Valley/High Peaks area) for a long weekend and got some INCREDIBLE ice climbing in, along with one day of nice skiing at
Whiteface!! Hended up ice climbing on Friday (2/8/08) and Sunday (2/10/08), and then downhilled skied on Saturday the 9th.
The Keene Valley area got between 18-24 inches of snow the 36 hours before I arrived Thursday night, and then got at least
another 10 inches while I was there. There was a LOT of snow!
Friday Ian and I climbed at Poko (i.e., Poko-Moonshine). We started off on PT (Positive Thinking) which has the reputation
as the most sought after climb in the Daks. It's 400 feet of NEI 5 climbing. The first pitch is 150 feet of almost dead
vertical climbing. The bottom pitch was thin, and again it was a great lead by Ian. The middle pitch was great, but was
wet and as such much different than the lower part. This is a GREAT climb.
The first shot shows Ian plodding through the snow to reach the base of PT. The next shot snows Ian on the first pitch of
PT. The perspective is a little off, in that the first pitch is 150 feet high, and is actually more dead vertical than the
photo indicates.
After this we headed to the Waterfall area (the "left" section of Poko). This is home to some of the steepest and most
sustained single pitches of ice in the Daks. I had forgotten how long the waterfall is. We did the left side. Its
between 120 and 140 feet (a single pitch), and is relentlessly steep (NEI 5+). My calves were beginning to "talk/scream"
loudly the last 20 or so feet, but they held together just long enough.
It was actually a bit tricky hiking at Poko. There was a LOT of snow, and you sank in to your knee/thigh. However, near
the base there was a solid layer of boiler-plate ice underneath the 2+ feet of snow. We ended up putting on our crampons
to make the hike along the base of the crag.
The first shot above was taken atop PT, while the next one shows the start of the 2nd pitch of PT. The 3rd shot above shows
Ian atop of the Waterfall as we are getting ready to set up the rappel.
Saturday I got to Whiteface before they opened the lifts and skied until around 1:30. The locals were claiming that it was
the best conditions they've seen in ages. It started off pretty nice, but by 11 or so, it was getting pretty skied off.
Its a neat mountain, but a lot of runs are pretty steep/fast, and if it was a full blown icy day, then I think it could be
a tough mountain to ski. Nevertheless, my knees and legs survived.
On the way back I stopped off in Lake Placid for lunch - at Lisa G's. This is a neat bar/restaurant. The highlight was the
bar dog - a shepherd mix. When the locals came in, they all brought doggy treats for Rocko!! It was really cool!
Sunday, Ian and I were going to start off on a really hard route which I had never done before called Tannin's Bomb (near
Whiteface and "Multiplication Gully" . Its very rarely done. However, when we got there a party was trudging up to the
start of it. Hence, we opted to headed back to the Chapel Pond area.
The weather forecast called for maybe an inch of snow on Sunday starting late in the day, and for the winds to kick up
around 6 PM. They were WRONG. The winds were HOWLING all day (25-35 miles per hour) and we got at least 5-7 inches.
There were stretches in which it was almost blizzard like, with near white out conditions. Very cool.
Anyway, at Chapel Pond we were going to go to "Tahawas", but for some reason Crystal Ice Tower (a really neat NEI4) was
OPEN. Hence, Ian quickly led this one. We only did the first pitch, and Ian set up a TR. The second pitch is an "easy"
long gully up to a neat third pitch. However, the 2nd pitch was FULL of snow (MANY feet) and was primed for an avalanche,
and we had no desire to get knocked off the climb. Hence, we opted to not head that way. I did 4 different variations on
this and then we moved the rope over onto a REALLY hard climb called "Craven's Ice". This was REALLY, REALLY thin. The
first 20-25 feet was less than 1/8 of an inch in thickness. It was really hard and I fell several time getting through
the crux. The ice was so thin, that it was like rock climbing a hard face climb. Your tools would typically not really
"bite" in. Instead, they would knock/chip out a small piece of ice, and then you would balance 2-3 mm of your tool's tip
there. If you didn't keep your weight/center of gravity just right (i.e., any side vector on the tip and you would come
right out. It took me a while to finally get it to work, but I did eventually learn. Great climb!
The above shot shows Ian rapping down "Craven's Ice". The last picture shows me standing on Chapel Pond. In the background
you can see "Neck Tie Party". At the time the winds were about 35 miles on hour on the lake!! It was just HOWLING!!
Next we did the best climb of the weekend. Oh my gosh .. it was great. It was a climb called "Neck Tie Party" and it was
insanely wild! Without a doubt it was the most impressive lead I had ever seen Ian do. The snow right at the base was
about 25-30 feet deep!! Next to the climb was a gully that had had an avalanche the night before, so we avoided that cul.
It was FULL body climbing to reach the base of the climb. It took us 20 minutes to "hike" the last 30 vertical feet of
snow to get to the base!! You were chest deep in the snow, and you would work and work to pull down the snow and
pack/stomp/pack/stomp it in order to gain 6 or so inches of vertical height!! It was GREAT!! Once at the base we then
had to dig out and pack down an area in which we could leave our packs!
From the ground this climb almost looked fat!!! Looks can be deceiving. Imagine that you coat a vertical rock surface with
a 3/16ths layer of glazed ice, then you take a bunch of old thin crumbly Styrofoam cups and you then scotch tape them all
over the ice sheet, and then you cover the entire thing with a very light and pretty coating of snow!! That's what you
had!! Before Ian made the insanely hard crux move, he did manage to find a small crack to the right that would take two
small cams (rock gear), which he didn't have with him. He then downclimbed to the lower protection (a long sling on a
small tree). I then dug out the right cams from his pack, tied them to a loop in the rope and he raised them. Once he had
the rock gear in, he then made an insanely spooky little traverse to the left and then up. To get more gear (higher up)
you would traverse to the right and then sling another small little cedar.
The climb was so precise!! Again it was like doing a tricky, hard face rock climb. We had to keep your weight/center
gravity completely align for every move and/or partial move. It was so COOL. You would take your tool and brush off the
snow, break off the hoar-frost covering (i.e., those rotten little Styrofoam cups) and then gently tap in the tip of your
tool (again about 2-3 mm of the tip would be balanced. Then carefully move up each crampon one at a time, staying in
balance, and keeping the weight straight down on the tool. Then the next tool, and the process continued for 70 feet.
Typically, when you remove gear you set one tool and leave it in the ice while you unleash, and then remove the gear with
that hand. You could NOT leave your tool in the ice. You didn't stick your tool into ice, it was instead balanced.
Hence, to un-sling the tree you did a precarious traverse to it, and had to un-sling the protection while the tool was
still on your wrist -- all the time staying in balance for your feet and other tool. Very, very nice! Just an exquisite
bclimb!!!
All in all a great weekend: simply great climbing, good skiing, I met several nice folks, ate several nice meals (including
a great meal at a new place in Keene Valley call "The Great Range"), and had a good time at the B&B (along with Louie the
B&B cat), and pretty much came back in one piece!! You just couldn't ask for much more.
Click here to get back to Coffman Ice Climbing in 2008