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!