Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 14, 2012 - 12:30am PT
I know this is primarily a rock climbing website (and I do prefer the dry and sunny myself) but for us bacon-loving, syrup-drinking, igloo-dwelling, beer-swilling, chainsaw-toting, plaid-clad frozen neighbors up North here in Canaduh, the icy months hold their own beauty.
Credit: Synchronicity
October brings the sounds of picks being filed, crampons and ice screws sharpened, Oh yes it would seem ice climbing season is coming!
Credit: Synchronicity
November just came (oh did she?) and I'm looking at a slow winter for work. I have a ski touring trip planned for February out near Revelstoke and I'm already going to be in the rockies. I'm hoping to drive out a few weeks earlier or stay a few weeks later. I missed out on most of last years ice season and really don't want to do the same again.
Credit: Synchronicity
I'm a mediocre ice climber at best but I do find the joy and beauty in the suffering. There is just something amazing about a pure sheet of ice...
Credit: Synchronicity
And in Ice climbing a good partner is essential, someone to help keep the spirits high when the temps are loooow...
First Ascent, at least WI5, M7
Credit: Synchronicity
and to keep the mood light even when it gets serious...
ok make a serious face dude!
Credit: Synchronicity
So come on, post up some old photos, or new photos to get the stoke going. Anything from bluebird warm ice days to bitter nasty headlamp epics. Lets get some stoke going for the dark frozen months of winter!
I learned early on that ice climbing is for psycho nut cases. so I didn't do very much water ice. Limited my play time to alpine ice, but did some 1-2 pitch water ice free solos in Lee Vining. I stand in awe of good ice climbers.
Good shot of fang and fist above, looks eerily similar to the one in my guidebook...
I will have to dig up some more photos, yes ice climbers are a different kind of crazy! I sat roadside one time and watched a sponsored climber aid the ice roof on Curtain Call (upper had broken off) and then truck up the top pitch. Watched from the road with bino's, impressive stuff!
Oddly enough, it was ice climbing that got me into skiing, I didn't want to keep postholing across frozen lakes for hours just to get to the ice.
most of my ice was done in the 70s,, when dueling chouinard alpine hammers was cooooll..A hidden carson pass gem of about 80 feet or so- over the deepest bowl of powder one can imagine.
Hey Ed that was great! Brought back memories from that route. Ames and routes like it were quite an adventure back then. Glenwood Canyon also had some wild stuff as well as Ouray and Telluride. We took what we learned there to the mountains. Just imagine Ames and Bridalveil type routes plastered on to big alpine faces! That is some good clean living! Nice Ed!
I agree, that knowing the frozen stuff is forming makes this a very exciting time of the year for those inclined.
Of course, the frozen stuff takes many different forms.
Credit: wbw
And tuning up on these during the wonderful winter season,
Credit: wbw
makes the approach to these somewhat less nauseating.
Credit: wbw
Still, climbing the big ice faces of the Andes is typically engaging, with plenty of tenuousness hanging above.
Credit: wbw
It does give those of us, that need a little frozeness in the middle of summer a chance to get our yayas out.
Credit: wbw
To a rockclimber that cannot relate, yes the movement can be repetitive. But the ice experience is so varied, that each day out is never the same. This is why I chase after it, between rock climbs, all during the year.
When were you there? Looks Fat in your pics! But still the column broke? Whip much? Looks cool thanks for the pics! Glad you are OK.
Wes
PS Where is the Weeping Wall? I want to go there!
Wes I can't remember the exact year but it was like in 05' or 06 maybe 07' I do remember it was in Feb just can't place the year. (if your reading this E what year was it?)that Erik Erikkson, Bill Russel and I attempted it. It was in what E and I thought was in "Fat conditions." I had no hesitation when it was my lead on the second pitch, in fact I was quite stoked thinking it was in stellar shape. First or second swing of my tool the whole column shifted, wobbled and nearly fell on me. You can see the nice size chunk that did fall fall off in the pic.
The weeping wall is on the Ice Fields parkway in Alberta Canada. I must visit destination for all that like to climb frozen water.
Nice job ticking the Hose Monster Wes! I still want that one even though it scared me silly when we tried it.
Ed I like the photo of the California approach vehicle. I have always said it is hard (and expensive) to try and be a Ice Climber and live in So Cal. You got to want it. I try and a least do a couple trips each season.
Most my shots are reposts but hell here a couple more
I spent a few winter seasons climbing ice in the Adirondacks mainly and a few other spots in the northeast. Miss it, but thinking more about winter swell than drips freezing up in my coastal setting these days.
