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!