We noticed SARS on Ice from Highway 11 when we were driving back towards the Icefields Parkway after climbing Two O’Clock Falls. It’s on a ridge on the north side of the highway.
The photo below was taken from the highway. It’s great that you can see how well the ice is formed before you commit to the approach. A pair of binoculars helps! You can also see Five Seven Zero, a WI4 multi-pitch, higher up on the ridge.
We hiked in to find SARS on Ice a couple of years ago and missed it completely. We got going up hill too far to the left and ended up hiking above it. Then we hiked up to Five Seven Zero only to find that another group was already starting on it. Not the best mountain day for us but we learned what not to do when searching for SARS on Ice!
Beta:
- Wide curtain of ice with lots of single pitch lines
- WI3 – WI4
- can lead a WI2 pitch on the far right, walk across and set up a top rope anchor for the steeper lines
- tree anchor
- descent: rappel the route
- we used our 70 meter rope and we would have been fine with a sixty meter
Access
The dark purple line on the map below is our route up to the climb and back. We took a slightly different path on the hike out.
We parked beside the road near an open field.
The barbed wire that once connected the fence posts has fallen to the ground and been pushed aside.
The Approach
There is no trail to SARS on Ice. You need to navigate and bushwack. The bushwacking is not bad compared to other areas. The forest here is fairly open with not a lot of deadfall. But it is easy to get off track once you’re in the trees.
Before you cross the field and enter the forest, it is worth taking a moment to locate a few landmarks. You can see SARS on Ice from the road as well as Five Seven Zero but once you’re in the trees, these climbs can be hard to locate. I marked the Big Rock Face on the photo below. It helps to walk towards this rock face when you can see it.
Also note on the photo above that below SARS on Ice, it appears that there is a gully or trough with no trees. A clear spot with visible snow on the ground. This is actually an old landslide with boulders and some deciduous trees which are bare in winter.
After leaving the highway and walking across the field, we entered the forest on the far side.
This area generally gets a lot less snow than the mountains along the Icefields Parkway. We didn’t have to post hole through deep snow.
We ended up going up hill a little bit to gain a small rise. We had planned to stay low in the valley and turn left to head up to the start of the climb when we were below it.
We tried to stay right of the bottom of the ridge and not get enticed into going up hill too early.
As we progressed up the valley, we crossed some gullies (some with creeks in them) divided by some higher ribs like the one in the photo.
The gullies were often choked with deadfall and we had to resist the urge to turn left and hike up the rib to try to get around the top of gully. Better to just power through the gully on the path of least resistance.
Eventually, we got to the slope below the climb, identified by all the deciduous trees, boulders, and lack of conifers.
The snow was a bit deeper here but it’s better to pick your way through the boulders to the other side before heading up.
Soon we could see the ice at the top of the slope above us.
We continued to stay low and traverse across to the far right side of the climb (climber’s right).
Here we found a most delightful surprise. Someone had strung an old rope from tree to tree, zigzagging up the hill. This fixed rope was a great handrail to help us up the last, most steep part of the slope.
The Climb
Above the fixed rope, the ice came into view.
On the far right, there was a WI2 line that Dan led. He was going to solo but the ice was thin in places and we decided it would be better to belay. He brought me up on second to clean the gear.
At the top, we walked across and found a tree with some cordelette (sorry, no photo). Look for a boulder perched on the rock near the top of the climb, just right of center (climber’s right). The tree is close to that boulder. We used it to build an anchor and set up a top rope. We rappelled down to the base to start the top rope laps.
This photo shows the steepness of the main flow.
We climbed a lot of fun lines here. We used ice screws as directionals to hang the rope over different lines. It was a great day. We got a lot of mileage on steep ice.
At the end of the day, we hiked back down past the fixed rope and kept going downhill until the terrain flattened out a bit. Then we turned right and walked back to the highway. It was a bit easier than our hike in. We found our footprints about halfway back to the highway and followed back to our van.
SARS on Ice was a lot of fun. It was a great way to get onto some steep ice without having to lead it. It’s the kind of place we will return to every year.
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