Christmas Gift

Ice Season started early this year.  Around mid-December, a deep chill came over the North East and lines as far south as the Catskills Mountains were thick with ice.  Not quite an anomaly for ice to show up in December, but definitely no longer the norm.  And while climbers were hacking into the ice I was a few thousand miles south in Jamaica enjoying 85 degree sunshine, jerk, and Appleton Rum while attending a family wedding.  Upon returning, I turned on my cellphone as the airplane was taxiing and it came to life with the week's prior texts from Andrew, asking if I had been available to climb.  But within a day of returning, record-breaking temperatures as warm as 70 degrees destroyed the ice and set us all back to zero.

Christmas Eve I went to bed excited to watch my wife and son open their gifts in the morning while a light dusting of snow fell and temperatures dropped significantly.  On Christmas Day, I opened up a gift that any ice climber would be envious of, Petzl Nomic ice axes!  Eager to put the axes to use as well as climb ice again, I reached out to Alpine Endeavors to see if there was any ice to climb in the Catskills.  I was told no, but about an hour later decided I wanted to get myself a guide anyway.  Besides ice, the Catskills are exploding with mixed and dry-tool lines and I thought I'd finally get myself acquainted with scraping crampons, turf shots, and hooking.

I was contacted by Alan Kline, who had guided my wife and I last year.  We spoke about mixed climbing and dry-tooling and he was familiar with some lines I could try.  A while later I heard back from him, via text message.  "Was out today, lots of hard ice and good stuff at Stony! Get psyched!" 

Alan and I went to Stony Clove's West Side, one of my favorite places to ice climb.  This area is usually a safe bet for ice and a few hours into the morning we could hear and see other climbers.  The first route I got on was The Entertainer, WI3.  After ten feet of overgripping my tools I stopped at a rest and shook my hands out and stopped to think about ice climbing technique over rock climbing technique in order to reset my body's rhythm.  After that, I had no problems and cruised with ease up to the top.

Warming Up on The Entertainer, WI3



The next route was a dry-tooling/mixed line that Alan put up himself called The Workshop, M3.  The route follows a chimney crack with several laptop sized ledges jutting out of the outside corner.  It took Alan just over forty-five minutes to lead the route, and he felt conditions that day made it more like M3 difficult.  The route is a lot of 1-2-3, then rest.  A short series of hard moves followed by a decent stance to shake out your arms and place pro.  Towards the top, there's a smearing stem (legs opened, pushing out against the wall) underneath a huge roof.  This was the only area I found to be difficult but it was not climbing as much as because of my height and I was not able to reach and clean the cams from the roof.  I consider cleaning gear while seconding a very important responsibility, and I do my best to leave no man behind.  But unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried and stretched I could not reach these pieces and Alan had to retrieve them on rappel.  Otherwise, the climbing itself was a great success.  As hard as it was (and it was definitely the hardest thing I ever climbed) I did not fall and took no hanging rests save for my time spent under the roof. 

Bottom Half of The Workshop, M3-M5.



The final route of the day was the Little Black Dike, WI4.  On New Hampshire's Cannon Cliff is the Black Dike, a North East mega classic.  The Catskill's LBD is very similar in appearance to BD, but nowhere near as long (BD I believe is 4 pitches, and has a long grueling approach as well as descent).  But the LBD is without a doubt a Catskill's classic and I had been wanting this route for some time.  The route's difficulty that day was definitely WI4, maybe even WI4+.  Some sections had been bashed pretty good and had a snow-cone like quality and the sustained vertical crux was dripping heavily.  It was work!  Not so much physically strenuous as much as the sustained climbing was tiring.  But I was able to send with no falls or hanging rests.  This might be the best, and certainly the hardest, ice route I've ever climbed.

Sinking my Nomics into LBD.

In the thick, LBD.



I definitely feel strong on ice, I'd even go as far to say confident.  Most of the routes that day were around 75 feet, give or take, and the height had almost no effect on me.  I guess I'm more in my element doing this cold, icy, mixed, alpine sort of climbs than I am rock cragging?  Whatever the case, I'm happy and motived for this ice season as well as mixed and dry-tooling and am looking forward to staying busy and cold!