Emily and I spent a long weekend in the Southern Dacks exploring some new areas. We found ice comparable in quality to Chapel Pond, but with no crowds and less driving for us!

Saturday we went to Starbuck Mountain. We didn't actually arrive until late in the day because we had to both travel to Albany where we met up and continued north. Still we had time to visit Starbuck Right and climb some lines there. The ice we got on was in decent shape. If it hadn't been for the two thaws there probably would have been massive sheets of ice. From the description in Blue Ice 2, it looks like there is a bunch more climbing as you move left around the mountain.

Sunday was our adventure day. By which I mean we got lost. Our goal was Waterfall Wall on Crane Mountain. We hiked in on a cairned path which hadn't seen much (any?) traffic since the big snow fall weeks earlier. It got us to the mountain and we passed some obvious ice lines, but not the lines we wanted. We had GPS coordinates to the base of Waterfall Wall, but we were too high on the mountain, which made for sloth-like progress as we followed ramps and ledges up and down the face. We found some anchors and did two double rope rappels down what we were to learn was the climb Providence (it was not in, unless you like your ice climbs to be a thin layer of slush over gushing water). From there we continued toward our goal. We were sidetracked by Fifi's Frozen Fingers which looked really cool. Too thin for me to lead, we threw a toprope on it and enjoyed some actual climbing. After that we continued toward Waterfall Wall and finally intersected... something. We were obviously at the base of a popular climb, but it didn't match the photos. After some searching, I realized we were at the bushwhack above the third pitch. With that knowledge, we were able to follow the descent beta and reach the base of Waterfall Wall. A scant six hours after setting out on an approach that should have taken 90 minutes. There was no way we were going to start a six pitch route at 3:30pm, so we started to head out. From the base of the climb we found a well defined, well used trail. Figuring this to be the obvious way out, we hiked it hoping to find a quicker approach for our next attempt. It was quicker... after 30 minutes of walking we came out of the woods in the back yard of Jay Harrison, owner of Mountainside Adventures. Jay was wonderfully friendly and politely listened to our story of being lost without laughing. He offered to let us park in his driveway should we ever wish to climb at Crane Mountain again. That was an offer we couldn't refuse...

...So on Monday we drove back to Jay's place. Getting a slightly later start than we had planned, we blasted to the base of Waterfall Way and were climbing well before noon. The first pitch was stellar, fat, plastic WI2 ice. Pitch two was thin but easy climbing. Luckily, I had my free solo tag, so I wouldn't get in trouble with the climbing wall monitors. Third pitch was fun WI2, to some thin WI1. Fourth pitch was just a long bushwhack. Fifth pitch was very thin, but not particularly difficult. Sixth pitch was amazing! The main line cascades over a roof and is detached for some distance. I was worried the pillar might be too thin to climb, but it was still fat and solid. Easy ramps led up to the fat, plastic WI4- column which topped out via some tricky moves to a massive pine tree. Our success felt all the more rewarding given our failure the previous day. After enjoying the summit, we had to rush to meet the bus in Albany. Emily was Moe-tivated and her Moe-mentum got us out in record time.