Banff, AB

Dec. 12^th: Rest day

Pat took Chico, the van, to get winter tires installed. I went through my stored boxes and condensed enough to bring it down from 6 to 4 boxes. It should all fit in the van!

Dec. 13^th: Banff, Mixed Climbing, Bear Spirit crag (WI4 – M6)

Went up to the Bear Spirit mixed crag with Pat, Matt and Kyo. We ran laps on the ice and did two mixed routes. I was expecting to be a little rusty but the climbing went surprisingly well.

Dec. 14^th: Yoho National Park, Stanley Headwall, Suffer Machine (A2 WI5)

Our climbing buddy Sam picked us up in Canmore. We planned to head down to the Sunshine ski resort parking lot to climb Bourgeau Left Hand (WI5). As we arrived, Sam recognised the car of another climber. If he was climbing above us it would be too dangerous for us to try climbing from bellow. We agreed that the chunks of ice falling from the climbers above probably couldn’t be avoided on this climb. We took a few minutes to think of a backup plan and decided to head towards the Stanley Headwall in Yoho National Park to take a look at the ice climbs there. The climb we hoped to get onto was named Suffer Machine. A 30 minute drive and a 1h30min hike on snowshoes was the time needed to reach the bottom of the climb. It was nearly noon when we started climbing. It was a little late in the day to climb something this long and difficult. We came prepared and brought our headlamps in case we needed to rappel in the dark. The ice on this climb rarely touches down to the ground. The typical start is from a series of bolts (some with missing hangers) on the rock to the right of the ice. With help from the bolts, a few aid moves (pulling on the slings which are clipped to the bolts) were used to reach the ice.
 

Dec. 15^th: Rest day

Dec. 16^th: The move back to Ontario begins.

We spent the morning organizing the van and packed up all our stuff. We were surprised to actually have extra room in the van after everything was packed. We kept enough space free for one person to lie down and sleep while the other drove. We left Eastbound from Canmore at 2:00pm. We stopped in Medecine Hat for dinner at a pub named Locals. The food was amazing! I jumped in the back of the van afterwards to catch some sleep before we exhanged driving duty.

Dec. 17^th: The non-stop drive Eastbound continues.

At 2:00am Pat woke me before driving to the U.S. Border. We didn’t pass the border as quickly as we hoped. We were asked to pull over and went inside to get interrogated as they searched the van. They didn’t keep us too long, maybe 30min. It was only an inconvenience. I took the wheel afterwards and drove for a few hours. We kept exchanging the driving duty during the day.

Dec. 18^th: Arrived in Ontario.

We drove into Erin’s driveway at 6:00am. The who familly was asleep so I woke her up by throwing snowballs at her window. I tried my best not to hit her parents window beside hers.

Walking up to the Bear Spirit crag

Sam refilling his water supply.

A far look at Suffer Machine (ice not touching down).

At the bottom of the climb.

Pat leading up the bolted section before reaching the ice.

Pat leading the first pitch.

Sam leading the second pitch.

Great views across the valley.

The upper half of Suffer Machine.

Favorite photos of the trip posted soon!

Bozeman, Montana

Dec. 8^th: Driving to Bozeman, Montana. Bozeman Ice Climbing Festival.

As we approached Montana, the realization sunk in that winter up north has truly begun. The cold nights that we had encountered in the desert won’t seem as bad compared to the one coming up. As we entered the mountains, a white blanket of snow covered the ground. In one day we drove from a desert environment with warm daytime temperatures. To this mountainous and snowy landscape up north. We drove into Bozeman, MT for dinner. Afterwards, we visited the Bozeman Ice Climbing Festival gear booths in the Emerson building. A guy we met inside gave us information on how to get to the Hyalite Canyon where the ice climbing is found. We parked at Wal-Mart for the night and slipped into our -9C sleeping bags.

Dec. 9^th: Bozeman, MT. Ice climbing, The Dribble (WI 4)

We woke up with a layer of frost inside the windows of the van. Sleeping was more comfortable than expected. It felt too cold to bother cooking oatmeal. Instead, we ate fresh fruit and Pop-Tarts for breakfast. We drove off to find the Hyalite Canyon and ended up lost with a flat tire in the middle of nowhere. We managed to fix the tire in good time and drove off with the spare tire to find the canyon. The road up the canyon was quite snowy and icy, but the summer tires made it to the parking lot with some careful driving. The festival brought a lot of people down to ice climb and the parking was quite full. We walked along the trail and decided to keep going as we passed some occupied waterfall ice climbs. We made it 40 minutes down the trail and came across a nice 3 pitch climb named The Dribble. There were two parties climbing it so we walked a little further down and found a shorter climb which kept us occupied. We then walked back to The Dribble. We chose a steeper line which hadn’t seen traffic on it yet. This made it more challenging with no previous pick holes to hook. It was a great feeling to get back into ice climbing. I felt quite comfortable considering it had been since last spring since I last touched ice. We drove back into town and slept at the Wal-Mart once again.

