A Week of Ice Climbing
Just finished up a week of ice climbing. It's so much fun. My memory of ice climbing a year ago still had me believing that ice climbing was fun (although hard), and I was pleased to find that after another week of it, it definitely is fun (and hard).
I climbed for a couple of days and then two of my friends joined me for the last three days. Corey and I found our limits with some WI-5 climbs - each dropping into the harness after a desperate pick placement didn't end up holding. It's all one can do - to flail the ice tool at the wall with wobbly forearm muscles and hope it'll stick and if it does, that you'll have enough strength to actually grip it.
Eight hours and that each day for a week does wonders on one's muscle tone. Being able to enjoy a full season of that would be amazing.
After a refresher day on Monday, Chad (the guide) and I set out to climb Neurosis, but the ice was thin and delaminating due to the direct sunlight, so after scrambling up 50 or 60 feet we called it quits and moved on ... to try the first pitch of Positive Thinking. Overall its a WI-5 climb, but the first pitch is just a 4. And the bottom section was kicked in pretty good. But it's also a 150 foot pitch. That's brutal for a software engineer.
Wednesday we went to a private ice climbing area that a friend created by pumping water up a cliff. It had very easy WI-3 climbs that my two friends started on and some more interesting WI-4 climbs that we worked on later that day. Thursday and Friday we pushed on, trying some WI-4+ and WI-5 climbs. We also got Chad to climb some WI-6, which he did, successfully, the first time. It was an amazing feat of acrobatics, careful pick placement, foot work ... it was just amazing.
On this trip I also got to try out my Petzl Nomic ice tools for the first time. They're awesome. And a bit heavy. My right arm (I'm left handed) gives out on me after a while and swings the tool like a girl throws a baseball. It's a sad sight.
I think we all progressively did fewer climbs each day. Each day had more challenging, longer climbs, but we were also less inclined to jump right back on the ice. It's a brutal hobby.
We finished off the week with a trip to The Mountaineer, where we three drooled over many wonderful pieces of climbing equipment that we couldn't possibly justify purchasing. It sure is fun though. On our way out the cashier gave me a flag thing to take with us to McKinley, to hold up on the summit for a photo op. I definitely intend to.
