Drove up to Jasper from Edmonton to meet Blake and Geoff for an afternoon of ice climbing in Maligne Canyon, Jasper National Park, Alberta. After Blake finished buying his new boots at Gravity Gear in Jasper (his feet grew over the past year for some reason...), we all met up at the top of the canyon and geared up for the first our ice climb of the year together.
We hiked down the canyon and setup a top rope on a climb called "The Queen" (WI4). Turns out that early conditions meant that The Queen was in less than royal shape:) We climbed it anyways and it proved to be a tough challenge. With the poor ice and overhang at the start, we all felt that it was more like a WI5 in the current condition that it was... At least that's what we told ourselves after feeling completely pumped out after a single climb each. Screaming barfies as Blake calls 'em...
Afterwards we moved the top rope down to the next climb (which I think is called the "Last Wall"), which was a more moderate climb with plenty of water flowing down it...
After getting totally soaked, we all figured heading to the Atha-B for a few pints sounded pretty damn good...
The shots of the guy doing the mixed climb and soloing the "Last Wall" are of Travis, who is a local Jasper climber.
Tristen Rasmussen, <tristen_r@yahoo.com>