The Gully WI3+
Lake Louise
February 18, 2002
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Jeff and I hiked in 4 miles to this beautiful frozen lake and climbed The Gully, WI 3+ in
3 and a half wonderful pitches.
Jeff sent me copies of his slides and here they are! After walking across the frozen lake
we caught our first view of our climb. A thin line of white carved it's way down through the side
of the mountain, tapering down to a point. We racked up at the edge of the lake, leaving our
packs packs to be picked up on the way out. We could srambled past charred trees, reminders of
the fires that swept this area in recent years.
As we reached the base of the gully we saw that there wasn't as much ice as in years past.
I joked that I had always wanted to try a "mixed" climb. Jeff took the lead on this thin pitch
and did a great job. At one point he dropped a tool so he could hand jam in a crack in the ice!
Nice!
I got the second pitch and it consisted of a long, low angle ramp that turned into a steep wall of
yellowish ice. The was somewhat rotten in places, so that made it interesting. Unfortunately I
ran out of rope just when as reached the base. I set up a belay and brought Jeff up. So far,
Jeff was getting all the fun pitches. It really didn't matter though because I was on cloud 9:
climbing a fun route in Wyoming on a beautiful day with a good friend! This was exactly where I
wanted to be.
The third pitch was the best so far, steep and fun! I found Jeff at the belay next to a small
tree. Jeff snapped a shot of me just as I came up over the edge. It was awesome view back down
the gully to the lake far below.
The last pitch involved two steep steps of beautiful white ice, with lots of delicate little
icicles. The pitch was mine and I was little nervous as this was my first real alpine ice lead.
What a great place for it! I felt good climbing the early pitches so I just concentrated on getting
good foot placements to stay balanced so I could climb efficiently. I'm not nearly as strong as Jeff
so I have to rely a lot more on finesse. This was especially important on this pitch as the ice
was covered with fragile icicles. Once I cleared the last step I felt a huge rush. Holy smokes, I did it!
I found a fallen log to belay from, and brought Jeff up. Clouds had come in while we were
climbing and light snow flurries began to come down giving the climb a truly alpine feel. We
took some time to just soak it all in. Dreams, climbs, good times!
