Back at the local climbing spot near Carmacks

Snowmobiled out to Murray Creek Falls to check on the ice and work on a line on the side wall that caught my eye. Became a two day effort to bolt down to the overhang then continue under the overhang and into the shallow cave at water level. There is an open pool right under the line where you turn to the roof and get onto the wall above, culling rock off broke the ice and made the pool bigger. Chippy breakable rock on the face and the chances of dropping a tool into the water had me using my etriers as temporary leashes which of course became an epic tangle. Hard line not much to pull on when transitioning onto the face and rubbly seam above.

Anyhow - light dusting of snow and breaks in the fog made for some nice light on the frost which is coating everything on the trip an and a crescent moon on the way out.

Murray Creek Falls near Carmacks catch up pix and along the Yukon Quest Trail

some shots from the other day when I was down at the local falls, bouldering on the same bit of ice in very mild conditions for the end of November / beginning of December. Some potential for some decent mixed on the side walls

Later on I took a spin down part of the Yukon Quest Trail, apparently, and along a very open Yukon River that was rafting newly formed fast ice in the warm conditions.

Yukon ice climbing, skiing on the river, and a not often done traverse near Carmacks

There is a guidebook for ice climbing in the Yukon, though I have been told it is now a little dates. The seepages along Fish Lake Road appear to be no more as the diversion pipe from the dam has been slip lined or replaced in a similar fashion to what happened at Grassi Lakes when Trans Alta upgraded their Spray hydro electric project. So.. that lead to a bit of a quest to find some of the other routes in the guide. I went down to Carcross as there are several lists climbs there and I noticed a seepage along the road while hiking there in the Fall. The route at km 20 past the Carcross bridge is an actual creek and is high enough volume to still be flowing. There are two nice looking routes across the lake but are currently only accessible by boat - looks to be a straight forward paddle. The aforementioned seep was frozen so it provided some diversion to the day - nice ice actually too bad it wasn't ten times higher. Mild day, above freezing, poor conditions down by the border so I opted not to drive past the border control

the lake and the routes on the other side

Met a trapper the other day and was able to tag along on a traverse from the Mount Nansen Road on over to the Freegold Road. Lots and lots of willow bashing. The Trail on the Freegolsd side is heavily overgrown.

and before it got warm there was some decent skiing to be had on the river ice