Banff - WI6..?

So Ryan thought the WI4 and 5 climbs we had been doing were a little too easy (second pitch of Wicked Wanda excluded), so we went for some WI6 climbs. This went well, except that none of them were really in WI6 shape. The ice is just too fat this year.

Ryan on Whiteman Falls, another party on Red Man Soars, a mixed climb we had done earlier in the day.

Kananaskis Country

Whiteman was largely composed of a translucent layer of ice, maybe 5 inches thick, under which flowing water could clearly be seen.

Fearful Symmetry in unusually fat shape, also completely hooked out, making for very fun, easy climbing.

Rainbow Serpent; apparently in Australian Aboriginal folklore the Rainbow Serpent is a mythic deity know particularly for bringing rain. The name is fitting, the first half of this climb was a goddamn river.

Back in Banff - More Beer, More Ghosts

Forgot the camera cord this time, so updates are going to be somewhat more infrequent [gasp!]. Anyways, yesterday we went to the beer climbs outside Field and did Guinness Gully and Guinness Stout, and today we went to the South Ghost and climbed Wicked Wanda and Malignant Mushroom.
Ice is fat, temps cool but not frigid, and we've only had one unprotectable death pitch! Unfortunately avalanche danger is relatively high, so we're having to put the Icefield Parkway climbs we wanted to do on hold, but there is plenty to do elsewhere.

Guinness Gully crux pitch (3rd of 3)

Ryan on Guinness Stout

Ghost River Wilderness

Wicked Wanda, 1st pitch (WI4) ends at obvious ledge, second pitch (WI4+++) was very techy and weird.

Malignant Mushroom alternate start

Marble Canyon (BC)

My first trip up to Lillooet, apparently our nearest, closest, center for quality ice climbing.
We climbed two lines on the Deeping Wall, the first and third pitches of Icy BC, and Body Shop.

From left to right, Deeping Wall, No Deductible (lower bolts covered by ice…), Icy BC (pitch 1) 

Rafael leading/soloing, ice was very chandeliered and screws were suspect at best

Icy BC (pitch 3), and Body Shop to the right. 

Beartooths + Cody

Before Matt was unexpectedly called back to work, we climbed for a couple days in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana and got one day on the South Fork of the Shoshone River, outside Cody.

First (above) and last (below) pitches of Woodbine Falls - WI3, before the first pitch and between the two we soloed a fair amount of WI2.

Hellroaring Falls (WI4)

Crux pitches of California Ice, first pitch was about a 50m WI3, second doesn't look it from the photo but was a solid 60m WI4, instead of doing the WI3 pitch above and walking around we rappelled from a piton anchor to the right and then made a v-thread about halfway down.

Stringer (WI3), in the Slow Turning drainage outside of Cody. First pitch of Slow Turning goes at WI4 and was not in, Matt claims that after I left to scout up the valley a chunk of ice the size of a refrigerator fell off.