2011 Utah Ice Conditions thread

RonB wrote: I was under the impression there was WI3 to be had at Mary's Lake. The guide book also indicates this is so. Is it maybe the lower pitches on longer routes are WI3? If so, are there raps off? Or, should non WI4/5 climbers just stay away?

I think, typically, the bigger routes that come in consistantly there are steeper and more sustained than WI3. When they are in, the WI3 stuff can be pretty scary.

Ever seen Monty Python's Holy Grail? The scene with the rabbit? "Oh, he's just a cute little bunny rabbit. One rabbit stew, coming right up.". Note one of the route names is "Rabbit Stew".

Take care.

Brian in SLC wrote: ..."Rabbit Stew"...

Yeh, I've been on a few like that. Nothing like having 600 feet of thin and aerated "ice" and nothing to bail from to stew over. How do you spell soloing...

Hey RonB

you live about 20 min away from Strawberry Pinnacles.

how bout you take a quick drive up in there and let us know what the Strawberry Canyon ice is lookin' like. positive that its in fat. generally first ice in last ice out during utah's ice season.

From the Pinnacle Junction:

Head East-
@ ~0.5-mile Unnamed Rig
@ ~1.5-mile Lingley Rig
@ ~3.25-mile Spring Canyon amplitheathre chock-full of rigs. (your assignment is to make nice with homeowner tuck away in the amplitheathre.)

Head West-
@ ~2.7 miles Simmons Short Rig
@ ~3.5 Cicle of Carnage
@ ~5.0 miles (up timber canyon) Timber Canyon Cicle aka Excalibur

thanks man

bay wrote:Hey RonB...how bout you take a quick drive up in there and let us know what the Strawberry Canyon ice is lookin' like. man

Yeh, I was wondering if that area had ice. I drove through in summer. I'll see what I can do. (Got any coordinates?) Here are a couple shots of Provo Canyon today after crawling around on the lower curtain of STH.

you can zoom these a bit...

BVF

Looking for a partner for some late morning friday ice.

Any word on Santaquin? Specifically, Squash Head and Backoff...

So, here is what I found along Strawberry River Rd...

1st drip I came to east from Pinnacles

Mile or so east from Pinnacles and there was a canyon that appeared to have ice before or after this.

Smear in the woods just west from Pinnacles

Very interesting pitches in the woods west from Pinnacles just down Timber Valley Rd

You should be able to keep clicking on these until you can pan on them...

nice work RonB.

now you know what you have in your backyard.

Okay maybe the ice is not so fat this year. bummer.

the backyark ice in the second photo is lookin' sweet!

the "1st drip" photo (#1) aka Unnamed typically forms a nice tongue all the way down into the trees. requires a V-thread rap.

"pitches in the woods" photo aka Cicle of Carnage is a nice two pitch romp with various options on the first pitch ranging from M4 ice-up corner to WI5 pillar action. 3- on the upper pitch. tree raps.

mixed posibilities are there, but the rock is absolute crap.

strawberry has some good stuff. thanks for posting.

How tall is the pillar by the house?

It looks to be 100+ft Zozo, want to go.

yeah Sunny-D, when your finished with that backyard rig, head up into the timber canyon per directions posted above and fire the equally impressive excalibur pillar.

This is where my wife's family has their reunion every few years. Cool place. I'd imagine further up canyon there is even more. The cliffs are about 400' tall right at the pinnacles. You can drive in either direction in the canyon.

We floated the canyon in the little Sevelor boat and innertubes. Everything went well till we hit a spot where the canyon was fenced off for cattle. As we tried to get out we stirred up a bees nest, which pretty much sucked. But then, the mosquitoes found us and it turned into a true murder massacre. Everyone was freaking out with 20-40 bites each. It was hilarious except for the kids. That kind of sucked.

bay wrote:...strawberry has some good stuff...

And you say they get fatter...excellent! What's the access to "unnamed"? Just march across the field. The photo doesn't show it but the pillar hits the ground from what I could tell with the binos. What about getting across that river for the ones in the woods on forest land? I'm gonna do these even if I have to hangdog...

Climbed Miller's Thriller today. There was lots of water running and the ice was pretty aerated and inconsistent. Not a whole lot of screw placements that you can feel good about.

1st pitch

Middle bit with some strange formations and plenty of water

Towards the top of the 1st pitch

last pitch

Sunny-D wrote:It looks to be 100+ft Zozo, want to go.

Climbed that years ago...be darn careful with the private land. Its really hard to access. And, that home at the base of it...its posted no tresspassing last I checked.

Not sure if the falls itself is on private land, but, in nearly every direction down stream its fenced off.

I'll have to check my notes, but, I think the thing behind the house is only around 60-70 feet tall. Rock is shite.

bay, your "Cicle of Carnage" I've also heard referred to as "Dead Deer Falls"? Anyhoo, done that one a few times. Sometimes its long and big, other times, not so much.

I've never seen Excalibur in for the last bunch of years. I know when Matt H climbed it, it was pretty huge.

Heavy sigh...ha ha...

Thanks Brian for the info. I will definitely look closely before I go over there.
Dallen

RonB-

The access to "Unnamed" is across private property. we went in super stealth-mode the best we could circumnaviting the field avoiding the snow patches.

approach Dead Deer Falls ala southfork-style: garbage sack for each leg and wade across. Plenty of trees atop the first pitch to hang a TR on or fix a line to for some Soloist action.

Brian-

your right. "Dead Deer Falls" was the name passed onto Scott Sh years back. Back in '98 the route was stained red from a freshly mangled dear found at the base of the 1st pitch. once at the top of the climb, it was clear that a mountain lion was in the process of dragging/bludgeoning/eating its kill when it apparently lost control of the situation to the ice that lurked beneath the thin layer of snow. hiked back to the car with a tool in each hand...

yeah, back in '00, showed Scott S the unclimbed Excalibur pillar as darkness was falling upon us. unbeknownst, he returned the following weekend with Matt H for the FA poach-job... whatever... yeah, that was the only year i've seen that pillar "protectable". coupla times i've seen it in Sunny-D conditions:)

Sunny-D

the "homeowner" has some photos tagged on google earth. might be able to contact him through his Panoramio account.

RonB wrote:So, here is what I found along Strawberry River Rd... You should be able to keep clicking on these until you can pan on them...

hay i was wondering where exactly this is?

Hunter Enochs wrote:Looking for a partner for some late morning friday ice.

oh bumber i should of checked this i would of climbed with you instead i did an on line driver corse next time i wont make that mistake. give me a call. 801 244 3711 dan

"I know when Matt H climbed it, it was pretty huge."

I was climbing with Matt a lot that winter....he dragged me up some awesome routes...including the rarely formed Spear of Fear in Joe's.

Anyway...I remember him saying that pillar was pretty cool...and have looked at it for years since.