12-Months O’ Swing’n - Climbing Ice Every Month for a Year

Photo - Nathan Smith

Grivel and Beal athlete Alan Rousseau shares photos and stories from his escapades on ice over the last 12 months.

Around March of 2017, after five consecutive months of ice climbing, I looked ahead at my schedule and thought it looked realistic to get 12-months straight of swinging ice tools.  As an IFMGA mountain guide I travel around the world’s ranges lining up trips to fill my calendar.  I was working the 2016-2017 winter in my home range, The Wasatch. The spring was booked in the Alaska Range for April and May.  Then the summer was spent in Chamonix for June, July, and August.  To round out the year my long time expedition partner, Tino Villaneuva and I had secured the Mugs Stump Award and Copp Dash Inspire Award to head to Kashmir for September and October.  This year has been my craziest schedule to date.  I hope you enjoy experiencing the following images of my frozen year filled with hanging belays, spindrift caked hoods, and hot-forged-steel against frozen stone.

Fall of 2016 I felt a previously unparalleled psych for cold alpine climbing.  I had a ton of mixed projects in mind and spent my fall swinging around, bolting sections of Provo Canyon I had seen smears form on in years past.  My training was all ice-tool-centric; I neglected Rocktober, in hopes that I would be climbing ice in November.

November:

This is the first of the twelve-months and it kicked off with a bang.  Nathan Smith (guide book author and Salt Lake climber) called me up and told me there was a big ice route formed in the Beartooths.  The route “Ice Dragons” had seen a number of ascents recently and it was reported to be in fat condition.  We found 1300’ of friendly thick ice in WI3+ condition and it made for a great warm-up to the season.  More details can be found on the Liberty Mountain Blog here.

The next times on ice would proved to be a bit dicier, as they happened around the Salt Lake area quite early in the year.  A normal early season destination for people chomping at the bit the last couple of years has been the “Hell Gate” area in Alta, Utah.  Hell Gate’s high elevation gets snow early in the year, and then the melt freeze cycle creates some fickle frozen drips that never lack excitement. 

Pictured is Niels Meyer on “Hell Froze Over”.  Alta had been experiencing below freezing temps for only 24-hours when this photo was taken.

The last day of the month, was a good one.  I went down to Provo with a friend, Aaron Kurlan. We figured the ice would be too thin and we would probably just drytool.  When we pulled into the lot I saw an ice smear we had bolted in the fall was formed.  We were both bummed we didn’t get an earlier start but threw gear in our packs and made a dash for it.  Getting to the zone we bolted involved climbing a couple pitches of the previously established “Purgatorium” M6 WI6.  The ice was delaminated but the rock gear was reasonable.  From the top of the second pitch, our route deviates left through a few bolts of really technical M7/8 into a roof traverse with a mix of thin ice and big moves on rock.  The next pitch climbs a splitter dihedral that was choked with ice.  I was stoked a route I thought would take a year or two to form went down in November!  We named the route “Devine Mercy” as the climber must travel from “Purgatorium” to “Stairway to Heaven”. 

December:

With December’s arrival the Intermountain West ice season begins in earnest.  I took a couple trips to Bozeman, one of which was with Tino Villanueva as a bit of a training mission for India.  We got to get on some nice routes including the Mummy IV, which was in prime condition mid-December. 

I was also able to red-point another route I bolted this fall “Scenic Byway” M9+ the newest addition to the highway wall in Provo.  A four-bolt roof joins in with the same dagger “Highway to Hell” tops out on.

 Photo: Niels Meyer

January & February:

Generally no-brainer months for ice and this year was fortunately no different.  Guiding and teaching ice festival clinics brought me to Ouray to sample some of their reliable flows.

Also, the final yet to be red-pointed routes that I had bolted in Provo saw ascents.  Two M8/9 routes in Provo’s “Fang Amphitheater” that require spray-ice came into shape.

  

Mark Pugliese on “Kenny Sloggins” M8/9

March:

In addition to some days on the normal local circuit, I caught the North East face of Storm Mountain in Big Cottonwood Canyon in nice condition at the end of the month.  It’s one of the true alpine ice routes around the Wasatch.  Its upper elevation, and North East exposure generally cause it to form when everyone is complaining about how it’s too warm to ice climb.

