November 14, then the weekend, yay, november 16 and 17

I went down to the river (or officially the East Channel 3 of the Mackenzie river in the Delta) this evening just to see how things were progressing, ice wise. On the way the Esso and it's very nice $1.76 per litre sign was blazing away in the night. The river was frozen enough for skidoo traffic by this point and I was up and down it myself Saturday and Sunday morning. Lot's of snow on Saturday night so took the machine out on the river past the docked barges then down to Boot Lake. On Thursday there was no snow on the river ice, just around the boats that are going to apparently overwinter right where they are.

Saturday morning a crack of dawn start means 11 AM these days. I headed out to the cliff with the intention of trying to bolt some more anchors and finish off the line under the overhang. Brought a new drill as the one I needed is still in BC and not in AB where I could actually pick it up, Ha Ha. Anyways cold temps and a partially charged battery meant only a few holes and not an entirely productive day. Though self belaying while aid climbing and simultaneously drilling certainly keeps one's attention. the rock here has a hard surface layer about 1.5 cm thick, like quartzite hard, then more easily drilled rock underneath, interesting geology for sure.

Sunday was a bit stormier, actually a lot, but well...one must persevere. With a full charged pack I was back at the cliff and had intentions surrounding getting some more anchor bolts in place. this involved rapping down from trees to a place where there is some good rock to fix a station. I was able get 3 anchor points in , ie single bolt anchors, above a nice shallow corner leading to a bulgy exit and bolt's above the roof and several more on nice lines to the right of it, including the one with the great upside down tool placement. Grey day and poor lighting made for less than stellar pix. that lens is just not a great performer in low light conditions and was having some difficulty holding autofocus in the cold, not happy about that. Well, I suppose it's time for the 15 to 85mm which at the price and better be as sharp as promised. The first 3 would make a nice gif, LOL.

A few more...The landing looks Ok but it isn't lots of rocks and sharp willow stumps that I'm actively trying to break off now that they are brittle in the cold. The smaller roof actually has some cool feature but I think the exit will have to go left and avoid the actual widest part of it. The paltry sunset through the trees was the only colour in the sky all day; 8 second photo and the wind was pushing the trees and snow around making for some natural filtration effects, sorta cool.