Climbing Ice - Personal Experience

It's getting late into the ice climbing season. But here's an article that I had written on my thoughts about climbing and ice climbing earlier in the season...


People climb for different reasons. Mine was because I wanted to learn the different techniques and skills - which seemed very complex at the time - so that I could venture where fewer people travel. Your senses feel heightened when you realize that you are out there alone.

                I started by learning the basic climbing techniques in the safety of the indoor climbing gym. Then I moved on to the great outdoors of the Bow Valley, about an hour west of Calgary so that I could climb real rock. I was able to elevate (no pun intended) my climbing ability while still being safely protected by bolts already installed on the numerous sport climbing routes throughout the Valley. My interest kept rising, so I progressed to the challenges of placing wired nuts and camming devices (commonly called cams) - as pieces of protection. Under the watchful eye of experienced rock climbers I placed this specialized gear in cracks as I went up and attached them to the rope. The basic idea was to protect myself from hitting the ground below.

                 To give you an idea of how this gear works, nuts usually work better in wavy cracks while cams work best in parallel cracks. Often the particular crack dictates what type of gear to place. Nuts are a single, solid piece of aluminum tied into a thin wire and are available in sizes up to 2 inches. They are jammed in constrictions along irregular crack widths in the raw rock. Cams are spring-loaded devices. The springs help the cams stay in place and make them easier to place along parallel-sided cracks. Cams come in widths varying from one half to six inches. A single cam has a range in which it can fit into certain sizes of cracks. Experience, or good advice, will lead you, hopefully, to select the right cam. Cams are designed to place more force against the rock inside the crack when more weight is placed on the cam - for example when you’re falling.

                As you can see, there is a lot to know before running up a cliff and eventually I was able to blend these traditional rock climbing techniques and skills and decided to start venturing further out into the alpine world. This style of climbing requires all of the techniques and skills above and comes in handy with other unexpected or unplanned situations, such as falling into crevasses and getting lost.

                Each type of rock climbing calls for a particular set of skills. Most climbing is similar to a monkey climbing a tree. At least that’s how my style has been described. But one style breaks the rules, and that’s ice climbing. Instead of hanging from your limbs ice climbing requires you to depend largely on tools - specialized pair of ice axes, called ice tools, for your hands and crampons for your feet. So with the mercury dipping lower and lower, many rock climbers put away their gear and revert to the indoor climbing gym. A good choice and not to be argued with! And there they will wait for the warmth of spring to get up into anything vertical again. Yet others will brave the cold to climb the classic waterfall ice in the Bow Valley and neighbouring areas.

You’ve probably seen some of these fantastic frozen chutes if you’ve driven from Calgary to Banff along Mt. Rundle or Cascade mountain. In fact, you could probably leave Calgary in any direction and hit a classic climb or two. But maybe you didn’t seriously contemplate getting out of your car and heading due up. These vertical formations do get climbed by locals, but they also attract tourists visiting from other countries. From my own experience a lot of Japanese, British and Germans seem to like to climb our frozen waterfalls. The waterfall climbs in the Rockies are abundant and renowned for their ease of access – many are only a few minutes from a road or highway. These natural and ecological tourist attractions not only bring in tourism dollars. They are ecologically sound and low maintenance. They freeze and melt out every year on their own.

                There are several climbs approximately an hour or slightly more from Calgary. Just above Canmore and only a few minutes walk from the Grassi Lakes exit is a great practice area called “The Junkyard”. With ease of access climbers will find lots of variation and room to work on their technique. There are also near-by climbs in more remote places like the Ghost Wilderness although you may wish to ensure you go there in a well-equipped 4WD. It isn’t uncommon to have your vehicle trapped by a famous car eating snow drift. “The Ghost” is northwest of Cochrane and about an hour and a half from Calgary. Due to its remote nature, climbing in the Ghost is all about high-quality adventure. More experienced climbers will want to have a go at “The Sorcerer”. One great thing about ice climbing is that you can legitimately say cool things, like “snap into a Slim Jim, we’re going to the summit!“. And other 1980’s certifiably retro expressions.

                Ice climbing receives mixed reactions from rock climbers. I’ve heard some of my friends say “I don’t see myself climbing on something that melts”. There seems to be some misconceptions about ice climbing. There are many things to know that can’t be learnt while rock climbing - like the ice quality, and conditions that affect the holding strength of the screws placed into the ice. The screws, like the proper use of ice tools and crampons, are your protection against falling.  The first rule of ice climbing is “Don’t Fall” and this comes down to knowing your own limits and recognizing whether you can manage the difficulties of a particular climb. You simply must have the discipline to take the time to learn. Tests have shown that screws have strong results on good ice, but what’s good ice?

