The Awesome Pillar

Me, Bill, Todd and Carina went back the Awesome Valley.  From the parking lot at Victory Road, to  where we parked the snow-go was about 6 miles, then it was about a 4 mile ski up the creek to the base of the Awesome pillar.

Leaving the parking lot

The river was open in places and had a weak fluffy layer of snow over it in others.

The Adventure of the Approach

Collapsing Snow

The pillar is in HUGE this year, it seemed twice as wide as the last time I was here.  

 The Awesome Pillar

Bill Leading 

Never put a dehydrated meal in your pocket!!

Super fun day out with good people in a beautiful spot.

Caribou Creek Keeps on Giving

The day started out with me and Bill trying to get to the gravel creek pillar.  Instead we drove around in circles and got the snow machine stuck in the alders.  Bill pretty much quietly refused to snow shoe the last mile or so to the route.  So instead we had lunch at the Long Rifle lodge and then headed back to Caribou creek.  A snow-go is a game changer...leave the car at 2pm...no problem, when a 4 mile approach takes 15 minutes.

Bill at the base of Robo Pick

It was not warm in the shade

Bill almost at the top

 

Another Foray into Caribou Creek

Caribou Creek has been amazing this season, and with temps still above zero out there it was an easy decision to go back.   None of us have climbed STD and were all game, Bill won the rosh.

Ryan with The Double Take Area Behind Him 

 

It was a long, beautiful pitch.  The climbing was steep and fun.

Ryan Following STD 

 The Double Take area was just a short walk away, I was in rotation for the next pitch, and from far way the old Double Take looked steep and unrelenting.  I was feeling happy to pass the lead on, until I stood underneath it, and it looked doable.   It was as steep as it looked from far away, but the ice was reasonable and I made it up with only a little internal whining.

Me, Bill and Ryan at the Top of The Old Double Take 

 

Bill Rappelling The Old Double Take 

Caribou Creek Ice Climbing

I've never done this route and have always wanted to, but it hasn't been in stellar shape like this for years.  Bill and I did our customary rosh at the bottom and I won.  I made a belay before the steep pitch, I figured it would be challenging enough for me without rope drag, and it was.

Thag-O-Mizer

 The second pitch felt steep, I definitely earned it.

Bill Coming up

In retrospect I probably should have continued up another 75 feet to the top of the next step, but at the time with only a couple screws left and pumped arms I just didn't want to do it.  Bill is a considerate leader and set an additional belay so as not to kill me with ice fall, but we climbed it in 4 and rappelled it in 2, just saying.

Start of the Last Pitch

Super fun route and always fun to climb something new, I'm definitely feeling like a crusty old ice climber.

On our way out we saw our friends Jonya climbing STD.  Another route for another day, and also an infrequently formed flow.

Tonya at the top of the pitch and Jon below

 

We still had some daylight left and Rhythm and blues was looking fat and juicy.  My gumption wasn't up to even rosh for the second pitch, and I guess Bill could tell because he gave me the first pitch without a word.  Plus the first pitch is my favorite on this route.

 Rhythm and Blues

 

Bill Leading the Top Pitch 

It was dark by the time we got back to the river, and cold enough at the car that the beer froze.

My Frozen Beer Volcano

 

Oh My How You've Grown

Temps were cool, with a distinct frosty white line where the valley below was frigid, and above that line, less frigid. Climbing in cold temps requires the ability to keep moving, whether walking between pitches, huge belay ledges or soloing, I'm just not as tough as I used to be.
Bill and I stopped by to meet the neighbors instead of the usual incognito blend into the trees approach.

Eagle River Valley

The ice was fat and thick, completely different than earlier this season.

Me on the first pitch
Thanks to Bill for taking pictures

All the pitches were in huge, and barely a patch of snow between.  My calves felt like they were going to explode front pointing up a thousand feet of low angle ice.

 I won the rosh for the only pitch we roped up for, and chose a soft wet line that was super fun.

 More pitches

It was nice to make it to the top of the route while it was still light.  I think that I finally found the "easy" walk off.  I feel fortunate that we got to do this route so late into the season, the lack of snow this year is awesome for the climbing.

The Descent

 

Caribou Creek on Ice Steroids

Its been a cold, cold, winter.  I knew the climbs would be huge in Caribou creek but have suffered enough hypothermia back there for a lifetime and refuse to climb there if its below zero.  Luckily temps in anchorage warmed up to a balmy 25 degrees and Billmier was fresh and motivated.

There was only a dusting of snow on the river, and it froze wide and smoothe.  Travel was awesome, a bike with studded tires would have been awesome!  Lots of ice up river, I felt like a kid on Christmas with a new present around every corner.

A couple miles back...

 

I'm not sure what these routes are called, a picture on the Alaska iceclimbing website shows a pic of the climb on the right in my pic and it had two names, STD and Life after the graveyard.  I have never seen these routes come in this big.  We ended up climbing the left hand route to the top of the canyon.

Thank you Santa

 

Even though Bill and I were both pretty captivated by the potential that we had already passed we decided to go to the end of the canyon to assess the whole situation.

The landslide that had constricted the river last year was completely washed away, and above the river 3 beautiful new routes.

The Trifecta: New Double Take area

 Cantellya was beautiful, not as big as usual, and no left hand flow this year, but still plenty of ice.  Robopick looked great, but the route at the very end, Thag-o-mizer was enormous.  Again, I've never seen this route this huge before...

 Big routes at the end of the canyon

So much to do with only 4 hours of daylight left!!  We went back to the STD/graveyard area mostly because the opportunity to climb something rarely formed and new was to hard to pass up.

 The first pitch was awesome climbing, super fun, and steaper than it looked, Bill lead in fine style.

It took me about 30 seconds of deliberation to pass the lead of the next pitch to Bill.  It was super thin and scary looking...and that was before I saw the undercut bare rock section.  I couldn't see what Bill was doing, but he was going up and down in 5 foot increments....I really understood when it came my turn to hall my ass over overhanging undercut.

I wish I could have got a picture that did it justice, but the light was fading and I was rappelling.

 

Bill and I at the Top

 

Slide Show of all the other climbs!

Indecision

Cold temps and the need for possible sun exposure made heading to Indecision my top choice. Kellie didn't realize it was a multi pitch route till it was to late.

I really sucked at taking pictures today. The first pitch was great, mostly solid and pretty high quality ice for such cold temps.

Kellie Expressing her joy of ice climbing

 

The upper pitches

 

We did the route in four pitches and made it down before the end of civil twilight.

This is the only picture I took of the whole route

Frozen hair and frozen breath, once the sun went down it got really cold!

 

A Quick Trip to Mad Dog

I've been hoping for years to turn Kellie into an ice climber, this season she has come out more times that all the years I've known her combined. We did a quick top rope session on Mad Dog, I'd much rather come here than go to the gym.

Kellie Rappelling down a very picked out Mad Dog.

 

Climbing with the Girls, and Ryan

Ryan had the day off, Kellie wanted to go climbing, I happened to talk to Raina for the first time in months, and Joni had a babysitter. I was amazed that we all managed to meet at my house and by 10 and went ice climbing. Ryan drove his mini van with us gaggle of girls. It was a day full of laughs for sure.

At base of the approach pitches

 

I wanted to lead the right pitch since I got to lead left the week before. It was nice, not as soft as it looked, but decent.

 

There are very few places that I want to go ice climbing at with more than 3 people, but this place is perfect.  Super fun day out with good friends.

Kellie enjoying the short window of sun.