Inuvik, Northwest Territories 2013 / 2014 / 2015: Sunday Oct 27 2013

October 27, Sunday, headed back to Campbell Lake with some gear and drilled an anchor, rock is surprisingly hard and the drill was not fully charged so one bolt only, but very likely the first climbing bolt ever drilled in this part of the Arctic. Set up a rope on a nice section of limestone and worked some moves on a mixed line that was entirely ice free. The irony of having a region so covered in surface and subsurface water, i.e. water everywhere and indeed above the cliffs and no water at all dripping anywhere does not escape me. Regardless, fun little route did it a number of times, utilizes some cool limestone features, strong horizontal break above a boulder start overhang to an eroded slot feature to smooth rock and a mossy exit. Fun. Then moved over to the main cliff to a clean pick width crack system under the primary roof system. Will try and drill this route from the ground as it cannot be top roped due to the roof. Worked out some moves that gets one to the point where a fall would start to hurt. It will move from great placements in the crack to an overlap and moves left to another crack leading to the base of the roof. From there perhaps right to skirt the issue or the roof directly on a crack that splits it. Will try and set up a rope system but would be infinitely easier with a belayer. Temps were mild all weekend hovering around -2 to -6, bit of a wind on Sunday, calm on Saturday. Dempster is in good shape, finally, and truck traffic is increasing. Seasonal averages are -10 to -17; so weather is really good right now.

Views up a gulley of frozen moss - which leads to the top of the bluff. Rocks frozen in the moss are really well embedded, if one isn't using crampons, better with though.

Back at the road, literally, and more scenic with the 300m L Series - sharp lens. This is the road surface in good to great shape, nice and frozen. It's been 4 inches of mud for the last 2 months - global warming