B2 (Upper ETC) - WI 3, 25m

December 6 took my good friend Laurie out for his very first ice climbing. Laurie has only been alpine and multi pitch sport climbing for a relatively short time; about 5 years. In fact, our first alpine climb together was in July 2014 when we did the first known ascent of "Rocky Peak" (GR334290) via West Face/Ridge with alpine climbing in the 5.4 range. Laurie is a solid 5.10 bolt protected climber and usually about 5.8 trad lead climber, depending on the ease of getting trad pro. He is a strong and brave rock leader, so I knew he would have no problem with ice climbing. 

Laurie at the end of the day, WD40 in the background.

Back in 2008, Jason Wilcox and I set three new ice routes in Upper Evan-Thomas Creek. The ice route "B2" I climbed with Tony Barton in March of 1995; at the time we assumed we had climbed "Good H'evans Thomas". I had top roped "WD40" twice in January of 2006, didn't have the head space to lead it that year, so Jason and I led the route in January of 2008, the first ascent documented year. Some details on Upper Evan-Thomas Creek in these links.

My Summitpost page for Evan-Thomas Creek Ice Climbs

My January 2008 Gravsports Trip Report

Since 2008, Upper Evan-Thomas Creek has become quite popular, busy and well trodden. So well trodden, that the once small goat path on the upper bank of the creek that avoids the tight canyon just upstream of Combo Falls has been massive widened and now includes wooden handrails on the trees, and the relatively easy, but exposed, rock traverse in the narrow canyon has a steel cable handrail added (I think added in 2017 or 2018).  I had thought about chopping this handrail, but it does increase safety, I guess you are a wimpy rock scrambler, you use the hand rail, if not, then don't use. I didn't use the handrail on my trip with Laurie. 

Being a Friday, I assumed we would have upper ETC to ourselves, nope, including us, a total of 11 people between B2 and Green Monster before noon. Oh well, the way of the world I guess. There was a guided group ahead of us that we caught up to, at first the guide considered B2, so I thought Slurpee might be in shape, nope, wasn't formed well. I thought about Green Monster, but I haven't lead much in the last couple of season, so back to B2. The guided group was sharing a top rope with another group of 4 on WD40.

Busy day, view to WD40.

Slurpee was no formed. Didn't bother. 

View back to Green Monster. Seriously considered a lead up it, but I glad I didn't. 

LK enjoying the brisk temps.

Simple lead to the top of B2, I set up a top rope and Laurie did a pile of laps on the top rope.  I gave Laurie a history of ice climbing techniques and the option of climbing with or without leashes since I have two pairs of tools (Quarks from 1999 with leashes and Nomics from 2012). Spent a couple hours of pleasant ice climbing; Laurie loved it. After dark, i did the last lap and clean the anchor and rapped off. Fun hike out, and cold beer in the parking lot. Great day out. 

LK's first ice climb.

More TR'ing

LK having a lot of fun.

More climbing

Chilling in the parking lot with some cold ones.
A great day out. 

King Creek Ice Climb - WI 3, 25m

Easy mellow day to ease into some ice climbing, hit the mega classic ice crag; King Creek. I have only led ice climbing about twice in past 3 seasons, so John and I were looking for a casual day to get the cob webs out. The weather forecast also called for a high of 16 for Kananaskis, so we planned a short morning of ice climbing in the sheltered canyon.

Upper most flow "Scottish Gully". 

We were the first party of day at King Creek, not surprising since we got there about 7am. Nice hike up the canyon. The main flow and smaller cave routes next door were all fairly thin so we went for the cool flow in the just past the narrow creek section. This line is sometimes referred to as “the Scottish Gully”. It was it great shape. I led the route a couple of times, then I set up a top rope. John and I did a ton of laps, then packed in around noon. We did see another party at the main flow on our hike out. Fun early season warm up. 

TR set up.

John at base of route.

John ready to spring into action.

Party of two on the main flow as we hike out. 

Classic view up King Creek from the parking area/highway. The glorious Mt. Blane on the left,
outlier of Blane, "The Blade", just left of centre and "Mt. Barham", right of centre. 

