Helmcken Falls
In British Columbia’s Cariboo Mountains, a glacier feeds the Murtle River, which meanders just 11 miles before it empties into its namesake lake and then becomes the Clearwater River. In less than a dozen miles, the Murlte carved six waterfalls over the eons, perhaps none more spectacular than Helmcken Falls.
This picturesque location is sometimes known as the “Yosemite of ice climbing,” thanks to the massive, frozen walls it produces in the winter. But just one peek might be enough to convince you that this waterway could fit into Yosemite’s impressive stable even in the summer:
Helmcken drops 463 feet (141 meters) from its upper lip into a gorgeously contoured bowl, surrounded by extending canyon walls and verdant conifers. This spot could be the type definition for the Plunging Punchbowl classification of waterfalls.
The vast region surrounding the falls was formed by numerous volcanic layers approximately 200,000 years ago. Around the time of the last ice age – around 10,000 years ago – massive floods etched troughs through the mostly flat beds. One of these chiseled channels was Helmcken Canyon. When a river formed in the region, the path over the top to the gorge crafted a worldie waterfall.
The crown jewel of Wells Gray Provincial Park, today tourists can regale Helmcken with just a short saunter, but this portion of Canada is so remote and rugged that no European immigrants knew about the falls until 1913. Then, a surveyor named Robert Henry Lee happened upon the apex of the falls. He was so stunned by his discovery that he wrote to the Premier of British Columbia, Sir Richard McBride, asking if he could name the location after him. McBride passed, opting instead to honor John Sebastian Helmcken, who was prominent in the movement to unite British Columbia and the Canadian Confederation in the 1870s.
Helmcken’s liquid season is full of furious beauty, but, being Canada, things become otherworldly in the winter.
The incredible amount of water that comes over the falls, coupled with the frigid temperatures of Canada’s interior, creates a feature reminiscent of the area’s volcanic past: a cone!
On good years, the snow cone reaches about halfway up the canyon. That’s more than 200 feet!
There’s so much stable ice on the vertical walls of the canyon that elite ice climbers from around the world trek to Helmcken during the winter to partake in its challenges. A few of the planet’s toughest-rated ice climbs exist there. A route called “Interstellar Spice” makes some Top 10 lists for the hardest climbs, ice or no ice, period.
The video above is so gnarly it’s hard to comprehend what’s happening.
One thing is certain, though. This waterfall is regal in all seasons.
Further Reading and Exploration
Helmcken Falls – World Waterfall Database
Iconic Waterfalls – Wells Gray Website
Volcanoes – The Atlas of Canada
Emmett talks about Mission to Mars and Helmcken Falls – Climber
