Canada Icefall Brook Canyon ascents by Ines Papert & co.

A team of ice climbers comprised of Ines Papert from Germany, Audrey Gariepy, Jennifer Olson and Jonathan Walsh from Canada and Caroline George from Switzerland spent a extremely fruitful 10 days on the Lyell Wall in Canada's remote and inaccessible Icefall Brook Canyon.

The climbers were dropped into the isolated amphitheatre by helicopter on the 9th of March, after which they established their base camp at the start of the valley where they remained in total isolation for the next 10 days. Stable conditions enabled the teams to repeat a few existing lines and establish nine new routes, listed below.

Just two days before departure Ines Papert and Jennifer Olson spotted a huge ice cave at circa 300m height. After soloing 250m of WI2 the two roped up to climb "Ice Palace", Dave Thompson's WI5 pitch which brought the climbers to the 30m roof proper. Papert bolted this on lead and returned the next day to free the line which is now, according to the German ice champion, one fo the most technical mixed multi-pitch routes in the world.


Icefall Brook Canyon, Canada
Happy Birthday (WI5, 120m, George-Olson),
Blue Lagoon (WI5, 200m, George-Papert),
High Five (WI5+, 200m, Gariepy-Olson-Walsh),
Northwest Passage (WI5+, 600m, Gariepy-Papert),
Keep On Smiling (WI6, 60m, Gariepy-Olson-Walsh),
Fossen Falls (WI6, 170m, Gariepy-Papert-Walsh),
Happy Hours (WI6, 240m, Gariepy-Papert-Walsh),
Jusqu'au Bout (Til the End: M5 WI6, 200m, Gariepy-George),
Supernatural B.C. (M7 WI6, 600m, Olson-Walsh)
Into the Wild (M12 WI5, 100m- whole route 180m) Papert (1st pitch WI 5; 2nd pitch M 12, 3rd pitch WI 5+).