First Ascent - Ice Climbing

Total time: 16h 25min

Approach: 7h20min (ascended 870m)
Climb: 4h50m

Return: 4h15min

Giro (a climbing gym instructor), Pat and I started skiing up at 0440h. We skied for 18km to reach the climb. Giro had told us that we were potentially going to be doing a first ascent on this route. The mountain doesn’t seem to have any records of having been climbed by anyone which is surprising since as we skied along we saw over half a dozen ice climbs (1-4 pitches long) and 2 or 3 ice and mixed climbs that seemed to reach the summit. A very talented Japanese friend of his had attempted a hard mixed line to the summit of this mountain which he figured was around M7 or M8. But he had to bail after a 20hr push and decided to leave it for another year.

From further away, as we approached, we could see two separate waterfalls which seemed to have formed fatter than the others. The right-side one seemed to have had a big pillar that broke off above sometime during the winter. We decided to head towards them. The weather had been quite cool all morning. Even with the sun coming up it was somewhere bellow -10C. We witnessed a quite a few sluffs coming down as we approached. We came out of the trees and onto what looked like moraine features. Here the wind was blowing quite strong and we kept seeing small to mid-sized sluffs coming down the mountain. The weather still felt like winter. The climb we were heading towards was relatively safe since there weren’t any big snow bowls above. As we closed in there was a small sluff that came down right on top of the climb. We arrived to the base after 7h20min of ski touring. We climbed the right-side of the left-hand waterfall.

Giro led the first 50m pitch (WI4) on sun affected ice.  It had a 2 inch layer that often peeled off as you placed your tools and this layer needed to come off to place a half decent screw. The ice had been affected by the warm weather recently. I led the next 60m pitch (WI5) to the top. I could tell that I hadn’t been climbing much since I was feeling the “pump” a little sooner than usual. I wasn’t quite as mentally strong. The first half of the climb was on the same type of rotten ice as bellow. But to get onto the upper half, I needed to climb a lower angled snow section which had a crust of ice on top for about 5m. This part was quite hard on the nerves since you couldn’t completely trust your tool and feet placements. I was expecting them to pop off at any time and fall onto a half descent screw. Not a good thing! I made it back onto the ice and had to deal with climbing the next 10m with 2 screws. The ice was quite steep and hadn’t formed as a uniform sheet of ice.  It was featured with large and small icicles that didn’t take screws very well. No chances of making a belay even if I wanted. As I placed one of the two remaining screws I tried to clear some ice around it and knocked it off the ice. Watching it fall out of sight. I felt quite frustrated with myself as I placed the last remaining screw. I pulled myself together and finished the pitch to the top. I placed the essential two remaining screws that I had kept for the belay and backed it up with my ice tools plated firmly into the ice. Pat and Giro then followed. We rappelled off of two V-threads. As we skied out we witnessed a moderately big sluff or slab release off of the face. The residual snow dusting was only about 100m away! Good thing we kept enough distance away from the face. The ski out took us 4h15min and it was nearly 2100h by the time we made it back to the van. It is quite special to think back and realize that I had just climbed a section of ice where nobody has ever been on it before. Considering the other potential in the area I would like to make another trip possibly next season and discover more. So for now I'll be keeping this place a hidden secret.