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)
01-JAN-2007
Go-Mar left at P2 anchor
Go-Mar Falls (WI3, embellished to 85M)
The main, right, Go-Mar Fall is apparently 85M high, which is likely close to true if you count the extreme base to the farthest tip of popsicle sized ice on top. We found most of the climbing was over after about 60M or so. Regardless, Nate was up and he chose to climb the smaller falls on the far left. He nor I know what this is actually called or if it is still “Go-Mar” but it is away from the main flow. The first pitch climbed the steepish and at the time very hollow left hand side. Nate made an anchor off of some small cedars and continued.
01-JAN-2007
Go-Mar left upper pitch
The second pitch of the climb was really interesting. The crux was not sustained but was only a couple moves that were made mandatory for me because of screws on both sides of a cave with a delicate sheet of ice in front – I couldn’t escape to the easier ground right or left! When I did reach the top Nate had protected his traverse across some mud to a small rock ledge where the messed up belay/rappel tree was. The traverse for me was a little more interesting as I had removed his uppermost screw and was in for a cedar eating penji if I messed up.
01-JAN-2007
Perspective
And I messed up, but thankfully it wasn’t the penji. Nate got down just fine reaching the ground with a few feet of rope to spare. But I left the rap station having only clipped one of my tools to my harness, even after Nate had emphasised not leaving them - twice. I had to climb about 10 feet of rock with one tool but the edges were pretty good and I say it would have went at about M4 or so! I burned to the base ready for my lead and the only evidence that I actually climbed ice on this trip!
01-JAN-2007
Go-Mar Main left side - by Nate
Go-Mar left variation was probably around WI3 or so. There wasn’t anything too strenuous but a few bulges and some early season chandeliered ice to navigate. It was terrific! Not scary other than some thin ice and bottoming screws. After the lip it was low angled ice to the left anchor where I ran and set up a belay. Nate arrived shortly thereafter and we rapped the final route of the trip. I took in the stunning views of Orient Bay, threaded the rope and rapped.
01-JAN-2007
Again, 2 feet higher! (nt) -by Nate
01-JAN-2007
Near the lip (nt) - by Nate
01-JAN-2007
Looking north from Go-Mar (nt)
01-JAN-2007
Go-Mar base and Sunset
Nate arrived at the bottom and looked at his watch. 4:40PM. We had 1 hour until it was dark. He looked at me and said, “what do you think about finishing up in the dark?” I grabbed my headlamp, threw on my puffy and belay mitts while Nate grabbed a couple extra screws and jumped on the ice again!
An hour later or so Nate yelled down that he needed 10 more feet of rope to make the belay. I was sitting there warm in my parka thinking, “ok, I guess I’ll start climbing then!” I got about 15 feet up and immediately relieved myself on the wet part climb. I didn’t want to go on the rope while belaying and this was a number 1 emergency. The yank on my harness told me I was on belay and without changing my mitts or removing my parka I headed up. The handles I made swing surprisingly well with mitts on! I thought it would have been impossible but it was great! I took my gloves off to clip gear to my harness and remove screws as the sun and temp dropped. At one instance when I tried to pull my shell’s hood off my helmet I came face to face with battery pack for my lamp. I got it back on avoiding a true climb in the dark. I arrived at the lip and Nate commented how I “looked like Steve House.” If only my girlfriend would compliment me like that! The obligatory summit shot never occurred as I ran out of memory so I rapped our cables and rung out my pack that had gotten into the path of some water diverted above! We threw our gear in our packs and walked out turning off the lamps and going by moonlight. It was beautiful walking through the forest with snow heavy branches and the moon casting our shadows on the ground. A mile later we were at the car, the safe and successful end to the climbing on the trip and the start of the drive back to our families.
On the way home we spent a cold bivy in the car once on the side of the highway at about midnight, and again in Marathon in a parking lot waiting to fill up with fuel. The ride home is always so long but we made it, albeit slowly due to traffic and poor roads.
There is no doubt that this was a great trip, the finale being a moonlit climb on some excellent Nipigon ice and then the serene walk out. I still have some unfinished business up in T-Bay and some day I’ll go back and get on Alpine Outing. Maybe it will be with Blake (who I bailed with the first time!) which is probably the way it should be. Thanks to Nate for taking care of things for me, being safe, and being able to share this trip!!!
