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Québec
Max Turgeon and I went for a free attempt on the famous Loutre (left neighbor of the La Pomme d'or). As you might know, it just doesn't form as it used to and the free standing pillar at top always cracks right at the roof and falls off. We skied in the 30km approach with our loaded sled for a 3 day stay on Saturday. It was blowing wind and snowing all day long, it took 7 hours. Sunday we climbed the route from the ground in full on conditions. We did the first 80m pitch with one small M4+ crux. A second awesome, but more committing 45m pitch in a closed dihedral, brought us to a first ice patch (M5). From there, it was 140m of beautiful grade 4 ice to the base of the roof. We managed climbing the roof placing only traditional gear (no bolts) although with one minor fall due to a broken hold. I re-climbed the crux free (M7+). A superb last ice pitch caps the top of the route. We rappelled in the Pomme d'or, which is right now in awesome conditions! Skied back, again with our sled, at our personal record time of 4h40.
Cheers! - Louis-Philippe Ménard Quebec climbers Maxime Turgeon and Louis-Philippe Ménard put up a new route on the north face of Mt. Bradley in Alaska’s Ruth Gorge last year. They completed the climb in 55 hours, and dubbed the 1,600 meter mixed route “Spice Factory” (Alaska grade V, 5.10R, M7). Among the top North American climbing feats in 2005, it earned the pair a place among the world climbing elite. http://climbing.com/news/hotflashes/spicefactory/
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