Tokkum Pole ice climbing conditions — Kootenay National Park

Quick report

Weather

warm, sunny

Climb Name

Tokkum Pole

Ice Quality

good

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionTemp

Perhaps surprisingly, some good-ice conditions still prevailed in the centreline route up Tokkum Pole at Marble Canyon. Most of the ~30 metres (~100 feet) of waterfall ice remain shaded from direct solar radiation throughout the days, deep inside this awesome slot canyon. Some overnight-freezing ice recovery was also evident this time, in comparison with three previous climbs made there during the last two weeks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Most of the fat ice is so stepped-out and picked-out as to render the centre-line route more like a WI4, rather than its usual WI5+ rating. Cauliflower formations seemed perhaps not as deep as before in some places, and the ice seemed generally more consolidated. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . To climber’s left of that centreline route, there’s no ground-reaching bottom to that wall-section of ice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . To climber’s right of the centreline route is a lot of chandelier ice, and to furthest-right was a more difficult but still-intact route that a colleague climbed and described as having a mix of ice-types, including some chandelier formations — though still climbable at an estimated WI5/(+?) difficulty level. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . On a potentially/upcoming serious note, however, on my final rappel late in the evening I noticed a very-new-looking transverse fissure that had formed — no less than about 30 cm deep and perhaps close to 2 m in length — situated on a convexity directly above the lip of the rightmost route’s vertical section. This calls to mind also the propensity of falling columns to fracture specifically at around their top ends where tension forces tend to pull with the most weight hanging below. At the rate of about one ton per cubic metre of ice, that’s a heap of a lot of tonnage weight hanging from that now more-questionable section. I had already decided to avoid the rightmost routes, opting instead to just stick with the intact and familiar centre line for my final climb. In retrospect I’m left wondering even further, however, about the possible immediacy of potential for lateral propagation left-wise from that newly forming fissure on climber’s-far-right. That is one of the reasons why I’d personally tend to avoid the entire Tokkum Pole crag for perhaps the remainder of the present season — unless expertly and sensibly guided otherwise. (Before climbing there, please consider reading the further explanation about this, in the caption for the first attached photo.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . More information for context, the climb continues upward on that deep-snice, steep‘ish convex incline once above the aforementioned lip level of the vertical ice, followed by technically easy rock climbing made more challenging in crampons. There was noticeable new melt-back at the top, exposing more rock compared to earlier observations in recent weeks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deep but receding snice also makes up much of the base of the climb that rests upon the still-partly-frozen Tokumm Creek. At some point before long, much of that base will melt/fall away and at the same moment potentially undermine also-key lower support of the so-far still standing centre column. At the very minimum, I think it would be broadly, well recommended to no longer in this season belay (nor lead) from that unpredictably-melting base on the creek’s frozen surface, but rather to do so from a hanging-belay setup at the bolted-anchors top of the route. Further, on a previous recent occasion another climber met there posited the possibility of early flash floods in the canyon from hypothesized ice-dam breakage. When I inquired with Parks Visitor Safety on any known history of such, the Specialist did not remember hearing of any events like that in an ice climbing context there… but as a hypothesis at least, the contingency still stands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A side note: On different occasions it was noticed that a number of people would hike down to and stand upon a large cornice just below the sixth bridge, to gain an optimal viewpoint for photography. See the attached photograph. It’s very deceptive from the position of being on the cornice and not realizing that the fracture zone would be much further behind not only the cliff-edge line but also far behind what previous footprints or even some trees might suggest. Whoever left those prior footprints might have been roped-in, or just lucky in the Russian roulette chance that was taken. Also, while you can anchor for that from a couple of the fence posts above at the trail, you’d need a redirect via the trees that you’re standing in front of — or else you could be in for a serious pendulum swing that would send you crashing into the rock wall on your approach side of the canyon. While this might seem obvious, someone who did eventually rope-up there at my repeated ‘pleading’, still failed to install a needed redirect. That’s actually the third time in the last couple of months that I observed someone with experience making a mistake of failing to redirect — all different people on different routes, one of those times resulting in what was avoidable injury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A final side note: There’s new information that Marble Canyon has been recently identified as potentially critical habitat for the endangered black swift bird population in the region. If any ice climber sights nests on the canyon-walls anywhere near the crag, that would be a signal to abort the climb and report your sighting to Parks Canada to assist in their upcoming decision-making on behalf of this endangered/sensitive species.