Here's a set of pictures from last weekend. I guess you could say that it's a typical day of "fun" out here in the mountains.
My Japanese partner, Junya and I decided to check out some gullies coming off of a local mountain. After a 5 minute drive to the trailhead, we continued up a frozen stream for about 1.5hrs until we started up a gully which split the north east face of the mountain. After about 30 minutes of steep hiking, the snow beneath us transitioned into ice at which point we put on our crampons. Another 10 minutes brought us to a short vertical curtain.
The curtain was around 5m high and was fairly easy to climb without protection.
After topping out, we were faced with another vertical section which was also around 5m high. It was a little steeper than the first section but we continued to free climb it without placing any gear.
Topping out the second section brought us to an interesting area which resembled an ice cavern.
Junya and I could've spent an hour taking pictures and playing with the ice but we wanted to see what was above us. He decided to lead this pitch while I agreed to lead the following pitch.
Unfortunately, this seemed to mark the end of this waterfall. The remaining 30 to 40m of ice was very low angled and it ended at the base of a large bowl filled with snow! Not the best place to be during avalanche season. Because of this, we decided to rappel down ASAP.
Finally, here I am in front of a another large ice curtain at the bottom. As you can see, I'm lovin' it out here!
