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Tomcat
Trad climber
Chatham N.H.
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Jan 18, 2009 - 09:05am PT
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Go Dale ! No piccys but Mike Dube and I had a fine day at Shell Pond yesterday.Minus 16 here at the house,but it warmed to a balmy ten or so,and that place gets sun like crazy.Mike fired an off the couch dead vertical route on the steep wall,while I settled for something more tame,the 200 foot grade 3 flow.
I took some ice to the chin,you know not sure where,no pain,but my soft shell looked like I bit the head off a chicken.
Everything at Shell is as good as I have ever seen it.
Izzat drippy thing In Grafton lad?
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perswig
climber
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Jan 18, 2009 - 09:31am PT
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Hey Tomcat, saw your NEClimbs post and wondered about pics. You're the second to rave about Shell Pond's condition this year. It and Angel Falls are on the do-before-February list; Ben was hankering for Shell Pond earlier but hears the siren song of Cathedral now.
Pics from yesterday are Camden, far left of cataracts and far right of the ramparts, respectively. Ben and Peter apparently found decent conditions at Barrett's, surprising given that sun-exposed ice is sublimating fast around here. Shade ice is fat in Camden and in Grafton.
Heal well (unless Tradchick digs scars?) and take a camera next time, dammit.
Dale
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Tomcat
Trad climber
Chatham N.H.
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Jan 18, 2009 - 09:43am PT
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Dale,can do condition pics from last week if you ping me at tstryker@ncia.net.Things are even better now.Tried shootin Mikey leading the five,but could barely breath...lol....
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perswig
climber
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Jan 18, 2009 - 09:56am PT
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I'll tap you, Tomcat. Thanks.
Chiloe, was down for 2-3 weeks with the respiratory grunge, so (over)compensating now. Also, I'm a latecomer to rock and ice and I'm light; my partners (and guys like you, Tomcat, and Wootles) set the bar pretty high.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 18, 2009 - 10:05am PT
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Well, I'm out with that respiratory grunge now. I was hoping just a week, but it's
been 9 days & no end in sight. So I'm taking drugs and watching it snow out
my window, trying to finish up some writing today.
And scanning a few more old slides, just for fun. Here's another Northeasterner,
Cowpoke, feelin' proud in warmer times out west.
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Tomcat
Trad climber
Chatham N.H.
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Jan 18, 2009 - 10:27am PT
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Bwahahahahaha.....the artist formerly known as Wootles climbing skillz are so far beyond my own as to defy description.
I'm an aged weekend warrior.The thing Jim and I have most in common is back pain.....lol!!!!
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perswig
climber
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Jan 18, 2009 - 01:11pm PT
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Yep, Jim's an improbable standard. I'm just hoping to stay ahead of his daughter!
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Crimpergirl
Social climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Jan 18, 2009 - 09:26pm PT
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Great pix - thanks for sharing! (BNuts & Pente like the pics as well! :-)
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cowpoke
climber
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Jan 22, 2009 - 06:43pm PT
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ah, Chiloe, memories of warmer times indeed. last weekend, we took the girls out for some cross-country skiing and misc snowy fun in your granite state. saturday morning in woodstock, nh it was minus 20 at 7am (not including wind chill, although not much breeze anyhow) and warmed to a balmy -10 by 10am. weird thing = in the sun, it was darn pleasant. nonetheless, we were all content to hottub it and save skiing for sunday and monday, when it warmed to the mid-20s. and, gosh darn it, it was light until 5pm today...here comes the sun! (get well)
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perswig
climber
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Jan 22, 2009 - 11:24pm PT
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Maybe I shouldn't be an ice climber...?
I seem to be making poor route choices lately.
But for a change it's a nice day, Troy and I both have the day off, and because he and Craig, visiting N. Conway from Scotland, did Hitchcock Gully yesterday, they are interested in doing something more like real ice. (Craig's usual winter sounds like wet hiking, scary rock climbing, suffering, then more wet hiking; screws are apparently a novelty.)
So, because I'm selfish and don't get to Frankenstein that often, I suggest Smear or Pegasus because I haven't done them. OK, then, we'll start with Smear. Grade 3-4, how hard could it be?
The snow at the base is thigh-deep. Hmm, looks like no-one's been up for a while. Makes sense; all the valley hardmen are dry-tooling up to Welcome to the Machine or soloing Dracula in their slippers.
And what's that sound? Dripping water; maybe from that steep column? And that looks to be the crux? Well, whatever.
