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New Ontario Ice Routes

Ice climbing in Ontario is in full swing, despite a couple of warm spells. New ice routes were climbed in the Algoma area in late December.

Danyll Darewych wrote, “Trapper’s Cliff is a fairly large cliff system where we’ve done three nice ice climbs. The cliff looks red in the summer, it has a house in front of it owned by a man who is a trapper/prospector and the house is guarded by a really yappy dog (fortunately in a kennel). Part of the cliff faces the road (west face), the rest bends away from the road to the east and faces south. There is more to be done here, so head down and take a look. We need someone with the vision. I am not sure how consistently the routes come in.:

Southern Ontario Ice Conditions

Location: Located in Algoma along the Little White River, north of Iron Bridge, which is midway between Sudbury and Sault Sainte Marie. It’s about 625 km north of Toronto (7.5 hours).

Directions: From Iron Bridge drive north on Highway 546. Make sure that you make the sharp right hand turn to stay on Highway 546 at kilometre 11; Highway 554 continues straight ahead. From the intersection of Highways 554 and 546 continue north on Highway 546 for another 28 km. You will see a large cliff/hill on your right hand side with a large house in front of it. Park 100-200m past the house on the side of the highway – there was a plowed out pull-out space when we were there. Total distance from Iron Bridge is about 39 km (40 minutes).

Approach: Bushwack directly to the climbs from the road. It’s a 10-15 minute walk to Cold Pop and Little White River Stout and 20-25 minutes to Mixolydian Gulley. We stayed north of the house when bushwacking in. According to the owner of the house the climbs are all on Crown Land.

The New Routes at Trapper’s Cliff

Cold Pop WI 3+ 22 metres
FA Danylo Darewych, Jaime Beecroft, Garry Reiss, December 30, 2014
The left hand route of the two side-by-side routes found on the shorter west face. Climb 5 m of easy angled ice to stance next to a pillar, climb the vertical pillar and then head for the top on easier angled ice. Tree belay.

Little White River Stout WI 4- 22 metres
FA Jon Gullett, Danylo Darewych, December 28, 2014). The right-hand route in a chimney/corner. Climb an initial vertical step, then some easier angled ice and a final vertical section up the corner. Tree belay.

Mixolydian Gully WI 4- 42 metres
FA David Broadhead, Stefan Kloppenborg, Jaime Beecroft, Garry Reiss, Danylo Darewych, December 30, 2014
It’s found towards the left end of the south face, some 400m right of the previous route. Climb an initial 8 m vertical ice step and then continue up a winding, narrowing gulley above. Be careful of some loose blocks in the right-hand wall of the gully – test all holds first. Clamber over assorted debris (tree branches, shrubs) in the upper section of the gully to a tree belay.

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