The unknown waterfall ice we first climbed in Bozeman.

The Dribble (WI4)

Dec. 10^th: Bozeman, MT. Ice climbing on Avalanche Gulch (WI5), Responsible Family Man (WI5), Genesis area (WI4).

We made the most out of our last day ice climbing in Bozeman, MT. Before heading up to the canyon, we drove to a garage to get the flat tire repaired. The cost was only 15$ to get it repaired! Much cheaper than having it repaired in Banff. It only took 20 minutes to get repaired and we were then off to the canyon. We walked up to The Dribble area again but this time climbed up a gully to the left in hopes of climbing the longest waterfall ice in Hyalite Canyon. Avalanche Gulch was rumoured to be in climbing condition with a short section of mixed rock. We arrived up to the mixed section and wrongly assumed that it would be in climbing condition. After standing underneath it and studying if it could be climbed or not. We decided that rock protection would be necessary if we wanted to climb it safely. We didn’t bring any along, so we decided to head back down and take a look at another option. It looked like a sweet climb though! This is what makes ice climbing different from rock climbing. The element you are climbing on is always changing. Someone suggested we climb Responsible Family Man which was in another gully a few hundred meters to the left. It wasn’t long before we reached the bottom of another nice looking climb. Responsible Family Man was a fun climb. To access the ice we traversed along a narrow ledge 20m up because it hadn’t formed completely to the ground. Pat won the Rock, Paper & Scissors game which gave him the honour of leading the fun pitch. We packed up our gear afterwards and walked out to the parking lot. A climbing area named Genesis was near the parking lot. We chose to go take a look and possibly climb one last route before calling it a day. The ice was too tempting to pass up and we gave it one last burn. I led this pitch which happened to be more involved than expected. Climbing by headlamp added a sense of difficulty to the climb and played mind tricks by only being able to see what was within range of my headlamp. After the climb, we cooked up a big pasta dinner in the now vacant parking lot and drove into town to sleep at the Wal-Mart which we are starting to call home.


Approaching up to Avalanche Gulch (WI5)

 

Responsible Family Man (WI5)


 Dec. 11^th: Driving back to Banff

The drive up to the Canadian border was along prairie land. We took an exit in central Montana which gave us a 300+ km detour. When we crossed into the Canadian border we immediately encountered a small blizzard... an ironic welcome back to Canada. The road was covered with snow and ice. Not ideal for a loaded minivan with summer tires. While in the States, I was hoping that the roads would be dry and snow free for the ride into Banff where the winter tires are stored for the van. No luck! We rolled into Canmore and stayed a friend's place for the night. It's nice to be back! We'll spend a few days here to install winter tires on the van, organizing our stored items and figure out a way to pack it all into our van for the drive back to Ontario. We'll meet up and say our goodbyes to our friends and try to squeeze a day or two of ice climbing. The road trip isn't over just yet! I'm looking forward to seeing the beautiful Erin again!

Here are two photos I took in central Montana as we drove back up to the Canadian border. It was nice to stretch out the legs!

Joshua Tree, CA

Dec. 6^th: Climbing at Joshua Tree

Pat and I climbed around the parking lot. The climbs in Joshua Tree seem to be mostly single pitch gear routes. The rock is amazing! After climbing we looked around for a campsite and crossed our friend Reese which we had met in Indian Creek. We spent the night at his campsite with a fire to keep us warm.

Dec. 7^th: Climbing at Joshua Tree / Start of the long drive back

It was a cold night! Our water reserve had frozen and the windows in the van were frosty. We climbed with Reese and Kiera at an area named Lost Horse which had short multi-pitch climbs.

We said our goodbyes, stopped for a shower in town and drove northbound. We plan to reach Bozeman, Montana sometime tomorrow to catch the Bozeman Ice Climbing Festival. I covered some good ground and drove until 4:00am with the caffeinated help of a Starbucks cappuccino. It was a splurge compared to the climbing bum lifestyle we’ve been living.



A short, steep and overhanging 5.11b hand crack.