TRAVEL
JOURNE Y TO WEEPING WALL WORDS BY CASSIE DAVIES WANTING TO BROADEN HER CLIMBING HORIZONS, CASSIE WANGLED A JOB SECONDMENT TO THE US IN 2020, THEN MOVED TO CANADA—AND THERE SHE HAS STAYED. FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS ICE-CLIMBING NSW’S CHERISHED BLUE LAKE (WORLD-CLASS IT IS NOT, BUT WE LOVE IT!), SHE’S NOW TAKING ON THE BIG WALLS.
Pitch one Elaine and I are at the peak of our Canadian ice-climbing season. We’ve been regular climbing partners for the past three years and have done countless pitches together on gneiss, conglomerate, quartz, desert mudrock and sandstone. Recently we’ve been dialling in on ice all over the Canadian Rockies. Every weekend, it’s up the icefields parkway and onto a new multipitch, the next challenge in our progression on ice. We swing leads and know each other’s food patterns, risk preferences, knowledge and ability inside out. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner to be sharing a rope on the mega Weeping Wall. Ice climbing started for me at a small, very melty crag of ice called Blue Lake. In the backcountry behind Perisher in Australia’s Snowy Mountains, it became my training ground on ice. The best regular ice weekends a Sydneysider could hope for. The first time I touched an ice axe was on a mountaineering course at Blue Lake. I just wanted some skills for a trekking peak in Nepal, but instead I was handed an axe in front of vertical ice and, at the same time, handed a world of opportunity in a new form of climbing. As my hand wrapped onto the handle, my brain wrapped around new dreams. I had always had a fascination with mountains, and these were the tools to unlock them. Elaine’s axe stuck fast in the ice and refused to come out. This frustrating experience had characterised a few of our multipitches this season. Ice climbers sharpen their own gear with a wood file, and it’s easy to misalign a sharpening angle. It takes many grinds of the file to unwind a catching notch. 54 WINTER 2023
I groaned slightly inside. We had a huge day ahead, and this was going to waste extra energy. But I kept silent as Elaine swore at it and yanked it out. Next swing. Next screw placement. I felt relief as the sticking axe seemed to start to play ball. Next to us, I could see my Aussie friends Tom and Matt making good progress up their first pitch within eyesight of our climb. This was the dream, climbing big wall ice next to friends, but in your own world of focus.
Pitch two I’m up. This is the WI4. Or was it a 4+? Ice climbing is a sport where grades are made up and the points don’t matter. Every season, every day, pitches will vary in condition, quality and difficulty. It’s drilled into new climbers: get experience in different conditions, different aspects, different weather. Today, the ice felt good, my sticks were sticking. This season, I had been dialling in my focus to just be on the next move, the next metre. Sometimes thinking about the whole pitch could make me feel rushed or want to get it over with, but I had to maintain focus on securing every swing and every kick. I started to learn this method of focus in NZ. My first ice climbing experience outside Australia was the Remarkables Ice and Mixed Festival. I learnt how to torque my tools and feel the point that the tip would slip. I met some Americans who came and bossed some challenging mixed routes. What did they do over there to get that good? The New Zealand Alpine Team gushed about ice climbing in the Canadian Rockies.