Plateau Mountain - Scramble

Another fun and off the beaten track trip with Cornelius. Being shoulder season, me not having snow shoes, Cornelius not having skis, we tried to pick an objective that was interesting, and approachable on foot. In the end, we drove south to the Livingstone Range and did a pleasant hike up Plateau Mountain. Driving up and down the access road scoping out potential objectives, we both really liked the look of the southern end of Plateau Mountain; a pair of swooping ridge descend from the large flat plateau providing a nice compact loop, both accessible from the same parking spot. 

On the plateau looking south, Mt. Livingstone (left) and "Coffin Mountain" (centre) in the distance

A bit of light bushwhacking and a little bit of post holing up the steepish slope, brought us up to a little cliff band, we tackled this minor obstacle head on and soon we were in the wind blasted alpine. 

Cornelius breaking through the trees.
Hello wind.

As we gain elevation, a view south to Mt. Livingstone (l) and "Coffin Mtn." (r)

View towards our eventual descent ridge, the South East Ridge.

View back to road and the bottom of the SE ridge.

Pano photo towards end of South East Ridge

Pano photo showing much of the South East Ridge

The winds were strong, and would continue to worsen throughout the day. We gain the ridgeline proper and enjoyed fine views as we ascended towards a cairn. After this cairn, we wandered over to a gas processing site, took a look from a safe distance, then wandered over to two other cairn piles, the last being the highest on the plateau (based on Cornelius’ GPS). 

Section of ridge where we gained the South Ridge proper.

South Ridge gains the high flat and expansive plateau.
Taken from our first cairn pile.

Hiking north towards a large well site.

View south across the expansive plateau.
On the horizon,  double summit of Windy Peak, Mt. Livingstone and right, "Coffin Mtn."

View north to Mt. Burke.

Open country for sure.

Second cairn pile.

Cornelius at our third cairn pile, view north, Mt. Burke on the horizon.

Winds continued to intensify as we descend the South East Ridge, rounding the top of a steep cirque back towards the road. At a minor col along this ridge, we got hammered by wind, I honestly think the wind was around 200 km/hour.  It was intense. Simple hike back to the shelter below the ridge line and into the trees.  A very enjoyable 4.5 ish hours and a fun shoulder season scramble, great day out.

Nearing the bottom of the South East Ridge.
View back to the South Ridge and the loop we completed.

"Sheep Meadow Mtn." (GR217985), "Sheep's Claw" (GR228973) - Scramble

Cool trip and I had the chance to meet up with a great scrambler who loves going off the beaten track. Cornelius and I exchanged emails about 2 years ago after I had found his website and gave him compliments on his impressive list of scrambles. At that time, I was recovering from some tendon injuries, and then he was off travelling the world, we didn’t connect until this Fall. “Sheep Meadow Mountain” was not on my radar at all, but Cornelius was keen to try it out since he had done several peaks in the area. Any trips I do to the Ghost or Waiparous area historically involved ice climbing, and I haven’t scrambled many peaks in the area. Black Rock Mountain was one of my first ever summits, my ninth, in May of 1993 Jock Rutherford and I scrambled to the summit and slept in the old fire lookout building. Until this recent trip, Black Rock was my only summit in the nearby vicinity.  Great reason to explore this area some more.

Cornelius had scrambled the nearby “Ghost Peak”, or as Vern Dewit referred to as “Kink Peak” (from Bivouac.com reference), back in spring of 2016. Cornelius knew the drive in and the approach well from this previously trip, and was kind enough to drive, so it was super simple trip for me. The gravel/dirt road to Fallentimber Creek was in great shape because of the active logging in the area and we had a simple drive to the parking area. The slog to the Ghost(Kink)/Sheep Meadow col was, at first, low snow level and easy, but soon we were post holing up a storm.  The deepish snow definitely slowed our pace and sucked up some energy.  

Left Sheep Meadow Mountain and on the right, "Ghost" (Kink) Peak

.

Approach via Fallentimber Creek to Ghost/Sheep Meadow
Mtn. col, then we traversed south east, then to main summit of Sheep Meadow.
South to Sheep's Claw, and north on western slopes.

