While last years annual pilgrimage to Banff did not happen due to us being in Europe, we made it again this year for what turned out to be the coldest trip I can remember. Usually its cold in Banff for a day or so before it warms up, or so it seems, but this time we were just cold, cold, cold! That didnt matter, because we still got a fine bit of ice climbing in!
Summer and I drove from Portland, OR, on Christmas day and tried to get to the Rockies by some decent hour. The roads were dry and fast, but we still only made it to Golden (typical!) before we were too tired and it was too late to try to make Mosquito Creek hostel. This seemingly uneventful trip was actually an excercise in crisis management, as one thing after another seemed to happen that would delay us over four hours in Seattle. The short story is, my car died. The long story goes something like electrical systems failing, driving all over seattle to find no stores open, the car dying, public transportation, towing my car with Summer's car back to the house with an old climbing rope, repacking her car, and finally getting on the road. Additionally, I had not bought the required groceries, so trying to find a place to buy them other than a gas station turned out to be fruitless.
We stayed in Golden with the idea that some grocery stores would be open on the 26th. Boy, we don't have that Boxing Day thing in the States! The IGA in Golden was closed for Boxing Day, so we ended up buying groceries at a gas station after all and headed up to Mosquito Creek hostel.
Day 1: We got to Mosquito Creek just as the hostel was locking doors for the day, so we quickly put our crap in the room and got changed for a day at the local warm-up ice area, the Balfour Wall. It was really pleasant climbing in the sun!
Day 2: I still didnt feel very strong, and so I thought something more mellow might be in order. The weather sure was fine: cold and clear, about -20 at night. After debating Lady Wilson's Cleavage, we decided on Two O'Clock Falls instead. Two OClock is a large flow in the shade (I thought it would be in the sun at least part of the day) in the David Thompson country, along the Kooteney Plains. A very interestiung area, near a native american ceremonial site. Summer and I didnt quite know the approach, so we ended up hiking a little more than we needed to, but still a fine climb for its grad (WI2-3) with plenty of ice for several parties, and plenty of pitches to get mileage in. It sure was cold in the shade, though!
That evening, our friends Dan and Scott from Seattle showed up at Mosquito, where they were to stay with us for the remainder of the trip.
Day 3: Feeling a little more ambitious after two days of warming up, I thought giving Bow Falls a try with Summer would be exciting and adventurous! I knew it would be cold, but I hoped that we wouldnt take to long on the climb itself, and that most of the time we would be moving. Bow Falls is in a great location, though I saw little of it the first time I climbed there with Maurice in 1998. It was cold going once we got across the lake, with the air coming off the icecap downvalley. Dan and Scott joined us on this day, for their first ever Rockies ice climb!
Actually, Dan had been to Banff before to ice climb. On their first day, he rolled his truck, so he never actually got to sink his tools in. This time he was determined!
Summer and I headed up for the main flow, while Dan and Scott went across the cirque to another climb that I had never seen form before and was not in the guidebook. Looked to be a long pitch of 4. It turns out that this is indeed a new route, first formed and climbing in the 2000-2001 season. Summer and I soloed the first bit of Photographers Gully, to the base of the main flow. It had seen alot of traffic, but looked fun! At first I was intimidated, but it was off-vertical, so I decided to try it because of the hooking and the rests that seemed to be on the route. I started leading and did a short(er) lead, pulling through 2 cool bulges, to a sheltered belay. The ice sucked at this belay, but I got some long screws in and brought Summer up. While I was belaying, I watched Dan lead a long pitch and Scott second it.
I was freezing. She was freezing. Her hand flash froze, then thawed. Her feet were numb inside her K3s. By the time she got to the belay, I was ready to V-thread and bail, but decided the last section was lower angle, and the descent off the top really was much easier, so lead another pitch to the top of the climb on more difficult protection. The final section traversed a steep snow slope, unprotected for the second, which psyched Summer out quite a bit.
The descent was uneventful, we used the bolted rap station rather than the nest of V-threads and then a few more raps off V-thread lower down to avoid downclimbing the last easier bit. Ravens had opened Summer's zipped pack, and had gotten at the first aid kit! Smart birds! But the sandwiches (well-frozen) and hot chocolate were safe. Dan and Scott came down from their route and we all went out before dark.
Day 4: When Scott got back to the hostel after Bow Falls, he announced he could not climb the next day. In fact, he could not walk. His Asolos fir him so poorly that his toes were all blue and gnarled, and he wanted to go into town to see if he could get something that fit better, and also give his foot a day to heal. So I suggested we try something with a shorter approach closer to the road, Panther Falls. Gene and I had gone into Panther once but we backed off it (I dont remember why) and I wanted to go back and climb it. So the three of us drove past Weeping Wall to Panther Falls. It was cold! We rappelled into the climb and set up a belay on the left side, by walking around and behind the column. Some people have been putting up new mixed routes here, and there are now many lines of closely spaced bolts going out the horizontal roof to the lip. We just wanted to climb the main flow, and I tried the first lead, but backed off due to marginal climbing on a thin tube of ice about 2 cm thick. Dan gave it a go, and after an eternity getting a screw in at the lip of a roof, climbed to the top. Summer followed. While Dan was leading she had made the classic mistake of taking off her boots to massage her cold feet, and on the way up her feet froze. My feet were OK, but my hands froze on the way up too. We bailed off left on a ledge, electing not to lead the last 20 feet to the top of the climb.
A short day, so instead of heading right back we drove up the road 10 more minutes and visited the Columbia Icefields.
Day 5: Summer had had enough of the cold feet cold hands shit. So had I, this was the coldest spell of consecutive climbing I had done in the Rockies. It didnt help that we were climbing in cold areas too (Bow Falls, Panther). So Summer and I decided to go climb in the sun at the Balfour wall again. It was a pleasant, lazy and relaxed start. I couldnt get my head straight and backed off a WI4 lead 15 feet from the top (!!), but Summer and I did laps on a heavily chandeliered set of pillars and got a good pump going. Too soon the sun ducked behind the mountains and the temperature dropped 10 degrees, and it was time to head out.
Day 6, New Years Eve After climbing 5 days in a row in the cold, it was hard to motivate to get out again. We decided to take a rest day, and all of us (Scott, Dan) went to Banff. There we found a place to stay for the night and just relaxed. We ate lunch out, and got tickets to Lord of the Rings. About 4:00 I decided to head out and check out Cascade. I have never climbed Cascade, it always has had too much av hazard. But I was mightily temped to delay our drive back to Seattle to give it a go the next day. Eventually, though, it seemed like it would be best to try it some other time. That night we went out to watch the movie and grab a quick bite at Spaghetti Factory.
The drive back to Seattle was not as nice as the drive to Banff, a storm was blowing through. But we made it back across the border and down to home, despite our lack of passports.
