keenwesh

I talked to a friend today who climbed scepter during the cold spell last week and said that it was brittle chandeliered ice and screws were worthless, so your experience may vary, I thought it was a WI4. I'm guiding a friend who has never ice climbed before for the weekend, we went up and did thrill is gone, which is in fun shape. My buddys Justin and Kevin joined us to work Northwest Passage (M11) in the bingo world cave. Justin went up for his first burn and made it to the lip, he's getting damn close to sending Kevin went next and unfortunately screwed up his shoulder big time on the first big move out the cave, where you do a big reach to a good hook with your left, and then swing onto it with one arm before matching and throwing a fig 4 to clip from. Kevin tried to clip while hanging from his left hand and felt a grinding and tearing in his shoulder. Fingers crossed for a fast recovery and not a season ending injury. I gave a go but I lacked the courage to throw my left leg over my forearms without stabbing myself and went home. Gonna do lots of sit ups and return with fruit boots.

That reminds me, there really aren't many gloves that fit big handed people. BD's are tight for me, OR are better, but could be a little bigger. perhaps a new standard glove size. Call it.... XXL

design some frontpoints that don't get dull after being repeatedly kicked into bare rock. I could use eve less precision in my drytooling with those!

this thread is worthless without pics! strong work guys!

does anyone know? Dane, where are you?

yeah... sounds like the 4th is the one to get.

I believe that was for the first edition... I'm wondering if more areas are covered in the 4th edition, or does it really matter that much?

if it comes down to that I would be grateful if I could borrow a copy, but I really want one of my own! On a related topic, what are the routes you'd do with 5 days up there, My buddy and I don't take rest days.

I'm looking for a copy, but the cheapest one I can find is $2040. This is a plea to anyone who has a copy laying around they'd let go for a reasonable price. Also, alternate guides for the Banff/Jasper area would be welcome as well.

Scepter is now in WI4 shape, uber fat and good, Mummy 2 had chandeliered ice on the lower half and upper steep pitch before the belay. Easy climbing but you either have to run it out or take the time to clear ice for good screws. Currently it is dumping, it's well on the way to a foot of freshies outside my front door, more in the mountains. Be careful in the gullies and avalanche paths of Hyalite.

just out of curiosity, why weren't they machined to fit without a mod in the first place? extra weight? stronger hammer? just because?

Oh, I thought you ment hiking upstream once you top out on the climb. Yeah, we approached from the bridge next to the campground. Super neat canyon with the added danger of a possible fall through the frozen creek.

The top out of too cold to fire was drytooling up a open creek, I didn't feel like wading upstream. Both times I've been to cody it has been balmy and warm, 3rd time's a charm!

Trip: Cody Classics - Date: 1/7/2013 Trip Report: I'm far too tired to write up much more than a photo dump, but here's the general gist of it. 4 days of climbing with Martin in the awesome South Fork. Started it off with a run up Broken Hearts. With the full sun screws were basically worthless, but the hero ice made for really fun roped soloing. My Only Valentine was good to go, but as I headed up the cone an ice dam broke up above and quadrupled the flow of water, making the lead much less appealing. We descended and planned to climb on the Other side of the valley for the next day. Martin led the first pitch of high on boulder, and I took the sharp end for Moonrise. The ice was really hard and brittle, necessitating many swings for each stick. Needless to say, I was super stoked when I made it to the belay. Sharing the drainage with us were Eric and Lucy, of bus trip fame. Really nice people and they said they'd send me some shots of me leading moonrise. Rad. After doing the second brittle pitch of moonrise we rapped off and hoofed it over to mean green to sprint up the first 2 pitches. Brittle hard ice left my arms exhausted. On the hike out we spotted View to Thrill and Dressed to Kill looking fat. South facing ice high enough to stay solid enticed us for the next day. A long hike with some shwacking led us to the base. While the top of both climbs were fat, neither piller touched down. Super lame. Reverse bushwhack to Too Cold to Fire salvaged the day. 50 degree temps were a cause for concern. The Moratorium was scrapped for the last day because of the utter lack of ice on the first pitch. Instead we went up Schoolhouse Creek. First pitch was fun plastic goodness. Second was a chandeliered wet nightmare. I rapped out of the cave behind on the previous parties abalakov and Bozeman was reached before the sky went completely black. A question for the mods: Why do half my pictures not upload because the filesize is "too big"? All are shot from the same camera with the same resolution settings... Approach Notes: Over the cacti and up the hills

file the back of the pick. Filing the hammers would be really gnar. I think there's an article on coldthistle explaining the process.

