Howdy, howdy!! I (Kerry) got lucky again, and was able to get up to the Adirondacks and managed to get
two (Thursday and Friday – December 15th and 16th) great days of ice climbing in. Once again I stayed
at the Mountain Meadow B&B. This is the "slow" period (before Christmas) – there were
only a couple of folks there Wednesday night, but I was the only one there Thursday night, except for the
dogs (Cliff and Sam) and a new cat. He was a really cool cat. He was only 9 months old, and the world was
completely new in his eyes, and he was quite a pistol…
The above picture was taken at Cascade Pass (the first day), and you can see a bit of the
sunshine and blue sky. The second picture was in the Waterfall area of Poko. It’s looking from
Bushido toward Goat Foot. The BELOW picture was also taken at the Waterfall area and shows Ian
pulling the rope at the base of Bushido.
Initially, it was extremely cold (for this early in December), even for the Daks. It was minus 15 degrees
(F) Thursday morning, while we were loading up, and even though we had quite a bit of sun, it probably
didn’t get much out of the single digits. Ian and I headed to Cascade Pass to work on some moderate climbs
(NEI 3 and 4) to try and shake off some of the rust. Also, some of the climbs in Cascade Pass would be in
the sun, and that would make quite a bit of difference on such an extremely COLD day. We did three
variations of Pitchoff Left. Surprisingly, I wasn’t too rusty, and I did fairly well with my feet. While
we were there Matt showed up with a client. Matt’s the main ice guide with Rock and River, and it seems
like every time I climb up at the Daks we run into him. Anyway, besides the nice ice and sunshine, the
sky was an unbelievable blue. It was that deep 3-dimensional blue that can’t seem to be emulated in either
photos, nor on screen. All we needed was some wine and cheese and a picnic environment would have been complete.
After this we headed back down to the Jeep. As it turns out we needed our crampons for the walk down. It’s
typically not a long nor tricky hike down. However, there was very little snow cover, and there was a very slick
layer of ice pretty much everywhere, so it was a lot safer to keep the crampons on until we got back to the road.
We decided to head to Poko and see if PT (Positive Thinking) was leadable and/or open – some of the
climbs at Poko were still a bit thin on their lower pitches. PT is probably "the most sought after ice
climb in the Adirondacks". It's a NEI 5 and has three SUPER pitches, totaling 450 feet. I did it last
season, and most of ya’ll had to endure my description of it then. Anyway, we got to Poko, and looked at the climbs
from the road. There was a party on PT, and the leader was pretty much at the top of the first pitch. Hence, we
decided to go for it. We parked and then humped our way in. As it turns out, it was a very tricky hike in.
Again, there was only a bit of snow cover, and very icy/slick footing through the talus, etc .. However,
we did get to PT, and the party was STILL on the first pitch!! They were incredibly SLOW!! Hence, we walked
further down to check out Neurosis (another classic climb). The bottom pitch hadn’t come in yet, so we
opted to NOT do a tricky mixed route to get up to the ice. We walked back past PT, and the party was still
on the second pitch. Hence, we decided to walk back to the Waterfall area and do some climbs there.
The Waterfall area was very fat with ice, but everything there is VERY, VERY hard/STEEP. It’s
relentlessly steep and tricky NEI 5 or NEI5+. Ian led Bushido and set up a TR. I did this one last
season, and it was technically/physically the hardest climb I did, and it was just as hard again this year.
While we were doing this another party came by, and their leader said that he thought the "prow section of
Bushido, was the hardest piece of ice on the planet". I don’t know if I would go that far, but it is hard.
I did a lot of huffing, puffing, grunting, and hang dogging, but I did finally get two variations done.
After this, we decided to call it a day, and headed out. ---- All, in all not a bad first day of the season.
Above we see Ian "wading" through the deep snow to get to the start of PT. As it turns out,
after the avalanche, the snow was actually even deeper than this, so I also had to "wade" through the snow to
reach the cliff (a variation of the butterfly/breast stroke works pretty well). The next shot shows
another person nearing the top of the first pitch of PT. The climber is about 150 feet up, and the photo
was actually taken after we had finished rappelling down (you can see our rope being pulled).
Friday however, was a completely different day. It was a great, wild day complete with chest deep snow,
mountaineering conditions, and even avalanches!! A winter storm came in Thursday night. It was much
warmer on Friday (hanging between the mid-twenties and freezing all day), and very humid/wet. We got about
7 inches of fresh snow during the night, and the wind was blowing and it was still snowing during most of
the day on Friday. However, a tremendous amount of snow had come off (and continued to come off the top)
and there was a LOT of snow near the base of the cliff (ranging from knee deep to chest deep). As
such, the hike in was a lot safer than the day before, but there was a bit of trudging in deep snow. We
managed to get to PT first, so that’s what we decided to do. The first pitch is about 165 feet of a sheer
vertical sheet of ice, up to a steep ledge. However, to get to the cliff/ice we had to go through about
15-20 feet of chest deep snow. I’ve included a picture of Ian working his way to the cliff.
