Bridge River Ice Climb Near Miss

Name of climb

The Theft

Ice quality was:

Terrible

We retreated from the climb because of

• Poor ice conditions
• Time of day
• Warming/solar radiation

The day was:

• Cloudy
• Warm
• Wet

Avalanche conditions

• Slab avalanches today or yesterday.
• 30cm + of new snow, or significant drifting, or rain in the last 48 hours.
• Rapid temperature rise to near or above 0°C or wet surface snow.

Size 2+/3 wet loose overshot our party of 3 tucked against the rock on The Theft WI6+/M6 saturday in the Bridge. The avi flowed for 20-30sec coming as close a 5m to the 2 climbers at the P1 belay but mostly falling to the climber's right. One climber received a branch to the buttocks with minor bruising/abrasion.

Mistake was made in relying on word of mouth and visual inspection of the climb and not reviewing a topographic map which showed the steep terrain above. Initially, we considered the objective a conservative, low avi risk climb on such a high risk day (the overhead seemed flat with dense trees).

Upon returning to the car, we also witnessed another slide over The Gift (a climb just a couple 100 meters to the East on the same aspect which had hit another party the day prior).