BillA Posted December 30, 2004 Share Posted December 30, 2004 We went to New Hampshire seeking ice. We found some. Here is Aaron psyching himself up to lead Fischer Price: My First Ice Climb. Grivel's new pick technology: It was very cold. Very very cold. I think this thing will hold me. Whoops. I guess not. Here is Brendan starting to lead Dracula. It was hard. Here he is a little higher. Here he is nearing the top. When you look down behind the ice you realize that the final thirty foot crux curtain is actually three feet away from the rock. Sweet. We drove to Franconia notch to look at the Black Dyke. We decided that Cannon cliff is nothing but a glorified roadcut. We slept in the parking lot and twenty minutes before our alarm went off we heard car doors slamming and saw twenty people running to the base of the route. We decided to leave. All in all the trip was alright, although we found the locals to be mean, the weather cold and the ice mediocre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icezazz Posted December 30, 2004 Share Posted December 30, 2004 Looks nice! I bet Dropline was in and touched down? Yes locals back there can be real mean, have seen them steal ice screws right out of the ice. Climb right past and above you on a route, very bad form; but what do you expect, they are east coast people! Send more TR`s, this was a nice one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daler Posted December 31, 2004 Share Posted December 31, 2004 Yo!! I'm not normaly one to diss, but one reason the locals seem to be mean(although they may not have known) is folks coming in and toproping cool little pillars that may form up and breaking them with a toprope ascent. These things take time to form and if you are not willing to get on the sharp end leave it for those of us that are. Don't toprope this sort of thing. Leave it for the leader who has the balls!!!!! No harm ment. Just venting!!!! Dale Remsberg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillA Posted December 31, 2004 Author Share Posted December 31, 2004 Dropline was the sweetest looking line out there. Unfortunately halfway up Dracula Brendan unleashed a basketball sized chunk of ice that tagged me in the back and fucked up my shoulder. It sucked because that was one of the lines that I really wanted to do. As for knocking down the pillar, it felt really solid and I was surprised that it broke. I did consider leading it but am glad I didn't because then I would be dead. Oh, and the comment about the locals was less about the local climbers and more about the surly New Hampshireites we encountered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daler Posted December 31, 2004 Share Posted December 31, 2004 If it was really super cold then you would have to expect that the thin free hangers would break. The colder the ice the more brittle. Also you would not die!!! There is a nice crack up and to the left the would keep you out of the fall line and off the ground. dale Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillA Posted December 31, 2004 Author Share Posted December 31, 2004 The crack way to the left? That's like twenty feet out of the way and would result a terrible fall. Trust me, there was no pro to be had. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daler Posted December 31, 2004 Share Posted December 31, 2004 I hate beating dead horses, but a nasty fall and dead are two very different things. Also what about the ice right before you got on the pillar. Would it not take stubbies, specters etc. I'm not trying to be the bad guy but I'm getting tired of folks toproping fragile lines that once destroyed probably won't form again. Thank God its hard to toprope many of the test pieces in the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelawgoddess Posted December 31, 2004 Share Posted December 31, 2004 awesome tr. great commentary to go with those pictures! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken4ord Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 Where was that dagger that you guys were TR-ing? It looks like the northend, if it is then that area is open game for TR-ing. I would have to agree with Daler though that New England folk get a little pissed about their getting hacked by some hackers, mainly cause there are a good number of places that are considered just TR areas. I would say their view is more like it is cool to TR and work out your skills before stepping up to the real deal, but TR-ing legit climbs is frowned upon and considered lame. There has been plenty of time where I wanted to get on Dracula only to find a party camped on it. In your picture though it is in nice conditions and you can easily fit three parties on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillA Posted January 4, 2005 Author Share Posted January 4, 2005 The dagger was at some obscure small crag in the Saco river valley where there were many similar formations around. I'm pretty damn sure the thing wasn't a testpiece of any sort, it wasn't in the guidebook. In total it was probably less than thirty feet tall. So yes, continue beating the horse if you wish... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daler Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 Nope that is all for now. I enjoyed your TR very much, keep it coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icezazz Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 BTW - How DID you customize that pick? Is it for climbing around corners? :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ade Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 We drove to Franconia notch to look at the Black Dyke. We decided that Cannon cliff is nothing but a glorified roadcut. Yeah right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdietsch Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 And it doesn't have a pisser as nice as Smuggler's Notch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhyang Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 Nice ! I think this thing will hold me. Those crampons look like Darts. What did you think of them ? Was the ice fairly brittle ? (probably a dumb question, since I have never climbed ice back east) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ade Posted January 10, 2005 Share Posted January 10, 2005 How the hell did you manage to bend a pick like that? The only time I've seen a pick that bent up was when some retard borrowed a friends tools and repeatedly tried to place one of them in "funny ice" that turned out to be granite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted January 10, 2005 Share Posted January 10, 2005 a testament to how strong grivel picks are, maybe id rather it snapped off, personally Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ade Posted January 10, 2005 Share Posted January 10, 2005 Better it bend if you're torqueing it you can always try and bend it back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillA Posted January 11, 2005 Author Share Posted January 11, 2005 I don't know, Aaron claimed that he hit nothing but ice with it. It was a real confidence booster having that happen on his first ice lead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdietsch Posted January 11, 2005 Share Posted January 11, 2005 Aaron claimed that he hit nothing but ice with it. I was at Smuggler's Notch last January, the high in Burlington was -7 ... ice or rock, it really didn't matter, at those temps for a week or so it was all hard as rock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steddy Posted January 13, 2005 Share Posted January 13, 2005 Sorry to hear about your unkind encounters with locals. I'm happy to have grown up in my climbing there - I'm not mean and never really had bad encounters. I was a 'local', am friends with many kind 'locals' and maybe they were masshole 'locals' that sucked. there's all sorts of good people there, and of course a share of blow holes. too bad you folks found some. BTW, dropline was in well for a few days, but between my trips we got rain which funneled into the middle of it, completely splitting it into a ~2 foot deep camel toe, with a hairy weak looking mess spewed out halfway down. sure, it would have been climbable, but heaaaadyyy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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