Melting Pot

Saturday night, May 28th, we finally got the chance to celebrate Hannah and Zach's engagement! They got engaged on New Year's Eve in Prague...so romantic. Zach and Hannah have a lot of love and I am so happy for them. Not to mention Daniel and I have a lot of fun with the two....and Daniel and Zach can boost each other's self esteems after Hannah and I wreak havoc with our sarcasm ;-)

The Melting Pot was soo much fun and oh so tasty. Our waiter Anthony...poor Anthony had to put up with us all night...but we're pretty sure all of the waitstaff was smoking something in the back anyways...

The Beautiful Couple

The ridiculous group

Canadian Rockies Feb 12-Feb 17

Look a distant cousin of Reuben!

On February 12th we rolled out of Portland headed to Canmore...12.5hrs later we were there! As we were only going to be sleeping for about 4ish hours we opted to stay at a hostel called The Hostel Bear. It was actually really nice and our room was empty so it was just like having a hotel room. I just love love love Alberta Canada and I totally want to figure out a way to move to Canmore. I mean, where else can you see views out of the windshield of your car like this? This picture was actually taken in the Icefields Parkway...but very similar views are in Canmore as well.

We started out the adventure on Professor Falls on Friday the 13th. This is a climb right outside of Banff...about 5 pitches WI4...

Daniel on P1

Elisif on P4

Pitch 5...I actually led the first little section and Daniel took the last (long story)

Daniel styling up P5

Fun go-to climb, great weather, good times. After the climb, we grabbed some dinner and headed to the Icefields Parkway for more fun! We stayed at the Rampart Creek Hostel, a "wilderness" hostel. It was interesting when we first showed up...you have to park down by the road and hump all of your stuff up to the hostel and when we walked in we couldn't find the host for a while. But we soon got used to it, despite no running water, and it ended up being quite nice. Definitely worth missing out on a 2hr drive to and from Canmore each day.

Our Cozy room. Each room has 6 bunks...pretty tight, but for 2 of the 3 days we were by ourselves with plenty of room to yardsale wet gear.

On Valentine's day we did a climb called Polar Circus. It's been on our list for quite some time. It's an 8 pitch climb WI5...so a full day long commitment. Since it was a Saturday and a long weekend (apparently Monday was "family day" in Canada...what a way better country) we got a super early start just in case multiple parties had the same plans.

Daniel gearing up at the bottom of P1...waiting for daylight...go figure that once crampons were on, harness tightened, knots ties, he decided that he desperately needed to poop. Nothing to do but drop your leg loops and send one over the edge I guess.

Daniel starting up P1 WI 4 at first light....him a little lighter too!

Pitch 2

Elisif on P2 WI3

The Pencil is the unformed pillar on the left. It rarely forms...last in 2004? (not sure). When formed it goes at WI6. To the right of the pencil was a short WI3 pitch (?) that Daniel and I soloed (technically the 3rd pitch I think)

Here's a pic of the upper tier with the two WI4-5 pitches at the very top. A fairly continuous headwall with stretched out pitches...

Pitch 4 WI4 is looonnnggg, a full stretched out 70m brought Daniel to a belay directly below the ribbon

Pitch 5 is called the ribbon. It is a narrow but short section. This is where we called it day. We had had a great day so far, and though it was still early The Ribbon was a funky mix of thin ice and mushrooms...unprotectable until the very last short step. Daniel decided that he just wasn't feeling up to it so we ended on a good note. We'll be back to finish the whole thing one day though!

Daniel and I cheesing on Polar Circus. Happy Valentine's Day! No romantic dinner and a movie for us...we're slightly unconventional!

Views from Polar Circus..Breathtaking!

So back down we go with plenty of rappels. One of the raps is a free-hanging off of the pencil...you have to be fairly ginger as to not knock down the fragile pillar. Glad we didn't have to do it in the dark, fairly intimidating! This is Daniel easing his way off into thin air.

Since we had plenty of time left in the day we took the opportunity to drive over to take a peek at Andromeda....home to the impressive climb Andromeda Strain. It's also home to other alpine climbs, including The Shooting Gallery and Asteroid Alley. We had toyed with the idea of climbing Asteroid Alley (the line of ice on the middle of the right side) the next day... but we ended up making the decision to opt out as the forecast was cold and windy. As you can see from the names of the climbs there is high potential for rockfall...not worth the risk...too many other options in the Parkway!

Andromeda

So on the 15th we decided to take a more chill day and go take a look at Bow Falls 2 pitches WI4 . The approach is a great short ski tour...you can ski over the lake and the Falls are in the bowl in the background of the pic.

Skiing on Bow Lake and Bow Falls in the far background

Views from the Lake

Skiing over to Bow Falls

Bow Falls

We got to the base as you can see...and of course it was super windy and the route was in the shade (which we knew)...we hemmed and hawed...and though we were there, we just weren't feeling it. Since this was definitely not an "it doesn't have to be fun to be fun trip" we decided we were just satisfied with a good ski that day. Possibly not a decision our hardcore climber friends would have made, but definitely one we were content with.

Monday, February 16th we climbed Murchison Falls WI4+. The approach I've heard can be quite taxing in heavy snow years but with the lack of snowfall lately there was an excellent bootpack and we made it up to the base in 1.5hours.

Daniel hiking up to Murch (we climbed up to the very last tier)

I lead up the first pitch up and we simul-climbed just a little to get to some rap v-threads on the right. Daniel then headed up and left for the second pitch.
Daniel starting off...

