Back again this year – for the 2011/2012 season. Anyone seen any ice yet? Conditions still seem a bit warm. Some lakes have been freezing, but melting again. If you have any ice condition updates, email them to me at westcoasticereports@gmail.com. For a list of all the new climbs since the 2005 edition of Don Serl’s West Coast Ice, please check out the 2011 edition of  New Climbs (up to 2011)

Highway 99 North – Marble Canyon

Lyle’s Facebook pictures (from Feb 25) make it pretty clear that the ice is still around in Marble Canyon. Just be careful on the lake approach. The ice is still continuous across the whole lake, but the days are getting warmer.

Deeping Wall: Still fat. Many, many lines hacked out.
Icy BC: Climbed at least the first two pitches in late season conditions.
Air Care: Alt 3rd pitch of Icy BC up the corner left of Icy BC pitch 3. Long icicle in the corner with a short, discontinuous section. Still leadable at WI 4+.

Highway 99 South – Squamish to Duffey Lake Road

A drive from Squamish through to Cayoosh pass on the Duffey showing little to get excited about.  Even the north facing stuff looks done for the season. RIP

The higher elevation North Joffre Creek routes still look in however, if a little snowy.

Highway 99 North – Marble Canyon

Icy BC: Heard its still a go, but becoming “spring conditions”

Highway 99 South – Duffey Lake Road

The Rambles: Melty, but still there.
Carl’s Berg: Still in.

Highway 1 – Three Valley Gap – Okanagan-Revelstoke

Gap Falls WI5
Right over the lake. Its in and looks in good condition!  Heard the word from some friends that it is in great shape! One of the best in the area.
Also can be bad in high avy hazard and it can suffer from strong solar (south facing).

Turkey Chute WI4 100m
I (Allen Rollin) climbed Turkey Chute with Rick Cox last Thursday (16th of February) and we found great conditions and awesome climbing. This climb has huge avy hazard though and should be considered only with no recent snow, good temps and low hazard.

The first three belays (if you can find them) are bolted and in good shape. Bolted station up past the WI2 ice on the yellow band of rock on the left for the first belay. 40m to the next bolted belay on your left under an overhang (just before the steep right trending ice). Third bolted belay 20m beyond on the rock wall on your left before the last pitch (very nice). Last pitch, climb up the gully to a tree rappel off to your right (55m). Some bolted belays have suffered from avalanche hammering (should say something about the risk) ,but the last belay/rap can be found on a tree to climbers right – up and beyond the real end of the climbing on pitch three. Definitely a classic of the area that should not be missed in good conditions!

Approach: Park at the hotel, walk back down the road, put on your crampons and climb.
Gear: Stubbies, maybe a couple of cams, knifeblades or nuts (depending on conditions), but the majority of the climb will take good screws.

First two pitches of Turkey Chute

Full climb in the evening light

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Eagle Bluffs WI3-5
Just past 3 Valley Gap, great climbing, short approach and North facing. Lots of options here and in really good condition! Bring gaiters for the river crossing and snow shoes!

Highway 99 South – Duffey Lake Road: Steep Creek

NEW ROUTE
Zepplin on the Darkside WI3+/4- 25m FA Craig Beaumier and Sean Draper Feb 12, 2012

At the headwater of Steep Creek is Darkside Lake. Just beyond that is a huge headwall with two ice formations. Craig Beaumier and Sean Draper climbed the leftmost waterfall.  The first thing to say is that this climb should be done only with a full awareness of the avalanche risk, and the significant exposure to cornice fall from above. With cooling temperatures from Saturday to Sunday, we had almost ideal conditions to make our attempt on Sunday February 12, 2012. After a short approach across the lake from the Beaker’s hut, and up some steep snow, we took the middle line – though there are at least a handful of options for routes up this 25 meters of wonderful blue ice. The ice was definitely blue, but it was also interspersed with nasty pockets of snice that would not take gear. Ultimately the route was very protectable. With nothing but snow on top, and more snice, we used a hanging belay and v-thread to descend.

Steep Creek ice approach

Steep Creek Falls from below

Heading up Steep Creek Falls

Into the deep blue...

Topping out

Steep Creek Falls rappel

Vancouver Island – Mount Arrowsmith

Feb 11 - The Newman Forraker (sp?) on Mt Arrowsmith is in. On Saturday Feb 11th, I ran into a young climber named Max from Parksville. He had just climbed the Newman Forraker route. Which was great news to me because at Christmas, I tried to climb through verglass covered rock near the balcony, only to retreat from a surge of free flowing water.

The lower portion was filled in well at WI3 and should take screws no problem.
The middle portion is narrow, but it was easy to find good sticks. Placing protection here might be hit and miss.
The crux, a narrow crack and overhanging from the left, had enough ice in it to climb. The flake forced me to the right on to bare rock, but by hooking a rock flake with my crampon and throwin’ a couple of hip scums, I got through it with little difficulty.
The upper portion of the climb is solid alpine ice with a light skim of snow.

The deepest snow encountered on the ascent was at the base of Brugger’s, and was about 20 to 30cm deep.
Descent was via the Main gully
Access:
Park at the 4th switchback and hike “The Climber’s” trail to the West Ridge basin. From there, climb to the upper basin and ascend Brugger’s Gully on the right. The Newman Forraker is on the left three quarters of the way up Brugger’s, You can’t miss it.

Total trip time, Truck to Truck, was about 3hrs 15 minutes. And it took me 45 minutes to free climb the route, which is about 3 pitches long. Total trip elevation is about 850 to 900meters.

