King Creek, Moonlight, Junkyards, Haffner Creek.

Link to pics of Moonlight, King Creek, Junkyards, Haffner Creek and Sunshine Village.

Frank came over for his annual winter visit, and we headed out for a few days of fantastic ice and skiing. We had been worried that by late March our options would be limited, but in truth it was the best climbing I've had all winter.

As I write this up on April 18, reports are still appearing of fantastic conditions on low altitude Rockies ice - but I'm off out for a sunny bike ride!

The week started with a trip to King Creek (above) in Kananaskis Country. The three seeps were in good condition at around WI2+ to WI3, although fresh snow made climbing the easy-angled First Seep less fun.

Day two saw us in Evan Thomas Creek, where we joined Grant for an ascent of Moonlight (WI4). Superb, sustained climbing and we saw two moose in the woods.

On day three we headed to the Junkyards and climbed the Scottish Gully, amongst others. The ice was super-fat and there were lines available that weren't formed on previous visits. The following day we skied at Lake Louise, and enjoyed the Rock Garden....great fun unless you miss a turn, then it's time to learn about the reason behind the name....

Our fourth day was spent at Haffner Creek. Again, the ice was superb and we climbed several good, short lines. After that, we decided to relax with a day at Sunshine Village. It was completely empty, and we had some great skiing, including a full descent of my first double black run - actually easier than many of the local single blacks, but longer and in a more remote position off the side of Goat's Eye Mountain. All in all, a great week!

Wicked Wanda WI4+, Ghost River Valley

What an amazing piece of ice this was! We went up in a team of four to get some film of Grant climbing through the overhangs on the right of the upper pitch. The normal route goes left at WI4+, but Grant thought he might be able to squeeze through a hole in the back of the roof for a variant finish.

I filmed a couple of hours of footage, and captured the moment when a masive block of ice detached under Grant's weight (see below). Unfortunately I had some computer problems shortly afterwards, so the editing is going to take a while. Still, here is a set of pictures from the climb.

Green Monster, Rehab Wall, upper Evan Thomas Creek

Click here for full report

In an attempt to link my photo albums to a single point of reference, I'm going to retro-post details of various trips we made last year onto this blog. Things will calm down in a couple of weeks, but until then, here is the first of a series links to short write-ups of climbs, hikes, rides and paddles that we did in late 2007 to early 2009.

Green Monster is at the left end of 'Rehab Wall', which is a reasonably long walk up Evan Thomas Creek, in Kananaskis Country . The routes here are not presently in a guidebook, but there are half a dozen good, single pitch ice routes and a wall of hard, bolted mixed climbing that is said to be 'the new Haffner'. On the day that we climbed there, it was somewhere around -30C and I lost all feeling in four of my fingers for 3 weeks afterwards. I had warm feet though - resulting from a combination of wearing my ancient plastic boots, and changing my socks when we got to the route. That's a top tip from Grant - dry socks don't conduct heat like wet ones and in those temperatures it makes a massive difference to your comfort (and potentially, your toe count!).