Back for one last big one

Raphael on the first crux of Mr Hulot.

With our stay almost over we returned for one last route at the superb Stanley Headwall, our fifth route here of the trip. Together with Mr Stanley himself, Raphael Slawinski we climbed "The Day After Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot." (M7 WI6). I had read alot about this route and its one I particularly wanted to climb. Raphael made the first free ascent of this 10 years ago and its had hardly any repeats since. The main reason is that its on trad gear.

Nick squirming in the snow up a Scottish 7 chimney on pitch 3

The crux is a slightly leaning smooth corner climbed on tiny slopey hooks and minimal feet. After all the swinging around on steep overhangs particularly at Haffner I felt much more at home here reminding me of some of the things we climb in Scotland. Its interesting to note particularly following recent world wide web interest in modern Scottish mixed climbing how some of these routes would rate in Scottish terms. So my guesses are as follows:

French Reality (guide grade V 5.8 WI6+) M6 WI6 = Scottish VII,7
Nightmare on Wolf Street (guide V M7+ WI6+) M8? WI6+ = IX,9
Drama Queen (guide M7 WI6) M7 WI6 = VIII,8
Terminator (T2 start) (guide M7 WI6+) M7 r/x WI5+ = IX,8
Curtain Call (guide WI6) WI6 = VII,7
Suffer Machine (guide M7 WI5) M7 r WI5 = VIII,9
'Monsieur Hulot (guide M7 WI6) M7 WI6 = VIII,9

One of the interesting things is these are all old hat in terms of the cutting edge. Raphael's recent Victoria's Secret also at Stanley is probably M9, trad and climbed ground up and I guess would rate Scottish grade X. All good inspiration to see what we can do next year in Scotland.

Final holiday snap

The art of suffering

The art of suffering is one of my favourite articles describing the "joys" of alpine style high altitude climbing written by the Polish climber Voytek Kurtyka. Well there's not much high altitude action in Canada, infact with the weather we've been having not much mountain action full stop but that doesn't mean we can't still have our own fair share of suffering. So we headed back to Stanley headwall again and the classic mixed route Suffer Machine (180m, M7 WI5). After the big dumps of snow recently there was much wallowing on the approach (see Nick above).I then tried Teddy Bears Picnic the direct start, finding several bolts either missing or with their hangers fallen off. After pulling a big block off we left that as a dead route and headed up the original start. I'd climbed this the last time I visited Canada with local Raphael Slawinski, it was nice this time to get the route clean after I'd flailed about a bit with Raphael.
Above that were 3 very long pitches of sometimes hard and brittle but always entertaining ice.
Which enabled the full quota of suffering to be enjoyed by all.

Drama Queens

One Drama Queen expressing himself beneath the final pitch of insanity

After a brief attempt to climb the classic alpine route Andromeda Strain (we ran away after 20 minutes of the walk in - lots of snow = avalanches = unhappy holiday) we returned for more Stanley Headwall madness. This time a 4 pitch route called Drama Queen put up only a couple of years ago. The first half involved lots of digging and thrutching....

The very Scottish first half

.....the second half had some amazing ice features.....

The very unscottish second half - a pitch of overhanging "funky mushrooms" with the twin icicles of the final pitch hanging above.

....and the final pitch was just insane. rotting overhanging mixed climbing (think Lleyn with bolt protection) topped by a huge twisted icicle. Unfortunately it was my lead and I lived up to the routes name - having a bit of a meltdown.

500ft of exposure on the final steep ice

Me having one of many "moments" on the final pitch

Nightmare

Nightmare on Wolfe Street, wasn't really a nightmare more a dream, if a very intense one, heres a few more pics from Nick

Ian on pitch 1 of Nightmare on Wolfe Street, Stanley Headwall

A tired and happy climber

Oh Canada Eh!

Our two big Stanley routes

Nightmare' on the left and French Reality on right

Nick Bullock and I have the next 3 weeks out in the Canadian Rockies. We're hoping for a couple of adventures in the mountains but to get us going we've spent our first few days on the ice and mixed "crags". Well when I say "crags" this doesn't do justice to the Stanley Headwall, which leading local climber Rapheal Slawinski calls "The premier hard ice and mixed crag in the Canadian Rockies, and a testing ground for winter climbing since 1974." I'd describe this place as like Ceuse for winter climbers. Theres a similar uphill approach (1 1/2 - 2 hours on skis) and each of the routes is notable in terms of quality and difficulty. Infact at Stanley the most ammenable route is the fearsome 150m WI6 Nemesis.

Nick on the first pitch of French Reality

Ian on the M7+ start to Nightmare' (photo Nick Bullock)

We opted for first French Reality (V 5.8 WI6+) and then the following day Nightmare on Wolfe Street (V M7+ WI6+). Both of these were about 170m long with Nightmare in particular being a total armblaster. We both felt these two routes were about as good as mixed climbing gets for lines of this length. It was nice to do Nightmare too, as this was one of the big first ascents by Sean Isaac, a friend from Canmore who I climbed with in Scotland on the last International Meet. So a much needed rest day today but not a bad start 2 big routes in the first 3 days of our trip.

Nick pulling onto the WI6+ ice after the mixed crux

A happy Nick