We were in Banff last week for the Mountain Film Festival and managed to sneak out for a few pitches of Ice climbing. Conditions were quite mild owing to a Chinook passing along the front ranges but we headed up to the Stanley Headwall, finding tons of climbable ice in this refrigerator box of a valley. The team consisted of neophyte ice climber Helen Beynon and cutting edge Rockies sportsman Ian Welstead. Our route was the moderate mixed climb Sinus Gulley which sports a fun pitch of steep WI3 and then a 5.6 mixed pitch that gives a good introduction to mixed climbing.
