Ice Climbing - December '04

The ice came in early last winter, and Kerry was able to sneak up to the Adirondacks very early in the  season (just before Christmas ‘04)  and get in a couple of days of ice climbing.  He again went to Keene Valley, but stayed at the Mountain Meadows B&B this time.   It was extremely cold for so early in the season (even for the Daks). In fact it was minus 7 when we started out the first day, and it almost reached zero during the climbs that day. Below is a picture of Kerry (on that first very COLD morning), and the other picture is a shot of Screw and Climbaxe.

     



That first day we headed to an area called Pitch Off Northface.  One of the guide-books describes this area as:  " ...  the long routes
 in a remote setting makes the outing more of a wilderness adventure than simply a technical ice climb."  This is a very apt
description!!  The climbs there are cool, but long.   Each climb was about 350 feet, and we did them in two pitches each.
The first pitch alone would be around 200 feet!!!  That is a VERY, VERY long distance for an ice climb, especially with no stops, nor rests!!! 
The first climb we did was THE classic "Screw and Climaxe".  Now, before someone reports me to the FCC, the name doesn't mean what you
might think it means.  It was named for ice screws and the old Climbaxe, which was a hybrid hammer/axe invented by Chouinard, and which was
the rage many years ago. This was an incredible climb!!!  It was windy, cold and had insanely gorgeous ambiance!!! Once at the top, we then
did two double-rope raps to get back to the base of the climb.     The second climb we did was called Weeping Wind, and it was again 200 or
more feet to the first belay.  This particular belay was SO cool.  It was a true alpine belay. It looked so much like that scene in "the Eiger Sanction":
a VERY wide ice field with great exposure, and you are sort off leaning against the field with your crampons "dug in" and you are anchored into a
couple of ice tools!!!   It was really cool.  You tried to get aerodynamic and expose as little of yourself to the falling ice (trying to make sure that it
only hits your helmet). Of course just the opportunity to rest my legs, made it feel like the Waldorf-Astoria.   It was so windy, with the swirls on the
ice field … again just gorgeous. 


 

The picture above shows a view on the first belay at Weeping Windy, whereas the picture to the right shows a sign at the beginning of the hike into Pitchoff Northface.

The next day, we decided to do some steeper stuff first, and then end the day on the classic Roaring Brook Falls.  We went to Chapel Pond, and into the Canyon and did a climb called Hot Shot.  This is a very, very  nice climb.  On Tuesday (the first day) the ice was VERY hard and brittle.  Wednesday however, the ice was softer, and we ended up doing two variations. After this we then went over to Roaring Brook Falls. As always this was another incredible climb!!  The ice wasn’t as fat as it was when I did it last February (of 2004),  but I personally think it was "better".  You could hear and see a lot of the water right underneath you.  In  many places there was a very thin (maybe an inch) layer of transparent ice that the falls was rushing under.   In several spots there were holes and you would be hit with a cold spray.  It was so neat moving and stemming back and forth making sure you didn’t break through the thin ice.  Just an incredible climb. 

This was just a GREAT trip, and a great way to start off another ice season!

Below is a host of Ian on Hot Shots.



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