Trip Report
Kids are out of school, to the mall, or...
Monday December 19, 2011 1:11pm
With the kids out of school, there are many activities that they could occupy themselves with. Hanging out at the mall, PS3, facebook, endlessly texting their friends, complaining that they are board and have nothing to do, the list is endless. When I mentioned to my oldest son how about ice climbing last Friday, he was surprised I had work off and was pretty stoked about the prospect. Fortunately no crisis at work to occupy my day off, and I was hoping that the ice was in decent shape. We’d had a nice cold snap for a couple weeks around Thanksgiving that had really firmed up the routes, but for most of December we’ve had warm weather with excursions into the mid to high 40’s.

Chinooks are wonderful as a piscatorial pursuit, but as a meteorological event I could do without them. We’d had a few days in the 20’s and even some evenings dropping down to the teens earlier last week. which I was hoping would have firmed things back up. The previous week my bouldering forays showed the ice to be starting to rot out. On the drive down the trucks thermometer was reading mid 30’s. Less than ideal conditions, but we might as well give it a go.

I’d never done this route, it’s called organ pipes. You can just make it from the anchors to the start with a single 60m rope, which makes it a good 70-80 feet long. It starts out with a short vertical section, then a low angle ramp for a bit, and the top 30 feet is vertical to slightly overhanging. The screws were going in very, very easily. A couple taps of a hammer to start them would drive them half way in. Place lots of screws and don’t fall. When I got to the top of the ramp my son said the ice looked better on the left side of the curtain, so I headed over that way. Naw, pretty rotten and soft so I elected to weenie off to a ledge and then groveled up over some mud and crud. I surprised a pair of mountain goats in the gulley to the left of the climb and they knocked some rocks down the scree slope. After my son followed and cleaned the route he got his first opportunity to rappel (I set him up then went first so I could give a fireman’s belay) and then we had a toprope set up.

My youngest son went first on the tr. His first time ice climbing a few weeks back when the temps were barely in the double digits resulted in his hands being numb and him backing off mid-pitch. This time with warmer temps, and hand warmers in his gloves, he fired off the whole thing no problem. I could see he was getting gassed at the top section, clumsy swings are a dead give away of a tired ice climber. He was pretty stoked at his ascent. I have pics, but apparently his bro didn’t post them on his facebook page.

Then my oldest boy gave the route another go. Not having to deal with pulling screws and not having to take dads weenie route was much more fun.

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Our dog simply won’t let us go on a trip without bringing him.

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Time for the old man to see if he could handle vertical ice on a top rope.

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I’m not sure if hanging out with the old man is a better influence than hanging out with friends, but I’d wager we had a better view than the mall.

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Hopefully the forecast holds and things start cooling down this week. We might have to search out a few of the longer smears.

  Trip Report Views: 1,549
tolman_paul
About the Author
tolman_paul is a trad climber from Anchorage, AK.

Comments
survival

Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
  Dec 19, 2011 - 01:44pm PT
Still, and always magic at the Great Alaska Outdoor Mall!!!
tolman_paul

Trad climber
Anchorage, AK
Author's Reply  Dec 19, 2011 - 07:01pm PT
That night I got volunteered to go with my daughter and her friends on a hike the following day. It's a peak behind our house that they usually run up in the summer, but with the freeze/thaw's we've been having was pretty glazed over on the main trail, so we went off trail and boot packed through wind blown drifts.

"Alpine" start at 9:30


The wind must of been gusting the 60 on the summit ridge.


Not complete without a glissade.


At the base.

bluering

Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
  Dec 19, 2011 - 07:05pm PT
Those are good times right there!!!
Powder

Trad climber
the Box
  Dec 20, 2011 - 09:35am PT
What the lucky kids!!!!! :D
Ezra Ellis

Trad climber
North wet, and Da souf
  Dec 20, 2011 - 12:25pm PT
Nice Paul, WAY better then the frigging mall!
mike m

Trad climber
black hills
  Dec 20, 2011 - 12:42pm PT
Nice job TP. My kids are in school until Thursday otherwise we would get out a fair bit this week. Got my son some ice boots for Christmas. He has been wearing ski boots up to this point, but they are not so good for walking. Luckily we have fat road side ice less than 15 minutes from the house. May try to take him to cody over the break.
Karen

Trad climber
Prescott, AZ ~
  Dec 20, 2011 - 01:12pm PT
How neat! and what a lot of fun for your kids:)
Fat Dad

Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
  Dec 20, 2011 - 01:16pm PT
Winter peak bagging in Alaska in running shoes? That girl is way tougher than me. Sadly, I am on my way to the mall. The fact that the wife's birthday is Christmas eve makes the shopping that much more involved.
Vitaliy M.

Mountain climber
San Francisco
  Dec 20, 2011 - 01:50pm PT
Awesome stuff!
tolman_paul

Trad climber
Anchorage, AK
Author's Reply  Dec 20, 2011 - 02:24pm PT
Mike,

I'm sure your sone will like his ice boots. I was fortunate to get a pair of surplus koflachs for each of my kids for $50/pr, and they haven't outgrown them yet. Winter sports get really spendy when you have to outfit a family of five, and three of them keep growing out of stuff.

We have another chinook wistling through today/tonight so I'm thinking the next time they pull down it'll be in the gym on plastic.

There's a nice 4+ pitch moderate ice climb up our valley, but it requires a river crossing and the river hasn't froze due to our warm weather. Oh well, I'm sure we'll find something to entertain ourselves with.
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