So, I have come up with a few simple methods of avoiding major face laceration.
1: Wear full body armor. This can be heavy though, so only advised for short approaches.
2: Act like you just got hit with a huge piece of ice and are majorly bleeding. Hopefully, they will all rappel to help leaving the climb open for your ascent. Beware, this might cause people with sharp points to become angry. Which is never fun.
3: Pretend that you are French- and cannot understand when they yell at you to not pass.
4: Climb harder thus transcending all of the busy climbs.
5: Don’t go climbing. Its dangerous.
6: Convince others not to go climbing. Its dangerous.

Really, it is always important to relinquish attachment to climbing anything on any given day. Just head out there and have an adventure. And stay away from climbers above!

The approach is a fairly simple matter, but conditions were deep and there was only one set of winding tracks that had mostly filled in. You head up a road until you get to the end of the first of two lakes, and head left up a slope. After a ways of post holing through a thick crust into the biggest facets I have ever seen, we crested a ridge that gave us the view of the route. It took our breath away. We did notice however that it looked somewhat rotten and wind affected from afar.

Upon closer examination, we noticed that conditions were indeed a bit thin.

The third pitch turned out to be a crux. We climbed the left side, as it was the only part of the route that was protectable. But this mandated that the belay at the top of the second pitch be placed at the middle of the ice rather than at the bolts on the right. There was a overhang to maneuver around while stemming on rock and thin ice that was simple enough to manage if you could trust the ice blobs that did not seem quite so welded to the rest of the ice. The rest of the pitch is spent traversing to the cave on the right of the ice fall.

It was wild climbing- the ice had formed in big blobs making foot placements simple but dubious- and you would swing into the rotten snice at the top of each blob that would make a deep stick easy but again dubious. The protection was equally questionable at times but not too hard to find better ice that was very hard. The problem being that the placements were all a part of the blob nature of the ice which was marginally connected to the whole.

The third pitch was steep and exhilarating. We headed back in the dark and were thrilled to make our way back to the highway without incident.
-Julia

I hope you are doing well.

I just wanted to check in after the trip and let you know I had an awesome time. Jason was excellent, he was incredibly patient and a wonderful instructor. I know it is a little late coming, but I wanted to make sure I passed along some feedback. I had a great experience!

Thanks again for all the information re: travel and accommodation, it was much appreciated and made my trip much smoother.

Best,

Naomi

“The three days of climbing were brilliant. I had a magical and memorable experience…”

Thanks, Suneet!

It is well known that the ‘V-Thread’ or the ‘Abalokov’ anchor is a standard practice for rappelling ice climbs. These types of anchors are used by most ice climbers these days.

I have seen quite a few ‘less than ideal’ methods and materials used for this practice as of late.

Some issues:

1. Diameter of Cord- It is ideal to use a minimum of 7mm cord for these anchors. Thinner diameter cord can certainly hold body weight but does not provide a very large safety margin. It should be known that cord or webbing can loose a significant amount of strength once a rope or two has been pulled through the cord. The pulling of the rappel rope through the webbing or cord often melts into the sheath and core of the material. I have seen many V-threads made with 5mm and even 4mm cord this year. I’m glad these are working for whoever is using them but I surely wouldn’t recommend using V-threads with this very thin material when you come along them on your decent. I climb with many advocates of ‘light and fast’ climbing but the wt. difference between 5mm cord and 7mm cord will not make or break your ability to ascend ice climbs. I often use pieces of an old 8 or 9mm rope to leave on climbs, which is stronger and takes longer to wear out than thinner cord and is a good way to recycle old ropes.

2. Type of Knot- I see a lot of small diameter cord used for V-threads tied together with a simple ‘overhand knot’. The standard knot for connecting cord in V-threads is a ‘fisherman’s (Single or double)’. The ‘overhand knot’ is popular for attaching (equal diameter) rappel ropes but only with large amounts of tale (1.5 - 2 feet is fine). Tests show that the ‘Overhand knot’ can roll or flip (essentially start to fail) more easily with icy or wet ropes, smaller diameter cord, dissimilar sized cord, or with knots that aren’t properly dressed. The cord within V-threads is often icy, thin, and large tails are not practical. Again, this knot (the overhand) obviously works for many people in this application but the safety margin is less and someday an accident will happen. See http://www.needlesports.com/advice/abseilknots.htm for some interesting ready on the ‘Overhand Knot’ for attaching rappel ropes.

3. Spectra or Dyeenema slings- Many of us use these thinner, light wt. sewn slings for ice and rock climbing (instead of bulkier and heavier nylon slings). These light slings are especially nice for winter climbing as they don’t absorb water the way that Nylon slings do. Ever notice that you can’t buy webbing made with these materials off the spool like you can Nylon? The reason for this is that the knot holding strength of these materials is much less than with nylon. These materials are slippery and the knots can easy slip and fail. I have seen several sewn Spectra slings that have been cut and then re-tied around trees or used in V-threads. Don’t do this. If you are desperate than use your climbing rope. There is ‘cord’ (generally 5.5mm) made out of spectra as well. This too is slippery. It is recommended to use a ‘Triple Fisherman’s’ knot when connecting this type of cord to prevent the slipping of the knot.

Remember to:

1. ALWAYS back up your V-threads or Abalokov anchors with an ice screw or two while the first climber(s) go down. Make sure the back up is through the rope and not simply through the anchor material in case the knot slips or cord breaks. The last person to go can remove the back up screw knowing that the V-thread has been tested.

2. It is good practice to go off of two V-threads, especially if you made neither of them. I will go of one if I made it myself but will almost always make another if there is just one old thread in place. Better safe than sorry!

3. Try not to litter the ice climbs (especially popular ones) with V-threads of poor quality, ie: marginal materials, they will only have to be backed up with another.

