So this TR is nothing special, so don't expect any harrowing tales of FA or anything like that. You've been warned. Just wanted to show you Californians that the NE is kinda the place to be for ice season this year. All these polar vortices and such have left us with some incredible flows. In between trying to not let my GPA take a dip in my engineering classes, I've been trying to get out as much as possible, because I'm still fairly new to ice and therefore super psyched about everything with smears of frozen water on it.

Cool climbing part 1 was something called Drop Swim or Die at the Palisades. To get there you have to walk about a mile over a frozen Lake Champlain.



Once we got to the climbs the first time we went out there, we had to test the ice. It was early season, so the lake ice was only 2 inches thick in places.

pictured below is the climb we wanted to get on. I'm at the bottom right for scale.


My climbing partner voted me to be the ice guinea pig and to see if we could somehow get onto the ice flow without falling through the lake ice. Notice the open water hole at the bottom left of the photo.


It wasn't my most dignified moment, but a good choice, because the ice started creaking and groaning and fracturing, so I scooted away on my stomach looking like a weird, orange-colored seal.

Here's another photo of how ridiculous I looked as my partner looked on and laughed.


So taking into account that it was -5F and the lake ice was really sketchy, we had to bail.

BUT, we came back a week later when the lake ice was 3 inches thick.

My partner led the first pitch like a champ after just starting to lead ice this year. I led the second spicier pitch.




The 2nd pitch had some pizzazz.



There were some super aerated and rotten pillars, so I punched them to clear some placements for my feet. One was very solid and resulted in my having a nice bruise the next day:


More fun things I got to climb was a climb called Repentance. My partner was super stoked on it and fired it like a champ.


Beautiful, gorgeous day that I skipped class for.


You may know this climb from a video of Steve House soloing it. Everyone wants to know: did you go left or right at the top? We went left and took the insecure handjam option, although I levered on some shitty crimp instead (my hands were too small for the handjam).



Onwards to more climbs.

I climbed a lot at a place called Frankenstein. One of my favorites is a climb called 'Dracula', but the only photo I have of it is after I led it and was about to simul-rap with my partner. Google it: it's a beautiful thing.


Hmm... what else? There were several mixed days, including an exploratory one where we hung a top rope over a slab.



We used anything and everything to get up that thing. Including the tree-assist.


One of my housemates is a total crusher and is going to feature prominently in some of the photos below, so meet my friend 'Z'.


It's super nice to have a climbing partner living in the same house as you several rooms over. His girlfriend also makes delicious baked goods and breads, which is always a plus in a climbing partner.

Below is pictured another housemate. This photo was too good not to be shared with the world, and I know it has nothing to do with climbing, but it gives you a sense of what kind of crazy grad students I live with (he really was part of a circus before he decided to do his phd in computational biology).


So back to 'Z'. He led this weird mixed climb at one of our local haunts on some old pitons and a barely-touched down pillar.



So back to the most recent climbs I've done. I teamed up with 'Z' about a week ago to climb 'Mindbender' at Lake Willoughby. I followed the first time on that Sunday and then two days later came back with another partner on a Tuesday (skipping my Microfabrication of Thin Films lecture) to lead it.


Here are some photos from when I could hang back, relax and just follow the climb. You solo about 15 feet of WI2 to get to the base.


Here's a photo of the entire climb in one shot.



I couldn't get the climb out of my mind, so I convinced one of my lab partners from my Fluid Dynamics class (who had climbed 4 pitches of ice ever in his life), that he should skip class and follow me up it on a tuesday afternoon.


Yes, yes, I know I need to place more screws. I just forget to sometimes because the ice is so good. And ice run-outs aren't really that scary anyway.


The weather was decent at the beginning and then deteriorated, just at the right moment. The crux is this 'swing-around-onto-vertical-pillar' move.


Checking to see if there's anything better around the corner.


Nope. Only way is to go up.



It was pretty damn steep, but I was psyched. This was my 23rd ice lead! (and yes, I keep track with a spreadsheet because I'm lame like that and have a data-oriented mind)



We had to rap in the start of a blizzard and then race home in the car before the roads got to bad for us to make it back to campus on time for our 7pm lab.


The rap was also pretty-much free hanging which was absurd. Oh, and I rapped off the ends of my ropes (on purpose!) into a snowdrift, so we could get down faster. It was only about 2 feet, so whatever.

So the takeaway about the NorthEast is that there's great climbing, great partners to be found everywhere (although all of them seem to have significant others already. Just my luck I suppose...), and good beer.



Oh, and I'm probably going to fail out of college if I keep skipping class to go climbing, but somehow I've made it work this season.