Polar Circus planning
For the last year, I’ve been planning and training to climb Denali
(North America’s highest peak) in 2010. Due to weather and other
conditions, May and June are the only feasible months to climb Denali,
and due to my work calendar, June has been the plan. As some of you
know, several months ago, we got the great news that my wife,
Stephanie, is pregnant with our second child and due in June!
Technically she is due at the end of June, and I tried half-heartedly
to convince myself that I could still climb in the beginning part of
June and be back for the birth, but, ultimately, I knew that Denali
would have to wait until 2011.
So I put aside my Denali plans and called my friend (and guide), Steve
House and asked him to recommend an intense and “super hard” climb we
could do earlier in the year instead of Denali (recognizing that
“super hard” for me, and “super hard” for him are light-years apart).
He thought about it for a while, and then suggested a winter ascent of
the west face of Cirrus Mountain in the Canadian Rockies via an ice
route known as “Polar Circus”. The route involves 2,300′+ of vertical
ice, and is known in climbing circles as the “showpiece of the
Canadian Rockies…”.
“[Polar Circus] is one of the most sought after routes anywhere in the
world. Featuring 2300’+/- gain with over 1600’ of waterfall ice spread
out over 9+/- pitches, Polar Circus is a classic to say the least.
Charlie Porter is credited for naming the route while on first ascent
when complaining about setting up a station on one of the steep
pitches, referring to his situation as nothing more than a “Polish
Circusâ€. Polish became Polar in the translation. Within Polar Circus
is a feature named ‘the Pencil’ which rarely forms to the ground, but
when it does it is one of the finer [extremely difficult ice] pillars
anywhere.” – (http://www.summitpost.org/route/275420/polar-circus-v-wi-5.html).
Climbing in the winter in the Canadian Rockies is itself a challenge
due to the extreme cold (temperatures average 30 degrees below
freezing). According to Steve’s plan, as long as it is not too cold
(which he defines as “below 0f”), then we’ll bivouac (sleep) half-way
up the climb “to make it more enjoyable”, then finish the final, and
most difficult vertical ice at the top on the second day. This means
we’ll bring sleeping bags and “bivy sacks”, but no tent. We’ll be
carrying a bare minimum of the lightest gear you can buy, since the
more we carry the slower we’ll go. Steve is famous for his “Light and
fast” climbing style, which, according to him also means “Cold and
Hungry”.
For those of you who don’t know, or haven’t heard of Steve House
(http://www.stevehouse.net), he’s been named “the world’s finest high
altitude mountaineer” by Reinhold Messner, and for many years has been
setting world records and logging first ascents of the worlds most
dangerous and technical climbs in Nepal and around the world. Many of
Steve’s climbs have never been repeated. He’s currently planning a
first ascent of an extremely difficult route on the west face of K2.
His book, Beyond The Mountain
(http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Mountain-Steve-House/dp/097906595X), was
recently awarded the Boardman Tasker prize for mountaineering
literature and I highly recommend it!
Weather and avalanche danger permitting, we plan to climb sometime
between February 12th and 17th. Will keep everybody posted.
