Back Climbing south of Inuvik by Campbell Lake

On Saturday, we headed down to the crags out by Campbell Lake, to do some proper first ascents of some of my routes there. I haven’t been down this way since December and the snow accumulation in this area is much more pronounced – I figured knee depth while in actuality it was mid-thigh to full thigh in places. We plowed a trench to the cliff, which we only did due to the short approach ( we could have put skis on if we really needed to).

I dug out a platform at the base of the routes as the sloughing from above has been persistent in my absence. Easy work as the snow is basically all metamorphosed into depth hoar with a surface layer of new accumulation. Cliff itself was covered in frost. The one route that traverses to the right of the large roof is hard to do as a solo so this was the first time I have been able to get on it. Good fun in being able to climb north of the Arctic Circle Feb 1st. Temps around -14!

Afterwards we went down the Dempster a bit to try and ski a riverbank cut by the territorial campsite. Steep enough but the depth hoar and wind packed surface layers made for challenging skiing even with AT gear. Basically on a turn you went right down to the dirt and whilst initiating the next turn the wind pack would try and grab the ski tips and submarine them. Speed is your friend on these sorts of conditions but then you increase the chances of grinding dirt into the ski base on the turns; not the worst but certainly not the best sking. As usual the best snow conditions were on the creek – which isn’t all that useful for doing turns.

Took some shots on the way back near the Campbell Lake viewpoint as everything was covered in frost feathers. Snow was over Kathy’s waist in places – good time to leave your gloves in the truck