December 16, 2004

Hi Folks,

Whenever I'm driving someplace to go ice climbing I have these little indicators that I use to guess how good it's going to be, before I even get there. Until recently when was heading up to Frankenstein, it was always the ice bulge on Sawyer Rock. If there was ice all over that, I would be confident that there was ice in the Amphitheater.

When they widened the road and blasted the rock mostly out of existence, I was bummed. They went to a considerable amount of effort to ensure that the water wouldn't seep down onto the road, as it used to, and I figured they would make sure it wouldn't even flow out over the road cut. Apparently that's not the case, or maybe it's just not all that easy to do, since there have been ice flows building on it for the past week. You get the same kind of precursor from the new road cut as you're coming up into to Pinkham. If it's cold and the water's been running, that new cut has some nice pillars. Ice there always makes me feel better about doing the big hike up to Huntington.

Dave Powers called me last week to give me the anxiously awaited news that there was ice building at Willoughby. Needless to say I immediately made plans to get up there as soon as I could, which happened to be this Monday. Using my "ice indicator" criteria on the state of the road-cut ice along 93, I wasn't disappointed. Not only was there a lot more snow on the ground once I got up past Littleton, there were enough pillars along the side of the road that I was highly encouraged.

I got there a little late (don't ask, I won't tell) and Dave with buds Randy and Jake were already at the lot at the end of the lake. Through the snow flurries it was obvious that there was good ice to be had.

The "official" word was that there was reasonable ice from the Tablets down to the Gentleman. Further up the lake it was pretty sketchy. Well that was more than plenty for me so I was psyched. We decided to head up to Glass, figuring that one party would to that and the other 20 Below Zero.

As usual the hike uphill warmed us all up. Plopping down by our packs and sucking down some hot Gatorade with green tea and chomping on a hunk of pepperoni I was pleased to see that the ice seemed to be in good condition. The start looked a little thin, but certainly reasonable for this time of year. Dave, and I had done Glass last year and I had snagged the crux pitch so he wanted it this time. Fine by me so I headed up. At the same time Jake headed up the fist pitch of 20 Below. We climbed the entire pitch on lines parallel to each other, about 15 feet apart, all the way up to a belay on a nice flat spot. There were thin places, but there was gear to be had and the climbing seemed to be about 3 or 3+. Jake and I had a running conversation all the way to the belay, with a few gaps when the ice got a little thin. It was great fun. he and I agreed that it was probably the most social day of climbing that we'd had.

Randy and Dave zipped up and got ready to take care of "the business". The ice on Glass looked plastic and not as mushy as when we had done it before. When he seconded the pitch that time, he pulled my screws out with his fingers! It wasn't that warm so we didn't expect that to happen this day. The snow kept coming down and seemed to be getting heavier. There were big flakes and it was getting hard to see across the lake behind us at times.

Dave's been climbing a lot and I was impressed at how he seemed to cruise up the pitch in such good style. While there were stances in key places, he made the many vertical sections look almost easy. Jake and I ragged on Dave and Randy as they climbed and chattered away. About in the middle of the steepest section Dave called down that there was something very interesting on the ice. Something had apparently taken place and there was blood all over the ice! At least it wasn't from him. Just before the top Dave disappeared into the snow and it was erie when he finally called down that he was off-belay.

Glass Menagerie - lookin' a little thin at the bottom
20 Below Zero - this start is a little thin as well
Dave Powers on the business-end of the Glass
Randy Garcia having fun on 20 Below

I traversed over to the steep section and headed up. The climbing was great. Plenty of places to hook, good places for your feet and generally plastic ice. I was using the Ergo's and it was great to be able to hang onto a tool and shake out whenever I wanted or match hands on a single tool to move from side to side. It was the steepest thing I'd done leashless this season and it was comforting that I never felt pumped. I noticed that Dave had gotten in all 3 22 cm screws on the pitch, as well as 6 others. I was sure that the 22's had made him feel very good. At one point I could hear the water running very loudly out to my right. Fortunately on our line the drips weren't too bad.

I got to the belay and we decided to finish up into the woods and then traverse left to rap down to Jake and Randy's belay at the tree above the rock buttress on 20 Below. They were willing to leave their rope so we wouldn't have to do the v-thread "thing" to get off on Glass. 30 minutes later we were all safely down and munching on sandwiches and bars. It was 2:30, about 4 hours from when we started.

Someone asked if anyone wanted to climb any more. We all looked at each other and at almost the same instant said, "Nope." It had been a great day and it would be 3:15 by the time we got back to the trucks at the lot. No one had any interest in walking down in the dark and besides, we were all pleasantly tired. It had been a perfect day, and one that I hope to repeat lots of times this winter.

UNCOMMON Ground finally on DVD:
Local climber and videographer Robert Frost's acclaimed video UNCOMMON Ground is finally available on DVD. Featuring great footage of rock and ice climbing in New England, this is a must-have addition to your collection. To get your copy now, CLICK HERE.

Harvard Cabin:
Looks as if the caretaker for the Harvard Cabin has quit. It's not clear what will be happening, but if you were planning on staying in the cabin this weekend or next week you should check on the status. Apparently the person who took the job shall we say, didn't quite understand the magnitude of the undertaking and bailed with no notice or warning!

Advantages:
There are some advantages to doing all this back & forth up through Crawford Notch. One is seeing things at all different times of the day. I've been taking my good camera along and have gotten a couple of nice shots that have nothing to do with climbing. The Notch Sunrise was taken on Monday morning halfway between the AMC Highland House and Twin Mountain. The other was taken today, Thursday, right in front of the Willey House on the bridge. As they say, if you don't have the camera with you, you won't get the shots...

Sunrise above Crawford Notch
Ice covered trees in the morning sun

Remember - climb hard, ride the steep stuff, stay safe and above all BE NICE,