Ice Climbing in January - Catskills

        

I didn't make it out onto ice until pretty late in '07 (due to the temperature and lack of snow and ice) !!  However,  there was finally a cold snap in late January which produced some good ice up in the Catskills and up in the Daks,  I was able to sneak out on Thursday January 25th and got a day of ice climbing in up in the Catskills.  (the above picture shows me at the end of the day, and the view from one of the climbs we did).  I met up with Marty and we decided to go to Stoney Clove (the West side).   The forecast was calling for cold temperatures and the chance of some light snow showers.   As it turns out, the high was only around 17 degrees, so the bulk of the day the temperatures were in the mid to low teens.  The one thing about Stoney Clove that I don’t like is the approach.  That is to say the VERY steep hump up slope and talus.  However, after a lot of huffing and puffing we finally reached the base.

We decided to start off on a climb called Icahabod Crane, which I had never done before.  The guide book calls this a  NEI 3 – a moderate to slightly hard route.  The climb is right up against a corner/arête.  I’ve done most of the routes on the West side of Stoney Clove, but I had never done Ichabod before.  Marty led up this one, and set up a TR.  Finally, after more than a third of the winter had passed, I put tool to ice.   It felt good to back on the ice.  All things considered I wasn’t too rusty, even though I was a bit sloppier with my feet (i.e., setting my crampons) than I should have been.  I did this route  twice.  The first time I pretty much went up the middle of it.  The second time I did it further over to the right (it is a bit thinner and harder over to the right.)    This was nice way to start off the day.  The above right picture shows a view of the 2nd pitch of the next climb we did: Curtain, whereas the below is a picture of Icabod.

           

After this we packed up and started walking down the cliff (north) towards “The Curtain”.  This is a multi-pitch climb with the second pitch being on the upper tier.  The guide book calls it an NEI 4.  Marty led the first pitch, and then I followed removing the ice screws.  This climb has a nice first pitch.  It goes up for a while, then it has a very nice and tricky move moving up and around to the left.  It then moves up and neat the top of the 1st pitch there is another steep section with quite a few large hanging icicles.  On this pitch, I had a cool experience, in which I got hit with the largest pieces of ice I had even gotten hit with.  I was on a steep part moving out to the left and I set my right tool near the top of a large hanging icicle.   When I place the tool I heard some a cracking noise, and there was some boiler plating at the tool.  I removed the tool, and was going to instead set the tool over to the left (which would be a hard move).  However, I thought I could set the tool above where things cracked.  So I moved up a little and re-set it.  As soon as I set it, the entire hanging icicle broke off .   It was at least half to two-thirds my size (probably weighing over 100 lbs). It broke off and then hit me in the right chest.  As it was breaking and falling toward me I think I said something like “WOW”.  It hit my chest hard enough to drive me back and to the left, and the impact knocked both my crampons out of the ice.  I had a high set with my left tool, which held (a good thing).  Hence, I was hanging by one arm with my feet dangling in space (which I guess looked a lot like the scene in “Vertical limit”).  While hanging there I watched the huge chunk of ice plummet to the ground (I think I yelled “BIG ICE”), and watched it make a cool “crater” when it slammed into the ground.  I quickly realized that my shoulder was NOT dislocated, so I swung my feet up and got the crampons to bite, and then set the other tool and started moving up.     Pretty cool stuff.  The above picture on the right shows Marty after he pulled the crux on Curtain.  The two picture below shows me topping out on Curtain, and then a view from atop of Curtain.


Soon I was at the anchor and at the start of the second pitch.  As it turns out the start of this pitch (which was a LONG pitch) looked REALLY, REALLY hard.  The ice didn’t continue all the way down.  There were dangling icicles at the very start, which looked like it would make for a tough start.  Marty said he wanted to give it a try.  Now, Marty is a VERY strong ice climber (in fact he wrote the Catskills ice climbing book/guide).  He moved up a bit and then down-climbed.  He tried it 3 times, then we decided that he would set a low ice screw just in case.  So he stepped up a bit and set an ice screw then came back down.  Then he went on up and moved through it.  It was a VERY, VERY impressive lead.  Marty then finished the route (a LONG pitch) and soon I had to get out of my warm and toasty belay parka and start the climb.  As it turns out the start (i.e., first 20 feet) was absolutely as hard as any ice climb I’ve ever done (including the NEI 5s I’ve done up in the Daks).  I actually moved through it very, very quickly.  Of course I wasn’t on lead.  Also, I did it slightly differently than Marty.  At one point I was able to get the tip of my left tool in a very thin sheet of ice (about 1/8 inch) so I didn’t have to step out right as far (which was awkward).   Of course pulling up on ice that thin on lead, is much more committing than doing it as a second.  Anyway, it was a REALLY, REALLY cool move. 

I moved on up, removing the ice screws and then near the top I got hit with a vicious case of “scream and barf”.  This is the case when the hands get extremely cold and then as the blood starts trying to go back into the fingers it feels just like someone is trying to force molten lead into your fingers.  I had just removed the next to last ice screw when it really hit.  OUCH!!   I had good sets with my crampons, so I actually set both ice tools around chest level and removed my leashes so I could get both hands below my waist and try to shake them out.  In a couple of minutes it started to pass, and soon I was able to finish the climb.  I hadn’t gotten hit with a good case of the “scream and barfs” in several seasons, so I guess I was over-due.

Soon I was at the top.  Just a GREAT climb!!  Really,  really good climb.  We set up the rappel and soon we were both at the top of the first pitch.  We set up another rappel and soon we were back at the base.    We got caught in the no-man’s land of time.  By time we were down and packed up it was pushing 3:30.  We had enough time to do another route, but if we did, we might get caught walking out in the dark.  Hence, we decided to call it a day.  To speed things up, we actually set up a rap, and rapped down about two-thirds of the descent, then walked out the rest of the way.  I was very slow and methodically going down that last bit, but soon we were back at the road.  We headed to the car and headed into Phoenicia.  We stopped at a great pizza place, Brios, and got a couple of (really good) slices of pizza.  Then we went back to the Park and Ride where I dropped off Marty.  After that I headed back to Jersey.

Anyway, it was a GREAT day of climbing – especially for the first one of the season.  Among other things we had the entire cliff to ourselves.  There was NO one else on the West side, and there was only one other party across the road on the East side.  Very, very nice.

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