Great White Icicle - July

[Don]

I found these photos on a flash card and realized I never posted them here. Josh, Cody and I descended the Great White Icicle back in July. I'm sure I wrote down the date, but I'm not sure where my notebook is. It was the 3rd weekend if I remember right. I guess this isn't much of a TR, but here are some cool pictures.

[adamsco]

It was Pioneer Day. Good times, cool pictures.

[qedcook]

We descended it on the 26th, two days after, and the middle 2 bolt rappels had absolutely no gear on them. Forgot to bring webbing???

[Don]

I don't remember exactly how we used each anchor and it's possible we used different anchors; seems like there were bolts everywhere.
We did cut and carry out some old webbing on a few bolts. The first picture below shows the best I have of the platform where we had lunch. The arrow on the right points to the anchor seen in pictures above where Josh is belaying shirtless. The arrow on the left points out to where the second, newer, anchor would be if it could be seen behind the outcropping rock in the photo. I know we left both of those bare.
The water flow through the chute right there made us nervous and after a quick look around we found yet another bolt (pair, with chains) just below the platform. It had an awkward transition from one wall to another but it was fun and put us right back into the water below the chute.

Speaking of cutting and cleaning; I forgot to tell about a fun part of our descent; cleaning up the canyon. At and above the platform, but on the west side of the water flow there were 3 ropes hung up in the trees. One was above the platform and can be seen (circled in red) in the second photo below of Cody descending past it on his way to the platform where I was taking the picture. It was all tangled up in the brush. The other two were tied to each other, anchored to a tree (I think, I didn't actually see the anchor over there as I belayed Josh when he went over, but I'm pretty sure it was a tree) and dangling down canyon through the chute. They were badly tangled up on yet another little tree halfway down and we really had to work to get them loose. Whatever they were anchored on; it was weird and awkward; the anchor was west of the water, up in the trees so the ropes had to go east from the anchor and make a 90 degree turn around the base of a tree to go north down canyon. In the third photo below you can see these two ropes as we found them; I have marked the 90 degree turn with an arrow and the letter A, the letter B is just showing the best place to see that there are 2 ropes hanging there because the darker one is hard to see. With that 90 degree turn I don't know how it would be possible to pull the ropes once down them. I really didn

[ratagonia]

Speaking of cutting and cleaning; I forgot to tell about a fun part of our descent; cleaning up the canyon.

Good job with that. Thanks Don and crew.

T

[Brian in SLC]

I don't remember exactly how we used each anchor and it's possible we used different anchors; seems like there were bolts everywhere.
We did cut and carry out some old webbing on a few bolts. The first picture below shows the best I have of the platform where we had lunch. The arrow on the right points to the anchor seen in pictures above where Josh is belaying shirtless. The arrow on the left points out to where the second, newer, anchor would be if it could be seen behind the outcropping rock in the photo. I know we left both of those bare.
The water flow through the chute right there made us nervous and after a quick look around we found yet another bolt (pair, with chains) just below the platform. It had an awkward transition from one wall to another but it was fun and put us right back into the water below the chute.

Helps to remember that this "route" is done WAY more often (and historically has been done) as an ice climbing route. A very very popular ice climbing route.

Anchors have come and go from time to time. The standard rappel from what's known on the ice route as the "bulge pitch" is to go behind your partner to the left hand most set of anchors, which, folks don't really use to facilitate a rappel (the left hand anchor you have marked with an arrow). Folks usually down climb to another set of anchors, maybe the one outside the water chute you noticed (although I think that's the lower of a pair of anchors with another set of chained anchors above that). Avoids any ice chunks or avalanches coming down the chute.

Climbers kinda went through a chopping and redrilling of sorts with the local self appointed anchor police and its been a bit of a mess as of late. Then the rock fall happened last spring and some of the anchors got wiped out and some buried. Its partly why you see some anchors high on the climber's right as you're at the final rappel station (used to be a stance and boulder below that spot).

Then you add in all the canyon folks who have to set their own anchors, and, the place has turned into a bolt garden of sorts. Its a route I've always been nervous about as far as a canyon gig. The anchors in the canyon have been historically much used for the ice climb and their location won't make as much sense if you don't consider that. Adding new stations might be really hazardous to climbers as this route sees a ton of newby ice climbers who'd clip any anchor in sight for pro or a belay without as much thought to falling ice (or being in line for such).

Usually, its more common to top out the ice climb and walk down, but, with the high traffic, TR and rappel anchors kinda help the herds of folks get on and off quickly.

Mayor Ted's short report on the FA of the Great White Icicle below (from the Utah climbers website fairly recently).

Nice pictures. Neat to see a different perspective than in winter. I usually do the icicle as a climb several times a season (for over 23 seasons) but only once as a canyon gig.

Cheers,

-Brian in SLC

Ted wrote:

Rick Reese and I climbed the icicle in 1962. The first ascent I know of. We had done some glacier walking on Mt. Rainier and other places but only had 10 point crampons with no front points. I got inspired reading some old books on climbing ice in the Alps where the climbers chopped hundreds of steps. However, that was on neve' and glacial ice and I did not realize that vertical water ice was a far different beast. So we left early one morning with our 10 pointers, a couple of ice pitons that would hardly drive into hard snow, a few scratchy pitons, and lots of innocence. 11 hours later, we topped out on the icicle. We had giant army ice axes and no other tool. Every bit was chopped except for the easy bits between the pitches. Chopping on vertical ice is a hoot. Try to balance on the vertical while chopping above your head. One technique I developed was to drive one of the ice pitons in an inch or so and use it for a handhold while I chopped with the other hand. The other problem was protection. We used our rock pitons in the walls on the side and in a couple of places chopped down through the ice to place them in cracks. Obviously, what we were doing was far above our heads and equipment. But it was also one hell of an adventure. It was also pretty safe. Most of our moves were pretty well protected but placing the pitons was what took so long. I still have that old axe hanging in my garage. I sometimes look at it and wonder how I got through those early years of climbing. But, you know, we could make a big adventure out of almost anything. I went back to icicle years later with my ice tools. I was with a superior ice climber and we climbed the thing in less than an hour or so. It was really fun, but not much of an adventure. I even had the ice pick holes of others to place my tools in and didn't need to swing much. That's the problem. In modern climbing we tend to kill adventure with technology. So we have to climb faster, bigger, crazzier, whatever to create adventure. In the old days, we were so incompetent and the rocks so big anything could really excite us. My hell, I am starting to sound so old. Please forgive me.