This Three-Pitch WI6+ Was The Last New Canadian Route of 2021
A big new ice route in an area with no documented climbs was established on the last day of the year
Brent Nixon and Sean Draper closed out 2021 with an awesome looking new ice climb in the Yale region of B.C. The called the 175-metre new WI6+ Ballin’ the Jack. Fellow west coast climber Drew Brayshaw had posted about the area online, and Nixon and Draper followed up on the lead. It was the last new Canadian route climbed last year.
Nixon said, “Ice was great. It has a sunny exposure and temperatures were -8°C so conditions were good. It was mostly hero ice, one or two swings into good ice. Minor chandeliers and cauliflowers.”
Nixon said that “it’s the only route in that area and all the other ice there is unclimbed.” And that there’s a lot of new ice to climb in the Fraser Canyon north of Chilliwack, and that the late “Marc-Andre Leclerc used to cruise around climbing everything in sight as first ascents.”
The protection on Ballin’ the Jack was good throughout. “Basically put 16 cm everywhere,” said Nixon. “Excellent belay ledges, flat and sheltered. The last pitch was a semi-detached, slender pillar with chandeliers – very three-dimensional and overhanging. Super fun though.”
The final crux WI6+ pitch “protected with screws and a knife blade at near the top.” Nixon described the final few metres of the route: “The ice runs out topping out. Mixed climbing to top out. Using feet on rock on the way up the pillar.” They used a tree a few metres back at the top as the final anchor.
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