You Want to Climb Ice, Eh?

by Jeff Dmytrowich

Climbing ice sculpted like blue glass can be one of the most demanding, exhilarating, and beautiful forms of climbing. Waterfall ice is a wonderfully varied medium, it can form in sheets, smears, pillars, bulges, grooves, icicles, roofs, cones, chandeliers and cauliflowers. It can also range in hardness from concrete to ice cream and is never the same from week to week and season to season.

Luckily for us, the geography and climate of the Canadian Rockies is perfect for frozen waterfalls, making it home to the best concentration of big, classic ice climbs in the world. The Rockies are the ice climber’s mecca with a wide range of climbing possibilities for frozen fun and adventure.

With adventure does come risk: sharp tools, falling ice, unstable formations, storms, and frigid temperatures are some of the hazards for the ice climber. One of the main things that keeps people from trying ice climbing is the cold or rather the thought of being cold and the the discomfort that comes with it. However as Will Gadd has said, “Being cold is not a mandatory ice climbing experience; suffering is a failure in planning and systems.”

There are three important factors for staying warm: stay dry, stay fed & hydrated and plan ahead. Planning ahead means just that , anticipating what the conditions will be in the near future and adjusting for them. Staying dry means keeping your clothes and skin moisture free. If you are well hydrated you will stay warmer and be happier, drink warm water or other fluids.

The dreaded “screaming barfies” (the unpleasant experience when blood flows back into cold hands and the feeling of wanting to simultaneously scream and barf occurs) can be avoided when ice climbing. Most people ice climbing wear gloves that are too heavy and just get filled with sweat. Also, thick, snug gloves can cause even a small amount of constriction that will decrease circulation. If your hands are dry and your core is warm, you won't get screaming barfies. Your core temperature is what determines your hand warmth when you are moving, not the amount of insulation. If you let your core temperature drop when belaying and then wear sweat soaked or thick gloves when you start to climb, you will definitely get the barfies. It is best to bring warm mitts, a warm belay jacket and a couple pairs of lighter Windstopper style of gloves for climbing.

Along with clothing to keep you warm and toasty there is a fair bit of gear that is needed for ice climbing: helmet, harness, boots, crampons, ice tools. Getting decked out with all this gear can be an expensive proposition; luckily almost all of the gear you need can be rented. It is often best to rent when first getting into ice climbing as it allows to try different types of gear. The gear for ice climbing, such as the ice tools become an extension of your body and it is best to find what works best for you and learn its intricacies before making a purchase decision.

So, how hard is ice climbing you may ask? Well, ice is difficult to grade accurately because it is constantly changing over the course of a season and even sometimes from morning to afternoon. Early season is usually thin and poorly bonded to the rock and these conditions can sometimes be the most demanding. As the season goes on the bottom of the climbs get fatter and so often the overall steepness decreases. Busy climbs can get chopped out creating easy axe holds and footsteps that take a difficult climb down to a beginner’s level. In the morning a climb can be brittle and strenuous but by afternoon it could be plastic or it could be plastic in the morning and slushie in the afternoon as the sun hits the ice.

Despite all these things, there is a rating system that rates water ice (WI) on a scale of 1 to 8.

• WI1 is solid, thick, low angle ice that would be easy to climb with one ice tool and crampons. This rarely gets used just like 5.1 in rock climbing.
• WI2 is rambling low-angle ice that will require a rope, especially for beginners.
• WI3 is where technical climbing begins and may have short steps of near vertical ice (about a body length) and longer sections of 50-70 degree ice.
• WI4 has a short bit of vertical ice or a longer pitch of 75-80 degrees and most beginners can top-rope but leading is now serious.
• WI5 has long sections of vertical ice so it can be technical and pumpy and may have funky ice that finding reliable screw placements may be difficult at times.
• WI6 is overhanging mushrooms, bad placements, very thin ice, free-hanging daggers, technical and brutally continuous. Only very experienced, fit climbers lead this rating.
• WI7 & WI8....lets just say it starts to get real scary with horrendous protection placements and the concern that it could all come tumbling down at anytime. Risks on ice climbs often increase with difficulty because the ice gets more precarious and difficult to protect.

Even though there are ratings, they are sometimes difficult to figure out , luckily ice routes are easier to assess from below than rock routes. This lets you see what you are getting yourself into (a WI4 route can feel like WI3 by mid-season after it has been chopped out).

There is not much left to get introduced into ice climbing except the technique. Ice climbing is not rock climbing. The technique involves the swing, the kick and linking them together. Rock climbers with less ice experience can get pumped on WI4+ more than they could on 5.12 rock and some ice climbers that send the hardest routes can barely climb rock harder than 5.10. The only way to learn and practice the technique for ice climbing is to get on the ice.

