Repentance, Take 1

Dave, Jimmy, and I woke up at a fairly unwholesome hour to go try Repentance at Cathedral Ledge, a classic grade 5 ice climb. Unfortunately, when we got there, a Russian party of two was on it already! There was already a party starting up Remission, so we sat down and waited. We figured that if we gave them an hour, they'd be safely up the crux, and it would be OK to start. I was wrong. I was leading up the first pitch, and the second above me sent down a barrage of ice, which clunked me repeatedly on the head. I was definitely not very excited about this. The ice was brittle, but hooked out, so I was tapping in my hooks carefully. But of course, those placements aren't as secure as when you're actually swinging. I know I can climb grade 5 ice without falling under normal conditions, but no bets on whether I can do it if I get hit in the face with a big chunk of ice. I brought Dave and Jimmy up to the ledge and noticed that Jimmy had forgotten the rock rack. I lowered him on a redirected ATC and brought him back up. Then we waited for another hour. The team above us was crawling up. It was getting into the afternoon, so we decided to bail and do Goofer's. After some shenanigans, we got up and down that. Argh! This might have been the only chance I get this season! But maybe not. Maybe I can convince Jimmy to try it again. But if we do, we're driving before dawn to get on it. I can't understand these people. They show up from New York, have no clue what they're on, and just start up. You'd think they'd be super good or something to do that, but no! They look like they went to an ice climbing store, swept off a shelf into a loot bag, and made off like bandits! The leader had leashes and umbilicals! Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! Anyways, that's probably enough ranting and raving.

I took a cute girl out to dinner and a movie last night. She had a slightly wild and crazy look in her eyes. I think that's good, unless that means she's going to write plays where an ostensibly completely unrelated, but eponymous crazy woman chops me up into bits. That would be bad. She's good at skiing and doesn't mind roughing it in the outdoors, which is cool. We'll see where it goes...

Tonight is the Mt. Washington Ice Fest. I'm going go watch the drytooling competition.