[MCR] Malignant Mushroom/Wicked Wanda, Ghost Ricer Valley

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

In the South Ghost yesterday and found Wicked Wanda to be in good shape with soft plastic ice and good gear.  The climb is wet on the left side and the belay cave is quickly becoming covered over.  We made it bigger but it will take a bit of work from everyone heading in there to keep the bolts from disappearing.  It was incredibly windy there yesterday and we needed to tie a pack to the ropes to get them down so we could rappel.

We found Malignant Mushroom to be very affected by the sun and quite rotten.  The climbing was positive but the gear required a lot of cleaning/digging and wasn't great in the end anyway.  It might be better to leave this climb alone until it cools off and it can start to heal.

The driving was a bit sporty in a few places along the TransAlta road.  The ice damn at  the blue bridge is getting entertaining with two large holes you want to avoid and an off camber icy turn that wants to push the back end of the truck into a tree.  We crept over it without chains and made it without incident but drove very slowly.  "Stumpland" requires a high clearance vehicle or you will get high centered as the drifts are quite deep there.  Once in the river valley it was straightforward to   the South parking area.  All driving on snow was quite tricky on the way out as the warm temperatures were turning the things isothermal by late morning.

Have fun!

Mike Stuart
ACMG Alpine/Assistant Ski Guide
Canadian Alpine Guides