Waterfall Ice Climbing

Icefall Brook and Icefall Canyon offers possibly the best waterfall ice climbing destination in the world. Since the first trip into the area in 1993, every party that has made the journey has raved about the ice climbing. A 2 km long, horseshoe shaped canyon with waterfall ice on all sides. There are about 20 established routes with many unclimbed lines and unlimited mixed climbing potential. The climbs are up to 600m long. "It's easily the Rockies best ice climbing venue, especially for WI 5 and 6..." Jon Walsh after a recent trip to Icefall Canyon.

The Climbs:

I will update this in the future, and hope to have an up to date online guidebook of the canyon. Please send any new route information and pictures. See Gravsports or Ines Papert for recent trip reports.

 

Communication:

Icefall Lodge has a radio repeater which provides communication between the hut and the canyon. If you are climbing in the canyon and would like to have a radio check in please arrange this ahead of time. Satellite phone coverage in the canyon is spotty, but does work.

Guiding:

Have Icefall arrange transportation, accommodation, food and guiding for you. Costs vary with the number of people, length of stay and transportation options. A sample trip of 6 days for 2 people with snowmobile transportation, food and accommodation would cost $1820/ person; $2520 with helicopter.

Accommodation:

Icefall Lodge is 4 km and up a side valley from the canyon. Parties may want to camp in the canyon, and come up to the lodge occasionally for a shower and sauna.

One party has bivied in the "Stinking Shoes" cave which they reported was warm and dry. They said the entrance was difficult to find and they were familiar with it from a summer trip.

Access:

The remote location, 90km up the Bush River logging road, has deterred most parties so far.

The easy answer is to take a helicopter and land in the canyon with comfortable camping gear, minutes from the climbs. A flight from Golden costs about $900 for an A-Star. This will seat 5, but 3 or 4 is a more realistic number with gear. Flying both ways with 3 people will cost $1800, or $600/ person. Contact Canadian Helicopters at 250-344-5311 to schedule a flight.

Icefall Lodge does it's exchange for ski weeks on Saturday. You can reduce your helicopter bill slightly by flying on Saturday when the helicopter is already in Donald. This is slightly closer than Golden and a flight from here will cost about $800. Call Icefall Lodge to coordinate this. The normal exchange time is 11 am.

The more complicated, but less expensive option is to drive, snowmobile and ski up the logging roads. The directions for summer access are as follows:

From Golden go west 20 km on the Trans Canada Highway. From there you take the Bush River forestry road at Donald, which is west of the vehicle inspection station and east of the Columbia River. From Donald you take the bush road to km 61 where there is a fork, take the right hand fork (staying on the south side of Bush River). Just past km 68 you turn right on the Valenciennes Road . The km start over at 0 again here. This road climbs steeply at first and then levels out and follows the Valenciennes River until Icefall Brook is reached (km 13 on the Valenciennes road) Here you turn left on the Mons Creek road until the parking area is reached, just past km 23 on the Mons road.

The more of this you can drive, the easier a trip you will have. The road is normally cleared to the turnoff at km 61. If this is the case you can drive that far, make sure you park off of the road. There are a couple of avalanche paths that cross the road at km 54 and will close the road if they run. The road will eventually be cleared, but until then the road is closed and your vehicle may be on the wrong side of the debris. A big snowfall can also close the road. A four wheel drive vehicle with good clearance, good winter tires and chains is recommended.

After you park your vehicle and start snowmobiling, there is a section from km 3-5 on the Vallenciennes that often has avalanche debris. Bring a heavy steel shovel to shovel through the debris. It can take 1-2 hours to shovel a path for your snowmobile through the debris. These avalanche paths are south facing and normally run during warm cycles and often not until the spring. From here there is usually no problem getting to the end of the road at km 23.

For snowmobiling, a toboggan to tow behind with all your gear is useful. It will depend on snow conditions, and how packed out the road is from other sled as to how easy travel will be. In good conditions, you can tow 2 people on skis and a toboggan with one snowmobile. It is better to have 2 snowmobiles as a backup in case of breakdown.

Icefall Lodge has a snowmobile which staff sometimes use to get near the lodge. if you don't have one, I may be able to arrange for you to be towed in from km 61. The cost of this will depend a bit on where the snowmobile is coming from and other logistics. Usually around $300. Enquire about dates.