Icefield adventures #1: Lady Wilson's Cleavage

On day one of our Icefield Parkway wilderness adventure, we went for a nice long scramble called Lady Wilson's Cleavage, at Mount Wilson.




What was supposed to be an entertaining WI3 climb, turned out to be mostly a "snow stamping" (dutch: sneeuwstampen) trip. The small gully that should have offered us several steps of ice, was filled with snow completely, only leaving us 2 or 3 small steps we soloed, or didn't even needed or ice axes for. But the height difference and the deep snow were able to tire us anyway.

The gully ended in a steep snow field surounded by a wide curtain of icefalls, Wilson Major, which we had planned to climb too. But we were not feeling at ease on the avalanche prone snowfield - and we were right about that! - and the ice was very britle. Also the still imminent cold was eating us, so after a little try we decided to descent.


I must say the descent took us far less time than estimated, although descending steep snow slopes is historically not my favorite - this is an understatement - so we had some time left to go throw a first look at the famous Weeping Wall before heading for the Rampart Creek Hostel.