Travellers Voice Magazine -- Vertical Ice:

Vertical Ice:
Canadian Winter Climbing
by Markus Kellerhals, Photos by Alain Denis

Canada is said to be blessed with 20% of the world’s fresh water. Based on that endowment, it may one day be the Saudi Arabia of water. In the meantime Canadians enjoy one of the worlds greatest outdoor playgrounds each winter when all that water turns to ice and snow. Waterfalls and even small trickles turn into spectacular vertical icicles perfectly suited for the sport of ice climbing.

Ice climbing bears many similarities to rock climbing. The basic goal of both sports is to ascend a more or less vertical piece of terrain using ropes and other tools to anchor for protection. But where rock climbers ascend using holds on the rock, ice climbers actually make their own holds using an ice ax in each hand and crampons (metal plates with sharpened points) strapped to their boots. In theory ice climbing is simple - kick the front points of your crampons into the ice to support your feet, then sink the pick of your ice ax into the ice to provide handholds. Upward progress then becomes a kind of "climb by numbers" - right foot up, left foot up, right hand up, left hand up….

Geared up for my first ice climb I feel like some futuristic assassin. Each foot is armed with 12 potentially lethal crampon points, in each hand I brandish murder weapons thinly disguised as ice tools. Contributing to a sense of invulnerability is my helmet, to protect against falling ice blocks, protective eye glasses for flying ice chips (and to promote a cool image), and knee pads to protect against general clumsiness. Armed as I am, the waterfall doesn’t stand a chance.

After tying into the rope I start up my first climb, a low angle slab of ice about 20 metres high. On this easy climb I find that my crampons and ice tools give me amazing purchase on the ice. With one hefty swing of each arm I sink the picks of my axes deep into the ice. The axes then became my handholds as I moved my cramponed feet higher up. The hard part is extricating my axes from the ice. At times I swing the axes so enthusiastically that they seem to be permanently lodged. I lever the tools up and down till I can pull them free and sink them in higher up. At first it is hard to trust the crampons - the two front points sticking in the ice seem far too insubstantial to support my weight. But as I progress upward I gain confidence in my crampons and am soon able to support my weight on my feet rather than hanging off my arms.

For my second ice climb, my mentor moves the top rope to a much steeper piece of ice. It looks overhanging to me, though he assures me that it is "only" 85*. The drill is the same here, but I quickly realize how important it is to move efficiently on this steeper ice. By the time I am two-thirds of the way up, my arms are fading fast and my calves burn from the unaccustomed strain of standing on my tiptoes.

As my arms weaken, it becomes more and more difficult to gain solid placement of the ice tools. Until now, one crisp swing could bury the pick in the ice. Now my feeble taps seem to bounce off the ice, each becoming more inaccurate and dislodging increasing amounts of ice. Fortunately my experienced belayer has anticipated this rain of debris and set up his belay safely to one side. The experience is somewhat painful, and I’m sure it wasn’t pretty to watch, but when I finally haul myself to the top of that little ice cliff I am a convert to the cult of ice climbing.

More on the Sport…

While ice climbers love to make morbid jokes about the obvious hazards of their sport, the activity definitely doesn’t have to be a suicidal undertaking. Learn with competent people, buy or rent good gear, be aware of the dangers of the sport, and above all take a cautious approach when you are new to the sport. While novice ice climbers are most worried about falling and hurting themselves, the biggest danger to ice climbers is often from avalanches, since many great ice climbs are tucked into gullies beneath big avalanche slopes.

Aside from the physical challenge, another attraction of ice climbing is that it takes one to beautiful areas that are almost inaccessible at other times of years - deep canyons that would be filled with rushing water in the summer, or steep ice pillars that morph into nothing more than a slimy patch of rock. In winter falling waters are frozen in motion, forming into unique and beautiful patterns - huge free-hanging icicles, intricate chandeliers and giant white mushrooms.

You will know you have become a committed ice climber when you start referring to summer as the "off-season". But even in the off-season there is ice to be found in the mountains of Western Canada. At this time of year rather than climbing waterfalls, some people use glaciers as their vertical playground, climbing into and out of crevasses; or surmounting seracs - steep pillars of glacier ice. And don’t worry - summer won’t last forever.

Destinations:

In Western Canada, two areas with major concentrations of ice climbs are the southwestern Coast Mountains, lying north and east of Vancouver; and the central Rocky Mountains centered on Banff and Jasper.

The Rockies are the spiritual heart of ice climbing in Canada. Ice climbers from around the world come to test themselves on the classic ice routes of the Rockies. Cold Alberta winters guarantee a long ice climbing season - early November through early April most years. For the beginner ice climber there are several excellent practice areas suitable for top-roping easy to moderate ice. Near Canmore is the Junkyard and Heart Creek Falls. Haffner Creek is a short approach off the Radium Highway. Near Saskatchewan Crossing are Balfour Wall and Two O’clock Falls. Further north are Tangle Creek near the Columbia Icefields and Maligne Canyon near Jasper. "Waterfall Ice" by Joe Josephson describes these practice areas along with hundreds of more challenging Rockies ice climbs.

Southwestern BC has a superabundance of water and waterfalls, but tends to lack the cold weather to freeze all that water. In a good year there are literally hundreds of ice climbs within a few hours drive of Vancouver. One of the most famous is the spectacular Shannon Falls near Squamish, which freezes perhaps every second year on average. Near Hope are scores of climbs. Unfortunately the season there is very short, unpredictable, and sometimes totally absent. Further inland near Lillooet, cold interior weather provides a longer, more reliable climbing season. Lillooet has become the "destination" for Lower Mainland ice climbers as there are a good number of high quality ice climbs within a short distance of town. "West Coast Ice" by Don Serl is the bible for Coast Range ice climbers.

Aside from the two areas mentioned here there are hundreds of other frozen waterfalls scattered throughout Western Canada. In BC’s northern fjords and mountains are scores of waterfalls, many of which still await a first ascent.

Instruction:

Given the potential hazards of ice climbing it makes sense to learn from a competent friend, your local mountaineering club, or one of many professional instructors, rather than winging it on your own.

Conditions: