Home » Climbers forums » Ontario Ice Updates

Bear Lake, Sunday March 16, 2008

Submitted by Danylo on Thu, 2008-03-20 06:45.

Hoofed it into Bear Lake with Tiago Sunday. Easy travel over lake surfaces - completely frozen. However, it was deep snow plodding, even with snowshoes, in the woods on the approaches to climbs.
All the climbs were in. Climbed Frankenhooker and Bump Signs from Hell.
Conditions:
Nightmare on Elm Street (Ultrahooker)- very thin column down low; intimidating.
The Cave - looked fat.
Frankenhooker - the little slab down low looked suspect from the lake, but had solid, albeit thin, ice (can be avoided anyway); main column was fat, solid ice, surprisingly hard and brittle in the morning; Tiago had to work hard on lead. Got the sun starting at about 2:30 PM. The climb should be good for a couple of weeks yet.
The Ego Has Landed - looked good.
Bump Signs from Hell - soft, hero ice the whole way. The very bottom of the direct start was getting quite baked-out and unbonded - the ice there won't last much longer (but should be Ok to the sides). The climb is 55 m, not 65m as stated in the guidebook, if you go straight up. The approach to Bump Signs is a talus slope from hell.
Peek-a-boo Penny - looked good.
The ice on the Sentinal Crag at Livingstone Lake looked fat, but very sunbaked, from afar.
Danylo


‹ More routes at Raven lake Hamilton ice for March 16 ›
»

Bear Lake Update

Submitted by Don Collier on Sun, 2008-03-23 09:38.

I was in to Bear Lake on Good Friday with Dave Britnell and Jon Gullet - cold and windy. Danylo is right on with conditions. Indeed, we deemed the direct start to Bump Signs as being too dangerous. It was unbonded and sounded quite hollow so we went around on the right. From afar, Ice Hosers looked fat as well.


»