Hello again everyone,
It feels like yesterday that I was writing the first update of my series! Time is really flying by with the busy schedule and how exciting the course is. This week’s update is a little bit long but definitely check out the March 18 update if you want to skim! Today (21 March) is the first day of two days off. This break is between the ice climbing and the skiing section of the course. And I 100% need it. Two days ago I felt totally burned out from back to back to back days of hard ice climbing but luckily I was able to recover after taking 1 relatively light day. Regardless, it has been an absolutely epic experience so far and because of the level of exertion, I can shovel food into me without even thinking about it.
The boys cooking in the kitchen
I have realized that the level of baseline food consumption is on an entirely different scale. The other day I ate a medium box of pasta + a large plate of chicken tenders and fries + 2-3 small tangerines and a banana + some cashews + some chocolate just for dinner and I still felt I could eat more. Days that I don’t eat enough food the night before, especially, I feel the effects of not enough food the next day. In spite of pigging out in the name of alpinism, I have been losing weight. If anyone is looking for a weight loss program, look no further than climbing!
Unreal sunrise on the mountains visible from the Yamnuska centre - Ship’s Prow, Lawrence Grassi, Miners and Ha Ling
So, we had our first full week of climbing. Some days were lighter than others but we climbed daily and it has been taxing on the mind and the body but not the stoke. I am just as excited about climbing as the first day I showed up here!
March 15: Getting back into it at King Creek
We started off the week at a classic ice climbing crag called King Creek. It is along a hike popular during summer and winter so if you can - check it out!
What is interesting about Kings Creek is that it is located on Inuit land and is considered sacred and therefore development of rock climbing in the area is not allowed - but ice climbing is for some reason!
In any case, we were able to get in some really fun climbing and the entire party was in good spirits with plenty of energy to spare. Everyone was able to crush all the routes set up and there was a cool climb that was easy but kind of led into a cave where I hung out for a bit.
A rare selfie of myself - in the cave!
March 16 Hard climbing at Hafner creek
This was a day for some try-hard climbing! Nick and James astutely figured that our group had some energy to spare and pushed us by taking us to Hafner.
This place is probably my favorite ice crag. It has an abundance of hard vertical ice and also a ton of mixed routes. A mixed route is when the route contains climbing some rock and then some ice (or vice versa but typically rock before ice - you climb the rock to get to the ice).
Mixed climbing - climbing from the rock onto the ice
The spectacular ice pillars at Hafner
I was able to complete some of these uber hard mixed routes and that has probably been among the most satisfying moments of the trip so far.
March 17 Easy day in the Lower Junkyards
After some hefty climbing at Kings Creek and Hafner, the guides opted for a light day to let us recover a bit. We did some pretty relaxed climbing at the Junkyards (ice crag which is super close to Canmore). Messed around by doing some ‘no-tooling’ where we only use our feet to climb ice on some of the easier routes and got our pairings and locations for our big multi pitch day the next day!
March 18 Brown man climbs Whiteman Falls
Mountaineering in North America is predominantly dominated by caucasians which has often been cited as a diversity problem which people are trying to address. Something I recently realized is that I am the only non-caucasian person in the course and other than one other guide from Taiwan, the only non-caucasian in this entire endeavor, guides included (so far). However, till date I have not felt in any way discriminated against by my peers or the guides and in fact feel whole-heartedly welcomed into the community. It has been amazing!
With that in mind, I did raise half of my eyebrow at least when I heard the name Whiteman falls. Interestingly, the climb right next to it was first climbed by Barry Blanchard who is the co-founder of Yamnuska Mountain Guides and he named it Redman soars as a sort of counter! This place is located right next to King Creek!
James doing James things climbing Whiteman’s gracefully
This route is just an epic day of climbing which starts with a 2 hour hard hike in soft snow on the unshoveled part of Highway 40. Lots of post holing and winding uphills along the road. We were greeted by the alpenglow on the ranges surrounding us which was quite surreal.
The sun rising as we did the long approach to Whiteman’s
Entering the woods changes the dynamic of the approach a little by becoming extremely steep and icy requiring crampons. Once we navigate that, we get to an ice fall that is extremely thin. Whack your ice tool too far and you break through to the flowing creek and end your day of ice climbing by completely drenching yourself.
Once successful, you have an extremely steep snow/ice hike to the base of Whiteman falls for an approach of nearly 3 hours.
The final approach section with the top of Whitemans visible from a distance
I was climbing with James (guide) and Nick (fellow student, not guide). James led the pitch with pure grace and set up the belay station for both Nick and me. The first pitch of climbing was quite varied with lots of intricate climbing and seeing some interesting ice formations like a ‘glass window’ (perfectly clear ice that let you see through the ice fall to the water still flowing underneath) and the ‘apartment’ (small room like formation which let about two people stand inside comfortably and had a completely flat floor). There were also some ice mushrooms and chandeliers which were just dripping ice creating these structures.
The second pitch was much more full-on and less ‘technical’ and required more brute strength. Sadly I fell off one time from being totally tired from climbing. Since I was on belay, I just hung out for a bit to get some strength back to finish the climb. The entire climb goes at WI 6 (WI 7+ is the highest possible grading for pure water ice) and the climb definitely felt like it.
We were greeted with a narrow (Whiteman’s is in a canyon) but stunning view of the valley below.
Stunning view from the top of Whiteman’s
We had to reverse our ascent to descend and get back on the road for the 5 km of post holing back to the car. The day ended with a 17 km total distance traversed.
A panoramic view from our long path back to the car
March 19 Barely holding on at Bear Spirit
Not much to report here. I was totally wiped from the epic day before and we got to enjoy some skills learning at Bear Spirit which also has a fairly long hike in. Tiring but extremely beautiful.
It started coming down on us as we climbed at Bear Spirit
The beautiful but strenuous hike in and out of Bear Spirit
March 20 Back at it at Hafner Creek
We wrapped up our ice climbing section with some final ‘all-or-nothing’ climbing back at Hafner. We attempted some other mixed routes which sadly I could not complete, however, I was happy with how far I got on each of them.
That wraps up a hectic week of ice climbing in the Canmore area. On each of the drives we did, I was able to spot some epic climbing locations and pin point some classic ice climbs in the rockies from the road itself. Truly lucky to be in such a spot even if it is for just a few months!
Looking forward to the next week which will contain 2 days off but the start of the skiing section and our first camping section as well!
Thanks all!
– G