Urs Hole

What do you do when you find yourself very jet-lagged but unexpectedly available on a sunny Friday in November? Go ice-climbing obviously! Upon our return from overseas adventures, it didn't take us long to embrace the Canadian winter that had arrived while we were away. Urs Hole was a perfect early season objective thanks to the short approach and mellow grade (WI2). The 5 pitch route meanders its way up a deep canyon that collects the avalanche debris from Cascade Mountain's huge alpine bowls. As a result, it is only really climbed in the early season before much snow has fallen. With this years early ice formation and low snow in the alpine, it was a good opportunity to give this gem a go.

Looking up the drainage from the parking area

 We got up at the crack of 7:30 to be at the trailhead for about 10 am. Weekday climbing is so relaxing. From the parking area at the base of the drainage, you could see the first pitch so we knew that there was going to be ice up there. It was an easy 15 minute approach up the riverbed. The route follows the most obvious canyon on the mountain so its hard to get lost!

Approach ice

We strapped on our crampons and shook the dust off our ice tools as we kicked our way up the short steps of approach ice. The sun was warm and the snow was starting to melt, causing some minor rockfall on the scree slopes beside the start of the route. As we moved into the canyon, the air got colder but it was definitely early season ice. Care had to be taken on the delicate flow and you had to watch out for rocks lurking under the ice.

The first pitch was short and steep. Kyle climbed up around the corner and up a second step before belaying from below a low angle pitch. I took the lead from there and we continued up the shady canyon. There were a few holes in the ice that you wouldn't want to fall through, but they were easy enough to pick our way around.

Kyle starts up the first pitch

 The first real obstacle was our 3rd pitch, a pillar of steep, aerated ice. Kyle delicately picked his way up as I belayed from a cave full of icicles. We were feeling a bit uncomfortable as the sun-warmed slopes above us had started to rain rocks down into the canyon. We wanted to keep moving quickly to get up and down before it got much hotter.

Tricky climbing for WI2

Ice formations in the back of the cave

 Beyond that, we came across a big chunk of snow that we had to squeeze underneath. Our 4th pitch lay beyond. It was starting to get wetter with water running down the next pitch.

Tunneling under the piece of glacier

A bit wet

 It was already noon when we got to the top of our 4th pitch. Concerned about the overhead hazard, we opted to start heading down, but not before checking out how much farther we had to go. We left the rope at the station and scurried up one more section of ice before we encountered a thin, wet pitch that neither of us were too worried about missing out on. I think that the final WI3 and WI5 pitches would be just above this. So, we didn't top out on the route but were pretty happy with the climbing that we had done, especially considering we had just got off a plane 48 hrs earlier!

Soloing up the canyon

Our turn-around point

Ice is getting thin!

 There are bolted rappel stations at the top of each of the main pitches, and a 70 metre rope was just long enough to get us down the longest rappel (2nd to last). We descended quickly into the valley and cruised back down the ravine to the car and some lunch.

Beautiful day to be out in the mountains

Rappelling back to the car

Sometimes, its not about getting to the top of a climb, its just about getting outside and having a fun day. I can't think of a better way to spend a sunny Friday than out in the mountains with Kyle! Urs Hole will be there for us when we go back to explore it in its entirety.