Hiking the cut line, a few patches of ice.

Deep snow and slogging towards Ghost Peak's rugged east face.

"Sheep Meadow Mtn." (GR217985) centre, "Sheep's Claw" (GR228973) far left 

Nearing the col, we decided not to gain the col, but instead angle traverse south east, above tree line, towards ‘Sheep’s Claw’. As we slogged along through some pretty deep snow, we changed plans, headed directly up the east slopes of Sheep Meadow, to gain a low spot on the ridge, where we hiked to the summit. First summit of the day, very windy, and extreme wind chill.  Cornelius had brought a glass jar and some paper to leave as a register, it was actually difficult to write because of the cold and the high velocity winds. After our new cairn and register were in place, we headed directly south on the summit ridge. 

Starting our raising traverse above tree line.  View north to the col
and Ghost(Kink) Peak.

Cornelius with ridge of Sheep Meadow Mountain above,
from the eastern slopes below. We gained the low point left of this block.

 "Sheep's Claw" (GR228973) far left, Black Rock Mountain right of centre.

Cornelius on the summit of Sheep Meadow Mtn.
Cornelius brought a glass jar and some paper for a summit register.

Soon we encountered a steep drop off and some cool tall pinnacles that were beyond scrambling. We back tracked a bit, then descended a fun steep snow filled gully, the exit near the bottom of the gully required a few tricky moves on dry rock to escape to easier terrain, then to scree slopes below. Once on the easy western slopes, we had a better look at the next objective.  The final summit block of ‘Sheep’s Claw’ had steep rock walls, looked like it would be a bit more challenging.  Mostly wind blown, there was a lack of deep snow, so travel was fast to the col, then up the northern slopes of Sheep’s Claw. 

Traverse south from summit of Sheep Meadow,
deep notches and cliffs forced us down to the western slopes.

Heading south from Sheep Meadow summit, along the ridge, found a wind ravaged
Canadian flag. 

Above the Sheep Meadow/Sheep's Claw col view north
to Sheep Meadow and Ghost Peak.

We saw the eastern wall was too difficult to scramble, so we traversed west a bit below a cool rock buttress, then up easy snow/scree to a very cool rock wall below the summit (turned out to be a false summit).  We both scrambled this steep wall, which was very loose and probably 5.2 climbing. Once on our exposed rock fin, we realized the summit was just a bit more south. Some careful downclimbing on very loose rock, then a fun snow traverse to the final summit slopes.

Cornelius climbing the loose, but fun steep rock step to the lower summit of
"Sheep's Claw".

View from lower false summit to the higher summit of "Sheep's Claw"

From summit of "Sheep's Claw" north to Sheep Meadow Mtn. and Ghost Peak.

Cornelius enjoy the 'calm' conditions on Sheep's Claw.

View to Devil's Head. 
Climbed Devil's Head with Jason Wilcox in December 2007 via the waterfall ice routes, "Beowulf" and "Devil's Punchbowl" and the standard West Ridge route to the summit.

Cornelius leaving the summit of Sheep's Claw.

The wind subsided a bit while on our second summit and we got to enjoy the views. I added a few stones to the existing small cairn. The existing summit cairn didn’t have a register.  Soon we headed back to the col and started a traverse along the western slopes of Sheep Meadows Mountain, with a goal of reaching the col shared with Ghost(Kink), hopefully without too much elevation loss. The scree field was mix of no snow and boot top deep snow. As we neared the col, a couple of deep valleys/gullies did cut into the slope and we traversed high to avoid the drop in elevation. We gained the col, considered briefly the scramble to the summit of Ghost Peak.  Cornelius had climbed Ghost before, but in white out conditions, and I was keen to ascend it, but given the amount of snow and lateness of the day, we chose to head back to the car.  In the end, the best choice, as we did much of the return hike in the dark and the trip was about 12 hours car to car. Super fun shoulder season scramble, great day out.

View south across the western flank of Sheep Meadow and the summit of Sheep's Claw.

Nearing the col with Ghost Peak, summit of Ghost above.

Last view of our two summits as we head into the trees of Fallentimber Creek..