Left Compound Gully ice climb
February 19, 2022
Ice climbing with Mark.
The universe has made it abundantly clear to
me that an ice climber I will never be! Fortunately, the same cannot be said
for Mark. Were it not for his lead work we would not have progressed a single metre
up this easy and fun WI2 route in Waterton.
Thirteen years had elapsed since our last stint with the activity. Our primary motivation for getting back into ice
climbing was to maintain some sort of skill base for steep alpine ascents
involving snow and ice and not necessarily to become regular ice climbers.
Neither Mark nor I have any delusions that we will be tackling Expert’s Choice in
any conceivable future!
Leaving the Linnet Lake parking lot, it was
clear that the weather was going to be a huge factor in how much success we experienced.
High winds and blowing snow would be the theme of the day it seemed. I was
pessimistic at best, but we both agreed an attempt was warranted.
We reached the base of the Left Compound
Gully (the easier of the two ice climbs in the area) in about 40 minutes and geared
up. The wind was gusty, but no one had been lifted off their feet yet so it was
game on! Mark led the first pitch and did a great job of it. The ice was
generally in good ascent condition. I followed with my usual degree of awkwardness
and then led the second pitch – which was more of a steep snow hike than an ice
climb. With clear skies in front of us and the Sun’s rays on the ice, the
scenery at this point was fantastic, greatly exceeding our expectations.
Unfortunately, the weather was soon to become
an issue. At first, the howling wind only hampered our communication and not necessarily
our progress. As such, we did the climb in very short pitches so that we could
still hear each other. This slowed our progress, but we were still moving up.
Another pair of climbers soon caught up with
us and we had an excellent conversation with them. They were moving much faster
than we were and so we asked them to go in front.
The
second last pitch would be the end of the
line for us. Again, Mark led and then belayed me up to a point about
halfway up
the pitch. The weather now was in full breakdown mode. Clouds were
pouring in
from every direction, blowing snow was wreaking havoc on the area, and
the
situation looked like it would only get worse. As well, we were taking
Mark's kids skiing later in the day and had to be down by 2 pm. Bailing
at this point was a no-brainer.
Thankfully we were able to find a
scramble route down the mountain, thus avoiding any need to rappel. This made
for a quick escape down to a more hospitable environment – or at least an
inhospitable environment where getting knocked around by the wind wouldn’t result
in plummeting down 30 metres of ice!
Getting to the top would have been nice, but
still a very successful return to ice climbing (for Mark more so than me – as
stated, not my thing!).
Near the beginning. The ice climb is in the centre of the face.
A steep snow gully goes most of the way up
Ice climb dead ahead
Pretty decent views of Waterton from the base of the climb
Mark is ready to tackle the first pitch. The blowing snow was not really an issue here.
Almost at the top
I took the second pitch but its a walk-up and no belay was necessary
A perhaps unnecessary belay from a small tree, but the wind was howling and we could barely hear each other
Belaying Mark up the second half of the second pitch
Windy!!
And then calm
Mark on the upper section of pitch 2
He's found a good tree to belay from
My turn
The ice looked fantastic with a blue sky behind it
Mark starts up the third pitch
The other party catches up with us. There was lots of room for everyone.
More steep walking leads to the fourth pitch
The weather is taking a turn for the worse
One of the other party members belays from an ice screw station
Mark gets ready to lead the fourth pitch
The point where we bailed
Descending the snow gully
Back at the parking lot and glad we bailed
The End
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