Ice climbing fatality in New York

[AOC]

A Canadian climber died on Saturday 2/23/02 when the ice collapsed on Positive Thinking, a route on Poke-O-Moonshine in the Adirondacks. Here are some links to the story in the Plattsburgh, N.Y. press.

http://www.pressrepublican.com/Archive/2002/02_2002/022320021.htm

http://www.pressrepublican.com/Archive/2002/02_2002/022420029.htm

[vegetablebelay]

There are a couple of pics of the route here - very steep:

http://users.erols.com/espina/Climbing/Ice98/Slide_Show.html

[Jedi]

This is a sweet route. The ice is low angle for the 1st 10 feet then it gets steep. It is typically thin in the middle of the route. I bounced my tools off the rock (ice thinner than it looked)a couple times. I used stubbies and screamers on 3 placements (one was not all the way in). It is typical because the sun hits this face and the rock is dark so it does delamiante.The second pitch starts off low angle and then you hit the vertical pillar. 450 of fun! It had my full attention and is still my proundest ice climb (don't mind saying I was a little scared).

Jeff Lowe can be seen soloing it at the end of "Waterwall Ice: Jeff Lowe's Climbing Techniques"Sad to hear about the Canadian. It has been a extremely bad year for ice in the Northeast with a major drought and very warm temps. Hardly anything was in halfway through Jan and most was gone mid Feb with some climbs not even forming.