in that it does continue a ways further up. The second shot shows Angelo, the fellow
that Kerry climbed with.
I (Kerry) managed to head up to the Catskills on Tuesday December 27th and got a very nice day
of ice climbing in, just before the warm and wet spell hit with a vengeance. December had started
off as a great/cold month for ice in the Catskills, but the previous week was awful - warm with periods
of rain. However, the previous few nights did get cold and as itturns out we got lucky and got some
nice climbs in.
I climbed with a fellow named Angelo, and we met up at the Kingston circle (at the Thruway) at
8:30 AM. We decided to head to Stony Clove, since we thought that both the Hell Hole and the Devil's
Kitchen (now called the Black Chasm) would probably be wet and dripping. This would be the first time
that I climbed in my new (Sportiva) Nepal Evos - nice leather climbing boot, and a new pair of Rambo
crampons (these are very similar to my old pair of crampons, but are asymmetric in design).
The picture on the right shows Angleo coming up talus/slope and give some perspective of the steepness. I
had dropped one of my water bottle lids and it went sliding down the slope. I was NOT going to go down
and look for it. However, Angleo decided to "scoot" down and look of it. In fact he found it. The
upper left picture shows Angelo with the rescued bottle cap.
Soon we were at Stony Clove. The most dangerous part of the entire day was at the parking/pull out at Stony
clove. The Highway dept. did NOT plow it after the first snow, and as it turns out there are several inches
of boiler plate ice in the pull out. It waslike a slick skating rink. Anyway no one fell in the parking lot
and soon we were slogging it up the slope/talus. We climbed on the West side of the Clove. The climbs start
about 300 vertical feet above the road, and it's a VERY steep hike up. There wasn't much snow cover, but
there was just enough to make the hike up doable without crampons. A bit of huffing and puffing, but not too bad.
The upper left picture shows me (Kerry) on the middle section of the Entertainer. (the upper
right and lower left shots also show Kerry on the Entertainer.) The bottom right
picture shows the Gurgler. If you look carefully in the upper right corner you'll see the previous party
at a tree getting ready to rap down. You'll notice that there is NO ice for several feet at the top!
We were the only ones there (another party showed up about 30 minutes later), so we grabbed Little Black
Dike (which is the classic route at Stony Clove). This is a nice NEI 4 climb that has some very
interesting stemming on the lower part. The ice was in good shape, but the middle part of the climb was
VERY wet and dripping. The ice was very interesting yesterday (on all the climbs) - there were stretches
of "hero ice", and patches of very soft ice, and of course wet places, and also sections of very
brittle/hard ice that kept wanting to either shatter or plate off. It was a nice combination of conditions.
Angelo led LBD and set up a TR. I did this one twice, the second time doing the top two thirds on the right
side. A very, very nice climb.
After this we walked right along the base for a bit to get to the Entertainer. The walk along the base was
very interesting. We did it in crampons, and there was one stretch in which we had to walk about 30 feet
on a fallen tree (like a bridge) ... a very interesting and balancy trick in crampons. The
Entertainer is a nice section of ice. Its NEI3+, and was probably the fattest ice in the Clove. If some
parts were longer it might be considered NEI 4+. I also did variations of this (on the right, and then
pretty much up the middle). Both variations were nice, but the right side was steeper, and probably a
wee bit better. Nevertheless, a couple of very nice climbs.
We then hiked back to the left past LBD, to a climb called the Curtain. This is a nice climb, but the top
out was REALLY spooky. The ice essentially ended before the top, and it would have been some tough
mixed climbing to top out. As such we opted to not do it, and walked on down to another classic called Stage
Fright. The bottom 2/3rds of this looked good, but there was a very thin spot near the top, and as such
we also decided to not do it. We then walked back right a bit to a climb called (I think) the Gurgler.
The ice was in good shape. Its a NEI 3, so we did this. It had a very interesting non/ice top out! The
last 10-15 feet of ice was very steep and technically challenging. All in all a nice climb.
After this we then headed down. Personally, I found this the toughest part of the day. There was not
enough snow to glissade down, and this was not the place to mis-step and fall. I've never been fast on
talus, and in those conditions I'm even slower. Nevertheless, I was careful, but methodical and after
about 20 minutes finally reach the road unscathed!! We then headed back to the Kingston circle and I
dropped Angleo off. I then hit the Thruway and headed South. I stopped in New Paltz to get a bite to eat,
and got back home right at 9 PM.
All in all a great day. Great conditions (especially consider the recent weather), good climbing, and the
new boots and crampons worked like a charm. I also think I finally found a nice place in which to do some
top roping of ice. There is an area called the Asbestos Wall (near Katerskill falls), that is right off the
road and one can easily walk up to the trees and set up TRs. Unfortunately, it faces South and gets a LOT
of sunlight. Hence, it goes quickly and one needs a nice long cold stretch for it to be reliable. However,
if we do get a cold stretch up in the Catskills, I think I'm going to head up and check it out.
Back to Coffman Home Page
Back to Coffman 2006 page
Coffman Ice Climbing 2006
Coffman Ice Climbing 2005