Ice climbing

Went ice climbing last Sunday, for the first time in this entire winter! This is a big surprise to me, since last winter was my most ice-climbingest, and this winter was going to start out strong with me being one of the instructors at the Sandstone Ice Fest (you can find out more at Sandstoneicefest.com). But I got a horrible cold just before the Ice Fest, and then came Christmas, and then January passed, and now here I am.

So Shawn and I drove up to Sandstone (1.5 hours), pulled up at the gas station for any last minute needs, and I had a horrible realization. I forgot my climbing boots.

Boots for ice climbing have a few specific design requirements. They must be fairly stiff, so as to not flex excessively, and they must have a stiff, heavy rand that juts out past the toe. This is to allow the crampon to latch onto the boot. The crampon is the miraculous ice-walking tool - like a saw blade on your foot. It has perhaps 8-10 points on the bottom, to allow walking across icy surfaces, and either one or two frontpoints, to allow climbing up vertical ice.

So I had forgotten my boots, and there was no way my crampons would attach to my hiking shoes. We debated the options and decided to go for it, and see what we could do. As it turned out, I ended up climbing all day in my hiking shoes with no crampons, and it was great. It was hard. It was extra challenging and forced me to approach the climbs in new ways; it forced me to get creative with foot placements, and to think ahead even more than I would normally, so as to take advantage of rock edges and other features.

We climbed five climbs, I could barely stay awake when I got home on Sunday, and I'm still sore today. But my, it was good.

A typical view at Sandstone - quarried walls, some with enough ice to climb.Ice climbers discussing weighty matters.
A view toward the main flow - not the mass nearby, but the much taller ice partially obscured by trees.
The only picture I got of me.
Some guy on the main flow.