Is ice season over already? Getting drippy in Cogne, Italy

I guided a couple days in Cogne, Italy for Dream Guides over the weekend. Cogne is the center of Alps ice climbing in this region. Chamonix has a lot of ice, but it's much more dependent on good conditions.

While in Cogne during this mid-winter heat wave, we watched some routes start to fall apart for the season. The cascade du lillaz was climbable four days ago. Today it's gone (the Goulotte de Lillaz will be good for a few more weeks).

On the final day of our three-day course I took my two guests to Patri (WI4) and Acheronte (WI3)- they're almost always in condition - and almost always crowded. It takes 1.5 hours of flat walking to get to the base of the routes. 

Patri was in great shape, and with a little flexibility, it was easy to avoid falling ice from parties above. There are lots of ledges and lots of snow piles to capture falling shards. One can never be too cautious though.

Patri. A guy in yellow can be seen leading the final WI4 pitch at top left. The right finish of Patri (WI5) is in good shape, still. A bit drippy right now though. The next day, I went back to Cogne with Geoff Unger. We wanted to climb Stella Artice (WI5) but the bottom looked too warm, wet, and rotten. So we climbed Cold Couloir (WI4) instead. How Ironic, nowhere on the route were we cold. We were obliged to pass a team of friendly (but slow) Brits on the second pitch, as we wanted to top the thing out, and that involves about 700-900 meters of ascent through 7-8 pitches of ice and a lot of snow slogging at the top. The descent was trickier than we though. I'd like to bring my paraglider next time to save my knees.

Stella Artice could be out for the season unless it gets colder soon. Geoff Unger passing the British team on pitch 2 of Cold CouloirGeoff on top of the last pitch we roped up for - 600 meters above the valley bottomUpon finishing the route, one must still go up, up, up...

Basically the best beta is to veer up and right after the ice ends, keep traversing, looking for a ridge of snow/rock/grass that descends back down to the valley bottom below you. Follow goat trails down exposed grassy ledges when you can, and the terrain will funnel you into a snow gully with two pitches of ice (rap with v-threads) at the bottom. Then a flat walk takes you back to your car.

Canmore photo shoot for Mountain Hardwear

Over the last several years, I've had the opportunity to shoot photos of Mountain Hardwear Athlete Dawn Glanc ice climbing, mixed climbing, and alpine climbing. Fortunately for me, Hardwear has been able to use my images throughout a wide variety of in-house and national advertising.

2010 MHW ad campaign

In late February, Dawn, Patrick Ormond, and I traveled up to Canmore, Alberta to get some fresh ice climbing imagery for Mountain Hardwear's fall campaign. Most of the big climbs were in, and Dawn brought an extensive tick-list with her.

One of my favorite things about shooting ice and alpine climbing photography is that it forces me to get out there and do a bit of it as well, quick enough to get into shooting position, but with a pack weight down with extra lenses, extra camera bodies, flashes, video equipment, a fixed rope, etc...

Unfortunately for us, a wicked arctic cold snap swept through B.C. and Alberta, plunging local temperatures down to -36°C (-31°F). Now that's just too cold to get much climbing done - and too dangerous too. As soon as we arrived in Canmore, we heard that daggers were snapping spontaniously in Johnson Canyon, among other locations.

Despite the chill, we were able to escape outside enough to get a few good pitches in, and a hopefully a few good photos. Keep an eye out in the fall/winter of 2011 to see what kind of images Mountain Hardwear uses in their advertising.

Read up on Dawn's current Mountain Hardwear blog if you are curious.

Here are a couple more tear sheets from the Little Switzerland photo shoot that I did with Dawn, Tanya Leinicke, and Lynn Peterson in 2009.

Ice Climbing in Alaska Article

Ice climbing isn't something I do much anymore. Sure, I take pictures of it some times, but I hardly swing tools for pleasure these days. I went on some spur of the moment ice climbing missions with partner Aiden Loehr last April. I wrote a short piece on it for AAI's news letter. Here's a link to it.
-DT