While I was relaxing at home on Sunday, scratching the eight staples in my head that held together the large gash caused by a falling piece of steel from the day before, I noticed a rare (for this year) post with a photo of ice climbing in it. I emailed Nate to see how the ice was in Joe’s and the last time he’d been there, and he basically said to get there before it’s gone. So, after another day of slowly fading headaches and yearning for something resembling the winter world, I joined up with Scott to head down and get in some ice while there was still such a thing.
Temps were warm as expected, but the ice was plastic fantastic, one-swing hero ice. We made a quick warm-up lap on CCC falls and then crossed the river and headed up the frozen creek heading up to Deadbolt. After we each led it, we did bonus top rope laps. Then we climbed it with only one tool. It was at this point that we decided we had squeaked all the climbing we could out of this pitch, so we left for home. When we started climbing, the ice below our climb was solid, but it was ankle-deep water by the time we turned around to head down. Not a good sign for the future of this pitch. It felt incredibly good to get out on the ice again, and I really hope there’s time in this never-winter for a few more days.
