The first picture (upper left)was taken on Monday (1/30/06)while standing on Chapel Pond.  You can see Power Play
on the right side & Chouinard's Gully in the middle.  To put things in perspective, Chouinard's is about 300 feet tall!
The second shot upper right) was taken from Power Play and shows the part of Chapel Pond that heads into Chapel Canyon.   

        
The above left shot is of Chouinard's Gully.  I took this shot on Monday, and we counted TEN folks all on 
Chouinard's!!!  There were no one else on the harder climbs, but Chouinard's was extremely crowded.  Even 
in this reduced photo you can see several folks. The above picture to the right shows me on Lions on the Beach. 
Below is a shot of the canyon and another one showing some folks on Chapel Pond. 

  


It was the third warmest January in New Jersey history (since 1600!!!!), and the warmest January since the
horrible winter of 1913!!  It's wrecked havoc on many winter activities.  Nevertheless, I (Kerry) did manage 
to get up to the Adirondacks on January 30th and 31st (Monday and Tuesday) and got two GREAT days of ice climbing in!!
  
Here's the quickie summary:  the ice was in good shape despite things being VERY wet.  The
gear (especially the new leather boots and my great gloves which kept my hands pretty dry, the new
crampons, my fancy jacket, etc ...) worked great.  I had a great time at the B&B (Mountain Meadows), and
even had a furry alarm clock each morning, met several nice folks/new guests at the B&B, and got in quite a
bit of great climbing!!! It was definitely wet ice climbing, but the gear worked well, the ice was remarkably soft
(making the climbing itself easier), and all in all it was a great trip.

     

Above is shot of the B&B cat resting comfortably on my bed back at the B&B.  The last photo was taken 
of Multiplication Gully.  It looks a bit fuzzy due to the fact that we were getting snow at the time.

For more details: Between the terrible weather and work (numerous trips to the Washington D.C. area) and personal 
(i.e., soccer, track meets, etc ...) conflicts it was looking like I would not be able to get out onto ice in January.
In fact I had already canceled one trip to the Daks a week or so ago due to the forecast calling for pouring rain.

Anyway, I was able to juggle things and left Sunday (January 29th) evening (after two soccer games) and headed up to
Keene Valley.  I hit a LOT of rain on the way up, and then about 25 miles from the 87 exit it turned into VERY slick 
wintry mix/ice.  Then a few miles outside of Keene Valley it turned into gorgeous snow, but once I got to Keene Valley 
it turned back to a wintry mix!  Nevertheless, I did eventually arrive, albeit relatively late (around 9:30 PM).

The forecast for Monday was for rain until the afternoon.  However, when we left there was no rain,
and the precipitation mostly held off the entire day. It was warm (almost reaching) 40 degrees, and all of
the climbs were quite wet.  The ropes got soaked, and very heavy.  As you belayed the device acted like a
wringer and water was just POURING out of the ropes!!  Pretty cool!

We decided to head to Chapel Pond.  Power Play was open so we did that one first.  This is a very hard
CLASSIC climb, which I did at the tail end of last season.  It's rated as NEI 5.   It was actually easier
this time, due mainly to the softness of the ice, and was probably only around 4 or 4+.  It is such a cool
climb.  We did it as two LONG pitches and it is probably at least 250-300 feet or so of climbing.

After this we then walked down a bit and did a cool climb called Seldom Scene.  This was a nice climb, and
I did two variations on it.  After this we walked back to the Jeep (across the frozen pond - even though the
ice was about 1.5 feet thick there was a crusty surface on top of that ice, so when you walked across you 
had this constant breaking and crunching sound.  Of course that's a lot better than the old SPLASH sound!).  
We then moved the Jeep (using the secret path) to the Chapel Pond Canyon, and then took a very short walk into 
the Canyon.  There were a couple of climbers from Connecticut (Jim and Lenny) that were also walking in.  We 
decided to do Lions on the Beach, while they did the climb next to us called Whales in the Jungle.  We did 
three distinct variations of this.  The middle section was pretty steep, and the climbing was excellent.  

Next we did Whales in the Jungle.  After that we called it a day.  A great day:  we did 8 pitches and
at least 750 feet of vertical climbing.  Everything was damp, but like they say about dry suit (scuba)
diving - damp is OK as long as you're warm.

It was back to the B&B for a hot shower and then supper.  The forecast called for the temps to drop
into the low 20s and for snow on Tuesday, so things looked good.  However, the forecast changed that
night, and it only hovered around freezing all night, and we got RAIN most of Tuesday. 

Once again I was awakened a bit early – the B&B cat came into my room right at 5:05 AM  insisting that I
entertain him!!!  Nothing quite like a furry alarm clock.  Also, after Ian showed up we went ahead and
put my anti-bots on my crampons (to avoid snow balling up under my crampons).

