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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Jan 29, 2013 - 02:57pm PT
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Rockclimbing only seems dangerous
Ice climbing actually IS dangerous
It's that type of thinking that led my wife to insist on the following term in my 29-year-old oral prenuptial agreement: I will not climb frozen waterfalls. I still have my circa 1972 rigid Chouinard crampons, though, and permission to use them on Sierra gullies.
As to Yosemite Falls, in December of 1967, I naively hiked to the top of the cone beneath the Upper Fall, curious to see how thick the ice was. On that day, it was little more than verglas, and come crashing down about a half hour after I left.
John
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Jan 29, 2013 - 03:33pm PT
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Nova Express covered in ice, wow.
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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
It ain't El Cap, Oregon
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Jan 29, 2013 - 04:15pm PT
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What I want to know is what was Werner pointing at in that 2008 pic?
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
ne'er–do–well
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Dec 30, 2015 - 10:30pm PT
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^^ I remember looking down (with horror) from above this cascade in March of '76 when I tried to bushwack to the valley from Basket dome. I was looking for Snow Creek trail, or anything easy to get back down. Ended up spending the night on a ledge 300 feet above Mirror lake, and thankfully woke to an NPS rescue the next morning.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 30, 2015 - 11:19pm PT
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the waterfall on Basket Dome is an inside YOSAR "joke" from back in the day...
I'm not at liberty to reveal the particulars...
The Upper Yosemite Falls hasn't frozen like that 2007 picture the Werner posted above since...
my guess is that if it ever happens again, the ice climbers will be ready. I was thinking about hanging a string of thermometers down the face to get some idea of the temperature patterns in the winter time... the inversion is pretty startling, but the cold air flows down out of the high country along the rivers when it's calm... it would be interesting to see how much the temps change and whether there is a pattern.
Since the time of the OP I have actually ice climbed again, with modern tools. I don't think it is so impossible a feat to do, but the conditions have to be right. Unfortunately it is so rare that we don't really know what "the right conditions" are... but first, the thing has to freeze.
It would be bold beyond belief, that's for sure.
On Walleye's image of the three flows under Stanford Pt. I've been up to the right of the middle one on the FA of A Walk In The Park. The bowl above the flow is super water polished slick, so anyone going up there should think about the possibility of releasing an avalanche while negotiating the 100's of feet from the top of the flow to the rim...
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AP
Trad climber
Calgary
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Dec 31, 2015 - 06:54am PT
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The ultimate contrarian is someone who hangs around Yosemite in winter waiting for the ice then goes to Alberta in late spring for the rock climbing.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 31, 2015 - 09:29am PT
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no one is debating the fact that if you live and climb in California, and want to ice climb, you will spend less time and money and have a more successful outing if you buy a plane ticket to Colorado, Montana, Wyoming or Calgary and enjoy the winter there.
you can spend slightly more and go to Alaska, or the Northeast (but maybe not this year).
if you are an ice obsessed Cali climber, you can go on the road for 3 months and get your climbing partners to fly in... and also find local partners...
it's not contrarian, it's just being lazy (or uncommitted to a climbing life)
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rick sumner
Trad climber
reno, nevada/ wasilla alaska
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Dec 31, 2015 - 09:37am PT
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The roadside stuff has recently collapsed here in AK with the ongoing chinook. Higher elevation is still in shape. Typical conditions are due next week.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Dec 31, 2015 - 09:51am PT
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One technique that the Colorado ice climbers use is to dangle an old rope down the drip in the fall. It really helps focus the water, and causes ice climbs to form to the ground. You can remove them in the spring.
It is a big deal in Colorado and Montana. A lot of the hot free climbers just start mixed climbing in the winter. They bolt them much like sport climbs, and they are wicked hard.
Ice is huge in the Rocky Mountain states. This forum is a little Cali-centric. They are doing mixed routes that are equivalent in difficulty to 5.13 rock.
I remember going to June Lake with Doug Robinson. He was teaching an ice class on these routes along the road. One of them was pretty steep, and nobody was on it, so I just soloed it. No big deal. It wasn't that hard.
I got to the top and the ice just gave way to this bush with snow in it. I was bent over at the waist trying to keep my front points level. It was a mini epic. I had hell getting totally off that thing.
Ice is also big in New England. That is where I learned to ice climb. Chris Rowins was a buddy of mine, and I went up there once over the holidays to climb ice with him and meet his friends. There are tons of ice routes in New Hampshire. I was only 19 or so, but I got some good schooling. It was miserably cold, though.
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Stewart Johnson
Social climber
lake forest
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Dec 31, 2015 - 12:46pm PT
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Me and The Bird on lower sentinel falls
1986?
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
ne'er–do–well
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There are sections you could rap into upper that haven't seen FA yet, but could be done pretty safely/ easily.
Also, if the ice cone ever reached as high as fern ledge - that would be great to piecing together alot of terrain in one day.
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