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.

Albatross WI3, Valley of The Birds, North Ghost River Valley

The Valley of The Birds lies in the northern Ghost River Valley, about 12 km from the Big Hill. It's a narrow, step-sided little valley accessed via a cleft that forms up as a series of short WI2 steps. On the day that I went there, it was pretty cold (maybe -27C or so) and the river crossings required to get to the valley produced instant armour plating on your boots - I was very glad I was wearing plastics that day.

There are several routes in the valley, pictured here. We did Albatross (WI3) which I found hard, as it was plating horribly and had thin sections and other parts where the ice was skinned so that you were climbing on a thin crust above a deep air pocket. This was certainly not my favourite route of the winter, but the setting is fantastic.

Climbing in the South Ghost River Valley

The Ghost River Valley is about 90 minutes from Calgary, accessed via a gravel road and then a section of road that requires a 4 x 4. Despite being close to Calgary and Cochrane, it's a remote place to climb and help is a long way away if you get in trouble. There are many kilometres of cliff here, and probably untold unclimbed lines - but the rock is steep and often loose, so the sitaution is unlikely to change.



Here are some pictures from a rock climbing trip into the Ghost that I made with Grant, local access worker and Ghost afficionado. I found the climbing tough - I'm still not used to the YDS grading, but it seems to me that if the rock is loose and the protection dubious, then the tech grade within the overall grade calculation should slide....this doesn't happen here though. Until I get my head around this one, I'm not leading much trad rock here!