Jake Current on the NE Face of Storm

April:

April means the end of Ice Season in most places.  Fortunately, April started a seven-week stint of guiding and personal climbing in the Central Alaska Range.  I was able to guide two successful ascents of “Ham and Eggs” (V WI4, 5.8) to the summit of the Moose’s Tooth, as well as the SW Ridge of Peak 11,300 (V WI3, 5.8).

May:

In May, I teamed up with another local Salt Lake climber Sam Novey. We had ambitious plans of trying the Moonflower Buttress on Mount Hunter and the Infinite Spur on Mount Foraker over a 20-day period. The weather this year in May was very unsettled in the Central Alaska Range.  We attempted The Moonflower four times over 15-days. Each time we were either stormed off, or encountered dangerous avalanche conditions and bailed.  Even on our best effort we had to endure four hours of intense spindrift under a tarp to get in 2,800’ of good climbing on the “Bibler-Klewin route”.

Sam Novey in the Mcnerthney ice dagger, we had both just freed “the prow” our first time on it, but the stoke turned to concern as the snow began to fall.

June: 

I arrived back home from Alaska the first day of June, and enjoyed some warm sunny weather for three weeks before the duffels were reloaded and the European Alps season began.  I am based in Chamonix, France for the summer, which is a great place to climb ice during the summer months.  A couple days of cold stormy weather is all it takes for granite corner systems to ice up.  The day after I arrived, I decided to kick jet lag by soloing the central route on the North Face of the Triangle to the top of Mont Blanc du Tacul, followed by the Cosmiques arête.  At AI3 M3 and probably ~1,500’ of climbing, the central route made for a pleasant way to reconnect with the Mont Blanc Massif.

July:

This summer there was no shortage of cold storms in the Alps.  Tino Villanueva and I managed to sneak in a good morning on some of the chimneys high on the Midi.  We both had to meet clients at noon, but climbed some fun water ice and rime features.  We would have sworn we had been transported to Patagonia.

August:

When I initially hatched this plan of climbing ice all year, I was most worried about August.  I got lucky in the middle of the month when a big, cold, wet system lined up with my days off.  I tried to find partners at the last minute for a mixed route, but came up empty handed.  I decided to solo a route I had climbed a number of times before, the Chere Couloir (WI4- 800’) located on Mont Blanc du Tacul.  The flash-freeze conditions made for thin engaging climbing and an aerated 85-degree crux forced me to hunt around for solid sticks.  Below is a photo from when I had guided it earlier in the season.    

September/October: 

The Chamonix season was an intense one.  On the last day of my season, September 1 (again on the Chere Couloir), I had guided 60 of the last 67 days.  I was glad to have a few down days before heading to India. We arrived in Dehli September 6, and traveled to  the Suru Valley in Kashmir to try the previously unclimbed peak “Rungofarka” (6495M).  Our first attempt was unsuccessful, only climbing about 2,000’ of terrain up to AI5+M5 on Rungofarka’s North Face.  After climbing as far as we could, there were no ledges for a bivouac in sight, and in light snow we retreated on September 25.   

After a few rest days, a high-pressure system moved in and we had changed our objective to the North Ridge.  

It appeared to be steppier and have options for bivouacs.  On September 30^th we moved up to our Advanced Base Camp for the night.  Over the next four days we accomplished the first peak ascent of Rungofarka via the North Ridge, a rowdy ~50-pitch route at VI M6 WI4+.  It made for an eventful end to a very cold year.   

The upper crux encountered the fourth day on route at 6300 meters

Our ascent took the left skyline of the peak September 30 - October 4 in alpine style.

For next couple weeks I plan to thaw out, and chill with my wife and our cat.  I’m sure I’ll be ready to lace up the boots in November, and keep the streak alive!

Alan Rousseau is an AMGA, IFMGA, and UIAGM Certified Guide, and member of the Beal and Grivel athlete teams. Learn more about his climbing accomplishments here 

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Ice Climbing in the Beartooths: November 2016

Alan Rousseau at the belay of Pitch 5 of Ice Dragons.

