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| Type: | Ice, 600 ft (182 m), 7 pitches, Grade III |
| FA: | Luka Bogdanovic & Shawn White, March 21, 2021 |
| Page Views: | 746 total · 20/month |
| Shared By: | Luka Bogdanovic on Mar 23, 2021 |
| Admins: | Dave Rone, Tom Jones, Richard Rose |
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Description
Named for the epic journey Odysseus took across the sea, this classic route of rambling ice interspersed with some beautiful shorter pitches is a unique adventure with an approach that might feel like crossing a (frozen) sea. See approach section for details.
- P1 (WI3) 10m: Begin with the obvious 10 meter step of WI3 ice and then ramble up easy WI2/3 steps of no more than 3 meters each.
- P2 (WI3+) 20m: Climb a beautiful narrow pitch of ice that tops out to a nice ledge with good ice to belay from.
- P3 (WI2) 40m: A few short easy steps take you to the base of the next pitch which curves around a rock outcrop.
- P4 (WI3) 40m: Climb up 10 or so meters to a nice ledge, and then continue on up through some cool features that break up the ice including a split boulder in the middle of the pitch. Belay on the flat ledge.
- P5 (WI4) 20m: The money pitch! Climb ice that is steeper than it looks to a large ledge.
- P6 (W4-) 20m: Another pitch slightly easier than the last one gets you to what should probably be the end of this Type 1 Fun adventure. If you enjoy slogging uphill for that extra pitch of ice continue to...
- P7 (WI4) 50m: About 20 minutes of slogging up the drainage you will come to an incredible headwall cut through the side of the canyon that looks like it should hold an amazing final pitch. Sadly it was completely dry. If you look to your right you will see another pitch of ice about 100m and 20 minutes up the gully that forks right. About 20 meters of easy WI2 gets you to a 10 meter step of steep hanging curtains, then eases off again. We soloed up to the steep part and belayed from a tiny cave on the right. Probably best to just belay from the beginning and take it to the top which is a cool flat ice ledge inside a cave.
Location
Park at the lower roadside Lake Minnewanka viewpoint right before the bridge, bring the bikes down to the lake and feel the terrifying thrill of ripping across perfectly flat ice with nothing but inertia keeping you upright (or not, I bailed hard off my bike 4 times).
About an hour of biking with occasional stops got us to the base of the drainage (51.2600, -115.3485). From the drainage simply follow it straight up for 15 mins to the first step/pitch. 1 hour 15 mins from the car on bikes. It is possible to do this on foot, just miserable. You also need the lake to be snow covered or have micro spikes,
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