What Happens in Prague Stays in Prague

Spring had arrived in the Canadian Rockies. We were confronted with sunny skies, temperatures a little too warm for ice climbing and a pretty mean avy cycle. Despite this we were able to get good climbs in every day of the trip. In the process we discovered some gems in areas always overlooked.

Day 1: Looking for a warmup we headed to Carlsberg. Avalanche danger was considerable, but it is a protected climb from all but the biggest alpine slides. Once up pitch one we saw a powder blast from a slide down Heineken Hall... time to go. We salvaged the day with an afternoon run up Louise Falls.

Day 2: 50 degree temps predicted, we decided to skip the ice and stick to mixed. Bear Spirit crag fit the billing and we found a fun line "Spoiler" on the walls left side. Powerful moves up a steep corner crack yielded to a stem onto the ice and 20 feet of bolt protected ice hooks. A must do if you ever find yourself at Bear Spirit.



Spoiler works up the obtuse corner behind the tree trending right toward the ice.

Day 3: Whiteman Falls is typically out-of-shape by late March but recent reports indicated otherwise. 8 inches of snow fell overnight but it didn't affect this gem. A couple hours of skiing and hiking brought us up to this wild piece of ice.



Whiteman Falls

The first pitch started on the right side, traversed around to the left working through an ice chimney and through a tunnel into a protected ice cave on the left. The third pitch climbed out the ceiling of the ice cave before pulling onto a long pitch of verticle and overhanging ice. Amazing exposure, an absolute must climb.



Climbing out the ceiling of the ice cave on Whiteman Falls.

We opted for a rest day to refuel and refresh for an attempt on Curtain Call the next day. Curtain Call saw several ascents this season with reports of soft spring ice. Emboldened by our experience on Whiteman Falls we went for it. Unfortunately temperatures dropped 40 degrees over the 24 hours before our attempt. We found extremely fragile chandy ice, not soft spring ice. The lone line that had ice stable enough to be reasonable had multiple contraction fractures thorugh the pillar. In retrospect we would have been better off going a day earlier when it was more plastic. Disappointing to miss our opportunity but definately on the tick list for next year.

Curtain Call