BOOMING ICE CHASM
Abruptly awoken at 1:45am by my alarm, I looked at the door to my bedroom and saw my bag, ice tools and crampons affixed to the outside, all ready to go. I grabbed a coffee and started the hour and a half drive to the Crowsnest Pass where my climbing partners would meet me. Our plan for the day ahead was to explore the Booming Ice Chasm; discovered in 2008, and first explored in 2010, the Booming Ice Chasm is a cave in the Crowsnest Pass that begins near the top of Mount Sentry and descends nearly 300m into the earth. It’s known as a “cold trap cave” which means warm air never enters deep enough inside the cave to bring the temperature above freezing, leaving a metre-thick runnel of ice from top to bottom; an ice climber’s dream come true.
This time of year always starts to get tough as the weather turns sour, just enough to ruin summer fun, but not enough for winter activities to begin. So when given the opportunity for late summer ice climbing, I jumped at the chance. I’m lucky to have a small number of committed climbing partners who’ve spent endless hours in the Pass, and one who has grown up there. This was especially helpful for the Ice Chasm as it is notoriously hard to find (hence its just recent discovery). When my friend Josh first heard of it’s existence, he spent 5 straight days climbing up and down the east side of Sentry searching for the mouth of the cave. So when our day began early that morning, one of the major obstacles most climbers encounter with the Ice Chasm wasn’t an issue for us, even at 4:00am.
Nearing the saddle, where we would begin traversing ledges of the cliff band to the cave, the clouds rolled in thick all around us, reducing visibility to about 30m; if I wasn’t appreciative of Josh’s navigating skills before, I was now. Soon we had passed the “Crystal Ice Palace,” (another smaller cave in the area, but without any ice climbing) and were at the mouth of the Booming Ice Chasm. We quickly racked up, consolidated personal items into one pack, and began the rappel into darkness. After about 20m of rock, I squeezed through a bit of a constriction in the cave opening where the ice began. I continued down until I was near the end of my rope where I built an ice anchor so I could transfer my weight off the rope to allow my partners to begin their rappel to join me inside the cave. As I waited for them to rappel, I built an Abalakov thread to use for the next rappel to avoid leaving screws and other gear behind. We continued this process for nearly 240m until we had reached the very deepest part of the cave.
In the bottom we found flat, solid ground; a very welcome site after spending the last few hours on 70-80 degree ice with no flat ledges to speak of. Beyond the small “landing pad” was a lake, which is the furthest that the cave has been explored so far. Here we found typical cave formations, stalactites and stalagmites, the site of which I will never stop being fascinated by. A short lunch and much needed leg break commenced, and before long we were organizing gear so we could begin the long climb back out. We planned to reuse as many Abalakov threads as possible for anchors on the way back up, but I knew there were times that the route back up would wander away from our descent route, forcing me to use a traditional ice anchor and much needed ice screws, (especially on 60m pitches).
And so the climb began. Due to the experience level of my partners, it was decided that I would lead the entire climb. This would ultimately place the majority of risk, pressure, and fatigue on my shoulders, but I was confident that this was a climb that I was more than capable of. The first two pitches were relatively straightforward, 60m straight up the narrow chamber with no need to meander to either side. Good quality ice and no obstacles to worry about. We ascended these pitches quite quickly, and they were the perfect way to warm up for the harder pitches, especially considering this was our first time back on ice since April. The next pitch was about equal difficulty, but it wandered to either side and I was concerned that the length of rope would not get me back to the Abalakov that I had used for the rappel. Nearing what was to be the top of the pitch, I found I had enough rope but because of the wandering nature of the climb, the rope drag was extreme for the last twenty metres or so, and it felt like I was hauling 40lbs from my harness. This weighed heavily on my stamina but I made it nonetheless. My partners followed with relative ease.
For the last 100m, we decided to split it up into 3 pitches, mostly because we would follow the easiest terrain, which would take us in many different directions, having a great effect on rope drag. The first pitch mostly traversed left, which was a great chance for me to continue to practice good ice technique and is just plain fun. The next pitch took us over a series of bulges and vertical sections of ice, and the final pitch was sustained near vertical, ending with a steep scree slope out of the cave. On the second-to-last pitch, I was really starting to feel my energy wane. By this point we had been in the cave nearly seven hours and my legs weren’t having much fun any more. But I continued to push on, taking the most advantage out of any breaks that I could. We all met up at the final anchor, psyched ourselves up for what would be a very high quality, and extremely exhausting pitch, and I headed out for one last burst. The climbing proved to be difficult, and my calves hated me for it; but it truly was great climbing, underground, in summer: what a feeling! As I neared the mouth of the cave, the ice began to soften, each stroke of the tools was easier, and soon I reached sunlight.
“Because we’re Insane”
C.G
