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Helmcken Falls: difficult new ice climbs in Canada

Difficult new ice climbs have been established at the Helmcken Falls in Canada by Will Gadd, Tim Emmett and Klemen Premrl. The latter two have made the first asent of Clash of Titans WI10+, repeated on Friday by Angelika Rainer.

Planetmountain

February 2014

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Angelika Rainer repeating Clash of Titans WI10+ at Helmcken Falls, Canada on 14/02/2014

Klaus Dell'Orto

It's that time of year again: time for Helmcken Falls in Canada, that fantastic cave "discovered" four years ago by Canada's Will Gadd and by England's Tim Emmett who in 2010 made the first ascent of Spray On, a line described by the Canadian as "the coolest ice I've ever seen or climbed, anywhere in the world.".

In 2012 Emmett teamed up with Slovenia's Klemen Premrl and the two bolted and freed the route Wolverine, for which they proposed - for the first time ever - the grade WI11, and over the last few days the duo has obviously continued to forge new lines. The latest creation was freed last Wednesday and is called Clash of Titans. Climbed ground-up, it is graded WI10+ and according to Emmett offers "about 50m of climbing, but you only need an 80m rope because it overhangs a lot." The first repeat came about quickly; during a lightening trip to the Falls, Italy's Angelika Rainer came up trumps on Friday, telling Planetmountain "The route is really beautiful, the location absolutely fantastic. The craziest route I've everdone!"

All that needs adding is that Will Gadd has just freed another difficult line, meaning that there are about 10 climbs in the cave right now, of which two go all the way to the top. Emmett's predicition seems spot on: the cave really is "the future, for those that want to adventure into it."