Headed out with Doug to give the east gully of the first flatiron a go. A recon last weekend showed some good ice formed part way up the route, and the fresh snow + cold temps gave me some hope that things might go. After some deep wallowing (AK training for Doug ), we reached the face. I drew the lead, following a thinly iced chimney to a lower angle ramp. The chimney provided interesting climbing, with no protection. Upon reaching the lower angle ramp, the ice turned to unbonded snow, and still with no protection, climbing came to a halt. Various descent plans were discussed, including:
1) trying to tension the rope to the outside of the chimney and lowering
2) jettisoning my crampons and riding the gully like a slip and slide to the powder cone below
3) down climb the sketchy terrain, accepting the powder crashpad as a reasonable outcome.
Luckily good judgment and luck won out, and the downclimb went off without issue. At the base, the route was nice enough to drop a few wet slides on to all of our gear.
Sam, Pete, Mary and I spent the last few days at steamboat springs. No big snowfalls, but enough fresh everyday to keep things soft, with a few surprises when putting forth a bit more effort. We skied the resort Thurs through Sat, with short backcountry tours Friday afternoon and sunday morning. I didnt put the video camera to too much use, but did take it out for two runs. One is the slack country off Pony Express, the other is a run down Baker Mountain near Rabbit Ears Pass. Unfortunately the footage from Baker mountain is mostly useless due to a fogged up lens. Guess I need to remember to take the camera out of my pack at the end of the day.
Did some bolted mixed climbing at Vail on Sunday with Joe, Doug and Jesse. Led Cupcake Corner, then we toproped Frigid Inseminator and 7th Tentacle, while Doug and Jesse climbed the much harder routes to the right. First “real” sport mixed (meaning actual rock and ice) leading I’ve done. I tried to move to the ice much too early, costing me the onsight. I did get pretty good at up and down climbing the chossy crux. Forced Joe to put up with a marathon belay session. As usual, another movie.
Last weekend I decided to turn 30 and take a trip up to Cody, WY with Chris. Although the forecast was a little warm, we had faith that Cody would still deliver, and it did. The combination of huge ice routes and minimal crowds make Cody one of the more appealing ice climbing destinations around. Also, the environment tends to lend itself to some fairly adventurous outings.
After a brief and somewhat humorous run in with the law, we made it to our motel shortly after midnight. We got up the next day and climbed the mega classic Mean Green. It proved to be a pretty long day, with some hard (for us) climbing, a somewhat sketchy descent, and some route finding issues on the hike out. Nonetheless, it was probably the best ice climb I’ve ever done, so well worth the effort. We didnt get back to the motel until around 11:00, and after a microwave dinner, an early start the next day was basically out of the question. Instead we decided on a leisurely start, and a climb of Stringer.
Although located in a dark cleft, the route is still on a south facing aspect. Unfortunately, the warm temps had melted out a significant portion of the climb. This was a bit of a mixed blessing, as we were pretty worn out from the day before. We spent the afternoon driving around and looking at various ice climbs, before returning to the motel for a nap and some BBQ dinner.
Day 3 we hoped to climb the classic Moratorium on the lower bench. One of the longest continuous flows in the valley, and rarely as fat as this year, this seemed like an obvious objective. On the approach, we noticed the climb looking a lot harder and thinner than it had the day before, so we opted instead to head up to Bozo’s revenge. It turns out, the climb we were seeing on the approach was not actually moratorium, but Joy After Pain, a much more difficult line. Moratorium was out of view around the corner. Still, Bozo’s proved to offer some classic moderate climbing, with an excellent 50m long main pitch.
Chris and I got out for a great day of ice climbing on Saturday. We climbed the classic moderate Jaws in RMNP. In spite of the cold morning temperatures in Boulder, temps on the climb were pretty Balmy. Luckily, we were up and down early enough to keep things from falling down. Conditions on the climb were great, although more interesting and slightly harder than we anticipated. What looked like a kicked out groove from a distance proved to be steep complex dribbles, with slightly challenging protection. After basking in the sun for a bit after the climb, we headed back to Boulder for some t-shirt weather rock climbing in Eldorado canyon.
For some reason old link stopped working after 28 seconds. Hopefully this is better.
There is something to be said for doing an ice climb in plain view of your office. Although the upper route wasnt formed, we did climb some fun, and previously unreported, terrain.
Reedited the video and uploaded to youtube, so it can be viewed in HD without going to facebook.
One of the joys of netflix is the ability to recapture your youth watch old tv shows. Yesterday, we fired up the pilot episode for MacGyver. In addition to mind blowing swiss army knife skills, apparently Mac was also a great climber:
MacGyver Sending
MacGyver Close Up
Not sure how the hammer comes in to play for the top out.
Got out for a fine day of ice climbing yesterday with Joe and Becky. We headed up the RMNP classic All Mixed Up on the east face of Thatchtop. The usual 4AM departure had us hiking the glacier gorge trail around 5:15 AM. We made fast time on the well packed trail to Mills Lake, at which point we realized we maybe should have brought some better directions. Although the climb was in plain view, the approach is blocked by a fairly cliffy hillside. After a few misleading trails, we finally picked up the correct one. A nicely packed trail climbed steeply through the woods, before breaking out into the open and forcing us to break trail the rest of the way.
Apparently AMU can get very busy when fully formed, but today, in the present thin conditions, we were the first ones there (2 other parties would show up when we were on the 2nd pitch). After taking our time getting ready, we soloed up the first pitch of easier ice.
The main flow ascended an extremely delicate looking pillar at the start of the 2nd pitch. We decided to climb around this by some still delicate, but shorter pillars on the right, leading to some thin ice and mixed climbing. Thankfully, the climbing was well protected, and the scariest part was the thought of dropping a tool. Above the mixed climbing, some beautiful ice lead up to a leftward traverse. An excellent 60m pitch of climbing.
Joe got the classic final pitch. Grade 3 ice, made more serious by the constant spin drift, led to a tricky mixed slot, that luckily gave way to good ice and turf out right.
After walking back to the base, Joe headed back up to look for a screw we dropped from the third pitch. Unfortunately, our screw was nowhere to be found, but Joe did find a screw belonging to one of the other parties that had started up below us. We returned it and headed back down to the car.
), we reached the face. I drew the lead, following a thinly iced chimney to a lower angle ramp. The chimney provided interesting climbing, with no protection. Upon reaching the lower angle ramp, the ice turned to unbonded snow, and still with no protection, climbing came to a halt. Various descent plans were discussed, including:
