Ice Climbing....

So, got out on some ice for the first time this year. Exciting.

Ryan, a fellow SLU grad and friend from New Paltz came up to do some ice climbing. And we did some.

We started the day in the Wilmington Notch. We climbed a grade 3 called Multiplication Gully. It was actually my first multi-pitch ice climb. The conditions were definitely thin, but hey, I wasn't leading...very much fun.

After that, we took a lunch break at the house (cause, you know, it's so close by), and then we headed over to the Pitchoff quarry. There is some long steep ice there for sure. And it's starting to come in even. The routes were steep and long enough that I even got a slight pump going. Ye-heah.

So, thoughts...

Ice Climbing is fun.

I've got work to do.

Hope it stays cold.

More Skiing

So it's been snowing. A lot. That makes us all very happy, happy like little kids' birthday parties at the bowling alleys. Uh-huh.

Today makes my third day in a row skiing. I wouldn't say the conditions have been amazing, but they certainly haven't been bad. The only annoying thing is we've been having to down-load on the gondola at mid-station has been closed. Until today at least.

Today the wind was whipping. Like real hard. After every run I had a full icebeard. Very cool. Literally. But yeah, the wind was so fierce that they had to close the gondola and the chair to the top of Little Whiteface. There is a good amount of snow down, buuuuuut, visibility is low, and the wind is bad, and there is only one run open. Maybe I'll head back in a little bit and see if the wind has calmed down.

Skiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnngggggg!!!!!!!!!!!

It's Official

Yup, it's official. The ski season has begun.

Last week, Matt Rich and I went to New Paltz to do some climbing. The weather was supposed to be much better than here in Wilmington, and we were itchin' to do some climbin'. We did a couple of pitches of roped stuff (Moonlight 5.6, No Glow 5.9) and then did some bouldering. Matt first did Double Clutch (V4) into the route Double Clutch (5.9+). Having totally crushed both cruxes, he traversed left and then downclimbed to the ground. Then, Devin Matt and I did a V6 near the route Horseman, and then Matt and I also did the Finn V4. After that we worked on Jackson Polluck. I'm soooo close on it. I did every single move on it, figured out all the beta, and just couldn't quite string it together. Next time though...it's mine.

The next day we went to the Lost City. We were going to do some bouldering, but a lot of it was wet. Luckily Persistent was dry, so we set up a toprope on it. That was fun for a while. Then Margaret came over. We went to the left side of the cliff...where...there is the most sweet problem ever. It's called Funny Killer, and I think it goes at V7. I worked it for a little while, definitely has a long way to go.

That said.....

As I'm writing this post, the snow is coming down pretty hard. Nice big fat flakes of white powdery goodness. And...we went skiing today. At Whiteface. There was only 2 trails open, but it was sweeeet. I hadn't been skiing in quite some time and it felt great to get back on it. And it's still snowing hard.