WILL GADD
Advice from Canada’s Top Winter Climber
Will Gadd has been at the top of Canadian climbing for nearly 30 years. He bought his f irst climbing rope at 16, but his father, Ben, had taken Gadd climbing at a very young age. “I wore big mitts, a construction helmet, a Don Whillans Ball Crusher harness, and a soaked pile f leece, as Gore-Tex hadn’t been invented yet,” said Gadd, remembering his f irst ice climb. “I often wonder what that 16- year-old boy would think of me if he saw me today; I’d tell that boy to at least bring more gloves on his next climb, and to get a real helmet.”
From 1998 to 2000, Gadd won the ice climbing competition at the X Games and the World Cup. In 2010, he climbed 7,500 metres of vertical ice at the Ouray ice park for charity. In the big mountains, Gadd had climbed around the world, made the first one-day ascent of Mount Robson in the Rockies and opened the unrepeated Howse of Cards VI M7 W16X on Howse Peak. He’s established hundreds of mixed and ice routes.
“Time outside slows me down, filters my blood of aspirations and junk and leaves me less cluttered both physically and mentally,” said Gadd. “The mountains don’t respect nonsensical prayer or cherished rosy beliefs, they just are. To see them cleanly and clearly is as close to the divine as I’ll ever get.”
Gadd has a history of telling it how it is and not holding back his opinions. That, and being a professional acmg climbing guide, stuntman, TV personality and athlete, makes him one of the most pro pros in the climbing game. When asked about one place he’d love to visit and climb, he said Antarctica, where he might visit in 2019.
There’s an old saying that you should never fall while ice climbing, is that true? Yes. And when you break that rule, and everybody eventually does, you better hope it doesn’t maim or kill you. Place enough gear so that if you fall off you don’t die, and know that the only good screw is a really, really solid screw. The rest are junk.
What’s something ice climbers should know about falling? Realize that falling off while leading an ice climb will likely result in a minimum of a badly broken leg, ankle, head, pelvis, neck, back or all of this list, and set your mental dial and approach to the day appropriately. It’s not rock climbing or drytooling or prancing around on an easy snow slope in knickers. In rock or drytooling you push yourself to the edge in relatively controlled environments and expect to fall off. If you fall off ice climbing, you’ve compounded multiple errors and seriously screwed up.
No, the ice didn’t “just break,” no, it wasn’t “a freak accident,” you made an error. And tiny errors can lead to very serious outcomes when playing with high stakes. Very rarely, I’ll read of someone getting hit in the head with a random piece of ice and falling off, but that’s really, really rare, unicorn rare. If you set your danger metre at, “I fall, I get badly damaged, minimum,” then you’ll climb like you mean to stay attached. Guy Lacelle, one of the best ice climbers ever, didn’t die ice climbing despite soloing thousands of pitches over the years. He stayed attached because he knew the outcome of falling off.
What’s something all new mixed/ice climbers should know? Mixed climbers should know that falling on overhanging mixed climbs is like falling on steep sport routes. The icicles on the route are often hard and technical, make sure the rope runs so that if they break they don’t catch the rope or land on the belayer.
For ice climbing, it’s easy to beat your way up an ice climb slowly and with little security. Leading ice well takes a lot of practice, and without good practice, falls are more likely. As many Bow Valley locals will attest, falling on ice results in really serious injury about 30 per cent of the time. So learn how to get good sticks, good feet, and good gear before leading ice. Top roping 100 pitches will give you a basic understanding of ice, but only if you really work to understand how it works.
What’s the most important tool in an ice climber’s kit? As in any climbing, the brain. The line between competency and idiocy is often closer than we think, and it’s only our minds that can figure it out. Seek understanding. What are your favourite early season Rockies climbs? I’m hoping for a good early season start to the Trophy Wall this year, it hasn’t come in well the last few years. Replicant, Terminator and Sea of Vapours, always good for a fun day.
What’s the best way to train for ice climbing? Go ice climbing. As with any sport, sportspecif ic training kicks ass on all forms of training. If you can’t ice climb, then build a splice (home board for training) and get after it. All climbing is related; a 5.12 rock climber will have the movement to climb hard ice, he or she just needs to learn the ice-specifics, which takes time on ice. I see some very strong rock climbers f lailing, but climbing is climbing, it’s a lot easier to teach someone to ice climb who already knows rock climbing basics.
Do you have any big projects this year? I’m on a f light to Greenland right now, involving ice climbing, scientific research and diving. Top secret, but so cool. And we’re going to back to China and Quebec. So stoked for winter.
If you could go back and tell young Will something about climbing, what would it be? Go climbing lots, on any terrain that f ires you up. In t he long term all t he style and ethics posing beyond environmental impact is bullshit. Go climbing in whatever way makes you lust for the vertical. Climbing is t he best of times and t he worst of times, and often you won’t know which until later. Get more professional level training earlier, meaning avalanche courses, guide’s courses, anything you can do to learn more about the mountains from a professional perspective.
Realize you’re a sack of meat against an infinitely powerful force, so keep that in perspective to make good decisions, and understand earlier that you won’t always make good decisions. In video games when you fuck up, you get another life. In the mountains, you just die. Play to win the survival game, dangerous shit in the mountains is just dangerous, not something to celebrate. If you almost die you almost lost, and losing sucks.—