News Blog

15th Sep 2008

Ian Parnell Canadian Ice Tour

Earlier this year Arcteryx athlete Ian Parnell headed out to the Canadian Rockies with Nick Bullock to test himself against some of the big classic mixed and ice routes there. Ian been going well in Scotland during the winter and was intrigued to see how the big Canadian routes compared.
 

Stanley Headwall is one of the world's premier mixed climbing crags, guarded by a 2 hour slog on skis we had this whole cliff to ourselves throughout our trip.

Our "warm up" route was French Reality (M6 WI6). Here I'm picking my way up thin ice on the early pitches before some steep laybacking led to huge pillars of vertical ice with the Rockies dropping beneath our feet.  By the time we reached the top we were more pumped out than warmed up but had fallen in love with the Stanley Headwall.

After our success on French Reality we headed straight back up the next day and tried Nightmare on Wolfe Street (M7+ WI6+). This proved to be a much tougher challenge with two very tough mixed pitches and some of the steepest ice either of us had ever climbed.

Drama Queen was meant to be a steady day out.  But when I found myself in this position on a 40ft long hanging icicle 150m up I definately didn't feel like I was relaxing.

For a rest and change from the Headwall we headed down the Icefields Parkway for the classic 5 pitch Riptide.  The following 5 hours of struggle through snow at times chest deep was rewarded with stunning pitches such as this.  Wild but not much of a rest!

 

For our fifth and final route on Stanley Headwall we were joined by local expert and fellow Arcteryx athlete Raphael Slawinski.  Together we repeated his free ascent of The Day after Vacances de Monsieur Hulot. M7 and WI6 all with traditional protection.
 

At the end of his trip Ian was inspired by the beauty and difficulty of big routes in Canada and can't wait to apply the lessons learnt up in Scotland once the hoar frost begins to build again this winter.