Apple River area Ice

[Joe]

I've been looking at these lines for years from across the bay, and this weekend I went to investigate. From Cape Enrage NB, these lines are very visible, even at the 7 km distance, so I figured they must be substantial. My son and I climbed Tumbledown Falls WI4, 20m, Kokatat WI 5, 25m, and Birch Cove Falls WI 4++, 40m. (Apparently I can only add 3 attachments at a time, so more photos to follow). We drove along Shulie Road towards Sand River, hiked 2km down to Tumbledown Brook, and rappelled to the beach. I assume these are first ascents, but if not please let me know.

Tumbledown Falls is highly unusual because of the horizontal ice that forms perpendicular to the falls. This must be caused by high winds when the falls are starting to freeze. Kokatat is about 150m east of Tumbledown Falls, and the first photo of it is taken from the top of Tumbledown. It also is affected by wind-forming, with a very interesting ice cave formed just below the top. Needless to say, the exit moves are stimulating. At low tide we walked 1 km west and found Birch Cove Falls. The 4++ rating is based on the conditions we climbed it in - highly technical due to chandeliery/melting ice. In colder conditions it may be more straightforward.

We hiked about 1km on each side of these routes and did not see anything else climbable, with one notable exception. Birch Cove Falls has a very scary looking neighbor. It looks like a WI6 40m route, but it didn't look thick enough to hold body weight (otherwise I would have run up it, of course). But I suspect 2010 is not a great year for the ice there, because a photo I took from Cape Enrage a few years ago showed about 7 seperate lines, and we only found 4 in the section we walked. Future exploration might be beneficial. Good luck.

[Joe]

More photos