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fosburg
climber
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Dec 21, 2011 - 09:47am PT
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Walt and I climbed Illilouette Falls around 90/91. Sorry, no pictures.
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David Wilson
climber
CA
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Dec 21, 2011 - 10:55am PT
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dan, on that ice you're talking about on the north side of lee vining canyon, i remember andy telling me that was a crazy formation with lots of overhanging chandelier ice. either he or his partner took a pretty big fall as i recall. i'll email andy and see if we can get a report.
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Dec 21, 2011 - 11:26am PT
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Is that what people refer to as candlestick? or something..
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mctwisted
Social climber
paradise
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 21, 2011 - 08:24pm PT
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heres a few shots from today, pretty sure drug dome had 5 parties climb it today! (and greg you did have the correct beta with the raps being on crystal meth) widows tears is liking this weather and getting thicker, artist bowl looks in, and the strand is hanging in and getting thicker
after googling widows tears to try to find a shot of mark chapman and kevin worrall on the fa, i stumbled across shots of nidivers crew up there doing some wild looking mixed climbing to get up to the fat ice, pretty sick looking stuff the mixed climbers are doing nowadays! makes me rethink if something might be climbable or not
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tom Carter
Social climber
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Dec 21, 2011 - 08:32pm PT
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Fosburg
So.... tell us a Water Ice and Walt story about it!
Hasn't seen many attempts?
Have you had a look up there Dan?
Cool coverage of the phenomenon - Thanks!
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mctwisted
Social climber
paradise
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 22, 2011 - 08:50am PT
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15 degrees here in e.p. at 2000' this morning!
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YosemiteSteve
Trad climber
CA
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Dec 22, 2011 - 09:45am PT
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35º in Yosemite Valley at 6:30 a.m. this morning, the warmest morning in weeks. I'm under Yosemite Falls, and there are some strange Pohono winds blowing, too, which can make it warmer.
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Wade Icey
Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
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Dec 22, 2011 - 11:44am PT
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skating on stilts
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YosemiteSteve
Trad climber
CA
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Dec 22, 2011 - 11:46am PT
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42º at 8:30 in Yosemite Valley, very breezy & strangely warm.
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fosburg
climber
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Dec 22, 2011 - 07:43pm PT
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Illilouette Falls is one of the most beautiful ice climbs I've ever seen, a stunning shade of blue. I really wish we'd taken a camera up there. I doubt it gets climbed much because aside from the usual problems with Valley ice, it's very hard to scope from any convenient locations.
Walt and I had been on somewhat of a roll ice climbing in Yosemite. We bagged the probable first ascent of Sentinel Falls and the super-unlikely Nevada Falls over the course of a few winters around 1990. We'd heard rumors Jay Smith was chomping at the bit to do Illilouette Falls and it was a route we'd talked about doing. Walt kind of loved it I think when he could imagine someone else gunning for the exact thing he wanted to do.
We walked up there during a particularly cold spell to have a look but also with all our gear just in case it was in. You almost have to get all the way to the base of that thing before you can even see it. We passed several promising lines on the right on the way up Tenaya Canyon. When we got to the base we were blown away because it was fully formed.
It was warm though, probably right around freezing and it kind of gave me the creeps because it's so big and such a high-flow route. The first pitch was totally running with water. I remember Walt saying something to the effect of, "This things gonna come down any minute, we gotta get on it!". He was right about the first but maybe not the second.
I remember a little discussion about what probably was going to be the second pitch and crux. Walt had lead the Yabo Tooth (although hanging to put in screws) on Sentinel Falls, and the crux of Nevada Falls so I felt strongly that I wanted the crux on this one just to keep it fair. He agreed willingly.
The route wound up being 3 pitches and not too hard technically, probably 4+/5 but very memorable for the beauty and remoteness of the location and as with all Valley ice climbs, the utter unlikeliness of it all.
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ms55401
Trad climber
minneapolis, mn
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Dec 22, 2011 - 07:58pm PT
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fos, that's really cool. I hope to have the good fortune to swing tools in Yosemite Valley one day
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mctwisted
Social climber
paradise
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 22, 2011 - 09:52pm PT
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thanks Kevin for the story, every time i look up here i think of you guys
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mctwisted
Social climber
paradise
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 22, 2011 - 09:56pm PT
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victor, tell matt i send him some pics soon, this is him right?
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mctwisted
Social climber
paradise
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 22, 2011 - 10:03pm PT
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these shots look much better zoomed in just a tad, good resolution
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mctwisted
Social climber
paradise
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 22, 2011 - 10:28pm PT
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artist bowl looks in, white fang is in, and upper sentinal falls is in, the yabo tooth looks good??? lets just hope the weather guys are wrong and its not going to warm up like they are saying
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Wedberg
Mountain climber
Bishop
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Dec 22, 2011 - 11:16pm PT
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Had a great time climbing this formation near Stately Pleasure Dome today. This has been a great season for ice so far!
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BMcC
Trad climber
Livermore
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Dec 22, 2011 - 11:27pm PT
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Wedberg - Excellent! Looks steep. How many pitches?
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Wedberg
Mountain climber
Bishop
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Dec 23, 2011 - 12:00am PT
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Wedberg - Excellent! Looks steep. How many pitches? Thanks, it was fun. It'll go with two 30m+ pitches with the transition happening at the big obvious ledge. My partner was nice enough to let me have the whole thing and I did the climb to just above the steepest section on the face in one pitch with a 70m rope. The photo I shared above was taken from the road. Here's the photo again for reference:
The lower area of the climb is difficult to see but actually has some difficult and delicate climbing on a couple of thin pillars. The large boulders are obscuring the view.
The main face visible in the photo is steep and thin. It took delicate placements and carefully placed 10cm screws (with screamers attached!).
I'm uploading to my photo gallery site photos that my partner and I took. They should all be up by tomorrow morning and I can post a link to them. In the meantime here are a couple more photos of the climb:
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