I've been to the base of taurine, and can assure that thing is mean looking. What the video doesn't tell you is the commitment just to get to the ice. It's about 100 road miles from Anchorage, then about 7 miles of unmaintained snowmobile trails that change not only from year to year but day to day, then another 13 or so miles up moose infested river shelf ice. The way in once off the road can take anywhere from 2 to four hours depending on moose encounters and snow conditions (once counted 37 moose on the river alone). Once you over come the travel hurdle you then have to deal with the elements. The climb straddles the line where interior cold meets the more maritime climate of the chugach. Often it will be weeks of -20f followed by days of 10f and snow then dip back to -20f. Lastly, when they climbed it there was maybe 6 hours of daylight. Quite the challenge just to look at the icicle.
