Adventures in the Ghost Valley!

After much planning and discussion, Brad and I decided to head out on a mini-road trip on the weekend of Feb 10-11 to the Ghost/Canmore region. We planned to climb ice in the Ghost on Saturday, and cross country ski in Canmore on Sunday. I was super excited, as it was going to be an awesome weekend!

However, there were lots of setbacks from the get-go. Before we had even left Lethbridge on Friday afternoon, we were held up by an accident on Hwy 3. We wasted 45 minutes waiting in line to get on to Whoop-Up Drive, but we finally got out onto the highway. No trip through Calgary is complete without a stop at MEC, so we pulled in to go gear shopping (another favourite hobby of mine!). After an hour or so spent in the store drooling, and some big purchases, we got back out on the road. I was excited about our purchases, as we both got an awesome pair of softshell gloves on sale (!!), and Brad picked up a -30 down sleeping bag and a sleeping pad (!!). After stopping for a quick bite to eat in Cochrane, we were on our way into the Ghost region.

The Ghost river drainage is the first major drainage north of the Bow River (Hwy 1). It is northwest of Cochrane, and the turn-off to get into the area is only a few kilometres short of Rocky Mountain. I had been up here in October, but in winter and at night, everything looked very different. After some debating and map consulting, we turned off onto a rough secondary gravel road, with the hope that we were headed in the right direction. I was very unsure of the road we were on, and was really starting to think we were in the wrong place when we suddenly arrived at the top of the "Big Hill". The Big Hill marks the start of the descent to the Ghost River, and takes you into the 4x4 trails of the approach to the ice climbs. We were in the right place! We set up our camp at the top of the Big Hill, and were the only ones around. This was a relief as we knew the Ghost area and the route we planned to do were busy on the weekend, and we wanted to be the first in the next morning. After sorting our gear out and looking at the beautiful night sky, we settled into our sleeping bags for a cozy night outdoors at -20. Good times!

The next morning, we woke up at 6am to get ready for the day. After packing our gear up and a hurried oatmeal breakfast, we loaded into the truck to start the next portion of our adventure. Travel into the Ghost REQUIRES a 4x4 truck, as the roads are not plowed or maintained, and getting seriously stuck is quite common. Sure enough, 5 minutes into our drive, we were stuck about 150 m from the bottom of the big hill. We dug our way out, scouted a new route, and this time managed to make it about 200m before getting stuck. After digging out again, we were relieved to see another vehicle make it to the bottom of the big hill... at least we would have help. The guys in the other truck; Tyler, Taryn, and Rob, were mechanics from the Banff area, and for the next 40 minutes we alternated taking the lead, scouting routes, and getting stuck. We had finally made it through the worst snow by sticking close to the river, and were back on a decent trail when the crowds showed up. No word of a lie, car after car after car came down the big hill, and followed our well broken trail without a hitch. Bastards! We had done all of the work, and everyone else had simply shown up and driven in.

No less than 4 other vehicles followed us to our parking area, and as we got ready we could hear everyone talking that they wanted to do the same route as us. The race was on to get to the base of the route. The mechanic guys went out ahead of us, but luckily Brad and I hit the trail second, with another party tailing closely. Soon after we started walking, we came accross the first of 3 crossings of the Ghost River. Brad managed to skirt accross on a frozen log, but I slipped and plunged a boot into the icy water. After that, I gave up a little and tried to make a mad dash across the 1ft deep water to the other side with the hopes of staying dry. I failed miserabley. Both of my boots were now soaking and had squishy puddles in them. Ordinarily, this would mean the end of a day outdoors in the winter time, and I was quite upset. However, we decided to keep walking and planned to turn around if my feet started to freeze. We had come too far to turn back now!

After about 45 minutes, we reached the base of the route we wanted to climb. It is an ultrapopular climb called "This House of Sky". It is a series of small (5-20m) pitches that travel on 500 m through a canyon. The climbs were a little beat out by the amount of traffic that had been through there, but the route was fantastic. It was easy to see why it is one of the most popular in the Ghost. We soloed through most of the pitches as they were too short to rope up for, but we did use the rope for one longer pitch. When we reached the top of the canyon, we continued on up a bowl and met up with our mechanic buddies from before. After chatting for a while, we let them go ahead to a gulley on the right, while we checked out one to the left. The ice there was menacing, and we tried to climb a little smear around it, but got a little freaked and backed off. We ended up heading up the gulley to the right where the mechanics were, and hung out while they climbed the pitch.

After admiring the view for 30 minutes, I got a chance to lead the pitch up to the top. We were probably 100 vertical metres from the summit at this time, but we were running out of time to go for the top (next time). We started the descent with the mechanics, and they graciously let us rappel first as we were a smaller party. After 7 or so rappels and some downclimbing, we were at the base of the route and began our hike back to the car.

After 45 minutes of hiking and 2 more river crossings (I didn't care if I got wet this time), we were back at the truck. I finally got the chance to change into dry socks, after 9 hours of wetness. We exchanged email addresses with the mechanics and at 7:20, 12 afters we began, we drove out of the Ghost. It was a fantastic day.