Take the rock rack? Naw. TONS of ice up there. Screws and slings - have at it.
Steep start - concentrate on feet, ice is hard but takes good sticks. Things ease off but there's an ice crust with 4" loose snow under it. Weird. Stomp and pound down to good ice, up to the next steep section, a nice dihedral of hard ice on left and what's this? - crumbing, aerated chandeliering on the right. Sweet. I sweat up this, thinking - who picked this climb? How long is this taking? Maybe this will be the crux? Finally finish this section and having made it above the treetops, take a minute (OK, a half-hour) to unclamp my tools and look around.
Nope, crux is still ahead, blue-ice column. Directly above is pretty steep - not going there. Let's go left - rising traverse though more eggshell-over-sugar. Stomp, stomp, swear. Place a screw. Hmm, kind of wet here, under this crap. Up and up, onto the left side of the column, where things get ugly.
The entire side of the crux section is running water and knobby chandeliering. WTF - in this cold? I hook tools, step up onto the biggest blob ... and it shears. OK. Back down, look for somewhere for a screw; anywhere. Um, nope. Finally pick the 'best' ice, clean the surface, and run in a 22. Almost no resistance the whole way. Great. Step up onto the knobs again, get a few moves higher and another blob shears. Um, crap.
Now, I'm all for stupid runouts (ask Troy), but looking up I see 15' of this stuff before it gets easy, and I'm not trusting that screw much beyond body-weight. So I think - WWKMD (what would Kevin Mahoney do). Well, he'd probably go up, but I'm not gonna. Down-climb to good ice and rap? Maybe, but I'd rather not leave gear, and now I'm kind of pissed. Looking left, I realize I'm level with the tree used for the second rap. 25-30'. All I've got to do is get there.
There's a foot-wide sloping ledge, nicely snow-covered, leading 10' from my stance at the manky screw to ... something better, hopefully. I swing at the styrofoam ice closer to the rock - a microwave-sized chunk goes sailing down. I swing easier, hook, hope and ease onto the ledge. Working my tools across the glaze atop the smooth rock in my face, I shuffle, preferring a fetal position but forced to stand up straight. It turns out less scary than expected, and soon I'm slinging a 1" sapling like it's the best bolt ever. Anything beats that screw.
Wading up powder on 60-degree rock, I find the best horizontal hand crack. Sweet. Where's my rock gear? On the ground in the pack, of course. Dammit. I throw a big overhand on a nylon sling, hammer it into a perfect constriction. It's probably the best pro of the whole friggin' climb. Grunt and mantle over the ledge, tool the tree roots (sorry) and hug that sucker like, well, use your imagination.
By now I realize I've been up here for maybe 10 hours and Troy and Craig (remember them?) have been quiet for quite a while. Maybe they went home? Nope, they're still there, willing to come up. Things proceed: Craig's Ben Nevis skills are evident as he looks right at home on the traverse, but he has the grace to admit he found the ice part challenging.
Out of sight at the start, Troy takes a nice whipper - all of a sudden my groin's crushed to the tree (I'm still hugging it from above); he says he went full-bore, upside-down, grazing the snow at the base. Not insignificantly, he's 225 w/o gear - ouch. He regroups, makes it to the tree and we rap uneventfully.
I kiss the ground, swear off ice climbing, and give my gear away. But then I hear one of the illustrious locals describing having to rap one climb and downclimb another because he ran out of ice and a second pair telling of a screamer-deploying fall off something down toward Dracula and I don't feel so bad. I buy back my gear, Troy and Craig go to have a beer, and I drive home to let the dogs out.
Dale
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 23, 2009 - 08:10pm PT
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You persevered, and fortunately your belayers did too. That inverted fall coulda
been nasty...
Our own outings have been even less ambitious than Cowpoke's, who stayed indoors
but at least he went to the mountains. Maybe tomorrow find my snowshoes.
There's a column of ice from our roof to the ground today, I joked it looked climbable.
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perswig
climber
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Jan 23, 2009 - 08:44pm PT
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Will your wife belay?
Hope you're feeling better.
Jim E, how about a TR from Maineline? More pics? Please?
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Jan 24, 2009 - 12:59pm PT
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This brings back memories of living in the Northeast... winter climbing = ice climbing, and while I miss those tied off birch anchors (not really, they root in anything, and not deeply) I am forced to climb rock most of the year, ice being hard to come by, locally.