The Fall of 2016 will go in the books as one of the warmest and driest on record for the intermountain west.  Which for some user groups has been preferable:  Mountain bikers, rock climbers, and trail runners have been shocked about the ability to still get up high and find dry conditions into mid-November.  It has, however, left the ice climbing community pouring over photos, forums, and searching long range forecasts for somewhere within a days drive that has below freezing temps.  Around the Salt Lake area one climber, Nathan Smith, is more vigilant than the rest.  When I got a message from Nathan suggesting heading to the Beartooth’s (a remote range in Montana) to climb an ice line, of course I was interested. 

East Rosebud Lake. The trail starts on the left-hand side of the photo and winds it’s way up to the ice line on the far left.

The Beartooth range is one that is generally kept quiet, people seem to keep information close to the chest.  I had heard of it as this kind of mystical place, reserved for the hard, with flurries of development of long routes in rugged terrain.  Which of course added to the appeal, but makes finding information regarding our planned route, Ice Dragons, not all that easy.  Fortunately, Nathan spoke to someone that had recently climbed the route.  However, we still had a wide range of ambiguity regarding technical difficulty.  One guidebook suggested a grade of M6 WI4, while one trip report suggested WI3, lengths of the climb also varied from 1,000’ to 1,500’.  Either way we were interested in climbing something frozen so we packed up the car and started the nine-hour drive to the East Rosebud Trailhead.  Arriving with a couple hours of light we caught a view of Ice Dragons:  A stunning ribbon of ice splitting the large north face, which forms the shoulder of Mount Inabit.  Our binoculars confirmed that the line was very much in.  

Alan in the “five-mile basin” nearing the cirque holding Ice Dragons.

We began to read through approach information, and found two viable options.  The first was less distance overall, but more mileage through unstable scree and talus fields.  We opted for a second option that had a bit more mileage but less off-trail time.  After plotting some waypoints into our maps we set off into grizzly country at 4 am, hoping our big four legged friends were deep in a winter slumber already.  The first six miles of trail flew by in under two hours.  We found ourselves under a large rock face known as “the Bears Face” from here we located a deep slot, filled with loose rock where we would gain 1300’ of elevation.  It was classic one-step-forward-two-steps-back terrain, and was pretty time consuming.  Eventually we popped out on the pleasant treed shoulder of Inabit and then dropped down and contoured into the talus filled “five-mile basin” where Ice Dragons can be found.

Navigating the talus leading up to Ice Dragons, the largest ice flow in the center of the photo.

We arrived at the foot of the route in five hours.  We were told that the ice would get fatter and fatter with an Indian summer, but were still surprised at how much ice was there compared to conditions the first ascent party found.  Instead of looking at a pitch of primarily rock, we were looking at a pitch of WI3 with maybe a move or two on the rock.  

Alan Rousseau on the first pitch of Ice Dragons.

The climb for us was mostly rambling WI3 and all pitches were around 60 meters in length.  The ice was in great condition, not quite plastic but the majority was one hit sticks.  The position and nature of the climb, up the obvious weakness in the wall, gave it a distinctly alpine feel.  After 1,300’ of climbing we hit the plateau of Mount Inabit.  We rappelled back down the route building two rock anchors and the rest were v-threads. 

Alan Rousseau on the third pitch of Ice Dragons.

Looking back just a few miles to summer conditions lower on the trail.

Nathan Smith on the fourth pitch of Ice Dragons

Alan at the top of the ice climbing. 300’ of snow and mixed lead to the plateau from here.

Alan punching his way up.

For the descent we decided to take the more direct option that involved more off trail time.  It also involved some undesirable scree fields but was not nearly as steep as the notch we climbed through that morning.  The descent took around 3 hours from “five mile basin” to the car.  We arrived at the car at 5:30 pm and had to turn on headlamps as we sorted through gear.  Just as soon as we arrived we loaded up the car and started the long drive back to Salt Lake.  Nathan took the helm all the way back, arriving back at in the city at 3:30 AM the same time our alarms sounded 24 hours earlier.  The stats were 18 hours of driving, over 18 miles of walking, 5,300’ of elevation gain, 1,300’ of ice climbing, 45 and half hours Salt Lake to Salt Lake, and two climbers stoked for winter to show up in their backyard. 

Alan hiking out after a fun day in the Beartooths.

Thanks to Nathan for motivating, the Beartooth’s for being rad, and as always to Liberty Mountain for the continuing support.

-Alan Rousseau