Went up to Alex in Wonderland today with Vern and Wayne. We ran up Silken Falls as there were several parties on Dribbles and none of us had climbed this fantastic route before. Wayne leading the second pitch I led the first pitch of Alex in Wonderland (it's the climb above dribbles in the Winter Dance guide, but that name is unimaginative and shitty). It wasn't too hard, M4ish, but very little pro and decomposing rock. Wayne and Vern froze at the base and we bailed. Second pitch looks hard right now, ~15 feet of drytooling out to a brittle and steep 60 foot icicle.

Vern gettin' after it on Horsetail Falls First pitch is a mediocre 3, this route is similar to Palisade Falls in that it is very high volume, so top outs are always a little spooky. The pillar above was rad, brittle ice, and the whole thing reverberated when a tool was swung into it. The last few feet of ice were glass clear and the water flowing over the lip could be clearly seen inside. Like Wayne said, Palisade is in great shape. The whole thing is frozen, but not very thick in the middle. negotiating the cauliflowers is really interesting. A 80 meter rope allows for an easy rap, otherwise bring two cords. I hear that the East Fork Road is gated after January 1st. We'll report back if this is true tomorrow night.

1. regular route on half dome. I had no idea I was capable of a route like this. bivi on a shit ledge, 2000 foot vertical wall, no way. 2. east butt of el cap. doing 10 pitches in a single day really prepared us for the above. also incredible location. 3. central pillar of frenzy. This is where mark and I really came together as a team. call all the BS you want, but it was wonderful moving up 5 pitches of wonderful crack without a moment of stress, besides the raps. Those sucked. 4. Killer pillar just a couple days ago. Rated WI5 in the guidebook, this single pitch felt almost easy. The ice was wet, but secure. single pic swings and a secure rest up during the top. Still the sentiment during the lead was one of absolute confidence. 5. A solo of dribbles. it was in wonderful WI3+ shape. but the experience was incredibly rewarding.

the only place I've used V threads regularly was during two days of climbing in Cody. Fortunately I'll get to use them a lot more next week as I should be in Cody for the majority of it!

Killer Pillar 12/30/12 Went into Flanders today and got on Killer Pillar, it's in really fun shape, but it also happens to be a goddamn waterfall. I managed alright with my suit of goretex armor but my partner was wearing softshell pants and his legs were frozen solid quickly after getting to the top. We had plans to get more pitches in but with hypothermia threatening we made the prudent decision to head back for the car. Wayne and Vern were up there and climbed the left side of the pillar with similar wetness. A couple buddies stumbled to the base about the time I was coiling my steel cable of a rope, Really fun to see everyone after doing family stuff in califonia for the last week or so. P1 of Bobo Like is not in, but I was assured that it goes at M5ish and is decently protectable with a selection of pins. The upper pitches are in and look classic. Big Sleep is sorta in, I'll put a photo up for you to decide for yourself. EDIT: Champagne Slot and Sherbet are both looking fat. I could see the top of palisade falls from the road and it looked well formed. Stories of near falls into the tube have scared me away from this one, but if these cold temps continue it'll only get bigger. Horsetail Falls. We've had cold temps for a while, it's worth the slog in as it is probably in good shape.

they actually install a seasonal tram that runs from 8 mile campground to colchuck lake. You have to ride a poma to get up to aasguard pass, unfortunately.

jeesuuusss yer actually gonna die.

I usually bring at least 3 pairs of gloves climbing. as soon as one gets soaked through I switch to the next one. A glove that'll keep your hands dry all day long in high 20 temps does not exist. Buy as many pairs as you can afford and carry all of them with you.

In other news I made it back into the canyon today. Stuff is looking good, especially Alex in Wonderland (previously referred to as 'the climb above dribbles"). Here's a crummy shot, my camera doesn't have much zoom, so I used paint to highlight sickles of interest, dribbles is behind the tree. I went up to Palace Butte to climb the fairly obscure route called 'Kansas Cornfield'. Broke trail over from Twin Falls, thinking that traversing in deep snow would be better than just going directly up to it. It wasn't, but there are a few really cool caves in the cliffs that we checked out. Sloughs were ripping off from high above with alarming frequency. Of course they didn't start doing this until Justin was well up into the narrowest part of the climb. Here's a video from the belayer's perspective. [video:youtube]

I'm gonna call it an "extended take"