Ice climbing offers an adventure into Canada’s frozen worlds | Canada Voices

I found myself about to ice climb for the first time on a frigid morning in 2022 at Kushog Lake in Southern Ontario. The conditions weren’t optimal: The thermometer read -24 C, making the ice brittle and very hard to climb. My hands were freezing, and by the time we reached the base of a beginner-friendly climb known as Caramel Coating at an icy cliff, I had almost lost feeling in my toes. Not a great sign.

I approached the base of the climb, breathing in the crisp air, listening to the ice crackling under my crampons. The sharp winter light dappled in through the trees, reflecting on the ice. I swung my ice tool – a type of axe specifically for ice climbing – for the first time, and it sank solidly. Soon, my entire body was supported by four small but essential connection points to the ambery ice: my ice tools in both hands and crampons on both feet. I was hooked.

As a teen, I had dreamed of ice climbing – a sport similar to rock climbing but on waterfall ice or glaciers. I grew up in Colombia in the mid-nineties, hiking up peaks in the Colombian, Ecuadorean and Peruvian Andes, but my mountaineering passion came to a sudden stop when I left the country in 2001, amidst an increasingly unstable and violent environment, and eventually moved to Toronto in 2006.

Uprooted – surrounded by a vast, flat and unknown landscape – I was focused on settling into a new country. Until that day at Kushog Lake in 2022, when my friend and rock climbing partner Andrew Cohrs invited me to join him on my first ice climb, mountaineering and climbing had quietly fallen into my past.

Over the past few years, this sport, mired with uncertainty, is one I have grown to love for many reasons. As an immigrant living in Toronto, ice climbing has allowed me to discover this beautiful province. The past couple of winters, I’ve also travelled with Cohrs to the Canadian Rockies; we’ve ticked off climbs in Banff, Jasper, Canmore and Kananaskis in Alberta; and last year, we met and learned from Sean Isaac, a legendary Canadian climber.

Under Isaac’s coaching, I finally did my first ice leads – a term for being the first to go up the route in a group and set up the protection and anchor at the top of the climb – surrounded by impressive peaks, which I felt watched over me. I thought of my teenage self, looking into the future, proudly smiling from ear to ear.

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Before my first climb, I drank some hot tea with honey, loosened my boot laces and began squatting and swinging my legs to warm up and encourage blood flow to my toes – helpful exercises to warm up the extremities before a climb. Meanwhile, Cohrs prepared his harness, placed his ice tools at the base of the climb and tied the rope into his harness.

I then secured the rope through the belay device on my harness, and he began methodically leading up the climb. In awe, I watched as he swung his ice tools and crampons into the ice, placing screws and quickdraws every body length or so for protection.

The terrain is, by nature, unstable and dynamic, and only through experience and careful attentiveness to its subtle messages – communicated through the ice’s appearance and how easily your tools and crampons sink into it – do you begin to move on it with confidence. Once he reached the top and descended, it was my turn to top-rope the climb (a much safer way of climbing where you are supported by a rope secured to an anchor above, making falls short and less risky).

As human-caused climate change accelerates, conditions for ice climbing deteriorate and seasons for the sport – which peak in January – continue to shorten. Glaciers in Western Canada are melting at double the rate from a decade ago, according to research by the University of Northern British Columbia. Our frozen worlds seem destined to disappear, permanently vanishing into water and rock.

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For now I take solace in the landscape we travel and spend time in, its open quietude only punctuated by the sound of screws, ice tools and crampons sinking into the ice, and the almost cattle-bell-like sound of carabiners dangling against each other in the air.

Your climbing partners make it truly enjoyable too: We place profound trust in each other, developing closeness and camaraderie through coaching and in the capacity to go into challenging conditions, do something difficult and hazardous, and come back from it together, re-energized, into our daily life.

Through this sport, I’ve gained deep friendships that I know will last a lifetime. It makes me feel a little less alien, a little more part of this place, a little bit more at home.

Ice climbing must-knows

Ice climbing should always be done in a group and for new ice climbers, with a qualified guide.

The Canadian Rockies offer ice routes in Alberta near Canmore, Banff, Jasper, the Icefields Parkway and Kanannaskis Country. In British Columbia, you can ice climb in Kootenay National Park and Tumbler Ridge.

In Quebec, Parc de la Chute-Montmorency, Hautes-Gorges-de-la-Rivière-Malbaie, Pont Rouge (where the famous ice climbing festival Festiglace is held) and Rivière-Ste-Marguerite are popular ice climbing spots.

In Southern Ontario, head to the Haliburton highlands, the Madawaska highlands and to Bancroft’s Eagle’s nest lookout, where a beautiful curtain of ice forms every year. In Northern Ontario, Orient and Kama bays are popular ice climbing destinations.

The gear

To ice climb safely, you need several pieces of technical gear. In each hand, you hold an ice tool with an ergonomic handle, a curved shaft and an aggressive pick with sharp, angled teeth that bite and secure into the ice when you swing the tool into it. Their shape almost resembles the crest and beak of a bird of prey – and some designs for specialized ice picks have been inspired by beaks.

You also need stiff, crampon-compatible boots with good insulation and water resistance. Finally, you need technical ice climbing crampons, which differ from glacier walking crampons especially in their much more aggressive mono- or dual-front points. And a climbing helmet is essential.

What to wear

To control temperature, you need a well-thought-out layering system. A merino wool base layer is best (never cotton, which absorbs sweat and provides very little warmth), followed by a mid-insulating layer and a water-repellent shell made out of Gore-Tex or similar materials.

You produce a lot of body heat while climbing, but you need to manage it with your layers so you don’t sweat (which gets cold fast), and to store heat while you belay your partner or stand around during a break, for which you need a highly insulating parka.

Learning the form

Efficient ice climbing movement starts with an A-frame form: a triangle in which your highest ice tool is the apex, and your two levelled feet are the base. More advanced climbers can deviate from this but in general, you want to have your feet level and shoulder-length apart before you move your next tool up above your head.

This form, although seemingly simple and intuitive, is harder to achieve in real practice than you might expect. You can, in theory, swing your tool wherever you want, but you want to be precise and aim at concavities in the ice, so it doesn’t shatter and break away.

Sometimes a massive plate of ice comes off; other times, your feet slip because you didn’t plant them well enough; and sometimes little shards of ice hit your face. A good placement may take a few swings, especially in cold, brittle ice or in low-quality, sun-baked ice. But in what we call plastic ice (a soft, slightly wet type of ice you can find when temperatures are around -5 C), you can swing once and get an excellent tool placement.

Solid technique and secure movement are paramount. You want to avoid falling at all costs, especially while leading, since even a small fall can result in serious injuries.