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The 2012-13 Colorado Ice Conditions Thread
Oliver Deshler wrote:Account of an attempt on the great canadian classic - Polar Circus. county5.blogspot.com/2013/0…Wow gentlemen. Great story and great photos! Nice work up there and glad everyone made it off the climb OK. It sounds to me like a great success overall. |
Kevin Craig wrote:I wonder how many climbers have had the: "Is this it? Is this where I die?" experience on Polar Circus? Happened to me a few years ago just after finishing a lead on the ribbon pitch - on a day where the avy danger was "moderate" and the wardens had told us "it's totally safe, we just bombed it yesterday" - which, as anyone who climbs much in Canada knows, the wardens NEVER say. You guys did the right thing, start in the dark and climb fast. Many these days treat it as pretty casual, but it's always a serious undertaking. Yeah, had a cornice the size of a car or two go down by our side on the last couple pitches. Shook everything. And went down the previous pitches. Avy danger was good that day. Pretty scary. Made for a let's get out of here asap moment. |
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Snow steppin and metal scrappin up Martha last friday. |
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Colin, did you happen to see/take pics of anything on Longs yesterday? Specifically the Dutchman, my friend and I are looking at going up tomorrow. Was the snow deep in Martha or had it settled a bit? |
Nick Venechuk wrote:Colin, did you happen to see/take pics of anything on Longs yesterday? Specifically the Dutchman, my friend and I are looking at going up tomorrow. Was the snow deep in Martha or had it settled a bit?The snow was marginal. wind slab over sugar on top of some ice forming way below. the Dutchman looked good, with a short ice step visible from across the cirque. not sure about the snow on that aspect right now. |
Oliver Deshler wrote:Account of an attempt on the great canadian classic - Polar Circus. county5.blogspot.com/2013/0…GREAT write up! I rarely read through any of these, your story was very captivating! Nice climb, and smart move. I hurts bailing so close, but IMO no climb is worth a life. Stuff happens, but prudence keeps us climbing, not pushing up daisies. |
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Some pictures of Dreamweaver, Flying Dutchman and some others routes but not Martha. |
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Looks like the Shroud in ten mile canyon slid a couple of days ago. 150'x50' pile of wet-slide looking snowballs below the climb and some debris above. We also saw some roller ball action above three tiers and the chimney. Be watchful of the sun if you're climbing in ten mile! |
 Did the Dutchman on Friday 03/29. About a foot of soft powder over firm snow, it actually would have been a great ski descent if we'd brought them. Lambs Slide was in the same condition. The ice pitch on the Dutchman is definitely in but the ice is not as fat as it looks. Some of the snow-covered patches in the photo have no ice at all and in some places the ice is several inches deep. Good conditions, just variable ice. |
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How is the Long's approach? Should I skin up or is the postholing not too bad? |
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No skis or flotation needed to the junction or Chasm Lake, the trail's pretty well packed or wind scoured. |
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More Canadian Rockies photos. |
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Awesome shots, Oliver!!!!! |
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anyone seen dreamweaver? |
Nick Venechuk wrote:No skis or flotation needed to the junction or Chasm Lake, the trail's pretty well packed or wind scoured.Let me ask a different way, could I ski all the way up there? I love ski approaches since it is so damn fast exiting the area. Thanks for the info so far! |
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If anyone can get after it, Officers looks in great shape and the avy danger went to Low/Level1 (granted, i didn't get up into the monster, so re-assess as needed). |
Dave Cummings wrote: Anyone been up there yet?Saw it today on our way to Martha. I don't have pictures but Dreamweaver looked very dry in several spots. I didn't see any ice. In my opinion, it's not in. Martha, on the other hand, climbed well with a very little bit of ice. However, it appeared that conditions on Martha could improve further in the coming days. |
JonW wrote: Saw it today on our way to Martha. I don't have pictures but Dreamweaver looked very dry in several spots. I didn't see any ice. In my opinion, it's not in. Martha, on the other hand, climbed well with a very little bit of ice. However, it appeared that conditions on Martha could improve further in the coming days.You must have been the group in front of us on Martha on Saturday. There was a group that did Dreamweaver (don't know results) and another group that sailed up flying dutchman. My partner exiting the crux dropped a 0.5 BD C4 with blue Camp Nano racking biner and a BD quickdraw. It bounced and then slid out of sight, way past a lower. If it's found I will pay beer (I homebrew). |
GLD wrote: Let me ask a different way, could I ski all the way up there? I love ski approaches since it is so damn fast exiting the area. Thanks for the info so far!Yep you can definitely skin all the way up and ski down. You might run into some rocks on the trail above treeline but should be able to avoid them. |
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Hey Oliver- I really liked reading your blog posts on Polar circus and the Unicorn. Cool stuff |