                A good way to learn is to get out there with an experienced friend or a certified guide. There are also clubs such as the ACC (Alpine Club of Canada).  The ACC has experienced volunteers who act as trip leaders. All you have to do is join and it’s not expensive. To get a taste, you can often rent the gear at outdoor retailers. Otherwise you might be climbing out of debt from buying it all for your first trip.

                It’s important to use caution in choosing your climbing routes. Avalanches pose serious risks. You must choose the level of risk you are comfortable with. If, upon arrival there are recent signs of nearby avalanches, it’s most likely better that you back-off for the day. The climb will still be there another day. Many climbs are natural avalanche funnels - gullies are often where the ice forms. It’s up to the climber to get updated with the current avalanche conditions. Forecasts and conditions are available on the web or at parks information centres. With ice climbing, unlike cross-country skiing or backcountry touring, it is practically impossible to get out of the way of an avalanche racing down the gully. Professional skiers may do it in the movies. It’s a little harder on a frozen waterfall, where your two basic moves are up and down.  Ice climbing does have its risks, but knowing how to manage them is part of the reward.

                Earlier in the season I had been up a frozen waterfall a few kilometres east of the gondola on Sulphur Mountain. An old climbing guidebook I managed to get my hands on mentioned the Spray River Falls near the town of Banff could be a good early-season ice climb. My younger brother Patrick has started ice climbing this year and we decided to find out what this climb would be like. This was a bit of an adventure since we hadn’t heard much about this climb or what conditions we could expect. We left the comfort of our shack and biked up to the hot springs on Sulphur and headed a few kilometres east on the trail that starts underneath the gondola. After a steep grind of an hour and a half we finally stood bellow the climb. I didn't find the Spray River Falls too promising to climb. The first ten meters of the climb had chandeliered - an ice climber’s term for unbounded icicles not forming a solid sheet of ice. These icicles would make it hard, or even impossible, to protect myself with ice screws if I took a fall. From what we could see, the higher section was of easy angle to climb and further out was a steeper section with an attractive narrow pillar. It looked like all the problems were at the beginning. The quality and thickness of the ice can vary from fragile and brittle or easier soft “plastic” ice. This has a role in how difficult a climb can be since you need to penetrate the ice with your crampons and ice tools. The crampons used for ice climbing are rigid and most have 12 points to give you traction when walking on low angled ice. When the angle steepens there are one or two sharp front points used to kick your feet into the ice and hold your weight and balance. The ice tools have laser sharp blades that penetrate the ice and little teeth underneath keep the blade from sliding out of the ice while you pull yourself up. It is important to keep the tools steady when the ice is thin since a little movement could dislodge the tools out of the ice. We studied the climb for a little while and decided to suit up and give it a go. If we couldn’t get screws, for safety, into the lower section, we would have to give up and bike home.

                I was able to fix two solid ice screws about four meters up the falls before getting into the sculpted, chandeliered section. These two screws which I would clip onto the rope with a quickdraw (two carabiners held together by a piece of sewn webbing which is clipped onto the screw and the rope) would stop me from hitting the ground, if I fell – at least until I had climbed further. Everything was going fine on the delicate ice until I hit the last few feet before the easy-angled ice above. Then I panicked. I told myself “I can’t fall here” (and who wants to look bad in front of their brother?) I returned to work, placing my crampons carefully, one foot at a time, taking care to place the ice tools and getting up the ice a little bit, and I mean inches, at a time.

                In retrospect, perhaps it was more psychological than physical. I had climbed harder sections of ice before. The challenges of climbing aren’t only technical but psychological. I find that when a situation becomes challenging I sometimes tense up and loose technique. This quickly gets me tired while I hang by my arms trying to make my way up. I was able to shake it off after regrouping my thoughts and concentration on the next section. Here, about 90m up, the pitch was interesting with a mix of narrow and thin ice with visible water running underneath and thicker, safer ice to protect with screws higher up. I got through that and thought that the remainder would be good climbing, but, no dice. Once I reached the pillar, I could see that the climb was over. The pillar was dripping wet and very chandeliered as well. Sometimes you just have to call it quits.

                 Later in the season this climb would form into better climbing condition with thicker and stronger ice. So I set up an anchor with two screws and my ice tools planted firmly into the ice and tied myself onto them. I had my brother follow up the 50m pitch with the safety of the rope above him. Before heading down from our stance 800m above the valley bottom we took in the views expanding across the valley and neighbouring Mt. Rundle. We had an interesting find on our way down - a rusty, old 2 foot piece of bar stock with a climbing rope attached. This was most likely an old piece of ice climbing (but how old we didn’t know). Back in the day these metal pieces were placed into the holes made by the ice screw and left there to secure the climbing rope while descending. Today, ice climbers protect themselves with lightweight ice screws that twist quickly in and do not shatter the surrounding ice. I have a lot of respect for the climbers who came before – their gear was primitive compared to what we have these days. Our advancing technologies and techniques encourage more people to get into the sport and try more difficult climbs.

Go climb something!