Getting it in, while it's in.

The perfect recipe for ice - several days of rain and snow followed by several days of well-below freezing temperatures. What could be better than that?  My favorite climbing partner, my wife, telling me that she doesn’t mind belaying me for a couple of hours so long as it’s not too cold and I provide hot chocolate.  What I really need is to get this girl her own mountaineering boots!  
 
As luck would have it, the temperature that day was around 30 degrees, the wind was calm, and the sun was shining bright.  We took a ride out to the Delaware Water Gap so I could climb the Slateford Curtain.  From the parking lot, it’s less than a 10 minute walk…but you got to make it down that very steep slope above the creek and falls, which isn’t too bad going down as much as it is going up.  But we’ll come back to that.

Mr and Mrs

 

Me, standing below the curtain. Frozen waterfall to the left.

 

The Curtain was in ok shape.  Two obvious routes; with one offering left and right variations.  The bottom hadn’t quite touched down, so the first few feet of climbing were on fragile ice. The center was fat, and the top was mixed – ice, rock, and turf.  I was expecting some rock, so I wore my beat-up crampons. Unfortunately, the points had been grinded down to nubs, and the serrated teeth no longer had their bite.  Footwork was difficult.  Trying to lightly tap the tips into the delicate free-hanging ice wasn’t going well…it was either breaking, or I was losing my footing.  Once on the fatter more forgiving ice, I was cruising.  On the exposed rock, I was fine.  But man, oh man…it was all arms to get the climbing started!

 

 

Left and Right, then meet in the middle.

Extremely challenging to start up with bad crampons.

 

Hiking out of Slateford is challenging.  There is a trail, and I’m sure it’s the proper and even scenic way to get back to the lot.  But you look up, see about 200+ feet of steep scrambling and think it’s the quickest, most direct way out.  So, you go for it.  And it only takes a few minutes, and there are enough trees to either rest against or assume they’ll be there to catch you if you start sliding.  But it’s a literal on all-fours bear crawl.  My wife topped out, huffing and puffing, red-faced and a bit angry.  I laughed, pulled her up to her feet, and gave her a big kiss.  We changed back into our clothes in the parking lot and an hour later we're eating cheeseburgers, fries, and sharing a Blueberry Cheesecake Milkshake.  Thanks for the belay, babe!

Happy Guy.

After a day of rest, I met up with August and Andrew to climb some ice at the local crag.  The big flow was in, and thick.  This time, wearing my sharp crampons, I made quick and easy work and ran a couple laps.  When I was off climbing and belaying duties, I took a walk and saw in a chimney, that sometimes has a drip of ice, a pretty significant smear of ice and nearby, an overhanging crack with a good chunk of ice in the middle that we hadn’t climbed before. 

 

 

Plush, in excellent shape.



The smear route was short, but challenging and fun.  The top section was flanked by a crack that swallowed up took placements and the chimney squeeze required specific footwork and body positioning. Another 10 feet of climbing, this route would be a classic.  It’s unfortunate that this isn’t a regularly occurring ice formation.

 

 

The very cool Ice Smear route. Short, but worth it!

 

The neighboring climb was a brutally physical mixed route.  I went first (using my dull crampons since it was mostly rock) and managed to figure out the crux sequence (after getting tossed a few times) but found myself completely spent for the two-hands-on-one-tool escape move out of the constriction.  August and Andrew, being fresher, taller and having the chance to watch me, had it a little easier…not to say that it was easy.  Even August, the big strong young climber from Maine, struggled to finish.  We figured the climb was probably an M7-M8.

 

 

Once you get your feet on top of that ice bulge, you're past the crux...then it's overhanging through that big crack, tool placements are there, you just need some strong arms!

August, using his size, strength, and my Nomics, to work through the sequence.