...And still going

We got to the third and final pitch and sat there for a while deciding if it would go or not. Hopefully you can enlarge it to see but at the top are delicate mushrooms and and other formations that looked like they would come crashing down if one tried to top out. The left side was making tons of noise too (cracks and pops) so we decided to call it a day, slung a pillar and rapped down. We talked to a pair from Colorado the next day who said they did the same thing...

Pitch 3 of Murchison

Elisif on another fun rappel

I couldn't resist posting another scenery pic just to give you an idea why we love to do what we do. I think a lot of times our friends don't understand why we leave all of the time...drive so long, put ourselves in risky (calculated and safety conscious...but still dangerous in nature) situations, get hands so cold we want to barf and pee our pants at the same time, and come home with cuts on our faces and a week of unpacking and work to look forward too. It's hard to explain what the feeling is but there's something I get from seeing this/being here. Often the situations are difficult, painful, and on the occasion miserable. But the accomplishment, the peacefulness and solitude, and wonder of God's nature are truly centering.

After Murchison we drove back to Canmore. The next day, February 17th was my birthday! We had breakfast and pastries at Summit Cafe and then went to the upper hotsprings in Banff. Hotsprings with a view felt sooo good after hard, cold days of climbing!

Skinning up White River

I just got around to downloading my pics from my camera. These are some pictures from a few weeks ago when Daniel, Reuben and I took a quick day trip up to Mt. Hood for a few turns on our tele skis. Great day, sunny skies, good company!

Off to Canada this morning for a week of climbing! Stay tuned...

Another Cody Ice Trip!

Yay, a week or so of working and paying the bills and we are lucky enough to be able to go on another ice climbing trip. It feels good to get into the routine of working a long week and then playing a long week again. What doesn't feel good is a 16hour car ride to Cody. This time we took audio books and tons of podcasts...we are so tired of the radio. We left on Friday, I was lucky enough to get called off from work the night before, and drove all day. Slept in the car and woke up Saturday to go climb Stringer, a 3pitch WI3 climb. The climb was fun! We soloed most of the route and simul-climbed the steeper pitch. At the top of the route after a short hike we climbed Captain Chemo, a single pitch WI4. The sun was shining all day and we were both in our short sleeves and hot!

The South Fork

Stringer

Elisif on Stringer

It was hot!

Soloing parts of Stringer

Captain Chemo

The next day it was off to Cabin Creek to climb Cabin Fever (1 pitch WI4) and Wyoming Wave (4 pitch WI3).

Cabin Fever

Daniel Leading Up Cabin Fever

Pitch 1 Wyoming Wave

Elisif Leading up P1

Pitch 2 WyWave

Elisif on lead P2

We simulclimbed up the third pitch and then soloed the last pitch and headed back down. Great day!

Pitch 4 WyWave

The final climbing day of our trip we headed out of Cody at 0430 in the morning on our way to California Ice in the East Rosebud Canyon of The Beartooths. California Ice is a pretty impressive climb with a continuous headwall of WI4 climbing for a full two pitches that will each stretch your 70m rope. It reminds me just a little bit of the Icefields Parkway up in Canada as far as it's magnitude. The climb ends with a winding WI3 to take you to the notch and the walkoff. We got close to the trailhead and started off our morning with a good warmup of digging the 4runner out of the snow...what's an ice trip without digging you car out at least once! By then, it was most definitely light outside and off we went on the long approach.

Yay, you can finally see it!

Ice Ice Ice

More Ice!

Now here's where the fun begins. There was a confident pair of climbers from Billings that had been approaching with us. They had racked up and chosen the right, leaving us the left. I racked up and started climbing and immediately thought this is going to suck. The dude to my right (who said they climb up to WI5s no problem) was also having issues. The ice needless to say was less than confidence inspiring. Cold and brittle, it would finally pretend to accept an ice pick stick after multiple swings only to leave you wobbling on one tiny tip once you pulled up. It was eating up screws and both of us made belays, him hanging , and me on a ledge well short of the end of the rope. 

First Pitch of the Seige

Daniel continuing to head up

The pair to our right made it to a large ledge system on their second pitch (at this point they were probably at the level where both of our first pitches should have ended) and decided to bail. At this time I was on a hanging belay as the death ice had eaten up all of Dan's screws again. I yelled down to them that I was jealous as they rappelled down to the ground off of a large tree. We were at a point where it just made more sense to keep going rather than building v-threads. The night before I was reading random trip reports on this climb and stumbled on one from 2006 about a group of two parties that had both bailed because the ice was so brittle and scary...omen?

 Needless to say we laid seige but conquered the headwall in another pitch...it was ridiculous. Daniel filleted open his chin with some ice and was bleeding everywhere. Then I was still stuck on a hanging belay and Daniel, though he couldn't help it, was knocking tons of ice down. It was all pretty much hitting me which always hurts but there's nothing you can you do but duck and make yourself as small as possible. Then there was this huge chunk that hit my helmet and made the world turn black for a second! Thankfully it was quick, but I gotta be honest, that freaked me out. Can you imagine getting knocked out while on a hanging belay while belaying your husband? No Thank You.  

Finally the WI3 pitch at the top!

Daniel's flapper on his chin...soon to be superglued!

So California Ice had it's way with us. Despite a split open chin, a headache and a soon to be retired helmet we both were satisfied that we continued the climb. The skies were clear, calm, and sunny and we enjoyed a few minutes at the top to relax (and decided that definitely a top-out slog to the peak was not in our cards for the day!) before we headed back down to the car and the long, dark overnight drive back to Ptown. I was proud of both of us for finishing the climb, proud of myself for climbing the hardest ice I have climbed in a long time without getting pumped, but mostly I am proud of my husband and so impressed on him leading very hard and very steep ice in difficult conditions without batting an eye. I love you!