Ice climbing - February 2005


Kerry again stayed at the Keene Valley Lodge (B&B).  On the first day we decided to go somewhere “new” so we headed to Wilmington Notch.  This is pretty much across from White Face Mountain (the Olympic ski Mountain).  We decided to do a classic climb called Multiplication Gully.  This is a 225 foot NEI 3+ climb.  This climb is a nice climb that’s tucked away in long narrow ravine/gulley.  We did this climb in two pitches.  It was very nice Climb, but the ice was very hard and brittle. On the second pitch, I decided to try a section on the left side of the climb that had a 40 foot section of VERY thin verglas ice (thin ice, only about 1/16th of an inch in thickness).  I wanted to work on some delicate technique.  All in all, just an excellent climb.

Below are a couple of  pictures of Multiplication Gully.  The second on shows Ian moving up through the upper section.

    


After this we headed to Poko again, and decided to start on a really cool climb called Goats Foot on Ice, This is a VERY steep NEI5 (a rating of North East
Ice 5) that’s about 150 feet long.  Its just to the left of the Waterfall, and is a bit thin in spots (especially the start).  On the hike up to the crag we saw some fresh porcupine tracks in the snow, but we didn’t see the little guy this time.

Goats Foot is a hard and very trick climb.  It had a REALLY thin and tricky start, and then about a third of the way up there was this really cool traverse around a bulgy ice arête.  This climb was about 150 feet, and the last 80+ feet was absolutely relentless in its steepness.  In fact the entire exit move was overhanging, which is exactly what the forearms are looking forward to after 130 or so feet of steep ice!! Just another stunning climb.  Once at the top we walked over to the Waterfall, and set up a TR, then we rapped down.  I did two variations of this.  They were both very steep NEI5 routes.  My arms were already torched about a third of the way up, yet somehow they didn’t become detached from the shoulders and eventually I got to the top.  After a brief bit of breathing, I then did another variation, and tried to focus and work on technique.

The next day, Saturday, we decided that we (i.e., I) should work on some technique (on some steep stuff) and then do a long classic.  We had thought about heading to Chapel Pond, and doing something short and hard in the canyon then maybe doing a combined Crystal Ice Tower (NEI 4), and White Line Fever (a 350 foot NEI3) route.  It was around 8 degrees when we left, and it was supposed to warm up into the 20s, but I don’t think it did.  It was overcast, and it started snowing around 9:30 or 10 AM, and I doubt if it got much above 10-15 degrees even in the afternoon.  We took the secret “road” and found the secret parking spot, and as such had a very, very easy approach. Even with that, there were two large groups (from Rock and River – about 12-13 climbers) that were barely ahead of us heading into the Canyon.  We had wanted to do a couple of variations of Lions on the Beach (NEI 4), and were afraid that’s where they were headed. However, they headed further into the canyon, so we were able to grab Lions on the Beach.  Ian led this and set up a TR.  I then did two steep variations (each about 80 feet) really focusing on my technique – especially my feet and trying to stay in balance…"foot, foot, hand …foot, foot hand …".

The below photo shows Kerry on Lions on the Beach:

                                                                   


Climbing Power Play: Anyway, we finished up and got back to the jeep around 10:15 or so.  It had started to snow fairly heavily, and that continued throughout the rest of the day.  It just made things GORGEOUS.  We moved the jeep, so we would have an easier hike out, and we noticed that White Line Fever was taken so we opted to do the ultra Classic, and extremely hard "Power Play". This is an absolutely STUNNING climb!!   The guide book calls it "one of the Northeast’s major ice routes".  It is a spectacular, but hard climb (NEI 5, with a bit of mixed climbing thrown in for good measure).  Power Play is a visually striking climb, with a plethora of huge icicles and a variety of types of climbing.  You move up through several narrow funnels/chimneys and ramps, and the entire climb is dominated by multi-tiered icicles.  Some of the squeezes had extra-ordinarily thin ice, and then you would hit an insanely steep headwall.  The vertical height of the climb is right at 200 feet, but due to its weaving and winding, it needs to be done in two pitches.  The belay was amazingly cool in that we were literally behind huge icicles on a little ledge that was more of an ice cornice than a true rock ledge.  Of course the entire thing was done in a heavy snow fall, which added to the perfect ambiance. 

