As the Summer fades and Fall’s crisp temperatures begin to turn cold, ice climbers around the nation begin to think about tall, shaded walls of hard water ice. With dozens of climbs ranging from one to three pitches, and from WI2 to WI5 M5, Lee Vining Canyon is almost without parallel as a place to receive ice climbing instruction. We use the varied terrain to our advantage, designing instructional courses for ice climbers of all skill levels, working on everything from top-rope routes to difficult multi-pitch ice climbs.
The road from the tiny hamlet of Lee Vining to Tioga Pass, the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park, climbs from Mono Lake through Lee Vining Canyon. From this highway, ice climbers can gain access to some of the best waterfall ice in the Sierra Nevada. The road into Tuolumne Meadows is plowed high enough to give excellent access to the entire Tioga Pass winter playground.
This area began to see development in around 1970 as Yvon Chouinard and Doug Robinson started putting up first ascents with the modern style tools that Chouinard was developing. It has since become known as the home of California’s longest, steepest, and (often) most interesting ice. As California ice unendingly forms, melts, and reforms, new and engaging variations of routes appear on a weekly basis providing the perfect instructional training ground for climbers.
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