"The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy, but these are new. They look human - sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot."" Kyle Reese talking about the new brand of Terminator. Is Nick Bullock the latest incarnation?
High on Mount Rundle lies the Trophy Wall, home to some of the world's most coveted ice climbs. The only one close to forming at the moment is Terminator, first climbed over 2 days in 1985 and graded WI7 the route has only touched down again twicw in 1996/7 and 2003. After an exhausting near 4 hour approach we found that not only had the ice not touched down the dagger had snapped off leaving an ice roof. A very psyched Nick was chomping at the bit for the first mixed pitch T3 (T2 is the mixed pitch when the dagger is formed). This proved to be a very intense psychological challenge involving a 20ft run out on tiny hooks and at times no footholds above ice screws in a TV sized ice blob. One of the better leads I've seen in the mountains.
Nick heading up to the crux with the crucial TV sized ice blob perched below the ice roofAfter that things returned to "normal" with 2 near full rope lengths of WI5+. Normal except for the 6 inch crack splitting the pillar halfway up, oh and the 1000m drop down to Banff.
Oops the big horizontal crack seperating two 50m long chunks of ice
The end of another day's gentle cragging 1000m above Banff
1 comment:
Ian
This a has on 3 occasion, it also formed 2003 for about 2 months in Nomber and December before the big freeze
Robin
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