went over & gave the ankle a workout this morning on Standard at Frankenstein. there were/are 3 mini-cruxes right now. there is a pretty vertical and brittle 15' section about 10 feet left and above the cave. then another little cruxy place above that to the big snow ledge. watch out for the crust on the ledge it's funky now. the top out at the very top is 12/18' of vertical ice. I did the middle (~15' long) & it was solid 3+ vertical stuff. very nice until the very top where there was no ice & only rock. quite disconcerting that. <wry grin>
it's a bit drier than I would have expected. no running water until the bulges before the last curtain. very unusual.
I scooched over to Penguin to have a look & it looks doable. the drips on the left look tricky but you can get up on the ledge to the chimney going right. I definitely have to give it a try.
interestingly enough there was no one there at 7:30 when I arrived and at 10:30 when I rapped off no one had even walked down there. as I was packing up Jay Philbrick, Chauvin Guides, walked up I took a picture for their site. <grin>
no real problems with the ankle climbing tho it was a bit sore when I got home. definitely not as strong as I would like & I found myself not doing all the rock-style flagging & backstepping that I got into last season. <sigh> still a ways to go.
