Ceramic Engineer - 70m, WI3

Anyone ever hear of the ice route “Ceramic Engineer “.  Probably not. I am approaching 30 seasons of ice climbing and have never heard of anyone climbing this route. Haven’t been out at all this season and was looking for an easy WI3 route. Ceramic Engineer 70m, WI3 is in Jo Jo’s guidebook and seemed like a reasonable day out. It is just east of Mt. Wilson, about 6 km east of Saskatchewan Crossing in Owen Creek. 

From the creek, view to the route.

First view to WI5 up on cliff band.

We see some ice. 
John spied the WI5 pillar.

View up Owen Creek.
Nice little valley.

Hiking up to the WI3 route we climbed.

Reviewing the information provided in Joe Josephson's "Waterfall Ice: Climbs in the Canadian Rockies", there is some incorrect UTM numbers provided for Ceramic Engineer. The guidebook description is shown below, the UTM grid provided for Ceramic Engineer is 227643. Ceramic Engineer is in Owen Creek, the guidebook also lists three routes in Thompson Creek, and provides a UTM grid of 227644; only 10 metres apart. Not correct since these creeks are kilometres apart. My reading from the route we climbed is shown below on the map below, UTM grid 196627. I am assuming we climbed Ceramic Engineer, even with only about 45 metres of climbing. The route is in a gully, so some years would have more ice for sure. 

I convinced John it was a good idea so we headed there on Saturday Feb. 10. After hiking in almost 5 km we saw some scary sun affected WI5 ice. We hiked a bit and found a 45m WI3 route. Climbed it, not sure it was Ceramic Engineer?  Was a great day out with a great bud in remote setting. Tons of fun.

Blue dot is the WI3 route we climbed. 

UTM grid of 227643 would be in Thompson Creek.

Map in Jojo's excellent guidebook.

View down from my first screw placement.
Route was the most steep off the deck.

John pulling the ropes after our rap off a tree at the top.

Jughaul Wall - 5.7, 105m, 3 pitches

 

Had a glorious day of rock climbing October 16 on the trad route Jughaul Wall. Pretty sure this will be the last multi pitch rock route of the season. Jughaul is way up on Grotto Mountain, sharing a small face with a few other routes, mainly the serious looking Grotto Crack route. Jughaul Wall is 110m, 5.7 in three pitches. Grotto Crack is 70m, 5.8+; both routes established in the 1970’s so the grade is definitely old school. We had a great time on Jughaul Wall. 

View of the Grotto Corner wall on the approach.
Jughaul Wall is straight up the middle

Laurie led pitch 1 and 3, both super steep with excellent rock quality and the grade a stiff 5.5. I led pitch 2, 5.7; definitely the money pitch. Long and really steep for the first half, solid rock, super great holds and lots of opportunity for solid gear placements, so much fun. 

Laurie on pitch 1. 

 Laurie at the first station (piton/bolt) at the top of pitch 1.

Approaching the belay, Grotto Crack to left, looks so cool. 

OSWB heading up pitch 2, Laurie’s photos. 

OSWB heading up pitch 2, Laurie’s photos. 

Looking down pitch 2. 

Laurie heading up the last pitch. 

Looking up third pitch, awesome rock and great gear, so fun.

OSWB topping out, Laurie’s photo. 

Great weather for our day out. The rock quality on Jughaul Wall is fantastic, but all the belay stances suck, especially the tree belay on the top of pitch 2, super awkward. Still highly recommend this trad protected route. 

Couple of images from the amazing guidebook by the exceptional climber Chris Perry, Banff Rock. The edition I have is getting dated, so I wanted to highlight a couple of fixed gear bolts in place not mentioned in the guidebook. 

Pitch 1, maybe about 10 metres up from where we belayed (nice wide flat ledge with trees) there is a single bolt (only fixed gear not at a station). 30 metres up from the bottom of pitch 1 is a double bolt anchor. These 3 bolts are not shown on the topo or mentioned in the write up.

We used the single piton/single bolt station 45 metres up for our first station (top of pitch 1), then used the tree 50 metres up for the second station and a tree on the top of the route for the third station. 

Copy of the topo map from guidebook.
Banff Rock. Chris Perry.

Guidebook write up.
Banff Rock, Chris Perry.

Approximate location of single bolt on pitch 1 and
double bolt anchor 30m up pitch 1.

Double bolts 30 metres up pitch 1.

Karnak Mountain - South Face, East Ridge, 5.2

Saturday August 26 had a great day out with Columbia valley crusher Steve Tersmette. We climbed the South Slopes and East summit ridge of Karnak Mountain. Karnak is a remote 3411m summit in the Purcell Range, neighbouring Jumbo Mountain. The route was mostly difficult scrambling with the occasional 5 th class step. We brought a rope, rock pro and some glacier gear, but didn’t need to use it. Stunning weather and incredible views to the Purcell Range. Awesome day in the hills.

Low down on the South Slopes of Karnak.

Small glacier below the Karnak/Jumbo col.

Start of the hands on scramble.

Variety of loose scree and steep rock bands.

Big smiles from Steve at the Karnak/Jumbo col.
Summit block of Karnak in the background.

Approaching the summit ridge of Mt. Karnak.
We avoided the steeper ice staying on rock to to
climber's left.

Lots of fun difficult scrambling on the East Ridge towards
the summit. 

Steps away from the summit.

Summit selfie.

OSWB on the highest point of the summit.

A Firm Specimen - 5.9, 375m, 7 pitches

The beautiful wall on Mt. Aeneas.

Sunday August 6 had a great day of alpine rock climbing with Curt. We climbed a cool route “A Firm Specimen” near Pedley Pass on a beautiful outlier of Mount Aeneas. This alpine area is amazing and this face on Aeneas is a distinct feature in the valley. The route is 7 pitches, trad protection with bolted belay stations, except the 5.9 crux pitch has some  bolts were gear is tough to get. This 5.9 pitch is the money pitch, so much fun. Great beta on Gripped. Thanks to Steve for setting up this route. We topped out as a thunderstorm threatened to dump on us and we were looking for quickest descent option, struggled to find the easy way off, but the thunderstorm moved on and we slogged to the summit of Mount Aeneas. Amazing day out.

View to our wall on the hike in.

Curt at the base on the route.

OSWB leading up pitch 1 (5.7)

OSWB leading up pitch 3 (crux 5.9 pitch)

Curt leading pitch 5 (5.6)

View up the final pitch (5.5).

OSWB topping out on the route.

After scrambling off the top of the ridge, we gained the large meadow below the main summit.

On the summit of Mt. Aeneas.

View back to summit of Mt. Aeneas as we headed out.

Nearing the standard Pedley Pass trail.