Utah alpine ice fall 09

Joes has ice... I was at Mary's Lake a week ago you could drive in with a 2 wheel drive car. 1"of snow. One route in really well. 2 more trying to come in. Joe's looked like stuff was forming there as I drove by ice on CCC, Donorcicle, and Highway to Heaven.

Thanks for the info, What route was in really well? How many pitches? Long drive from Portland for a small one.

Mary's Lake-- Cool White stare is what we got on. Dirty blonde (had about 20 feet to touch down) was coming in and Alzcleimbers was coming in... You could see the top of the Donorcicle from the road it looked in but I did not drive up to look down in the gorge and CCC was in in looking form the road. Highway to heaven was in... There isn't any snow down there yet so its going to be awhile before other stuff comes in. All the gully cimbs driving up to Joe's were in (North Facing). Climbed in Provo Canyon Yesterday, Thanksgiving, and will be down there again tomorrow.

Fun day on the dirtsicle. The ice was bulletproof in the morning, but softened up nicely by noon.

Good climbing.

Good culture.

The climb called "Iron Oxide Falls" on this site (there has been some question as to what is really is) is in, as of this morning.

Headed down to Joes valley tomarow for about a week, anyone know anything new? I've never been there can you drive into slide lake if you're vehicle lets you or is there a gate? If you have to walk or ski in how far is it? Can you glass the gullys above slide from the road?

GWI looked "in" and climbable, including the top-out, on my way up LCC this morning. Nothin' else was even close.

How's Provo Cyn doing?

Did the S. Ridge of Superior after the last dump, that was fun - not enough solid snow to help, just made things slipperier and slower. good times. The W. Slabs of Olympus were iced up last week, finding pro was like taking a final exam in quantum mechanics, but the treed gullies provided an easier opt-out. My buddy scoped robert's horn last week and reported nothing. Probably need more snowpack to save the ankles from breaking to head up the Peiferhorn...maybe not.

Hopefully these cold temps will help?

I went through Provo Canyon on Sunday. I was driving so I didn't have as much time to ogle the sides of the canyon as I would have liked, but there was definitely ice on the bottom several pitches of Stairway. Not sure exactly how thick or solid it was. I also saw that there was ice over on routes in the Miller's Thriller area.

Tristan

The URL will change, and this is pretty bare-bones at the moment, but it'll be back soon.

ericdacus.com/IceClimbingUtah

I'm going up to have a look at the routes in LCC in the morning.

GWI Photos from this morning:

there is a multipitch smear (2-3ish) just up canyon from the coalpit buttress if anyone feels like getting their name attached to something new

michael layton wrote:there is a multipitch smear (2-3ish) just up canyon from the coalpit buttress if anyone feels like getting their name attached to something new

Gully just left of the Y Coulior? We saw a couple of folks on it this afternoon. I climbed it to near its top back in 2004 and saw rappel slings on the upper pitch (which we used to get down).

Have also climbed the two other gullies to the left of that as well. Thinkin' about tossin' them in the database. What would be a reasonable name for this area?

Lower Hogum Fork Gullies?

Since there's three main flow with pretty reasonable ice, was working on the three type theme (tricycle, three stooges, pigs, muketeers, etc).

GWI is already pecked out...ha ha...

Cheers.

I am new to Utah and am extremely excited about the upcoming ice climbing season but have no local partners at the moment. I would be very interested in tagging along with someone to check out and hopefully climb the new ice forming up. I have a handful of screws and a couple of seasons ice experience. give a call or email anytime 931 267 2319 henochs at gmail.com. Should be free quite a bit until we get some snow. -Hunter

Brian - I've heard some folks refer to those flows as the "X" and "Z" gullies - a play off the "Y Couloir" theme. But it doesnt' really work since there are three of them. And which one would be which?

I think that ice usually forms - just buried in pow most of the time . . .

Leroy wrote:Brian - I've heard some folks refer to those flows as the "X" and "Z" gullies - a play off the "Y Couloir" theme. But it doesnt' really work since there are three of them. And which one would be which? I think that ice usually forms - just buried in pow most of the time . . .

Yeah, we tossed the x/z thing around a bit yesterday. The Z gullies kinda works, then name them individually if folks prefer that.

In any decent ski season they get buried pretty fast. Which is why they're not right now!

Well, at least if there's gonna be no snow, might as well be butt cold...

Kinda curious who was on the right most one yesterday. Sunny D? Conditions? Didn't look that fat up high, but, the lower low angle stuff looked pretty good. Bit of a hike for WI 2/3 but "something to do".

My partner and I were up on the X two days ago. About 500+/- ft of low angled gully climbing (WI 2-3) to get up to the last business pitch. The last pitch is around WI 3+ with a really hard mixed exit. The rock on the exit is pretty bad also. I tried for awhile and could not really figure it out and feel confident enough to go for it. There is an anchor just below the roof we used/fixed up to rap off of. 3 double 60m raps with some down climbing in between put us back on the ground. The approach is not that bad, really. Looks way longer than it actually is. Crossing the stream on the downed trees during the approach is exciting! The ice is great and super plastic the entire way! Does anyone know if the final roof has been climbed?

Joe's wasn't looking so good today, ccc not very close, donorcicle super anemic but climbable, nothin' else in the valley. Up high one climb is in fairly solid at Mary's (didn't climb it don't know), and the slide lake climbs are all in if you're looking for some hikin n' gullying. I'd suggest stay off donorcicle for a while to get it back in shape. it was uber spooky hollow and brittle. coming back from price, the stuff along rte 6 was looking in from the pricicle to billy's, probably lots more if your into short airated column climbing

The first couple pitches of Stairway are pretty good. TR on the apron is fine. A little soft for screws here and there. Saw parties on Bridalvail Right and White Nightmare as well. But they did look pretty thin from a distance.

Just got back from the orangeville area climbed the northern lights, the incredible hulk looked in, also did dirty blonde about 3 days ago above Mary's nothing else was in then. Put up 2 possible new routes in the slide lake area if you want the beta it will be on the cascade climbers website in a few days when I get back home. The WI5 pitch of the highway to heaven was to thin for us. The dirtcicle lookes like it dropped a few pounds since a couple of days ago.

White Nightmare was great today. Lots of other routes around and above Bridal Veil look good:

Here's a quick video of the Bridal Veil face (12/10/09):
youtube.com/watch?v=kvyGNwv…

A lot of lines have formed on the north side of Provo Canyon (12/10/09):


...and the Stairway looked good to the top of the 5th pitch (no photo).