The Valley

The southforkice is "the way vertical ice was meant to be," straight up and NO top ropes. We invite all ice climbers to come visit.

This web site is an informational reference page about our annual event and to help you find frozen waterfalls known as waterfall ice. The valley is magnificent in its own way. The elevation ranges from the gravel road 6000 feet to the highest anchor station (to my knowledge) at the top of the third pitch of Hunter Creek Falls, 9460 feet. The Valley has mountain tops which rise over 11,400 feet which allows for the ice season to start as early as October and you can climb ice safely until April and then continue enjoying alpine ice routes and skiing throughout July.

The valley has a variety of vertical ice. Most of the difficulties are just getting to the waterfalls. A rating of WI3 can easily feel like WI4 or WI5 with these long steep approaches. Many creek drainages are steep and full of broken off, sharp jagged rock slabs everything golfball size to a VW bug. Avalanche danger is present on several North climbs from the morning and afternoon sun. The tops of many climbs become pigeon holed and baked out chandeleard like, so fragile that you can't place even a 10cm shorty. You need to have good climbing ethics and judgment to know when to back off and go home. Rappelling anchors are also to be chosen wisely. Most climbs have good trees for anchors but some need v-threads or another means of rappel anchors. Some climbs have been fortunate to get bolted hangers for rappel stations. Problem being, the history is unknown and the rock is often referred to as frozen mud. Getting off these monster waterfalls also increases the WI rating. Walk offs are few and not recommended. Never climb these monsters without a safe way back off. The local Search and Rescue does not have any members with ice-climbing abilities for a vertical ice rescue, just FYI.

However, the small ice climbing community that we are, we have a handful of the best climbers in the area. After all, we are the explorers whom found these monsters so that you may enjoy the ice climbing experience that we do.

Enjoy your experience.

Don Foote jr.