When the cold weather hits, there are some who hide indoors, shivering until spring arrives. But then there are the intrepid few who are busy sharpening their tools, pulling on their ice climbing boots and attaching their crampons, overjoyed at the thought of the challenging ice-filled adventures soon to be had. So let’s be honest – when it comes to a challenge, I’m always up for new thrills, and ice climbing can’t be beat!
When I think of climbing a frozen waterfall on a cold crag, it’s just me, my harness, my crampons, and my ice tools gazing upwards at a mountain – or rather a river – of frozen water (and of course my heated gloves, heated socks and heated insoles – LOL!) Yikes, my heart is beating! I think to myself, can I do this? Because for me, it’s truly a solo adventure, where the challenge is me-against-myself. I hesitate, and then from below – as if he’s reading my mind – I hear Pete shout, “Shut up and climb!”
Ice climbing has to be the best winter sport ever in Ontario, and it’s close to home at that. Imagine me standing at the base of a wall of ice looming upwards, as high as two hundred feet! I take the first swing with my tool, and feel it settle solidly into the ice with a “thank goodness” THUNK! Now it’s time climb – I kick in my crampons hard, keeping my toes pointed upwards, and I feel the adrenaline hit me, pushing my body to the limit. I put all my heart into my climbs, and when I reach the top, I’m tired but satisfied – I did it!
When I think of climbing a frozen waterfall on a cold crag, it’s just me, my harness, my crampons, and my ice tools gazing upwards at a mountain – or rather a river – of frozen water (and of course my heated gloves, heated socks and heated insoles – LOL!) Yikes, my heart is beating! I think to myself, can I do this? Because for me, it’s truly a solo adventure, where the challenge is me-against-myself. I hesitate, and then from below – as if he’s reading my mind – I hear Pete shout, “Shut up and climb!”
Ice climbing has to be the best winter sport ever in Ontario, and it’s close to home at that. Imagine me standing at the base of a wall of ice looming upwards, as high as two hundred feet! I take the first swing with my tool, and feel it settle solidly into the ice with a “thank goodness” THUNK! Now it’s time climb – I kick in my crampons hard, keeping my toes pointed upwards, and I feel the adrenaline hit me, pushing my body to the limit. I put all my heart into my climbs, and when I reach the top, I’m tired but satisfied – I did it!
Debbie Fowler at Tiffany Falls, Hamilton, Ontario. Photo Credit: Peter Zabrok
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Bancroft, Ontario is the focal point of ice climbing, and where I first started at the Southern Ontario Ice Festival. Here in town, you’ll find famous climbs at Eagle’s Nest like Rollercoaster and, for us, the yet-to-be-conquered Dirty Harry. Bancroft offers consistently good ice conditions because it’s far enough north – you blokes in Tasmania will need to think about this – with beautiful hikes to some of the best natural groundwater icefalls like Bow Lake and Papineau Roadside. Bow Lake is home to some steep WI4-5 vertical ice – demanding, though I persevered. Papineau is short but steep, and a great place to learn and practise your technique. Sometimes our “alpine starts” at the crack of noon result in an extended nighttime ice session – a cold and crisp Canadian evening, with thousands of twinkling stars filling the sky, and bright moonlight to guide us back through the darkness.
Diamond Lake, though, is the centrepiece - the hub of Bancroft ice climbing - and my favourite location due to the variety of climbs. Here we hike across the flat frozen lake with spectacular scenery to set up our ropes on a crag rising straight above, resplendent in the sunshine and sometimes almost even warm. This year I climbed Guardian Angel – a fun steep WI4 climb that had me well pumped by the top – the Guardian Angel herself must have been watching over me that day. And it was quite the surprise to run into Matt Westlake here, a fellow Common Climber – it’s a small world, eh? |
When you go climbing with Dr. Piton (Debbie's partner in climb), you should always bring your headlamp!
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ABOVE: click on each photo to read caption and see each photo enlarged
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This January we visited the North Bay area – farther north still – and climbed at Idol Verte near Powassan. A 2.5-km hike through the frozen forest brings you to a challenging crag with enough WI4 and WI5 climbs to easily destroy your hands and forearms. We climbed in temperatures of -20C (-4F), and even my heated socks and gloves weren’t keeping me warm enough that day! My hands were screaming, and it seemed like I was on the climb forever, wasting energy while trying to swing my tools and get them to stick into the cold hard ice. We spent two exciting days here, thanks to our local rope-gun Artur.
Right here at home in Hamilton, Ontario, we have a huge collection of waterfalls which tumble over the Niagara Escarpment. They rarely freeze this far south, but this past month, we were blessed by a polar vortex hovering overhead that kept temperatures well below seasonal. All sorts of urban ice came into nick for the first time in years. At Bronte Creek in Oakville, we climbed a hundred-foot (30m) icefall cascading down crumbling chossy red shale. We also joined a nearby group of Hosers who had come into the woods to build a campfire and drink some beers – a Canadian wintertime tradition. At Tiffany Falls in Ancaster, we climbed fifty feet (15m) of vertical urban ice for the gawking tourons, who would occasionally approach us too closely, and have to be warned off due to the falling ice dislodged by our tool placements. We’ve also climbed locally this winter at Felker’s Falls and at Ball’s Falls where Petie (partner Peter Zabrok aka. Dr. Piton) climbed a sinister and steep, seemingly-detached pillar. |
Artur powering up the WI5 icicle at Powassan.
Photo Credit: Debbie Fowler
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ABOVE: click on each photo to read caption and see each photo enlarged
But the best local climbing was probably our day at the Highway 403 icefall, directly above a busy urban freeway but tucked away in a mostly out-of-sight gully. This north-facing icefall is the steepest and most consistent icefall in the Hamilton area. Evidently someone spotted us and called the cops, so Petie climbed up to schmooze with them. Since we weren’t doing anything illegal, the local constabulary left us to our own devices and we continued climbing! Good ol’ Petie…
The polar vortex disappeared, along with all the local ice, and is about to be replaced by the March anomaly – double-digit Celsius temperatures for the next two weeks. So we made our final kick at the cat in mid-March back up north with Artur. We climbed the two Ontario ultra-classics – the Snake at Restoule, and Ice-olation at Mill Lake near Parry Sound. These routes aren’t the steepest we climbed this season, by they are the longest and probably our favourites! The season will continue even longer up in Algoma to the east of Lake Superior, where our final day of ice climbing last season was May 8th.
The polar vortex disappeared, along with all the local ice, and is about to be replaced by the March anomaly – double-digit Celsius temperatures for the next two weeks. So we made our final kick at the cat in mid-March back up north with Artur. We climbed the two Ontario ultra-classics – the Snake at Restoule, and Ice-olation at Mill Lake near Parry Sound. These routes aren’t the steepest we climbed this season, by they are the longest and probably our favourites! The season will continue even longer up in Algoma to the east of Lake Superior, where our final day of ice climbing last season was May 8th.
ABOVE: click on each photo to read caption and see each photo enlarged
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Ice climbing is a great sport for the young and old [ahem], and we’ve been fortunate to meet up with lots of new partners this winter. So cheers to an early spring, and hopefully we’ll be rock climbing next week!
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Author Debbie Fowler and partner-in-climb Peter Zabrok.
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