Matthias Scherer & Tanja Schmitt: the Quest for early season ice in Canada

With over 500 ice climbs between us, Matthias Scherer and I have a lot of experience regarding the quest for early season ice. While winter ice climbing in the Alps often doesn’t really take off before December, it’s often on a roll in November in the Canadian Rockies and so once again we headed to the Rockies in search of early season ice. This year however even the Rockies were still soaking, with water dripping down the faces instead of solid white ice. The air was soft and warm and no snowflake heralding the start of winter had fallen yet. Instead of ice climbing in the cold winter light, we spent the first couple of days dry tooling under a warm clear sky. The only positive result was that, at the end of this training, we both climbed an M9+ ten times in just an hour: this gave us confidence for what lay ahead.

During the second week of November the cold finally arrived with icy temperatures around -25°C. The ice formed instantly. On 12th November we started our ice season together with Steve Swenson by climbing the classic Murchison at the Icefields Parkway. On November 16th it was time for the famous icefall Nemesis on Stanley Headwall, in slightly warmer temperatures around -22°C. The climbs had just formed, were a kind of ‘shock-frozen’ and still thin. No traces indicated a previous climb and the usual questions arose: can it already be climbed? Might it not be a better to wait a bit? Can it be protected sufficiently? Is the climb worth the risk? These are questions that all ice climbers always need to ask themselves, not only at the start of the season and are one of the reasons why ice climbing is always such an awesome adventure!

During the course of the second week of November temperatures dropped even lower: on November 29th we climbed Whiteman Falls in temperatures around - 27°C, making the climb very interesting. The next day we teamed up with Canadian ice climbing legend Raphael Slawinski for a longer gully climb at Field. With temperatures around -30°C thin icicles and pillars were no option anymore and steady movement seemed the clever choice. We therefore soloed the easier parts to keep moving and to not wait too long. It’s when ice screws start to stick to your mouth while you clean the route, and your body movements become slow and thuggish, that you realize that the cold day is… very cold indeed! Ice becomes difficult to climb. Air crystal cold. But days like these are unforgettable!

No Canada ice climbing trip is complete without a visit to Ghost Valley and so we teamed up with Steve Swenson once again for another adventurous trip. While Ghost valley is marked by hours of breaking trail and river crossing, the first hurdle that needs to be overcome is getting there by car: snow packed roads, slippery river crossings and difficult route finding are the challenges the driver needs to deal with. And so the four pitches of awesome ice were well earned: the The Sorcerer is by all means a great ice climb in an outstanding location that provided an unforgettable ending to our quest of early season ice.

by Tanja Schmitt