North face of Gothics
Credit: adam d
North face of Pitchoff
Credit: adam d
Ragnarock, Smuggler's Notch (2 long pitches, way foreshortened)
Credit: adam d
The Amphitheater at Salmon River Gorge, Tug Hill Plateau, NY
The whipper Traverse was pretty sketch- manky pins right off the belay. My partner was solid though. It was the first ascent of the season so the ice was bulletproof and not hooked so quite devine.
wow, I could get out some of that pre-gortex stuff, including a "60/40" parka that my wife made for me back in the day... probably from a pattern out of an old book on making your own camping stuff...
wool socks, wool knickers, wool balaclava, wool mittens, leather boots, nylon shell... got wet and stayed "warm" (the mantra, repeated over and over: "wool is warm, even when wet" was more a prayer)
wood handles, no leashes,
impossible technique
climbing ice in January 2012 was very different from the last time I climbed ice in 1995
the clothing technology made climbing movement possible and kept the body warm and dry
the ice "tool" technology transformed ascents from something akin to framing a house to actual recognizable climbing
and the popularity of the sport has turned it into a search for holes to hook (this is not such a great development IMHO)
no use dwelling on the past except to, once again, give kudos to those climbers who put up the hardest routes (many still hard) with the gear of that day
I'm looking forward to 2035, when we'll have spikes coming from our palms, and the jackets/pants will be made of robots.
I'll be the old guy talking about the good ole days when all we had were nomics and Event.
Incidentally, I think I'll head up the North Fork this weekend - heard there may be a little ice below Thor. Scratch around on a little WI2 to get the season started. Chief, if you fancy an arm-wrestling match, I'll be ready.
Tim -
Kris E and I drove up after the 2004 election, totally bummed, ready to become Canadians. The Terminator headwall was super deluxe, nice and plastic before deep winter sublimates it into a brittle nightmare.
Me on a obscure Blackcomb route.... so obscure I can't even remember what we called it. I don't know if you can see it but right about there is a crucial #2 Big Bro placement. I bet I'm the only guy in the world who has protected an ice climb with a Bro
might take a road trip out West this winter to get some climbing in either at Cody or Hyalite (the drive is about the same) -- which is better in terms of approach/accessibility, reliability of ice, aesthetics and so on?
Tom May- Kirkwood 78. Alpine Hammers and shortie axes.
Credit: Ron Anderson
Credit: Ron Anderson
Franktown falls,, fa 1978
NO known second ascent to this date 2012..
Credit: Ron Anderson
on the top easy ground of franktown falls..
Credit: Ron Anderson
Paul Crafton coming up over the lip of the vertical sec below 140 feet long..
Credit: Ron Anderson
this climb is just above 5000 hidden on the west side of washoe valley, and only forms when its in the twentys for a high and sub zero lows for a few days. The pic of the whole thing is at the end of the day which had warmed into the high 30s- and water was running the left side..
Bruce I figure you could either go hard left out to the corner, up the corner then back right on ledge past the three trees to the upper ice, or just lug a drill up there and make a modern route with some bolts... if there are any holds on that rotten granite.
it sure is a long way up there though. I took that photo with 10x zoom.
Bruce, it's pretty darn dry here right now, and the ice like that up high on Alex's between 12K and 13K is most likely sublimating. That picture was taken last April.
Edit: Those thin runnels in your pix. look pretty sweet as well.
Awesome thread!!! Jonesing for some ice here in the NE! Things have definitely been getting climbed, but still pretty thin in most places.
Here's a shot from a multi-sport day in Mt. Washington's Huntington Ravine this past spring (ice climbed Pinnacle Gully, rock climbed Pinnacle Butress, then snowboarded Central Gully):
My friend Scott on P2 of the Black Dike (photo by Scott Sampietro):
Pretty full-on conditions in Pinnacle Gully this past January:
Tradman! These pictures were taken a few years back. We have nothing going on right now. Standard can be climbed. I soloed Monkey Wrench to the Cleft last weekend and that was wonderful...but you have to go high to get the ice right now. Hopefully things will change here in the next week or two!
Just finished watching Ice Revolution from last years Reel Rock film tour, Will Gadd and Tim Emmet on their Helmcken Falls project. If you haven't seen it yet (I hadn't) check it out! Crazy futuristic ice climbing for sure, weird to see ice and bolts together...
Oh...lol. Sorry Tradman! Actually, Janet Wilkinson and Majka Burhardt climbed Standard route today...that must have been one scratchy and dicey ascent! Pretty cool
Bruce Kay - right, there is some really tall and impressive ice in Norway. In Feb 2005, Scott Johnston, Erik Sandelin, Björn Kihlstrom, and I climbed the 1st 4 pitches of a waterfall near what was later named Fossilmonster. There was much more above us. We went back in 2006, but the lower pitches were missing. In 2009, Robert Jasper and partners finished it, naming it Into the Wild and also did the FA of the Fossilmonster (link below).
Into the Wild, Gudvangen, Norway (Feb. 2005)
Credit: BMcC
The bottom bit (4 pitches) of Into the Wild (Feb. 2005)
Credit: BMcC
Fossilmonster is to the right and out of the above pictures.
Bruce Kay - For some perspective on the length of Fossilmonster, Robert Jasper puts it at about 100m less than that of Into the Wild. The 1st 4 pitches of Into the Wild is the bit of ice in this picture rising above the end of the safety guardrail along the right side of the road:
Let us know!