Six members of the Alpine Club of Canada’s Yukon Section went for a “Wild Ice” January adventure Sunday on White Mountain. They got there by driving about an hour south on the Alaska Highway to about two kilometres from Jake’s Corner. From there, they did about a 40 minute hike in to a climbing area called “Conversation.”

“You’re warm by the time you’re there, which is nice,” related Stephanie Saal, board member for the Alpine Club of Canada’s Yukon Section.

The temperature was approximately -8C at the climbing area, which is perfect for ice-climbing.

“It’s warm enough that you’re not freezing, but it’s also not so warm that it’s sketchy,” said Saal.

Once there, the group climbed up a frozen waterfall. The routes they climbed were “Lover’s Quarrel” and “Kiss and Make-Up”.

“It’s not an easy climb,” stated Saal.

The waterfall, or pillar, “Lover’s Quarrel”, is graded as WI3+. The upstream extension of the pillar is a climb called “Kiss and Make-up” and is graded at WI2+.

WI1 is the lowest grade; WI7 is the highest grade. WI stands for Waterfall Ice. The plus indicates that the routes are hard for the grade, but not quite hard enough to go to the next higher grade.

WI1 is like walking on a frozen river.

“WI2 is the other climb we did, which is basically just the extension of that pillar. And there are two to five-metre high steps, so it’s not consistently as steep, it’s a bit more slabby. And then the difficulty kind of goes up as it goes steeper. The higher grades –sometimes it gets more over-hanging or it can also be that the ice gets thinner, which makes it harder to protect, so that’s also a consideration,” explained Saal.

“WI1, you don’t need tools. WI2, it’s not as steep, you’ve got protection. WI3 is more sustained steep, but not quite vertical yet. WI4 is where it’s really steep. It’s consistently steep vertical – when you get higher up there, you don’t have rests anymore, so sometimes it can be steeper in a section, and then not as steep, and as you get to those higher grades, you just don’t have much opportunity for resting anymore.

“And then when you get to a WI7, it’s very long, it’s technical, and the ice is not great. So it’s good, because it considers how dangerous it can be as well,” she elaborated.

“The thing with the ice-climbing rating, it can change for the same climb throughout the season, depending on whether it gets steeper or less steep, because the ice is always changing, and also depending on what the quality of the ice is.

“I climbed that same climb in December and it was much more difficult, because it was very hard, it was very brittle, it was falling apart, it would take you a lot of swings to get a good stick, versus on Sunday it was actually quite good. We had what we call ‘hero ice.’ So it was very soft ice and your tools just stick immediately, so it was good,” recalled Saal.

“It’s nice to be shown these places, because they can be a little bit hard to find if you don’t know where they are and where you can set up the ropes for it,” related Saal.

She explained the purpose of the trip.

“We had three main goals ... to show people around. We’re doing this kind of outing once per month, so the goal is to go somewhere else every time, so people get to experience these different areas. They can learn how they can set up a top rope, so they can practice ice-climbing in a safe way.

“The other part is for them to meet other climbing partners. We go over a little bit of technique, so – for those first two things, we’re kind of placing (you with) an experienced friend in a way, that can show you around a bit.

“And the third goal is to just make climbing more accessible. So the way we do that is we provide some gear that people can borrow from us, because it is quite an expensive sport to get into, so that makes it a bit easier for people to start and try it out,” explained Saal.

They offered four spots for the outing, which were all full, and they had two leaders, for a total group size of six people.

“We were able to set up two ropes, which is good, because then people don’t stand around for too long. I wouldn’t want to put it on with a larger group, because then there’s too much standing around. If you have an area where there’s a lot of climbs side-by -side, you can do that, but we don’t have an opportunity in that area.”

“We had quite a long day,” recalled Saal.

“We left Whitehorse at 10 and then we came back to Whitehorse half-past-six. It’s about an hour drive.

“We did the pillar as well as the extension of it and we protected people on the way up on those steps, so we had to put up quite a lot of anchors. But we went for a good adventure,” she added.

The club is planning on going on two more outings, in February and March.

“There’s another area at White Mountain that’s basically on the other side of the mountain towards Atlin Road, so we might go there next time. That’s an area where the climbing is a little bit easier. That’s a solid WI3, whereas the pillar is more WI3+, it’s kind of on the edge of being a higher grade,” said Saal.

You do require a membership to go on these climbing adventures.

“This is something we put on for Alpine Club members, so they should have a membership. Then anybody who’s a member can sign up,” said Saal.

Those interested in becoming a member can do so on the club’s website, https://accyukon.com