Page 21 - 2001/02 AMA Winter

a fair few climbers. This can lead to serious problems with ice fall.
Sure enough, at the first belay a block of ice narrowly missed
Uisdean. No sooner had I began to laugh at his near misfortune V than a bigger bit hit me square in the face!! Other than a couple
of cuts Iwas fine. With ice climbing there is always an element of
tempting fate. I was just hoping fate held off long enough to get a
few more climbs in!
Above us another climber (not part of our exped) had fallen and broken his ankle. By the time he had been helped and lowered to the bottom by W ayne and Mat, I had reached Dave just under the third and overhanging pitch. As he began what is about a Scottish grade 6 pitch, the rescue helicopter arrived. Completely unnecessarily and quite recklessly it came right into the wall to lift out the injured climber instead of landing on the Lake. Unfazed, Dave had completed an outstanding lead to get to the top leaving me a slightly less graceful second! We headed off the climb and back to Banff to the Youth Hostel. Renowned for his legendary ability to hold his ale Dave agreed to stay around for a much needed night out!
So that everyone could benefit from the varied experiences of all three instructors the groups changed around. The following day Wayne, Mat and I headed up the Kananaskis highway to Wedge Smear (30m II, 3/4), a short steep wall with the view to improving our leading in a less exposed environment before going onto the big walls. The guide book suggested that the climbs were only a short distance off the road and that’s what we maintained until Gaz Davies and Kate decided to go later in the week. In reality it was a nightmare trek through a forest!
Given the value for money of the Youth hostel we had stayed at in Is Banff and the continued warm weather we decided to move up
north towards Jasper and stay for a couple of nights in the Rampart
Creek Hostel. The road parallels the Rockies and afforded the best
scenery of the expedition so far. The hostel was basic but ideal for our needs, especially the log burning sauna! The aim was to climb the Weeping Wall, which, studying photos made Louise falls look slightly inferior. Before attempting that we headed to Mt Wilson mainly so we could put Lady Wilsons Cleavage (300m. Ill, 3) in our log books! With a couple of delicate short pitches it was really an alpine route completed mostly moving together. Once at the top the gully neck revealed Wilson Major (50m III, 4/5) an impressive 100m long wall. While Brian Parry put a good grade 5 route in. I opted for a line to the right of him which looked deceptively easy, we both reached the top exhausted.
Tuesday 13 March, the ninth day of climbing, saw us at the foot of the Weeping Wall. There was a stunned silence in the car. The wall, in two tiers, rose up with 300 metres of vertical ice. We could barely make out the three climbers on the route. Finally we started gearing up. It was snowing hard.
The climbing was as sustained as it looked and all the belays were hanging. On pitch three Kate put in a great lead but was not overly happy with the belay. It did Uisdean’s confidence wonders to hear 'don’t fall off’ half way up as the second. Next to Kate, Brian was weaving his way up on a different line. The
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Above Kate Young and Wayne Shaken on ",Pretty Nuts’ Below: Uisdean MacDonald on ’Hers" Grotto Canyon.
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