Page 20 - 2000 AMA Summer

Waterfall Ice of the Cana
By SSgt Mark Hedge APTC
This article is compiled from information and personal experience gained whilst on Ex Ice Dragon the Army Mountaineering Association’s ice climbing tnp to Canada. The expedition was organised and led by Capt Kevin Edwards, APTC. We based ourselves at Trails End, home of A T for BATUS. Superb facilities and hospitality, thank-you. The biggest thanks goes to Capt Edwards and the eleven other athletes for their teamwork,humour,enthusiasmandgivingmethemotivationtoascendtheverticalwithoutapieceofslateinsight! Thisarticlewillhopefullyenthuse andprovideaguideforyourfutureexpeditiontothiswonderfulpartofCanada. Givemeacallyouneedinstructors!
T he native rock climbers of the Canadian Rocks have a very short season, compara­ ble to that of our snow and ice climbers in the U.K. They can
suffer up to seven months sur­ rounded by frozen gullies, waterfalls and iced up mountain routes. Bad news if you hanker for rock, heaven if you live for ice. Let me take you on a whistle stop tour of the popular routes in the Banff / Cannier area, the main region for Canada's convenience ice. Bear in mind this is just a brief selection in a concen­ trated area and there are hundreds of quality routes to choose from.
By booking a flight from latter and miss out on all has a high grizzly bear pop­
SSgt Mark Hedge on 'Hers' W1 4. Grotto Canyon.
through to April with probably
February / March being best
due to the warmer tempera­
ture, softer ice and trails season is underway, check broke to the base of routes. them thoroughly but in general Cheers easy! The warm the sun has little effect on these Chinook wind creates these anchors unlike metal in ice. ideal ice climbing conditions,
this is a natural wind native Before jumping onto a route, to these parts not the first it would be sensible to downdraft from a chopper! understand the local grading Whilst on the subject of system, which is not an choppers. Banff national park awful lot different from our has a free helicopter rescue own. Routes have a technical service but don’t use this as grade and a commitment an excuse to launch yourself, grade. The technical grade
18 Army Mountaineer
London to Calgary (eight hours) then travelling by vehicle West from Calgary to Canmore (two hours) you could in theory be on the cold stuff in little over ten hours. Acclimatise on the plane by taking ice with your gin and tonic whilst reading the guidebook and you're quids in! Twenty minutes on from Canmore is the much larger town of Banff home of the many mountain-sport related festivals. Both of the venues have copious amounts of accommodation, shops and pleasant bars. Indeed it would be foolish not to sample the
forms of local culture, beer is ulation but at this time of roughly the same price as year they won’t bother you dear old blighty and eating as they've all pigged out out is extremely cheap. A and got their heads down vehicle is essential to try the for winter. Waterfalls located varied climbing locations, for­ in deep sided channels and tunately fuel is very inexpen­ hard to exit canyons have sive. Another thing that is also fixed bolt belay stations or essential in a park is a motor trees equipped with abseil vehicle permit, these can be points, so descent is rela­ purchased from any park tively straightforward. On wide
information centres.
curtain-like falls carry some tat or thick prussic cord and familarise yourself with the
Guaranteed climbing condi­
tions are from November construction of Abalakov
the service is purely for Banff
and the airborne do not
bounce well. Temperature
plays an integral role in
deciding whether a route is
in or out of condition. The
possible effects are: Thickness
of the ice, reliability of screw books trying to locate one placements, melting ice of these as a warm-up. This blocks and avalanche threat. technical grade accounts for Avalanche is a very real danger thepure nature of the on mountain waterfalls, climbing, locals and ex­ virtually all routes have large patriots reckon these grades accumulation bowls near the to be roughly one grade top pitches. So put your down from the British Scottish winter heads on and system, i.e. Wl 5 is equiva­ think about snow pack, rising lent to British VI. On temperatures and large snow­ reaching Wl 4 a plus sign is falls. Fortunately cornice added between grades: 2, 3, collapse and exits do not 4, 4+, 5, 5+ ,6 etc. To com­ come into the equation. plement this relatively simple
system is the commitment Virtually all routes have a walk grade indicated in Roman off. Some involve bashing numerals, I through to VII. through trees and wading This takes into account the through thigh deep snow but length and difficulty of the with no dangers and the others approach, descent, length of are simple yomps. The area climb, sustained nature and
threads (simply known as ice screw threads). Many of these are in-situ once the
has the prefix Wl (waterfall ice) and has degrees from 1 to 8. Guidebooks hasten to add that as yet no-one has dared to claim the first ascent of a Wl 1 so don’t waste time scouring the guide­