29-DEC-2006
Nate On White Lightning
White Lightning (WI 3+, 50M)
We racked up and Nate climbed the wet route carefully to the top. He thought 8 screws for the pitch would suffice but he burned a few early and didn’t clip all the bolts actually missing a bolt on the upper part of the climb. With a piece of pro 25 feet below him the bulges at the top were “exciting,” as I recall him saying!
29-DEC-2006
White Lightning Summitshot
We rapped the route from the station at the top and debated whether to climb that again or look for Ice Stud or something else. Well, we looked for Ice Stud and searched for the “Not Worth It Wall” and neither were worth it. Nothing else was in. After traipsing around searching the area we gave up and decided to head somewhere else, particularly towards Alpine Outing: the route that ousted me the previous year. We wondered if Alpine Outing would be in…..
29-DEC-2006
A little perspective
The answer: not even close. Alpine Outing was a black stain on a steep granite wall – no ice whatsoever. Matter of fact, nothing in Squaw Bay was in shape that we could see, which were all routes but 1 hidden a few kilometres down the shore.
Nipigon was therefore the only logical place to point!
30-DEC-2006
HG from the road
On Day 2 of climbing we awoke at 6:30 to make the hour and a half drive hoping to arrive at the base of a route before anyone else. We ended up being late, but it seems that climbers in the area are fairly lax about getting on routes. On the drive in on Highway #11 we spotted a route that wasn’t described in the guidebook however the location was marked. It was the next route after the characteristic Mellow Yellow.
30-DEC-2006
Hully Gully (WI 2+, 140M)
Hully Gully (Grade 2+, 140M)
The approach to Hully Gully was trivial. A few minutes of walking puts you at the base. An internet site says that the climb is WI2+ but I think it was a little steeper than that. We were swapping leads this trip so it was my turn to go. I grabbed a bunch of screws and pointed up. The first bit of climbing was great and led to a low angled gully then to a belay tree. Nate came up and I set off for the final vertical section giving me another fun fairly easy jaunt! This was an awfully long route, especially for the area. We rapped and jumped in the car to see if Obsession was in.
30-DEC-2006
Obsession (WI4, 60M)
Obsession (WI4, 60M)
Climbing the talus slope to the belay bolts on Obsession is like walking over snow covered shattered bowling balls. It wasn’t terribly hard but a fall and roll would leave you in bad and mangled shape. We donned crampons to make our way up the low angled ice to the bolts on the left hand side of the climb and a long time later a stance and belay anchor was ready as was Nate to climb the thing! He worked his way up the grade 2+ or so ice to the base of chimney of vertical WI4. Then he gunned for it, placed many screws and finally got a rest on the rock on the left where it made a nice backrest. 45 minutes later I joined him on top congratulating him on some fine leading.
30-DEC-2006
Nate on the Crux
The crux on Obsession is a beautiful piece of climbing. It’s vertical and fairly narrow situated in a chimney about 4 feet in width. It really is spectacular moving around the semi pillar at the bottom and committing to the vertical ice even while following!
30-DEC-2006
Obsession Summit
We were both wet after this and dark was creeping in so we called it a day and drove back home happy that we would be coming back the next day.
31-DEC-2006
Trail to The Bowl Area
But, of course, my “happy to come back the next day” comment was foreboding. We awoke even earlier on day 3 to beat the light only to step outside and find Thunder Bay a low angle slab ice problem of extremely large size. Nate almost ate it getting to the car. The above was the only picture I took on day 3 and it was from inside the car at the start of the trail to White Lightning. It was raining/drizzling and about 0 degrees. But, before the picture was taken Nate and I explored the Northwest Face of McRae for possible routes – we couldn’t really tell if they were in from the car due to low visibility. After several hours and about 300 vertical feet of talus and some fun glissading we only came up with a couple empty gullies and set of footprints of some sorry sap doing the same as us from the day before.
It was my lead, though, and White Lightning was the only way to salvage the day. Thing was is it was raining. I racked up with 10 screws, I think, and didn’t really trust any of them when I moved above them. Thankfully the bolts that Nate skipped I remembered and I got a nice cold shower clipping the one anchor. The water leaking under my goretex gave me a wiff of the capilene I’d been wearing for the last couple days and I commented to Nate that we should have brought some soap. Through my wet dog smell I made it to the top and rung out my gloves noting how waterproof the material is that marmot made my shell gloves out of. Nate blasted to the top before I froze and we got the heck out of there.
01-JAN-2007
Nipigon Valley
Day 4 we awoke to absolutely spectacular ice climbing weather at about -5 degrees C. I slept on the way to Nipigon awaking not long before we turned up #11 to Orient Bay. We passed Hully Gully, Obsession, Mellow Yellow, a not in shape Paralax, Glace Eclatante, and arrived at the power station where the trail led to Go-Mar Falls.
01-JAN-2007
Trail to Go-Mar(WI3, 85M) (nt)