The climb starts off with a very hard and tricky move. You need to get up into a narrow squeeze, but it is very tricky in that the ice on the sides was very, very thin.  There was a lot of back stepping and stemming as you worked up these chutes.  It had a real alpine/mountaineering feel to it.  At times the "bottom" of a chimney/ramp was only deep sugary snow, so you had your tools in very thin ice on either side of the chute, and your legs would go up to your knees in the sugary stuff. Pretty cool.  Then about 80 feet up, was a REALLY tricky and hard move.  You had to make this hard traverse to the left around a rock outcropping and get into another chute.  However, the ice on either side of the chute/chimney was shockingly thin.  It was only about 1/8 inch thick, and was very sparse.  I made the exciting swing into the chute and was able to get the tip of my right hand tool into a tiny smudge of frozen mud.  However, the ice was too far to the left for me to stem out and get my left crampon in. The rock was completely smooth, and I couldn’t get my crampon points to find purchase.  However, there was a LITTLE circle of ice only a bit larger than a silver dollar, that was about 1/16 of an inch thick (i.e. THIN).  I gently got the points of my left crampon there, LOUDLY told the tip of my right tool in the mud to "hold" and was able to finish the move into the chute and stand up a bit.   Then I was able to gently set my left tool up high in another thin spot of ice and started moving up.  This was an incredible move.  As I kept moving up this chimney it stayed hard and tricky.  At one point further up there was this bulge of ice in a chimney, and to make the move I basically did a knee bar under the ice.  It was certainly not the spot to fall!!  Anyway, once out of the chute, there was this really cool and exposed ramp that kept moving up and to the right.  Then the climb moved up and a wee bit to the left and hit an insanely STEEP head wall.  This headwall was about 50 feet and was relentlessly vertical.  This headwall is pretty much where the climber in the picture I mentioned earlier from the “Climbing” magazine is located.  After this, you then moved up over a bulge, and then did wild traverse across a large hanging icicle to get to the belay.

The first picture below was taken from the belay on Power Play.  It was snowing fairly heavily at the time.  You can see Chapel Pond below, and one
of the icicles hanging off the black rock.  The picture on the lower left shows an overall view of Power Play taken from on Chapel Pond.

     


As I said earlier, the belay was indeed wild.  I was basically behind some icicles and when you looked up you saw more icicles, and when you looked to the right there was a sheer black rock wall, with more huge icicles hanging out into space.  Also, as Ian led the top pitch, every sound reverberated through the ice I was nestled between/behind.  This last pitch was only about 40 feet high, but it was also pretty wild.  Once I left the belay nook I moved out and then literally traversed to the right ACROSS hanging icicles.  Then when you start up, you are looking at 40 feet of another sheer head wall.  However, the first half is basically BETWEEN two hanging icicles.  You had your left foot/crampon on one icicle, and then stemmed out with the right foot/crampon into another icicle!!  The right icicle was a bit shaky, so you gently set your right crampon.  You then had both your tools in the left icicle – you didn’t want to hammer the shaky icicle to the right.   It was really cool and extremely exposed moving up and between those icicles. Those last 40 feet was another hard but cool headwall.   Like the lower headwall, there was a LOT of very loud grunting, and I’m sure that folks snowshoeing across Chapel Pond heard those "soothing" sounds coming from the snowy heights. This was just an incredible climb!!  We then rapped down  All in all just a great trip – good conditions, the new tools worked fine, the new harness kept me alive, and I got some new and really exciting climbs in.

This was an absolutely incredible way for me to end the ice climbing season!!
 
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