Ascents in The Ghost

Had a lot of fun. Deep in the zone, I felt like a painter, meticulously applying stroke after stroke on what must have been well over an hour-long lead.

Never pumped or scared, just playing a beautiful game of problem solving that fresh ice of this grade requires.

Likely the first ascent since the last freeze, I got pillars, mushrooms on mushrooms, huge ‘how’s it going’ onion skins and a maze of icicles. 10/10 day - got the car stuck only 3 times!

Beautiful route on some spicy ice. First time on WI5 ice and can feel it makes a big difference! Half the adventure coming up here is the approach - had to dig the car our several times and get a tow, but all worth it.

Some time past midnight, the glow of a thousand suns heralded the arrival of a very polite Canadian in a very lifted 4Runner. Just out for his nightly stroll, our saviour paused to take in the scene: three hypothermic Australians, two bent shovels, one tent pitched shamelessly across the road and zero hope of ever making it to the highway.

Cracking his window with a very "oh awesome, I get to rescue people again!" smile, Shaun declared us "stuck", which was reassuring, lest I had begun hallucinating by this point and we were actually in a hot tub in Banff.

A bright red kinetic strap swiftly replaced our tent, and with the smell of "give 'er" and gasoline, my Ford Explorer lurched forward, becoming a humble (and rather inefficient) snowplough for the remaining five kilometres to the road.

What usually takes 1.5 hours to drive from Canmore, with a similar walk to the route...

...took us 4 hours driving (digging) from Canmore, another 3 hours postholing in thigh-deep windslab to the route, 3 hours of flailing back to the flailing car and an absolutely marathon 7 hours to drive home.

I think we also climbed some ice.

A few weeks ago.

Cool that I rock-paper-scizzored my way into the first (money) pitch. Would rap after that in the future as the rest gets rambly.

Dry but cold. Can't win them all. Barfies.

A slightly aborted (and scary) first go when I absolutely welded a draw to my right crampon... attatching that foot to the ice by what must surely be multi-kilonewton forces.

After some thankfully unphotographed scenes, I tied in at the base again and had a great time in the sun for a first 5.

Leading first pitch (WI4)

The real albatross is not seagull…

Rested on screw thinking this was Albatross and a grade easier. Hectic waterboarding sans hardshell.

Broke hold from corner or chockstone, top of pitch 1. All clean, otherwise…

What a dream route! From the ground we decided to attack the start of the steep stuff from the right however this turned out to be both aerated and brittle making it hard to protect and insecure to climb. We almost bailed however checked out the left side first which although wasn't much better, Nolan managed to do an amazing job leading through. We were rewarded with some of the most sustained and beautiful WI5 climbing in a beautiful setting. Pretty special. Will remember this one for a while

Shared leads - I led crux. Long rambly route.

Pretty thin lower curtain, then went for an adventure in the bowls above.