Ice climbing conditions

Merrill Bitter climbed this back in the 80's

How did you like the climb?

Thanks, Brian.
It was fun. Easy insecure rock and thin ice on the slabs to a great, short pillar. Certainly worth the short walk over from Scruffy.
The overhanging face below the daggers to the left is nicely featured. If someone wanted to do a little work one or two short new mixed routes would make it a nice little crag.
One other interesting tid bit. We removed a decent looking but faded Bluewater sewn sling from the tree at the top and had it pulled at BD for fun. It broke at 6KN. Enough to rap from but no where near the 22 it is rated at.
Watch that tat!

Brian, what did Carl do in that area? Any idear?

Cheers!

Quick update on routes we scoped from the road in Provo Canyon (1-15-11):

Fang: tube pitch looked like it wasn't all the way down, but, formed kinda on the backside, but, front was still pukin' water and not formed. Lower pitches looked wet but in.

Miller's Thriller: first pitch had a break in it which was high flow open water. Wetsuit?

Finger of Fate: looked very anemic and not formed.

Bridal Veil Left: super wet but in.

Bridal Veil Right: wet, in, sticky, and easy climbing conditions.

White Nightmare: very in, all the way up. Wet in the lower 1/3, then, nicer up high.

Stairway: 4th pitch looks bad and maybe not that doable. Other pitches looked formed.

GWI from late last week: Sticky and wet but fully in. Loosing bulk in the heat and rain, though, so, take care.

Brian in SLC wrote:

Brian, what did Carl do in that area? Any idear?

No idea, his despription doesn't match the Upper Dagger route/descent.

Any recent updates from LCC or PC? Im guessing it's a bit dicey out there, but I'd like to get out this weekend if anything's left.

Maple Canyon 1/20/11

Get Whacked

Bowling Ball Head


Wet Itchies


Running Man


Cobble Cruncher


The road has recently (after the last big dump) been plowed to the 1st bathroom. Road conditions: about 2-3" of snow on top of ice/dirt. Really slick underneath in places. Coming down could be hairy. Drive up at at your on risk.


Underwraps is in and looks good. Roadside Couloir is missing it's top half. Chicken Limbo looked climbable, but Hog Jowells could use a bit more ice down low. To the left of Hog Jowells is this forming rarity...will it connect?


I am always psyched to get out and climb. Shoot me a pm if your'e heading down this way.
Has anyone been to Joe's?

I think your photo of "Squash Head" is Cobble Cruncher. When the ice is in typical fat conditions, Cobble Cruncher is usually in and fat. That photo is telling...

Thing to the left of Hog Jowels is the Hooker?

Thanks for the update!

oops! my bad.

Thanks for the update!

If The Hooker does come in, after you climb the initial column head up and right and I put in anchors in the only overhanging piece of rock about 60 or more feet past the column. You need two ropes to get down.

My friend Dustin did a first ascent to the left of Hog Jowls, right behind the mini totem pole. Way fun, but that one really rarely comes in.

Darren Knezek wrote:My friend Dustin did a first ascent to the left of Hog Jowls, right behind the mini totem pole. Way fun, but that one really rarely comes in.

Any idear what he called it?

Stick 'er in the database! I should toss a few more in too...

Any beta on the stuff up around Roadkill Wall?
Or the Middle Fork?

Left and right side of Bridal Veil is down. In the early morning light it looked like White Nightmare was still standing.

Stairway, including the apron has taken a beating, but there is still plenty to climb. That said you won't be getting too high. The second and third pitches still looked climbable.

We did some laps this morning (Jan 22) on the apron and then climbed some short mixed lines on the right side.

Had to drive up to Willard and checked out Willard Canyon Falls since I was in the area. It's thin, but there's ice and plenty of water flowing. A couple of cold days should help. Sorry, didn't have a camera with me. More or less, same thing for the mouth of Ogden Canyon.

josh holmes wrote:Any beta on the stuff up around Roadkill Wall?

Did a couple routes last year just left of Grease Bunny, in the wide slot groove feature. Right hand side was WI3l-ish, 75' to a tree anchor. LH side 45 to anchor, passing a bolted anchor enroute. Maybe WI/M3/4-ish.

Maple today. Wet and warm. Ice not in good shape. Not much change from the pic's posted above. Bowling Ball Head was probably the best piece of ice we saw. The Hooker is almost touching, spicy, but, almost looks "interesting". Seems like most routes have rotted out tops. Frankenchrist is missing 8-10' in the upper 1/3. We climbed Ice Hawk, a route just left of the Low Standard Cave. In decent shape (short, 45' or so, WI4+-ish). Skidders/Yellow Rapture look really thin in their lower halfs. Running Man looks thin in the middle and lower bit, but, kinda doable. Tennis Shoe slab is melted out up high, think down low but wet. Cobble Cruncher looked way thin up high. Sandbagger rotted out. Rubber Cup Nausea thin up high. Anorexia almost nothing. Bottomless/Topless less than a 1/5 down.

GWI update: A customer dropped by IME to tell us that the Icicle was in good condition, though the lower-angled bits still seemed thin and hollow-sounding. S

mountainsense wrote:GWI update: A customer dropped by IME to tell us that the Icicle was in good condition, though the lower-angled bits still seemed thin and hollow-sounding. S

Did GWI last night. The top pitch was flowing and pretty slushy (read: would not hold a screw worth a damn, but the sticks were deep). The rest was in and thick. Probably better by this morning with the cold temps last night.

Went up and did the first pitch of the Fang on Tuesday (the 1st). The ice was brittle, detached up at the top of the first, and still flowing underneath. The tube on the fang proper was nowhere near closing, and the second pitch looked even worse than the first, so we just bailed.

I did both pitches of White Nightmare this morning. Conditions were excellent. Tons of ice over by bridal veil. The halfway anchors on Bridal Veil Right were buried. Looks like you can go up 5 pitches on Stairway, 5th pitch looks a bit thin in the midsection though.

Maple Ice 2/6/11

Bottomless Topless

The Dagger

Cobble Cruncher

Maple Syrup