We drove to Canmore that night and stayed at Scott and Jodi's. By the time we ate supper and showered, it was midnight, and we were exhausted after such a big day! Sleeping in the next morning was too easy, and we didn't get up until 11. This eliminated our skiing for the day, but we went to Banff to do a little shopping before heading home. Our journey wasn't over yet though, as an accident on the #1 and slippery roads made for an interesting drive home. In the end, it all worked out and our setbacks all weekend didn't get in the way of having a fantastic time!

Left Gulley - Ice Climbing, Waterton

Packing the night before

On Jan 28, Brad and I headed back to Waterton to do some ice climbing. This was my first time out this year, and his first time period. We were both very excited as we had shiny new gear that needed to be put to use and the weather was awesome! Once again, we left early in the morning to get on the ice before the sun had a chance to get at it. Our objective was the Left Gulley, an easy WI2 ice route that rambles on for 5 pitches on the south side of Mt. Crandell. After arriving and gearing up, we started our approach. The boys had been in here a couple of weekends prior and told us that the approach was 1.5 hours, but after doing some comparisons with info gathered from the internet, we concluded that they were in the wrong gulley. Our approach was pretty straightforward, and after 45 minutes of snow slogging, we arrived at the base of the first pitch of ice.

After putting our harnesses on and racking up, we reviewed some basics (you can never be too careful on the first climb!). Soon after that I was on my way up the first pitch. The climbing was easy, and the ice was super mushy due to the +10 temps the week before. It was so beautiful out, that I was relieved to find a spot in the shade to belay in after 60m of climbing. Usually it's the opposite in the winter, as we pray for sunny rest spots! I set up an anchor, and Brad climbed up.

In between the pitches of ice there were long snow gulleys that we unroped for and continued up. We climbed through 3 easy roped pitches and a bunch of snow gulleys before reaching the final crux amphitheatre. This area had a solid curtain of WI3 ice that had seen more shelter from the sun. As a result it was in much better condition, and the ice screws I put in were much more solid, but I still had to dig to get to the good ice. Up until this point, I had run things out quite a bit because of a lack of solid ice. After pulling through a 10m vertical section, it was an easy low-angled ice and snow ramp to the trees. Here, I set up our last belay and Brad climbed up while I enjoyed the views south over the Waterton Lakes and into Montana. Because of the warm weather, the lakes were almost completely thawed, and the snow was dissappearing. This was quite a contrast to the weekend before!

On the crux pitch

Once Brad got to the top, we took some photos, packed our gear, and prepared for the descent. After 45 minutes of scrambling down some scree and rock bands we were back at the car (8 hrs, car to car). Another great day successfully and safely completed! Climbing the Left Gulley was tons of fun, and only got us more excited for the ice climbing to come later in the season!

Waterton Ski Touring

On Jan 21, Brad and I headed to Waterton for our first ski tour. The plan was to park along the Akamina Parkway, ski south towards Cameron Lake, then west up over the Akamina Pass into British Columbia. The weather was perfect, and it was a beautiful day to be outside skiing because of fresh snow in the area.

After an early morning departure and drive to Waterton, we geared up and left the car at around 10:00. The first bit of skiing was quite easy and flat, as it followed the unplowed road for several kilometres. We then turned onto the Akamina Pass trail and began a moderate climb for the next 2kms. At this point, the trail levelled off, and we hit the BC Border! From there we descended slightly for about a kilometre, before starting a 3km climb up to Wall Lake. For most of the way thus far we had followed fresh tracks, but once we turned towards Wall Lake we had to break trail through the fresh snow. The view from Wall Lake was awesome, with a ton of ice hanging off the headwall at the back of the lake. These routes form the "midnight" chain of routes (owing to the fact that they all have midnight in their names), and we'll definately be back to climb them someday! At Wall Lake, we stopped for lunch, which we ate with our skis on because the snow was so deep. At this point the weather started to turn a little nasty, and the wind picked up across the lake. This caused some of the trees we were standing under to make cracking and popping noises and we could see giant cracks in some of them. We were a little cold and sketched out, so we hightailed it out of there back down the trail.

A short time later, we arrived back at the trail junction, and instead of continuing back into Alberta, we turned off to head to Forum Lake. The ski up to Forum Lake is much steeper, and we had to switchback a fair amount to follow the trail up the hill. After about 2 km, we had gained Forum Ridge, and were supposed to be looking down on Forum Lake in a huge meadow. However, we had traversed too far right, following the trails of some other skiiers headed for telemark slopes. We started to bushwhack accross to the lake, but turned around because of the deteriorating weather situation (It had started to snow and get windier). After retracing our route for a bit, we were able to take the skins off our skis, and get in some great turns on the way down. The powder skiing through the trees was awesome!

In no time, we were back at the trail junction, and we skinned up to travel back across the pass into Alberta. Soon enough, we were able to take our skins off again and coast down the trail until hitting the Akamina Parkway. From there it was an easy ski back to the car. All in all, we were 6 hours car to car, skiied about 18kms, got some turns in, and visited (or came close to) 2 separate lakes. It was a highly successful day that we capped off with a beer and some seafood chowder at the Kilmorey Lodge. We'll be back for the ice climbing at Wall Lake, and have plans to sleep in a quinzee we found at the turnoff for Forum Lake.