Anyone ever hear of the ice route “Ceramic Engineer “. Probably not. I am approaching 30 seasons of ice climbing and have never heard of anyone climbing this route. Haven’t been out at all this season and was looking for an easy WI3 route. Ceramic Engineer 70m, WI3 is in Jo Jo’s guidebook and seemed like a reasonable day out. It is just east of Mt. Wilson, about 6 km east of Saskatchewan Crossing in Owen Creek.
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| From the creek, view to the route. |
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| First view to WI5 up on cliff band. |
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We see some ice.
John spied the WI5 pillar. |
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View up Owen Creek.
Nice little valley. |
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| Hiking up to the WI3 route we climbed. |
Reviewing the information provided in Joe Josephson's "Waterfall Ice: Climbs in the Canadian Rockies", there is some incorrect UTM numbers provided for Ceramic Engineer. The guidebook description is shown below, the UTM grid provided for Ceramic Engineer is 227643. Ceramic Engineer is in Owen Creek, the guidebook also lists three routes in Thompson Creek, and provides a UTM grid of 227644; only 10 metres apart. Not correct since these creeks are kilometres apart. My reading from the route we climbed is shown below on the map below, UTM grid 196627. I am assuming we climbed Ceramic Engineer, even with only about 45 metres of climbing. The route is in a gully, so some years would have more ice for sure.
I convinced John it was a good idea so we headed there on Saturday Feb. 10. After hiking in almost 5 km we saw some scary sun affected WI5 ice. We hiked a bit and found a 45m WI3 route. Climbed it, not sure it was Ceramic Engineer? Was a great day out with a great bud in remote setting. Tons of fun.
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John pulling the ropes after our rap off a tree at the top.
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