Sounds like you've had an interesting year by your ice description. I always thought the difficulty scale should be something like: Rotten, Plastic, Brittle... but then the ratings would change hourly... which is what they do anyway.
Good TR, thanks from an expat Yankee...
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 24, 2009 - 02:45pm PT
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Will your wife belay?
While I climbed an icicle from the roof? She'd never go for that one!
Jim E, how about a TR from Maineline? More pics? Please?
Yeah, we haven't heard from Jim in a while.
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perswig
climber
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Blue Vein Area
Varicose Vein (NEI 3+, 5.4) The thinly iced ramp on the left, exiting right up a steep bulge. (100')
History: FA Dave Getchell, Sr., and Geoff Heath, 1980.
Blue Vein (M5) Follow a tight ice hose up the back of the steep chimney on the right. Additional difficulties come at the two overhanging chockstones; the one at the top rarely has more than verglas for ice tools. Some call this route the best ice climb in Camden, though it does not form often. (If the first chockstone is not ice-covered, expect a real battle at the exit.) Protection, fortunately, is adequate with a full range of rock gear in addition to ice screws. (100')
History: FA Geoff Heath and Dave Getchell, Sr., 1980.
- from Ben Townsend's guide to rock and ice of Camden, ME
Today was an homage to William Murray and his inspiring writings of Scottish climbing.
The ropegun Alan agreed to look at Blue Vein and Varicose Vein, short mixed routes with widely-variable ice conditions and plenty of interesting rock moves. We did them a year or two ago in 'thin' conditions, freaked me the hell out.
Looking up at Blue Vein - although it doesn't look it, the 25' ice hose is fat (good) but overhung slightly at the narrow bit (damn). Alan offers the lead. Haha. I'm not sure I even want to follow.
After that, you negotiate the first chockstone with lots of stemming and some grunting -
wallow up a chute with decent rock gear but some tricky steps and get your first glimpse of the bizness -
a 15' flared chimney, 12in wide ice in back for the first half, then only a thin smear of verglas on the left wall. 'Chockstone' isn't accurate; it's a roof, for god's sake.
I don't get to see Alan until he's whacking the topout turf/snice, but he looks composed. He later says that last time we were out, he aided to reach the exit moves, but today went clean. He got great gear, too, making it a bit more sane. I opted to ditch the tools and found nice rock moves up to a nice back/crampon bridge out and up (channeling my inner Scot) until able to hook the roof edge and highstep the exit. Met this halfway up -
Alan, wicked good lead.
(Edit for route description citation.)
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perswig
climber
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Now, Varicose Vein, I can handle.
Some good ice that leads to rock gear, more verglas and awkward bulges
and then pure ice, which today is steep, syrofoam over brittle/hard, but mercifully always short.
It's only a half-day out, but we both feel worked as we slide down the gully back to the road. It may be the only climbing the routes see this year, but very worthy for a visit, if you're so inclined.
Dale
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perswig
climber
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Feb 14, 2009 - 08:50pm PT
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Before getting to today's low-key TR, I'd encourage anyone interested to check out NEice.com's photo section. Some excellent hard ice being climbed around here this year. Not by me, obviously.
Today, we dug out the skis and headed into the woods.
Three and a half miles of this - frozen washerboard into a headwind,
and we get to this - nice new sign.
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perswig
climber
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Feb 14, 2009 - 08:50pm PT
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Nobody's been up for a while, so we feel around the brook, trying not to swim.
Troy, seeing the falls for the first time: "I thought it would be bigger." (Like I've never heard that before...)
The ice is always unusual here. Often parasols or tufts form. This year it's tufts capped with snice.
We climb, we rap. I toss the rope - it vanishes down this hole. The thing's 30' deep, very odd.
Troy takes a digger heading toward the dog-leg water hazard skiing out. He takes the stroke penalty and walks it. Pussy.
Wind at our back, softened trail and some light powder make the ski out pleasant. More hike than climb, as Troy said, but a nice day, anyway.
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perswig
climber
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Feb 14, 2009 - 08:51pm PT
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Some natural phenomena from the day.
I think the last one's a brookie?
Dale
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2009 - 12:57pm PT
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Looks a bit like Arethusa Falls, which was the high point (and end) of my soloing career.
Dale, you're keepin' the honor of NE TRs alive while lazier folks just go snowshoeing.
I suspect JE has been up to things but is too modest to say. Must be a few others also,
Crawford Notch ice was busy last week.
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