Feb 14 - Wow… I had an awsome day on Mount Arrowsmith yesterday (Feb 14). I climbed the Newman-Forraker and dropped down the East side, to climb a route directly below the summit. I’m not sure of the route’s name, but it’s by far the best winter route on Arrowsmith. It was stellar “stick and go” climbing for about two and a half pitches, followed by a half pitch of climbing on firm neve. The heavily rime encrusted flank of Arrowsmith, provided a spectacular back drop and a superb alpine feel to the route. The route is sustained climbing at about WI3+, with no benches or shelves.

The beginning of the route is wide and continually climbs upwards with a small snow depression about half a pitch up. Setting screws here should be a snap, as it appeared to be very fat. I thought about climbing a narrowing crack to the left, but decided to challange the line. This was the right call because that was where the ice was.

The mid section of climb had a few short vertical sections ranging from 2 to 4 meters in height. In this section, you had to follow the ice. But I had no problems finding bomb-proof sticks. I only hit rock a couple of times, and the odd stick popped. But I just pulled the ax out, chipped the loose ice away, and found solid sticks.  Finding screw placements in this section is probably hit and miss. And I suspect that the ice has more snow mix in it.

The climb finishes through a small snow gully, approximately 25 meters North of the two summit antennas. The ice leading into the gully was solid alpine style ice. To avoid the deepening, soft snow, I climbed the left margin of the gully on firm neve’ and rime to finish at the summit’s antenna.
To protect this part of the climb, a couple of snow pickets and or flukes would probably work well.

The small gully is capable of some wind loading at the very top, but it can be easily checked out before descending the East side.

The initial route down to the base of the climb is via a large couloir South of the main summit. From the antenas, down climb easy ground on the South side of the summit. Continue over the hump to the South, staying low to avoid the cornice overhang. Descend easy ground a short distance, the entrance to the gulley is on the left and can’t be missed. The top of the couloir is steep, but eases after a short distance. Continue down the gulley for about 200 meters and traverse to the left around a rock shoulder to start the climb.

Access,
Park at the 4th switch back of the Pass main.
Hike the climber’s trail to the west ridge basin.
Ascend to the upper basin and climb Brugger’s Gully on the right, to the base of the Newman-Forraker (3 pitches of WI3)
From the top of the N/F route, descend easy ground a short distance, then climb up to the main summit of Arrowsmith.

Total trip time was 6hrs, truck to truck.
It took me 50 minutes to free climb the N/F route and 40 minutes to climb the East route.
Total elevation was approximately 1100meters.

Kelowna

Great news for West Coast ice. The Christie Falls climbs are ready to go. The WI 4 line (Let’s Get Ready to Rumble), the mixed line (Rumble in the Bronx) and The Phenom (WI 6) are all in and climbable.

Photo below from Cody Tuttle:

Christie Falls area climbs (Phenom on right)

Highway 99 North – Marble Canyon

Another fair warning – there’s a BCMC Trip scheduled this weekend to Marble Canyon Feb 18-19.
As there will be several rope teams on Deeping Wall and Icy BC, please be tolerant of top ropes and slow climbers on the routes.

Highway 99 South – North Joffre Creek

Today (Feb 9) we ski-toured into Swiss Wall (2 hour approach) and climbed Fromage Suisse (WI 4+). Sn-ice and holes, but with good ice for pro, is how to describe it. Some loose snow avalanches over this climb and Schniedelwurz during our climb.

Other routes that looked good on this wall were, Miss Neurons, Gee Whiz and Spank Me (judging upper pitches as seen from a distance). Other routes and top pitches to routes look snowy and not much fun!

Swiss Wall

(Micah) Just wanted to give a warning that we have large group headed up to Lillooet this coming weekend, 2/11-2/12. We’ll disperse to minimize impact as much as possible, but expect the usual areas (like The Rambles) to be more crowded. We’ll try to be good climbing neighbors and let people lead through etc, as much possible.

Highway 99 North – Marble Canyon

Feb 5: Climbed Icy BC on Sunday. It’s in good shape. Lots of ice. Good for 2 or more weeks.

Highway 99 South – Duffey Lake Road

Two separate, varying reports on The Rambles. The difference a day makes?

Feb 4: We were at The Rambles Center on Saturday, Feb.4th. We (Cecile, Ross, Giovanni, Werner from the BCMC) were the only car/group at The Rambles. 1st pitch was ‘bloody wet’. The final 3 m step  on the 1st pitch was not protectable or climbable and it was in bad shape. Altogether: It was OK, but not great. If it does not re-freeze it will be over at the Rambles Center sooner than later.

Feb 5: We went to the Rambles and found, to our surprise, fantastic ice conditions. Temperatures were around -2 to -5. We climbed the main Rambles Left route to the Upper Tier and then went up a nice line to the left of the final curtain, in the trees.

Pitch 1 of Rambles Left

Rambles Left Upper Tier

.

.

.

.

.

..

.
The other higher elevation routes to the right at The Rambles, as well as Isadorf and Belmore Gullies, looked also to be in good condition.

Highway 99 South – Lions Bay

Feb 4: Tyler, Simon and I (Henrik) went up the Southeast Gully route on the West Lion (approx AI3 140m). As could be imagined, it was above freezing and stuff was coming down, but the route was climbable with reasonable ice and lots of spots to place good rock protection. On the last pitch, the ice turned into more snow/rock and ended with an entertaining rock chimney. Approach turned out good by going direct to the notch and then dropping back and around the South side.

Approaching the Lions - West Lion on left

Starting up the Southeast Gully

Looking down West Lion's SE Gully