On the road at 5am yesterday morning headed north and the road was seriously icy for the first 10 miles or so. The traffic was WAY worse than on Saturday but it still took me the same time to get to Colville. I stopped and picked Art up and we were headed west over the pass.
The rains had cleared the road pretty nicely and it was clear and sunny as we climbed the east side of the pass.
We dropped down the west side towards Republic and into the pea soup fog/clouds.
7:30 we got to the trailhead and got ourselves ready.
The state of the falls after the days of rain.
8:30 we were at the base. There was actively flowing water on the right side and a fair amount of the surface ice was gone. It was way harder than on Saturday when the ice was nice and soft.
I got myself geared up and tied into the ropes then climbed to the base of the ice.
I started up the ice and got my first screw in and clipped. I got to a spot where I put in my second screw and my arms were burning and my calves were on fire.
I got the 3rd screw in then had Art lower me back to the bottom. As I tried to swing the axes over my head my arms were like lead weights and my calves were so sore. I sat at the bottom still tied in and drank a beer and shook out my arms and legs.
So after the break I felt ready to go and I hauled ass back up the ice to my high point. From there I charged my way up the ice and after cresting the edge the ice angle lowered a lot and I made my way to the pine tree for the belay.
This was at the tree belay and the view of the upper level of ice.
We only had the 2 tech tools so I dropped them to Art at the base then belayed him as he climbed and cleaned the pitch.
The fog began to clear mid morning and began to give us great views of the surrounding area.
He crested the edge of the falls and was soon making his way to the belay.
After a rerack Art was off on the lead for the second pitch.
It wasn't a long section but it was really nice in the small vertical section. The ice was only a little shaky right at the top where it began to pancake off but the underlying ice was still good.
After Art dropped the tools back down to me I made my way up and cleaned the screws as I went. For the belay he had put in 2 ice screws which we weren't going to leave to get down. So we cut out a bollard in the ice to use as our anchor.
Looking down from the upper anchor.
And looking up from the anchor. There wasn't a lot of ice above, a least not enough to make us go higher.
This is what Art rappelled off of. The rope ran around the large chunk of ice and he had an ice screw clipped on for safety. He weighs more than me so went down first. I then pulled the ice screw and rappelled down to the tree on just the ice bollard.
The whole rap down I was repeating to myself, "smooth feed, no bounces" as I tried to let the ropes feed as smoothly as possible through the atc.
This was a lifelong desire of mine, to climb ice, and it's been decades since Art has. It's taken us 30 years to finally climb ice together.
This was the view looking down the lower section of the falls. I can say for sure that this route was WI3 which is pretty crazy to do for my first lead and climb.
From the tree the rap to the base was much easier and I hit the base quickly. Art then rapped down and hit the base shortly after 1pm. The sun never did hit the falls but the warm temps made everything softer.
One last look up before we headed for the truck.
Post holing to get down to the creek then up to the trail. Thankfully the creek was still frozen enough we could walk across without breaking through, despite the water flowing over the surface.
Not sure how long it will stay especially with the 50F+ temps the next week. I'd love to go climb it one more time this year but we may not get to...
10 minutes to the truck.... BEST WINTER APPROACH EVER!
Left our escaped in the trail use box.
We got packed up after hanging for a bit then drove south into the Colville Reservation and HOLY SHIT IS THERE INSANE ICE AND ROCK!
This SICK ice line formed in a shitty year like this, in a good year that thing must be insane! Easily 4 pitches as is....
There is so much in the canyon it's crazy.
This wall with numerous lice lines!
We headed back north and scoured the walls for more ice as we went. Eventually we made it back to the curtain and stopped on the side of the road for better pics.
THIS!!! Seriously holy shit! 150 ft tall wall of ice that is mostly vertical and has a big cave at the base. I can't stop thinking about it. The number of lines just on the one wall would easily be over 10. In a good year the entire thing may touch the ground but as is it looks like it could be dry tooling to get to the hanging ice.... We have lots of research to do on who owns it and access for next year.
It was 4pm when I dropped Art off at home and then headed for home myself.
Quartzite it thawed now and looks like it needs to be flown again. Parker is melted off as well as Inkler's so hopefully the winds cooperate soon so I can go flying.
I got home about 5:15 and thankfully @stryeyz took R to practice. Super sore is what my body felt but my head is still glowing. I slept a good bit longer last night but am still pretty worked this morning.
I'll get the boys to school soon, get my climb vids hacked together then uploaded, PDC is on mid day, The printer will get going soon, the tiller needs to be prepped for work, I'll pick the boys up after STEM, then get the trailer hooked up for grain run tomorrow morning.
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| 2025 Y/E Hive Goals | Yr Start | Goal | Current | +/- Goal | +/Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HP | 30,013 | 36,500 | 31,151 | +134 | 113 |
| HBD Savings | 4,024 | 5,500 | 4,323 | / | 18 |
| Hive Posting Streak Days (since 5/25/20) | 1681 | 2,047 | 1,739 | / | 5 |
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Wow! That was an amazing climb, you are strong and skilled, ice climbing looks challenging.
I've been a rock climber for 30+ years so am used to the climbing, the ice was the new part for me.
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Nostr#proofofshare
Just simply awesome my friend!💪🤗
Beautiful country what a massive froze waterfall !😊
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