Friday 29 March 2013

Good Luck & Bad Dreams 2013


Sunday March 24th, 2013 Good Luck & Bad Dreams WI4, David Thompson Country

Synopsis: 4 stars out of 5, a great pitch of ice up top and if the column low down is in it would be fantastic!


Geoff and I got spanked the day before on Elliot Left Hand, the deep snow took us 2 hours for the approach and after climbing the first fun pitch realised that there was a lot of new snow higher up and it had avalanched in a previous cycle and covered the chains. We spent quite a bit of time digging, managed to get wet feet and struggled on the descent.



Our goal for day two was to find something with a trail into it and spend more time climbing. We heard that two parties were on Good Luck & Bad Dreams the day before, one bypassed the initial curtain and one climbed through so we thought we'd give it a try.

Given we had a bit of a party the night before at Shunda Creek Hostel the day didn't start too early and we left the climbers parking lot just before 11. Sure enough there was a beaten path in and we were standing below the curtain in a little under an hour.



The day started out -10C but there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was definitely getting warmer. I checked out the pillar and thought it looked a little spooky, especially given it was in full on sun and detached from pretty high up. We checked out routes around this bit and settled on following Eric and Craig's trail up and to the left from the day before.



Once up in the trees it got a little sketchy with some consequences so we put on the crampons and pulled out the tools. After that it was fine and we were soon standing below the upper pitch.



Just a beautiful place to be on a blue bird day with fresh snow and great views in all directions.



The top pitch of ice was excellent, given the fiddle farting it was 1:15 pm by the time I set off and we were out of the sun. The ice wasn't plastic but it was pretty close. I was happy with the lead and focused on staying relaxed, keeping the heels down and enjoying the climbing!



Once at the top there were two fresh abalakov's already in place and Geoff gave it a crack. Rapping off was a pretty quick affair as there were bolts and rap rings set up at the bottom of this pitch.



From that anchor 60 metre ropes were just tickling the snow at the bottom so we were out in two raps.



All in all a pretty short day, we were just under 5 hours car to car. As mentioned, the top pitch was stellar and if the curtain was in it would make for an excellent day!



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