To get out on the ice to learn the technique, build some confidence and cruise up some ice routes while shedding fears, join us on the Section beginner ice climbing weekend, Choppers. The Choppers weekend takes place every February and we will have you going from absolute beginner to smoothly climbing WI3 with style.

The reward of a good ice climb is enormous, and I look forward to climbing with you at Choppers.

Ice climbing with my GoPro helmet camera at Bear Spirit Crag. Jan 2012.

Mark climbing the ice curtain at Bear Spirit Crag in Banff National Park.

If you have any questions about ice climbing or the Choppers weekend, I will be happy to answer them in the comments section.

Adventure Racing in Saskatoon

by Howard Hemingson

Race Director

This summer saw the ACC Sask Section and Prairie Dog Racing hosting two adventure races in Saskatoon. The Urban Adventure Race was held on Saturday, June 11 and the Gopher Chase was held on Saturday, September 17.

This was my third year organizing the Urban AR, which has been occurring off an on for the past decade or so. The Urban Adventure Race is a rogaine-styled race during which teams have a set time to find as many checkpoints (CPs) as they can. The race was based out of Gabriel Dumont Park, which is located on the East side of the river in Saskatoon. I had hoped for a canoe leg this year, but it was not to be since the river level was way too high. Twenty-three racers making up ten teams entered the race. Entries were lower this year, but I’m blaming the Bridge City Boogie, with its 6000+ entries, that was the next day.

The race started off with a 2 hr running leg which sent teams looking for CPs along the East riverbank, in the neighbourhoods of Exhibition, Buena Vista, and Nutana, and downtown. There were several strong running teams in this race with one team (Interrobang!?) reaching all of the running CPs and several others only missing only one CP. Teams then started a 2 hr bike leg that took them North to the trails in Sutherland Beach and along Whiteswan Dr. The bike leg proved to be more difficult than the running leg, since fewer CPs were reached.

Team Interrobang (Scott Theede, Kyle Gunderson) built on their lead and went on to win the race. Krat’s O’Shay (Jay Stark, Sheri Stark) finished second, which makes three podium finishes in row for them. Third place went to Strueby Sandwich (Shanna Strueby, Drew Bell), and Drew continued his tradition of losing a place due to accrued time penalties :-) .

The inaugural Gopher Chase adventure race was held in the fall. I’m hoping the Gopher Chase will be a stepping stone for bringing the Prairie Pitch back. The Gopher Chase was a point to point race with running, biking, and paddling and was meant to take between 7 to 9 hrs. Unfortunately, I've never organized a race like this before and the winning time was 9 ½ hrs. Some teams were unable to do the last running leg (I think some were OK with that). The race was based out of Victoria Park and had 11 teams consisting of 25 racers (there was even a solo racer!).

The race started with teams biking to the Arts tower on the U of S campus where they had to run to the top floor. They then continued on bike to the West riverbank on the North end of the city, where a repel challenge was set-up on the river bluff. From there, they biked back to the U of S campus where they did a trail run along the river. Teams then biked around campus and then returned to Victoria Park. From Victoria Park, teams paddled downstream, going ashore at the Bessborough for an obstacle course challenge, and then returned to Victoria Park. Racers then biked up to the Sutherland Beach trails and then through the city’s Northeast neighbourhoods. The racers then completed a mini-orienteering challenge in the Varsity View area before biking back to Victoria Park. The second paddle stage then took the racers upstream to the South Train Bridge and back. At this point, the race turned out to be much longer than planned and so the last leg was varied for some teams. The top two teams proceeded on foot to Diefenbaker Park where they played a few rounds of disc golf and then they ran back to the finish at Victoria Park. The next group of teams traveled to Diefenbaker Park on bike, while the last group of teams got an early head start on the post race BBQ!

Team Carbon Fibre (Barret Dunbar, Scott Theede) won the inaugural Gopher Chase, and this was Scott’s second win this summer! Dribzz (Geoff Meinert, Dan Guenther) came in second, while Lion’s Roar (Kristen Seimens, Andrew Jahsen) were third.

All in all, the Gopher Chase was a success. I had a few set backs, primarily making the race too long, but the racers didn’t appear to mind too much (or at least they complained behind my back). The paddle stages and the challenges, especially the repel were highlights for a lot of people.

Results from these two races can be found on the ACC Sask website and pictures can be found here. Planning is already underway for the 2012 race season, with the Urban Adventure Race and the Gopher Chases both returning. A winter race is also in the works and will coincide with Wintershine Festival this February.

See you on the trails!