Despite the spring conditions this week, our guide Todd Craig still knew where to find some great ice climbing. Nick Rumbles, Nick Ward, Kyla and Pete joined him in Cedar Creek for a challenging day of ice climbing. After weeks of training on an indoor wall at the Dogtooth Climbing Gym, it was nice to be in the great outdoors. We drove out through the protected wetlands in the early hours before leaving Todd’s truck on the highway and hiking up into the forested Rocky Mountain foothills equipped with our climbing gear.
The two pitches we found in Cedar Creek were each fifty five metre climbs, formed where water froze as it trickled over rocks. This provides more stable ice to climb on than a frozen waterfall would. Todd ‘lead-climbed’ to the top, inserting ice screws on his way to hold the rope.
Then, after a brief lesson about belaying and the use of crampons, it was time to climb! Each pitch was the length of the rope and it seemed to take forever to climb and use every ounce of energy we had (to the point where Kyla actually fell asleep in the snow)!
Ice climbing is easier than it’s summer counterpart and this allows you to have the energy to climb for longer, especially once you get used to the technique and equipment.
After a very full day, we returned to Alpenrose just in time for the 6pm dinner and an early bedtime!
