Honeyman Falls. I took this photo during the descent.
January 10-11, 2004
Paul Belitz, John Aguiar
I met John last year though the popular 'climbing' website CascadeClimbers.com and had gone on one trip to Lillooet in January? It was my first experience on water ice, and I had a lot of fun. So when I got back to Washington after Christmas break, I started emailing John, bugging him to drag me up some ice. He eventually relented, and we decided to get going from Seattle at around 4:30 Friday afternoon.
Everything worked out as planned, John picked me up, and six hours later we were in Lillooet, identifying climbers' cars in the Mile-O-Hotel. We got to bed quickly, planning to rise early and take advantage of the ice formed by last week's cold snap.
We got up around 5:45, and got to the parking area for Honeyman Falls and Cherry Ice around 7. We walked up the access road to avoid parking on private property, and got to the frozen stream that lies beneath Honeyman. We strapped on the 'poons, and walked up the WI1+ that leads to the base of the flow. Honeyman was fat, chandeliered, in, and very, very wet. The right side was spraying like crazy, but the left seemed fairly dry, so we decided to climb.
John climbed smoothly up the 190 foot pitch, making it look easy. I was stupid by not wearing my belay coat while belaying, so I was a bit chilled when I got moving. As such, my hands got cold while climbing, but I was fine after I warmed them up at the belay. The pitch was fun, some cauliflowers down low, icicles and a awkward traverse at the top. Honeyman is given WI3 in the book, but I thought the first pitch was harder, probably comparable to Oregon Jack.
I led the second 'pitch', giving me a bird's-eye view of the water. A belay off a dubious tree/shrub and a wet rappel got us back down to the ice ledge. There we met another party of two who were busy constructing a v-thread. We used their anchor to rappel, and got down smoothly despite my throwing one rope directly into the gushing water (oops!). When we got to the packs, we loaded everything up and downclimbed the easy ice below.
A few steps from the Honeyman flow is Cherry Ice, also given WI3, but shorter, easier, smaller, and vastly more popular. There was a group of seven on it when we got down, so we decided to drive out and scope the approach to Salmon Stakes (WI3) which we hoped to climb Sunday. After much sightseeing, we found a shallow spot in the river that we thought we could ford the next day.
After driving to the dam and gaping at ice all over the place, we drove back to Cherry Ice. I happily led up the wet, dripping, plastic, picked-out ice. This is a nice, mellow little route. The walk-off, however, sucks. We headed up the gully for a few feet, then exited left over mossy rock, up and over a hill that eventually dropped us on the road. Next time I'll take two ropes and rap.
By now it was getting dark, so we headed back to town to buy some plastic bags to protect our boots while wading the river the next morning. We ate dinner at City Pizza, where 15 of the 20 patrons were ice climbers. I watched a forgettable movie for a while, then fell asleep.
We got up around 6, and got to the river crossing while it was still dark. Feeling bad due to lack of sleep and cold, I briefly asked myself why the hell I was up at an ungodly hour, preparing to slog uphill for a few hours to get wet and cold. But the pessimism passed quickly, and we got ready. Six garbage bags and some duct tape on each foot kept us dry during the ford. On the other side of the river, we stashed the bags and started plodding up the nasty river-stone talus slope, frozen hard. After an hour we were nearly there, but realized that it wasn't even freezing, the ice would be wet, and it would warm up and start raining rocks on us when we wanted to descend. We bailed in favor of mellow top-roping at Marble.
At Marble we first TRed a very wet incarnation of Left Deeping Wall. There was massive sprayage from above; it was like climbing in a bad rainstorm. I finally thrashed my way to the top, pumped and soaked, and lowered off. John went up wearing only a light Scholler shirt and got beyond drenched in ten feet and two minutes. He came down, and spent the rest of our time there liberating his body heat trying to dry (once he took the shirt off he warmed up). The Dihedral had a toprope on it, but the large guided party was friendly and let me lead through after waiting a few minutes. The ice was very picked out, making it a gimme for WI4. I got scared and pumped, but managed to get to the top without hanging or falling. Falling, after all, is VERY bad style.
After resting a bit, John convinced me to try No Deductible. It was reasonably well iced, thin at the bottom, then steeper and fatter near the top. I got the TR set up after thrashing around in the trees above the wall for a while before rapping down. The bottom was incredibly cool. Half inch ice meant that swinging was out of the question. Some small divots were left from other climbers, so hooking those was the best technique. The ice was thick enough to kick, so feet weren't as much of a problem. Near the top the ice got thicker and steeper, and it became a race against the pump. I made it, but barely.
We got back to Seattle at a reasonable hour (~9:30). A great trip. Thanks, John!