4. When adding a V-thread to be combined with an existing thread make them equalized so that both can be used. Having one thread a foot shorter than the one below nearly pointless.

Rob Owens

The beginnings of memory book for Aidan’s partner, family and friends can be found
at http://aidan.oloman.ca

“This notes are dedicated to my wife Cristina, she is the very reason I believe in love. Thanks with all my heart for understanding my desperate needs of living my dreams. You make me want to be a better person . I will always love you.” Ruben

Maybe a tendency that I have to look over things in an analitical way, trying to rationalize and comprehend every aspect, as if an engineering problem were, has been separating me from undestanding what climbing is about, specially ice and mixed climbing.

To my best knowledge, climbing seems to be about having fun within an stellar sport, in which you are inmerse in a universe of new emotions, something that we “normal people” are not used to feeling it. Climbing is about going up against the gravitational forces that not only attract our body to the earth but our mind as well. In this new world that I have just started to discover, the rules that control other aspects of our lives do not make sense, such as time, success, failure, frustration…At the moment you place an ice tool, time stops, you only have to focus on the evolution of your momentum, you are alone, only your close setting means, only what you have in your heart weighs, you have to listen to yourself if you want to learn, so you have to let your fears fly and connect with what you are doing. But for me acting in this way is something really new. I have approached like many people to climb in a wrong way and the consequences of really bad performance have been the engine that has made me think about my huge troubles while I am climbing.

We are so introduced in these kind of rigid thoughts that we have to make a titanic effort to adjust our mind to lose its inhibitions, and as far as I see, that is the cornerstone for most of the newcomers like me. I have to put up with all this lack of being capable of keep moving without fear of falling all the time, every move I make I am doubting about my own ability, and every breath I take I am questioning the result of my actions. To put in a nutshell, I am incapable of controlling my new emotions and I am incapable of “liberalizing” my mind. But perhaps that is why I like to climb, it is like riding a wild bull, I try to keep under control something that turns out to be uncontrollable for me, climbing is far far away of my mental schemes yet. I know that experience and passion for the sport will change my attitudes and emotional responses, only by being honest with oneself significant improvements in our personals goals can be done.

Taking into account that modern ice-mixed climbing is played by climbers with a lot of gear, it seems to me that the transference of confidence and skill to the climbs might take me most of the next century . As far as I am concerned, one of the most important problems of being a novice climber it is the way you have to make in order to create well-balanced climbing skills, taking into account that you do not usually have much time to do this, and here is the difference between doing it for yourself or letting yourself being taught by expert climbers that can give you another perspective about the game. Climbing is so complex that it is not obvious to learn how to learn. I remember seeing Rob Owens, Sean Isaac or Will Gadd climbing difficult ice pillars routes in Ouray, Colorado last year without blink an eye and that was some food for thought. In contrast, it would take me far more effort to me make the same pillar only just one time. I was wasting energy all the time, -if you are not aware about this you will not go anywhere-, imprecise tool placements and footholds, overreacting, fear and not focusing on the way the ice behaves, only to mention a few mistakes. In case of mixed climbing things are getting worse because of the refinement of the moves….so why trying to do something that seems to be so difficult for me? I can only answer this by saying that it is my internal fire that makes me want to learn, that makes me want to dream, makes me want to experience this impresive vertical world within my abilities, limitations and fears. I know people who started to climb and abandoned it because of this complexity but my point is doing things bringing them to me to my own level. If I cannot make a M8 route or whatever that is not going to prevent me from enjoying the freedom of climbing at the mountains. I am changing my mind considering anytime I can climb can be a great opportunity to learn new things especially about myself and what really means to me. At the end of the day, feeling new emotions is the important thing.
It is easy to do the things that you are good at, but it is much more challenge to do things in which you are not as good as you would like to be, maybe I will never be a talented climber but who cares, the sense of feeling a privileged guy in anytime I spend at the mountains it is what fires me up to keep going and going.

I have had the opportunity to learn from some of the best ice and mixed climbers in the world, I would like to keep learning from them, and I have realised that the best way to speed the learning process is to let you feel inspired by the motivation and enthusiasm of the top climbers because the best teachers are the more motivated. I would like to give special thanks to one of these climbers, Rob Owens, who have taught me a lot of things about ice climbing, thanks Rob for understanding my effort for travelling from Spain to the Canadian Rockies, for taking care of me at the mountains and for sharing amazing days in good ice climbs. I have no doubt that you are one of the best out there, especially as a human being.

Ruben Jimenez
Madrid
Spain
rjamoriz@yahoo.es

Here’s the tick list:

2005
Cascade Kronenberge
Carlesberg
Weathering Heights
2 Low 4 for Zero
Left Weeping Wall
Shades of Beauty
Drambuie Dream
Grotto Falls
Experts Choice
Waterton Right
Quick and Dirty

2004
Haffner
Carlseberg
Extra-Lite
End Of The Line
Louise Falls
Twisted
Pilsner Pillar
Bow Falls

2003
Balfour Wall
Louise Falls
Professor Falls
Guiness Gully
Snowline
Masseys
Lower Polar Circus
Weeping Wall Right

Not bad at all, only a few hundred more to go and they’ll be done with the Rockies.

Nine months of extreme education!
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If you want training in avalanche safety, rock climbing, mountaineering, white water rafting, backcountry skiing as well as university credits towards a degree in Adventure Tourism then download an application today.

December 8, 2005: MAST students evaluate their experiences in the MAST program so far. Go to ‘Stories and Testimonials’ for first hand comments on the program.

CONTACT: Brian Bell bbell@cotr.bc.ca - Fernie Campus
Phone: (250) 423-4691 | Fax: (250) 423-3932

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