The above photo shows a large section of the 2nd pitch of PT. I took this shot during our rappels. The last photo
shows me in the little overhang/cave just prior to the third pitch of PT.
I belayed about 35 or so feet back from the cliff (to avoid falling ice). Ian did a great job leading this
pitch. He was even able to get in three short ice screws. While he was going up, there was a constant
"trickle" of snow that kept coming off the top. Ian reached the ledge and then vanished over the bulge. A
bit later I was looking up, and all of a sudden an avalanche (of snow) was barreling straight down the
cliff (right over the first pitch). It was really wild. There was a deep curtain of snow – at least 50
feet wide coming down. My reaction was pretty much what Frank (of “Everyone Loves Raymond” fame) would
have said: “Holy crap!!! I watched it until it was about half way down the face. I quickly fed about 3-4
feet of slack (in case I was knocked off my feet I wouldn’t pull Ian off), then I turned my back to the
barreling snow, and braced myself. When the snow hit the ground, it was all spindrift snow!!! It was
almost like the scene in "The Mummy Returns. Of course in that scene it was an evil army from hell
that was turned into sand, and my scene was with snow, but I always wanted to sneak in that analogy into an
ice climbing story. Anyway, it was just a fine powder that blew over me, leaving about an inch of very fine
snow covering our packs. All in all really cool! As it turns out, when Ian got to the ledge, there was very
fine/powdery chest deep snow up to where the belay would be set. Since, he didn’t want an avalanche to knock him
off as he was moving up to the belay anchor (two bolts) he put in an ice screw at the bulge and then caused the
avalanche to help clear the way. WAY COOL!! Eventually, Ian put me on belay and I started up.
Instead of using my Inverno boots, I was climbing in a pair of Sportiva Extreme (leather) boots. Leather
boots have a much better feel than the plastic boots and I’ve been debating getting a good pair of leather
ice boots. Ian loaned me a pair of leather boots for the day. Anyway, I really focused on my feet on the
way up, and the leather boots really do make a difference on the very steep technical stuff. The
belay was at a couple of bolts. When I belayed Ian for the second pitch I started off in knee deep snow.
While he was climbing it continued to snow, and more snow kept coming off the top. By the time he had
finished the second pitch I was in thigh (and almost waist) deep snow. It really did have a feel of
mountaineering. I was using my new belay jacket (a nice Marmot Plasma down acket). It kept me extremely
warm. However, I had the wrong size stuff bag, and it was quite an adventure getting it re-stuffed before I
could start off on the second pitch. The second pitch is a great pitch of climbing. However a new layer of
ice was in the process of forming, so you had to kick through an inch or two of wet crappy ice, to reach the
solid ice belay. Very neat climbing!!! It was definitely a dual point day (in contrast to those
mono-point crampons). Mono points would tend to shear out of the crappy ice a lot easier than dual points would.
The second belay was really cool in that it was essentially in a cave: an overhang with a front wall
of composed of hanging icicles!! The third pitch moves up through a cool tight squeeze/chimney. It
took Ian a while to build two V-threads (as the anchors). I also had a problem before I could start
the thrid pitch, in that my leashes on one my tools froze up (it was very humid and everything was
freezing over) and I couldn’t tighten the leashes on my left wrist. The strap/buckle was frozen and I
couldn’t pull it through. It took about five minutes for me to break it loose, and then finally I was able
to tighten it!!!. Also, the outside of my gloves were very wet, and every time I would touch a rock
surface the gloves would freeze to the rocks!! Pretty cool stuff. Soon however, I was on my way up.
This is just an incredible climb. Ian rapped first. However, another party was now coming up (in turned
out to be Matt again) and as such I had to wait quite a while before I did my first rap (this is a wild
rappel over free hanging icicles, and we didn’t want to knock anything off onto the folks coming up).
Nevertheless, I did eventually make that first rap. The second rappel is also pretty wild.
However, soon we both down, and we packed up. It was already getting into mid afternoon, and since I was
driving back to Jersey later that afternoon, we decided to call it a day. Nevertheless, it was just another
incredible day of climbing. Once again it was a great trip: I had an extremely nice time at the B&B (lots of dog
and cat stories), I had some incredible climbing under some wild conditions, and I even broke down and bought some
new fancy leather boots (I stopped off at the Mountaineer and picked up a pair of the new Sportive Evos … so I
guess I’ll find out next time just how well they work). Just a GREAT trip.
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