No Couch, I had a Forrest "life time" set when I was at PSU. Sold them to a collector (Supertopo Duane) some years back and now have BD Vipers. Yea, I know, already dated, but plenty for me.
My partner has BD Fusions. We use the old school ones for the second and for an extra set. He let's me use the Fusion's for leading. Although I kinda like the leashes. I once took a fall and the leash caught the fall. It played hell on my wrist, but it was better than taking a spill on ice.
ignore what the guy from Minnesota says. Hyalite is in great shape! Most stuff in the main fork is in great shape, check out the Winter Dance area, over easy (WI3), Curtains, and Slot corner (both WI4) are great introductions to the area and with the low avy danger right now should be a wonderful day out. If there isn't new snow you can make it all the way in the east fork road with a 4x4. It's a great season this year and you'll have a blast!
Thx bigwall shitter. We will take all the bets we can get. 4x4 with studs. Check. Badass ice tools and plenty of screws. Check. Awesome climbing partner. Check. It's 3:15 am, Alpine start. Check. Picking up my climbing partner at 4:00 am and we hit the road for a 12 hour ride to bliss. WAAAA HOOOOO!
Plaidman on Great White Icicle Little Cottenwood Canyon Utah
The road to the east fork closes at the intersection to the main road on January 1st, unless there are cars stuck back there then they leave it open until folks get their vehicles out.
Dribbles in great conditions (was very brittle on first pitch though, when we did it 3-4 days ago). I took the steepest line to the left of the wi3ish ramp that majority of people take on pitch 3 and made it into a wi4+ish pumper.
Cleopatra's Needle is in and cleaned out! I got to lead every pitch, including the wi5 pillar that does not touch down at the moment. Onsighted my first wi5!
Thrill Is Gone was onsighted yesterday. It does not have much ice through the middle but that's what makes it a mixed climb right? AWESOME climb. Kept me engaged throughout.
Hangover is in great shape.
G1 is good
G2 is ok. Picked out at the top
Fat Chance is fat.
Thin Chance is thin and picked out. Someone called it wi5 after leading it. I led it and thought it was wi4, just thin which makes it kind of scary. But you can hook a lot.
Mummy II was fat but wet
Scepter- one of the scariest leads ever for me. Climbing was not hard, but it was soooo shendeliered that i couldn't place screws that were confidence inspiring till half way up it. Place a screw, and it goes hollow after half way point. than on the upper part u swing and whole tool goes in almost with the head, cuz it bashed through thinish shendeliery sh#t. So I did more hooking and ran it out a ways on top too. Climb was not picked out 3 days ago. But I saw people on it yesterday, so good ice may be accessed soon, and big steps could be formed.
Fat One is fat. lol
Have fun.
PS: I have those same tools. Grievel Light Machines. But climb on cobras now.
Thanks Jim. Not really cold for a guy that worked in Grand Lake Colorado in -40. I didn't wear gloves much as it is really hard to hold nails or anything else when you are building.
Sometimes I even throw off my gloves while ice climbing.
The temps don't seem that bad really.
For BMartin
The road to the east fork closes at the intersection to the main road on January 1st, unless there are cars stuck back there then they leave it open until folks get their vehicles out.
the east fork road is different from the main fork, which is plowed all the way. If it doesn't snow there's a boottrack all the way into the killer pillar in flanders, champagne sherbet should be at the top of your list. I've spent the last 4 days in the east fork/flanders. Today I drove all the way to the end of the road, not bad, just stay in the ruts. Of course that doesn't matter if the road is gated, in which case it's an extra mile of road for flanders, and 3 miles of road for the climbs like high fidelity and slight of hand.
Shotgun to the head @ 1987 ish Mike? Rogers ashes got scattered up at Angles Rest by his lady Kathy and some friends. I regret I had to work that day and couldn't get it off.
Roger had been on a self imposed all natural, all uncooked, Veg diet ever since his fall off the very top of Rooster Rock headfirst into the Columbia River. The river was at record high levels and he was stuck headfirst in the mud with a broken neck. A young couple nearby gently pulled him out and floated him over to the shore.
The fall, which must have been @1969-70 somewhere had caused all kinds of broken bones and health issues which later morphed into arthritis in every joint he had. Roger was told he'd be in a wheelchair by the time he was 30. Then he's walking past the stacks in a book store and sees a health food diet book written by an old black guy that suggests eating ONLY raw uncooked vegetables is the key to the fountain of youth. It may have been, I was once soloing Mount Hood in the days when I was guiding and up there a lot and in shape. In the early morning gloom I see another way over also heading up. I tried to match his pace but was unable to. Later I learned it was Rog, he'd seen me, didn't recognize who I was and didn't want company. On later climbs together I learned how good of shape he was in, amazing. The diet helped a lot in keeping the pain away but as he aged (into his 30's or so) it crept back and he'd admit to it. I didn't climb a lot with Roger but we did some rock and some mountains together.
But either the diet or the prolific drugs he took as a youth, caused some rage to come out on occasion of what was an otherwise absurdly mellow guy and one day, he just couldn't handle the combo of pain and rage and did himself in. RIP Roger.
We did some PG 13 at Genesis area. Mountain Project says these are WI 3+.
Didn't seem that hard. It was fairly picked out which was OK by me. We both led one and toproped a bunch. Our first day we thought we would ease into the week.
Another sweet day. Got a WI3 lead done first thing this morning. Felt like the rope gun. Really not that big of a deal. it was just smokin fun. Had the GoPro on for that lead. 6 screws on Siwitchback Falls. Just fun. Love placin screws. WILD!
Pete Tapley gettin' it done in HC--a Deadrocker, at that :-)
edit: That Scepter video was gnarly--I was on the crux (seconding, thankfully) of Green Gully for a 19 second avalanche "flush". Keep the tools in and the head down...
Vitaliy M. - We are staying at the Best Western PLUS!!!! This has to one of the greatest vactions EVER!!!
Great weather. No wind. Temps good for ice formation. So fresh ice! No avy danger. Or at least not enough to worry much.
We are getting plenty of ice. Tomorrow we are going to see if we can take it up a notch. Haven't had to clip off a tool on any of our leads yet.
Best ice I have been on in a long time. Another day in paradise.
We had the best weather EVER! We got 9 routes done. I personally set 34 ice screws on my leads. We swung leads with Rick leading the first one of the morning on one day. Then I would lead the first one the next day. Five days of pure bliss. We climbed Genesis 1 and then Genesis 2. Switchback Falls, Fat Chance, Mummy 2, Then I led Genesis 1 straight up. We climbed Twin Falls in two pitches to get the alpine mult-pitch feel. Really it just made it more fun cause we both got to lead a pitch. Then today was Genesis 2 for Ricks lead, then I got to lead Hangover in free flowing wet conditions. I had to move fast so I didn't get car washed.
Let us know!