured us that we were in for a week of beautiful high pressure, but as so often with the King of the Rockies, that was not to be.  BC Parks claims the success rate for climbing Robson is only 15%!  Given the difficulty of the routes, the long approaches, the wild glaciers, and the fact that the mountain creates its own weather, 15% isn't too hard to believe. 

After a short bike ride & long walk, we reached the feature known as Dog Buttress and in pouring rain set up our tent near its base.  The next morning the rain had stopped so we had a long day climbing up about 1000m of scrambling terrain to the base of the North Face.  Although the climbing isn't particularly great, the incredible setting made for an enjoyable day, and out campsite was spectacular.  It snowed & rained again overnight so we decided to head towards The Helmet, another 11000 foot peak attached to Robson, to see it we could reach it's summit and get a better handle on snow conditions.  As I'd discovered while climbing Robson's Furher Ridge a few years earlier, the glacier in this zone is quite challenging.  Some exciting snow bridges and lots of weaving around finally led us to the base of The Helmet.  After a steep bergshrund crossing, 4 pitches of moderate snow & ice led us to the summit, or rather to the base of the giant cornice which is on the summit and would be foolhardy to step on.   Even though the Helmet is clearly dwarfed by Robson, it is still a fun & challenging climb in it's own right.  That night it snowed some more, and combined with the poor snow quality we had seen on the Helmet, we decided it wouldn't be a safe choice to head up on the North Face.  To descend, rather than going back the way we came, we followed the glacier down towards Rearguard, and worked our way down fairly directly to Berg Lake.  2 rappels were required, and the bushwacking was pretty harsh for a while beside the lake, but this was a much faster descent than the normal way which traverses over to the Robson Glacier & Kain Route approach.  I'd recommend this descent as long as you are comfortable building piton anchors for the rappelling sections.   

 

Aaron part way up Dog Buttress, with Berg Lake below.

 Aaron's favorite mountaineering pose on the glacier below the North Face.

Our rad campsite with the Emperor Face & North Face behind.

Crossing below the North Face at dawn on route to the Helmet.

Aaron on one of the steeper snow & ice pitches near the top of the Helmet.

 All smiles on top of the Helmet!

Although we did not summit Robson, it was still a really fun trip and both of us are keen to head back to the King next summer!

J. Mills
www.cdnalpine.com