As Jon and I were rounding up our big ice climbing linkup trip in the Rockies, in the winter of 2006, he started talking about a next potential adventure in the Rockies: the mysterious Icefall Brook. This amazing horseshoe canyon is located miles away from any road, and can only be accessed by helicopter in the winter time. Because of that, few people have ventured into it.
As the guidebook says: "Only a few dedicated people have been known to explore this valley in winter and the biggest (and hardest) plums still await attempts. Beware, the avalanche hazard in the area can be extreme. All the climbs in this remote area are rated a Grade IV commitment or higher. Reluctant to leak out information, the main activists in the area sadly reported that Icefall Brook "sees rainfall everyday of the year, especially in winter, has year-round grizzlies and winter mosquitoes six feet tall" (Waterfall Ice, 3rd edition, p.181).
Now, does that sound attractive, or what?!
At the Ouray Ice Festival this year, I ran into Audrey Gariepy - a talented, positive, smiley, passionate climber from Quebec. I randomly suggested the idea of going into this valley to do first ascents. She was sold before I was even able to finish the sentence, offering for her to come. Right on, hey?!
I spoke with Jon. He was in. And we decided that we needed two more motivated girls to come along. Ines Papert - multiple ice climbing world champion from Germany, and Jen Olson - Canadian guide - were instantly drawn to the mystery of this remote area and charmed by the glitter of potential hard new lines in Canada. Winter camping, mosquitos, grizzlies, avalanches, seracs... these suddenly disappeared into the far corner of our minds.
March 9th, we all gathered at Jon Walsh (our photographer: www.alpinestyle.ca)'s house in Golden, BC to start packing for the trip, shop for food and get ready to fly into the canyon. A last glimpse at the weather forecast made us dubious of us flying in there at all: 10 days of snow were on their way. Ahhhhh! What to do? Well, in doubt: go and see.
- Lots of food and cookies!
- Girls are expensive to feed... we sure aren't cheap dates!
- We fly from here.... to there.... far, far away!
- Jon flew in with the first flight, with all our gear: cooking gear, climbing gear, camping gear, etc.
- We drove 30 minutes out of Golden to get the next flight and fly in. Audrey, Jen, Ines and I were blown away when first caught glimpse of the the canyon that would become our home for the next 10 days. We landed close to where Jon had picked our campsite, unloaded and watched as the heli flew away.
- We spent day 1 building camp and viewing the potential of the area. Our camp was located 15min to an hour from any and all climbs! Pretty spectacular to climb so close to "home". At first though, it was pretty warm and at night, we could hear ice crumbling down so close to us that we were sure we would get buried by the nearby ice climb. We each had our own tent. we built an A-shaped shelter as a home to our "kitchen" and "living room".
- We built an A-shaped shelter as a home to our "kitchen" and "living room" and even "bar”! Audrey made for an amazing bartender... :-)
- Day 1: we wake up to rain. What if the guidebook was right, and it did rain everyday... we don't get out until early afternoon, when the temperatures drop, turning rain into snow.
- Fossen Falls (190m, WI6). We play a game to pick who climbs with whom. Today, Ines and Audrey will head to what will be called Fossen Falls, and myself and Jen will go to what will be called The Blaue Lagune, that I would finish the next day with Ines (hence the German name). Now, if you look closer at the picture, you can see that there is a block overhanging, leaning forward. It's at the base of the right hand ice climb. At the end of the day, Jen and I ran down the snow slope, right below it. The next day, the block had fallen down, triggered an ice avalanche, covering most of our foot prints. Spooky!
- Blaue Lagune (190m, WI5)
- The second day, Ines and I topped out on Blaue Lagune and went and climbed High Test afterwards, which Jen and Audrey opened while we were on Blaue Lagune. We called that next line High Five (190m, WI 5+), as this is the only climb that we all climbed.
- At night, we would hang out gear above the stove. Well, actually, above the heat lamps. Somehow, the item that connects the propane to the gas stove was left behind and we ended up cooking on the heat lamps, despite the fact that in the manual, it specifically mentions that you should never use the lamp in a horizontal position. I guess we pushed the limits of what heat lamps CAN do!
- Audrey on Fossen Falls
- Sunrise from camp, on Mount Arras
- View on the 600m high wall. We opened two routes on this wall: the obvious line to the right, below the sun, by Ines and Audrey. And thin gully like line to the left. Jen and I started it and, after the 90m WI6 crux pillar, we headed up and right where the gully splits in a Y. It was late and getting dark and we rapped from the top of the ice. We couldn't see what layed ahead. That night, I could not sleep because my hands were so screwed up and swollen. I had all the symptoms of acute cases of raynaud and carpal tunnel syndromes that would only get worse as the trip went on. Jon and Jen went back up and finished the route by going up the left hand side of the Y, while I patiently waited for pain to lessen.
- Start to the gully line, Jen in the picture
- Me on the 90m WI6 pillar
- Intermediate anchor on the pillar
- Me on the top part of the pillar
- My hands, day and night
- Audrey on the right hand side route of that same wall
- Ines and Audrey on the summit of that climb... we got lucky on this trip and all got a Suunto Lumi watch! Sweeeet!
- The day I was in camp, it was my birthday (or so we all thought...we were one day early, so I got to celebrate twice). I spent part of the day making my birthday desert: Backcountry Ice Cream, which is a bottle of Baileys, a liter of cream and powder snow! Sooooo good (way better than it looks).
- The next day (on my real birthday), Audrey and Ines rested and Jon, Jen and I went to climb this amazing looking route. My hands were not doing so well, so we resorted to climb another amazing looking line that we ended up calling Happy Birthday (120m, WI5). Amazing climb, in the sun... pure delight!
- Happy Birthday with the glacier in the background
- Jen and I on top of Happy Birthday!
- The next day, Audrey and I went and put up a new route to the left of High Five. We called Jusqu'au bout (Til the end), because we are both French speaking and because we pushed on despite a total storm, frozen ropes, bad hands... Audrey did an amazing job on the mixed part and I lead the WI6 pillar at the top... amazing climb.
- During that time, Jen belayed Ines while she was opening up an M12 line that, that she sent the next day! Impressive feat as she opened the route from the bottom, and did all the work on her own...STRONG!
- On the last night, we burnt all our trash, with Audrey as the master woman of the fire.
- After 10 days of no shower, our hair still looked amazing... the bonus was that they stood alone on our head without any gel! ;-)
- The Girls: Jen, Audrey, Myself and Ines
- Flying back
An amazing trip, on every level... made possible by our sponsors, so a big thanks to all of them (The North Face, Petzl, Scarpa, Sterling Rope, Julbo, Arcteryx, BD, La Sportiva, Lowa, Icebreaker, Suunto, Jetboil) and by our hosts in Canmore: Will Gadd and Kim Csizmazia and their little girl, Marie.
For more on this trip, visit: