Updated 1 April, 08.

The following definitions indicate whether a route is leadable.  
These are based on personal reports, and may not be accurate.

     "OUT" means no, or very little ice. 
     "THIN" means ice too thin to accept screws 
     "IN" means ice adequate for screws (~20cm)

           ROUTES                  CONDITIONS
        Cave Fever                   out
        Falls Br.                    out
        Dorchester                   out
        Grand Falls                  out
        Hampton                      out
        Hayes Falls                  out
        Ministers Face               out
        Parlee Br.                   fat
        St. Martins                  out
        Waterfall Wall               out
                                            

1 April. Parlee is still great and should last for a few more weeks. Shawn and Denise climbed Hullholmes this past weekend in great condition. Everything else in the province (as far as I know) is gone.

This will be my last posting for Conditions Updates. I will not continue this for the 2008/09 season. The climbeasterncanada.com forum adequately covers conditions reports. Thanks for your patronage. Joe.

16 March. Parlee is FAT! Some of the biggest ice I've ever seen there. Everything is in awesome shape, including Hullholmes. It'll still be great for Easter, if you're still keen. Below is (a) the top half of Hullholmes, (b) Shawn on Patrick ,(c) 2 wingnuts on 3 Amigos and (d) 3 Amigos. Joe.

6 7 March. Greg and I went into Parlee Brook on Thursday/Friday - - stayed overnight (that is the ONLY way to enjoy Parlee Brook). Everything is VERY fat...and great. We climbed Patrick's Choice, 3 Amigos, and KF Gully. 3 Amigos was dry in the AM but wet in the afternoon. I've attachd a couple of pictures from 3 amigos: Stacey.

23 Feb. Icefest was a good event as usual. Ministers Face offered decent ice with 6 lines set up, including both curtains and a thin smear on the left wall that Dave led. About 20 climbers showed up and nearly everyone got wet feet. A big challenge was simply walking around the base as high water levels flooded the rivers edge, and the entertainment was watching someone jump from flow to flow. Lots of good food and cakes at Steves - thaks to Steve and Darlene for holding the party and cleaning up the mess, again!

Below are some photos of Mt. Misery taken on 21 Feb. The first shows the major iceflows, and the second is the plum of the area.

21 Feb. Climbed at Mt. Misery tonight... it was not very good. Only 4 lines were climbable. They were ~ 50ft and not the quality of Ministers Face. So I think Ministers Face would be a better place for the IceFest. Lets meet at Ministers Face around 10am Sat. morning. We'll climb all day, and then it's a short trip to Steve's place for supper. Bring something good, and some photos. Joe.

18 Feb. All the question marks above means I expect todays heavy rains will hurt the ice routes, but I'm not sure how badly. Conditions were reasonable in most places this past weekend. We climbed Ministers Face yesterday - it was fat on the left but thin on the right. The upper right curtain was in and the left (Iron Curtain) was even forming but I don't expect it to last today. We'll still plan on the IceFest for this Saturday at Mt. Misery but I'll check it out later this week. If it's blown out we'll meet at Ministers Face instead. I'll post a note confirming the location by Thursday.

12 Feb. Conditions are good in most places. I had a chance to check out Grand Manan, and most routes were very thin or not fully in. I wouldn't bother going over there this weekend without a boltgun.

3 Feb. Ministers Face is in (photo below), but I was too worried about crossing a large crack in the river ice to get over to it. So I climbed HeartAttack Gully with my kids instead. It's all ice, no snow at all. Shawn played at Steve's new spot yesterday. It's at the base of Mt. Misery, 2 km upriver from Gondola Pt, so I propose we call it "Mt. Misery". He said it took quite a beating from the sun and was thin in places, but very fun for top-roping.

ICEFEST - We'll tentatively plan on this years Icefest for Sat. 23 Feb. For a change I propose we climb at a new spot near Gondola Pt. ferry. We'll follow up with a potluck at Steve Adamsons house. More details to follow...

27 Jan. Waterfall Wall was in decent shape this weekend with the 3 main lines led. Cave Fever is even looking tempting - the bottom piller looked great but the slabs above looked thin and delaminated. Sunday was beautiful; Shawn, Denice and I had the place to ourselves!

20 Jan. Parlee is good, but not fat. Everything is in except for Patricks Choice, however the ice is very layered so getting solid screw placements was challenging sometimes. Blue Piller was very good and even plastic in places. Hullholmes is too thin to lead, but may be OK in a week. We hiked in from the bottom along "Arnolds Hollow" and took almost an hour. The trail is not yet packed down by snowmobilers (hint hint Darrell!). For those who haven't travelled in this way, there is a good path in the snow now, right up to the ice. And Matt reports that Waterfall Wall is out but should improve very soon.

12 Jan. Parlee was reported to be just barely in this weekend by Shawn. All the Kings Horses, Yellow and Blue piller were the fattest routes, with the others very thin or delaminated. Waterfall Wall must have been hurt bad, but nothing comfirmed. Everything was very wet, so routes should fatten up this week with the cold temps, and be reasonable for this weekend.

3 Jan. Not much to report. Hampton flows were in very good shape over the holidays. Most reports are going to climbeasterncanada.com which is fine with me. I'll likely post the occassional photo and report as they filter in, but not as much as previous years. Joe.

14 Dec. Conditions are improving, although Parlee was reported to be climbable but surprisingly thin last weekend. Fred reports Grand Falls to be decent. I expect Hayes Falls should be climbable, and Waterfall Wall should be topropable.