Praise

 

While the majority of people I know are complaining about how cold, snowy, and icy this winter has been I’m over here praising the Polar Vortex and welcoming the Arctic Air to come and freeze my little corner of the world.  My local crag, which produced some rather thin ice-mixed conditions a few weeks back, was thick with ice this past weekend.  Plush had filled out and the two mixed lines I had climbed on New Year’s Day were now middle-heavy with ice bulges and all the turf and rock in between their splitter cracks was frozen hard.





Andrew pulled into my driveway at 7am, the light of the morning sun just barely an inch over the horizon.  August met us closer to our destination and we took one car in order to remain inconspicuous.  To our surprise, a guided party showed up a few hours later and roped up on Plush.  I’m a little concerned about commercial guiding at such a small, local, and even more important, access-sensitive crag.  While I’m not worrying about over-crowding issues, since even with the rare conditions like we had this weekend this will NEVER be a destination crag, I am worried about climbers losing access due to the wrong people noticing our activities.  In any event, we chatted with the group for a few minutes showing them how to access the top of the cliff and discussing route difficulties.  This group did not look like they would be climbing any of the harder mixed lines we had moved on to after top-roping on Plush. 

Plush



Me, climbing Plush.
 

August, taking a swing into Plush

The first of the two mixed routes, the route to the Left, was much different than a few weeks ago. The bottom of the route had no ice (previously, the start was icy) and so it became a series of delicate steps, as intricate as a well-choreographed dance, in order to reach good tool sticks in the ice and turf at the bulge.

Left Route

Inching up

In the thick

 The second mixed route, the route on the Right, had a ten-foot dagger hanging right smack in the middle.  Only the top three or four feet of the hanger would be strong enough for tool swings or crampon kicks, and even they would have to be delicate.  Last time, this route felt super hard, but this time it was a little easier, but certainly not easy, since the crack behind the dagger in the rock did have some thin but solid ice as well as frozen turf.  Climbing through here was extremely technical as my tools had to edge on small rock features and I needed to avoid crashing into the dagger.  Andrew called it a “physical-mental climb”, which is certainly a good way to describe it.  Last time, neither Andrew nor I were able to climb up to the horizontal crack about 6 feet below the top out.  This time, I was at least able to make it that far but the last few feet is on unbelievably steep terrain.  I was able to inch up, hang, and inch up for a few feet before becoming completely exhausted.  Only August, who’s turning out to be an incredibly good climbing partner, was able to top out but not without a serious physical effort.         

 

Right Route - Super Overhang!

Shot of "The Dagger"

 

Cautious and deliberate moves not to break the ice.