[MCR] Rockies - Kananaskis - Opal Creek - Whiteman Falls

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Hi MCR Subscribers,

Today, with friends Janette and Ryan, I climbed Whiteman Falls.

Between 0900-1400h, 5cm of new snow fell. Hwy 40 is not plowed south of the
jct with Smith Dorrien Spray Trail. There was between 15-20cm new snow on
the road.

The creek is frozen. The approach ice and pool are frozen enough to not be
concerning.

The canyon walls stuffed all day with accumulations of up to 1.5m at the
bottom of the most active gullies.

We climbed Whiteman Falls in two pitches on the right side. There was no
evidence of a previous ascent. The first pitch required some steep climbing
to get onto the mushrooms. We left a v thread in the cave to help prevent
the inevitable swiss cheese and chopped out a good ledge. The cave is dry
right now. From the cave, it was an easy step around into a groove that
runs all the way up to the low angle transition. The top of this groove
felt particularly hollow. The centre of the groove was weeping. The top out
is thin, and we put our left foot through the tube a couple of times.
There's enough pasted ice on the rock to carefully ascend to the anchor
which is in good shape. We rapped to the ground in a single 70m rappel,
kicking off as many of the hanging daggers as possible. Protection was good
but spaced out. The climb felt like WI5-5+.

Brent Peters
Alpine Guide
PeakStratagem.com

It's not a great pic, but it was puking!
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