Posts from the ‘Ice Climbing’ category

Photos Galore!

on February 20, 2009

Here are a few photos from our foray thus far in North Conway, NH. After the snow stopped falling yesterday afternoon Dustin and I snuck in an ascent of Repentance, a classic 3 pitch line near town. It was snowy and wet, but still excellent climbing. Enjoy the photos! 

Dustin styling the lead on “Standard Route” WI3 at Frankenstein Cliff.

 

Dustin approaches “Lost in the Forest” WI3/4.

 

Me leading a very wet Dracula, WI4/4+.

Dustin below the crux on “Hobbit Couloir” WI4+/5-

 

Topping out on “Hobbit Couloir” with the highway a long ways down!

 

Dustin sends the first pitch of “Repentance” at WI4.
 

 

Following the second pitch of Repentance.
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Nor’Easter

on February 19, 2009

Road Trip Update:
Dustin and I have gotten in two full days of climbing here in North Conway, NH. We’ve been cruising around the classic Frankenstein Cliff just north of town, doing a bunch of classics each day. Tuesday we did: Standard Route Left (WI3, 2 pitches), Waterfall (WI3, 1 pitch), Chia (WI3+, 1 pitch), and Pegasus (WI4, 1 pitch). Yesterday we did Lost in the Woods (WI4, 1 pitch), Standard Route Right (WI3, 2 pitches), Dracula (WI4/4+, 1 pitch) and Hobbit Couloir (WI5, 2 pitches), and Chia (again, so Dustin could lead it). All in all, we’ve been getting it done.

I almost took my first leader fall on ice yesterday also. In the middle of the overhanging pillar of pitch two on the Hobbit Couloir, I was matching hands on my tool when it shifted and started to lift out of the ice. As I began to fall away from the ice I was able to grab my other shaky tool and stay upright. Terrifying! It would have been about a 20′ fall, but it was steep so I probably would have been ok. I’m glad that I didn’t find out.

Anyways, late last night it stared to snow and it’s dumped about 10″ so far. I guess it’s a classic “Nor’Easter,” which just means that it’s going to puke snow for a day and then get nice again. The winter storm warning is going to end at 1PM today–in a couple hours–so we’ll hopefully get out of this coffee shop soon and get on some more ice. I hope so…

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Road Trip!

on February 16, 2009

It’s 11F outside my window right now, dead calm, and there’s a bluebird sky. That sounds like perfect ice climbing weather if you ask me. Sunny, plastic ice (but not wet enough to be dripping) is covering all the crags in New England. Good thing my friend Dustin is flying in from Washington in a couple hours for a ten day ice climbing bender! We’re going to hit up some classics and some new crags (to us, at least)–Smugglers Notch, Lake Willoughby, the Adirondacks, the Catskills, Cannon Cliff, Cathedral Ledge, Frankenstein, and Crawford Notch.

Last week it warmed up to nearly 60F for about 36 hours, helping to release all of the groundwater that had been frozen into place for the last month. The result? To everyone’s surprise almost all of the climbs remained standing and in good shape AND lots and lots of fresh ice helped to heal all of the routes that had been hacked to death over the last three months. To make it even better, the snowpack consolidated (I don’t think it quite went isothermic, but it’s a start) so it’s likely that traveling conditions are also perfect. Ideal.

Off we go!

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Repentance

on February 10, 2009

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!

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The Black Dike

on February 8, 2009

The Black Dike, Cannon Cliff, New Hampshire.

The Black Dike. The name elicits fear and nervous apprehension simply because of its classic status. Supposedly this route changed ice climbing forever when John Bouchard soloed it in December of 1971. Did I mention that it’s rated WI4/5, M5? Oh yea, and he was climbing with an ice axe in one hand and and ice pick in the other! Modern tools surely bring the grade down a bit, but it’s still the most obvious, classic line I’ve ever seen from a freeway.

Cannon Cliff from I-93. The route follows the corner on the left side.

 

The strange thing about this route is the intensity of the wind. Blowing through Franconia Notch, it seems to get caught in the gully and blows upwards ferociously. I’ve heard stories that chunks of ice released by tools actually blow above the climber, only to then fall down on them from above! Tom and I both suffered immensely from the screaming barfies while on route, but never would have known it when back at the car–sitting in t-shirts in the sun.

At the crux on pitch 2.

 

Above the crux traverse

 

Tom following pitch 2.

It’s a classic climb. Go do it and don’t get nervous, it’s only three pitches…and it’s been soloed!

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