Anyway, we decided to head to Multiplication Gully (essentially across from Whiteface Mountain) and try
that.  We assumed that since it was a slightly higher elevation, we would probably get snow and not rain. 
The precipitation however, stayed rain (even though it was only a drizzle) the entire way there.  We saw a
huge ice jam in the river/stream on the way there.   This was my first time to see one in real life, and it
was indeed pretty cool (even though they often lead to flooding).  The climb itself looked fat (from the
road) so we decided to go ahead and go for it.    The hike up from the road to the start of Multiplication
Gully is a short, but VERY steep hike.  The approach trail varies from year to year. The choice is made by
the first team as they trudge through the snow ... and that becomes the route for the season.  Some years its
easy and others it wanders back and forth in confusion.

Fortunately, I opted to put on my crampons for the hike up.  The first party up there this season, had
done a good job, so the actual trail up was nicer/easier than last year.  However, there really
wasn’t much snow cover, and it wasn’t actually snow, but ice!!   It was all hard packed snow/ice and ice on
the rocks, which made it very, very slick (besides being steep).  It would have been very, very, very
treacherous without the crampons.  Nevertheless, the crampons worked and soon we were at the base of the
climb.  It was still raining, but the climb itself looked very good (although wet).  Just before we got
started the rain started to switch over to a wintery mix, and it quickly turned into a sleet/snow mixture,
and that pretty much turned to a light snow before we finished the first pitch.

This is such a nice climb/route, being about 250 feet long.  The ice was in good shape – fat and soft- which
made the climbing easier than some years.    We did this one it two long pitches and were soon at the top.
Even with double 70 meter ropes we couldn’t get down on a single rappel.  Thus, we had to do two rappels.  
Once down we packed up and made the slog down to the road.  Again, I did this in my crampons. 

After getting back to the Jeep we hit the road, and decided to head the Chapel Pond area and try Crystal
Ice Tower to White Line Fever.  This is a very nice NEI 4- climb.  It’s a bit to the left of Power Play.
The first pitch is called Crystal Ice Tower and is rated NEI 4 (and is about 70 feet), and the upper part
is called White Line Fever and is about 170 long.

The second pitch is a very long pitch that starts off with a narrow runnel on the right side of the belay
ledge.  The very top section of the second pitch had some very thin ice on the left side.  It was a bit
thicker than verglas, but was probably only about 1/2 an inch (or less) thick.  I decided to go up that
part, instead of the thick ice on the right side – just to work on technique.  You had to be careful with
your crampons, in that if you kicked too hard (and too close to the edge) then the ice would tend to
delaminate and separate from the rock.  Thus, it was a very nice stretch of delicate climbing.   Again this
was a great climb.  There is a third pitch, but we decided to not do this one, but instead to go down and
then do Dog’s Leg.  As it turns out you can walk down.  I again did this in my crampons … working on my duck
walk. (For you purists the "flat-footing descending duck walk" is described in "Freedom of the Hills"
fourth edition figure 15-9, if memory serves)!!

We got back to the base and we were getting ready to head over to Dog’s Leg, when we checked the time.  It
was right at 3 PM.  Hence, we were sort of in No Man’s Land.  It would take at least on hour to 90 minutes to
do Dog’s Leg which meant that we wouldn’t be off of it until past 4 -4:30 PM. I still needed to get back to
the B&B, get cleaned up and get on the road.  Realistically, if we did Dog’s Leg I probably wouldn’t
get on the road until 5:30 or 6 PM.   I had a 10 AM meeting Wednesday morning in the Washington D.C. area,
and if we went ahead and did that climb, then I probably wouldn’t even be getting home until after 11
PM, which would make getting up at 5 AM and then driving down to DC pretty tough.  Hence, I opted to call it a day.

By now a gorgeous heavy snow had started to fall, and it was just absolutely gorgeous out on the pond. The
views and the ambiance are just hard to describe, but it was really a nice finishing touch to a great day.  
Just standing on the pond with all the large fluffy flakes coming down, the overall silence and the views
of the cliffs around us was simply exquisite! 

I got back to the B&B; got cleaned up and loaded the stuff into the car and finally got on the road around
4:15, and made it home a bit past 9:30 PM.

All in all a great trip!!  I climbed in my new leather boots and they worked great.  I had climbed once
before in December (in the Catskills with them).  Despite the wet conditions the climbing was excellent
and all the gear worked well.  I met some nice folks at the B&B and even spent some quality time with the
B&B cat.  Just a great trip.

Back to Coffman Home Page

Back to Coffman 2006 page

Ice Climbing 2006

Ice Climbing 2005