Clarity or Confusion over Raven Lake Climbs?
Well if nothing else this is keeping me entertained as I try to figure this out. Here is another picture of me standing at the base of what I think is Unknown Civilian. My reason is based on my memory of the route description. 1. Ramp to steep step, climb easier ice (note snow slope)to belay in trees. 2. Climb steep ice to finish. You can see the short steep section above and left. The other thing is that the next climb is listed as being 80 metres away. The difference between Mr. Poe (The climb also known as Unknown Soldier) and This Aint Muskoka (the climb also known as Unknown Civilian) is far more than 80 metres. Of course I realize that measurement is probably a guess.
Dave as far as I know the big 4+ stuff further down the lake has never been climbed, and this cliff is higher than 25 metres which is the max height given for the two listed routes in the book. Ed Reinhardt and I stood and looked at them then moved on. They are in the sun and on brown rock so they fall down fast.
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Raven Lake Clarity??
OK Folks, I think I can clear up some of the confusion. It appears that a lot of the problem is my fault!! I wrote the description of Raven lake for the guidebook. First, Unknown Civilian is about 80m RIGHT of Soldier, not left as is stated in the book. Goo was initially correct in his description of the locations, i.e. " Unknown Soldier and Civilian were the two climbs on the other major cliff about 100 meters or so to the right of the cliff that Mike photographed. " That would be the photo of two main flows with one barely visible on the right (MIichael, I think it was your first photo downloaded). So,.. in that photo, Soldier is the flow on the left and Civilian is the one barely visible on the right. The middle flow?? Unnamed, unclimbed? - it doesn't usually touch down.
The ramps and such to the north around the corner are NOT Civilian and/or Soldier. Poe is between the ramp area and Soldier area. Good luck sorting out the ramp area for names and first ascents. Ian Frensch, Hubert Shen and I did one of the smaller ramps the day we did the first ascent of Hungry Man. We also did some route on the cliff between Civilian and Hungry man - it was about 20m right of Civillian through tress and bushes etc - not really guiedbook worthy. The weekend after I was there, Don Pearson and Hubrt went in and did some routes as well. Soon after, or at the same time, Michael Bryant was in.
One last historical note; the Civilian and Soldier names were not the names I submitted to the guidbook editors. I didn't know the names so I simply called them Unnamed.
To Michael Bryant: Let's try to find a time when you and I with Goo can all climb together and Raven Lake!
Climbing
Hey Don thanks for the clarity. I actually have a new area at least I think it is and I would love to bring you guys there. It is pretty hard I was on the easiest and it kicked my butt. Only 3+ but I had to back off. The young guy I was with waltzed up and finished it. He called it the Wet Sherpa in honour of the wet day and the 30 minute bushwack in. All I could think of was the song by country artist Toby Keith and the line is "I ain't as good as I once was!" I still had a great time and had fun.
I am away for a bit but then maybe in march we could connect.
Got it
Ok last week I climbed the route that you're standing under-in thinner cond. To the right of Civilian is Soldier to the right of Soldier is Muskoka and then it's Poe. In between all of this are neat steep gulleys and ramps that have formed this year-now have these been climbed?
also the 4+ climbs I think could be done in three pitches-make an interesting climb-climb to the left of the left major ice-up a left leaning ramp groove to the ledge tree-belay here-traverse the length of the cliff under the vertical sheet -possible to get rock gear in the horizontal crack- and stop belay at the ledge below the right leaning ramp - climb - exit through the trees-3 pitches-this might go and the vertical ice is a bit thin for leading-new route anyhow if one wants to put the effort into it!
Might be a good idea to put the photos and explanation on Kolo's site also as his site gets far more traffic then this user-unfriendly BB!
climb on-not too many weeks left!