Alpine Soft: The Joker

Beautiful morning colours on the drive in.

Had a great day of early season ice climbing with Laurie at the end of November. I thought it was interesting, this year, the weather warmed up again in early November, and Laurie and I did a day of cragging/rock climbing at the Porcupine Creek crag in the first week of November and a few weeks later, some ice climbing. We headed to "The Joker" in the South Ghost. This route is typically a moderate WI3 and only one pitch, and in the dry conditions we had, super easy to approach. A nice easy breezy to start the ice season.

View to route on the approach.

Nice and dry conditions for the approach.

View to the route, "Candle Stick Maker", not quite formed this day.
I did this route with Jason Wilcox about 10 years ago.

I have only been up this drainage once before, in 2010, I think late January, Jason, Janice and I climbed Hidden Dragon and Candle Stick Maker. On this day, we had dry conditions and really nice ice quality on The Joker. The hike was snow free and only a minor bit of ice on the trail. We easily gained elevation and enjoyed the warm late Fall weather. Got a great view over to Hidden Dragon and CSM as we gained height, HD was climbable, CSM, not so much.

Nearing base of route on approach.

View up the route from the base.

Once at the base of The Joker we geared up and I launched up the route. Well putting on my crampons, my beloved Scarpa Summits boots were showing their age. I loved my Summits, bought them in 2007. On their first trip, I summitted Mt. Brazeau; these boot have been up hundreds of summits and hundreds of ice routes. As I attached the crampon, the base of the sole on the toe came apart. I thought I would still do the lead and see how it went. Well of course, half way up, the crampon failed. I had to put in an ice screw, hang for a bit, reattached the crampon, and decided to continue climbing. Made it to the top without any more failures. Brought up Laurie and rapped down on the bolts at the top of the route. Fun day of ice, very sad about my Summit boots. I guess after 13 years, with about 5 years of very hard use, I cannot complain.

Great day out in the Ghost. Love the Ghost, don't get here as much as I would like to. This was Laurie's first time ever in the area, I think it was cool he got to climb ice on his first trip.