Spring, Ma, Iona and Jane flew into Calgary and drove to Canmore. A day later Priscilla and I drove from Seattle. I had not been on a trip with Priscilla since the Ouray trip a year earlier. We had plenty to talk about and the twelve-hour drive went by quickly. For our week-long stay our group had rented a condo on the outskirts of Canmore. I had last seen Ma Yihua a few years earlier when Spring and I had been on the Chola Shan climb in Western Sichuan Province. Ma recently moved to Vancouver, BC and so was able to join us. I had known Iona through Spring and had seen her at Vertical World but had never gone on an outing with her. Jane, from Tennessee, was a new acquaintance of all and had been put in touch with Spring as a result of contacting Ma.
This year's Chinook had arrived in the Canadian Rockies bringing warm breezy conditions. Temperatures were near freezing in the morning and then rose up to the high thirties or even low forties during the day. This made for pleasantly warm climbing but it was warm enough for ice to melt and routes were frequently fairly wet. The warm temperatures also made many routes off-limits due to avalanche danger and other routes were melted out and unclimbable. Fortunately, there are enough places to climb in the Canadian Rockies that I was able to visit five areas with good ice all of which I had never been to before.
On Sunday we headed out to Johnson Canyon. At the Upper Falls the waterfall at the far left was out. The moderate slopes at the far right were thick and several lines were possible. Of the other meltwater column routes only one was climbable. We rigged a top-rope anchor and joined two 60-meter ropes. Another column was formed but had a horizontal crack across its entire width and was melted out behind. On the drive home we stopped for dinner at a Korean restaurant in Banff.
On Monday we headed out to the Wedge Smear. On the hike in we looked across the Valley and saw that Sinatra Falls was loaded with snow. I am glad that I was able to climb it on a trip earlier this season. The Wedge Smear was in great condition. We rigged three top ropes and had multiple lines to work with. Especially on the more vertical routes on the right side the ice was picked out making it possible to climb without having to swing tools very much. On the hike out, Spring and Jane stopped to make snow angels.
On Tuesday, we decided to take a rest day. I had caught a cold the day before the trip and hoped that a day of rest might help with recovering. The cold dogged me through the entire vacation. It was never so bad as to prevent me from going out and climbing but it was something of a nuisance. Iona had only scheduled a long weekend for the trip and had returned home the day before. That night, Spring and Jane cooked up one of several tasty feasts of tofu, vegetables, noodles and other goodies.
On Wednesday we headed over to Heart Falls. The falls had a good mix of easy and hard lines and was a good place to practice leading. We rigged two top-ropes and ran laps up the ice. There was a section of ice on the far side of the rock buttress on the left side of the falls. We saw some folks climbing there but we had enough climbing that day and headed home.
On Thursday we headed over to Grotto Falls. The description in the Joe Josephson book for getting to the trailhead was missing a key piece of information. The road that you need to take is Rt. 1A (Bow Valley Trail). It took us a bit of guessing and following some wrong roads before we figured that out. The approach to Grotto Falls is a cool hike along a stream. The ice was still frozen to make for solid walking but it was clearly starting to melt. Partway along the approach on the smooth side of the grotto wall are some faint hieroglyphics. The lower part of the route called His was melted out. Ma felt up to the task for dry-tooling the lower part to get onto the ice. Hers was largely intact. Jane led the route and then rigged up a top-rope. Grotto Falls itself was in good enough shape for climbing but in many places the ice was wet and junky. Aside from screws placed in good ice formed on the left wall, ice screw placements were of questionable solidity.
On Friday we headed over to the Junk Yard. We climbed the main curtain of ice and the ice flow on the far side of the rock buttress on the left side of the main curtain. While we were climbing we met, Kevin and Jenn, two folks from Vancouver Island. At the end of the day we returned to the house for a final feast of tofu, shrimp and Chinese vegetables.
