On Sunday, I reconnected with my friend Emilie Drinkwater, a guide from upstate New York with whom I took the AMGA Rock Instructor Course. She was down in North Conway for the the annual Ice Fest, a four day event that includes multiple nights of entertainment, and she had Sunday open.

The 45 degree temperatures kept most people away…and it turned our chosen route, Repentance, into a drippy, but plastic wonderland. Easy climbing and crowd free–does it get any better?

Emilie starts up Repentance at Cathedral Ledge.

Repentance was first climbed as a wet rock climb in 1959, but found its classic status as a winter route, in 1973, when the 500′ of steep offwidths and chimneys fill with ice. See the pics below…

Looking down pitch 2.

Emilie styling the last bit of steep ice.
 

 

Pulling the final mixed moves over the chockstone.

There’s not much better than having coffee at 7am, driving 3 miles, walking 5 minutes, climbing a three pitch ultra-classic, and being back at the coffee shop well before noon! So the question is “what do I have to repent for?” Who knows, but it’s a great route!