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atchafalaya
Trad climber
California
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 7, 2006 - 05:57pm PT
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If this TR doesnt make you cry, nothing will. But, trying to post on climbing stuff, and avoid the political threads.
So, been ice climbing around Truckee for years. The toughest part about being a tahoe ice climber, is actually finding ice. Yea, its out there, but our version on Donner Summit usually involves only a couple inches, and mad dashes to get on anything formed up.
One of the most (in)consistent lines, is usually up whenever its been cold in sacramento. Saturday morning, I am up early, and headed up to see if theres ice, or if it will be a day of dragging my pack and gear around the summit looking for drips...
First stop, and our line is in stellar condition. Maybe 90 feet of WI3 on TR, WI5 on lead. No takers for the lead, which would have involved an inch or two over running water without pro... All of us had led it before in similar conditions, and noone was gunning for the solo
Heres our line on a previous fat year...
Heres our line last saturday...
We each ran about three laps on it...
Until it looked like this...
Dont get me wrong, I am not saying Cali ice sucks, just that Tahoe ice is "different". As shown by this picture from down south...
Anyone else have any tahoe ice shots or stories?
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Mick K
climber
Northern Sierra
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Does it actaully have to be frozen to be called ice climbing?
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AP
Trad climber
Calgary
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Come to Canada for ice, however I would trade all of our ice for a longer rock season and some of your stellar granite
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Standing Strong
Boulder climber
everything i own in a box to the left
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nice tr/good shots
three thoughts:
1. sweet!
2. dude!
3. whoa!
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Mr_T
Trad climber
Somewhere, CA
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Rainbow is much better lead in the summer months.
As for Tahoe Ice - I do not recommend Tahoe ice past February. It's usually too warm in March. Here's why:
In March of 2004 I watched the free standing pillar at Sunny Falls (Eagle Lakes) collapse. People had been TR'ing it all day. Some guy remarked slyly "oh, it's solid". A few hours after he said that (and not too long before we were gonna give it a go) we hear crack, and then boom, it breaks about 1/3 of the way up, and then *rolls* down the hillside. Yes, the upper 2/3 of the climb we were going to do, rolled down the hillside. Looked like a snow-cat had put in groomers up to the base of the cliff. Had it landed on or rolled over you it would have severely-messed/probably-killed you.
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Mick K
climber
Northern Sierra
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Gotta love tahoe ice. Climb the ice in the morning until it falls off and then climb the rock underneath in the afternoon.
I have climbed ice on Donner Peak into May some years.
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10b4me
Trad climber
California
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what abot coldstream canyon
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rhyang
Ice climber
SJC
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Last winter I went in search of it, but my timing was continually off. Went up to Lake Audrain, but the ice there was covered with several feet of new snow.
I looked up at the Carson Spur a few times, but AFAIK that is off-limits. Saw the lines on the Red Cliffs ... can't recall why that didn't work out.
I kept wanting to check out South Tahoe, but every time it seemed like 89 through there was closed (long ski in).
Some folks invited me to go check out Coldstream Canyon, but it had just snowed and probably there would have been way more time spent on the approach than climbing, so I went to Lee Vining instead.
Here's a buddy's pic of Coldstream in 2004 :
The best ice climbing I did last year involved a plane ticket to Colorado :) I'd like to go to Cody this year maybe.
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atchafalaya
Trad climber
California
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 8, 2006 - 11:41am PT
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Coldstream is the best Tahoe has to offer (imo). Consistent, and great climbing. The approach keeps the crowds down, you can probably drive to it this year, since we lack snow. Second to coldstream is the Donner Nordwand, which is low angle but almost a full pitch when the snow isnt covering it. Then theres the indoor ice gym which is always good.
Anyone ever climb "Here today, gone in 60 seconds"? near squaw? The inertia tube? Cutty Sark? Sweet pic Rhyang...
Bailing ice climbing this weekend and heading to purgatory...
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Mick K
climber
Northern Sierra
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Ryang:
great pic
you must check out the tunnel and Donner Peak.
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rhyang
Ice climber
SJC
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I can't take credit for the pic - it was taken by Pavel Kovar (you might remember his name from Misha's trip report about their FA in the Sierra a bit ago). I just linked to one of his pics on summitpost.
I keep meaning to check out the tunnel - someone told me about bouldering in it. I read about the Nordwand a while back ...
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rhyang
Ice climber
SJC
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Dec 26, 2006 - 10:33am PT
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Saturday we headed up and had a look at Rainbow
It was a bit thin at the bottom and wet/delaminating towards the top. Probably quite "sporty" to lead.. The day wasn't all that cold, and we figured that if there was ice here, then there would surely be more near Emerald Bay. We headed down and hiked in.
Near the junction for Velma Lake we headed up a bit and took a gander at the Maggies Peak gullies
Looked like a lot of mixed / thin action. Not quite what we were looking for, so we went back down and walked along the shore of Eagle Lake. Sunny Falls looked to be partially in, but there was a party getting ready to climb it already.
We decided to settle for a short WI3 flow not far from the trail on the south side of the lake (north facing)
It appeared that it had been recently climbed - to the climber's right was a tree with a rap sling.
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Aya
Uncategorizable climber
New York
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Dec 26, 2006 - 10:37am PT
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Nice!!
Glad we're not the only ones scrounging for ice this year!
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rhyang
Ice climber
SJC
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Dec 26, 2006 - 11:11am PT
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No need to scrounge around for ice in Lee Vining Canyon - we climbed the Bard-Harrington Wall (fat !) on xmas eve (my first ice lead of the season) and I led my first mixed / thin ice climb on the Right Side yesterday. There were some fat lines in the center / left area of Chouinard Falls that we also TR'd. The Tree Route was still looking thin though - good practice. I was up there on the 9th and yesterday we were able to hook our old pick placements ...
Unfortunately the Main Wall wasn't in yet.
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mastadon
Trad climber
Seattle
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Dec 26, 2006 - 11:12am PT
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I hiked up to and in to "the tunnel" several weekends ago, when the temps were below zero, and nothing had formed up yet. The walls were running with water. Cool place, though. Might want to bring a Coleman lantern for lighting in some areas.
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426
Sport climber
Buzzard Point, TN
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Dec 26, 2006 - 02:18pm PT
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Maybe you can get Brian Biega to post some of his Donner pix sometime; those were the days.
...as one tahoe climber said (Nettles?), "the best piece of gear you can have is a fast ride..."
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mark miller
Social climber
Reno
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Dec 26, 2006 - 05:29pm PT
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The Ice at snowshed was brilliant, ( was that really 8 years ago?)Thanks for doing it back then. I wish I'd known of, or even just turned around and looked while on composure, goldilocks area looked excellent also. Any chance of some more farming in the future?
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426
Sport climber
Buzzard Point, TN
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Dec 27, 2006 - 09:00am PT
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yeah it was brilliant to pro molar and lead composure!
Let's not forget Dano's route on the east wall of the leap....what a monster, eh?
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ralph_teh_klimber
climber
ralph town
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Dec 27, 2006 - 02:42pm PT
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the worst thing about tahoe ice is the central valley/ bay area people hacking them up with their bad style and poor technique. i guess if you have expensive tools and an suv tho it is your right.
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