Cathedral Linkup!

Last week, Kevin Mahoney and I did a whole bunch of stuff at Cathedral. One of the things we did was a linkup of Just Laughing (trad M6) and The Unicorn (WI 5). We also swung leads on Repentance (WI 5). So I called up Dunbar this week and suggested we try to repeat the linkup ourselves. Now, it’s one thing to follow a guide up something hard and thrash around, and quite another to be on the sharp end yourself. Neither Dunbar nor I had led anything quite so hard, nor quite so long before, but we got psyched to try it.

I started up Just Laughing, a 30 m granite crack which goes up to a roof at around 9:30. It was scary, pumpy, and fun. I placed a ton of gear on it—a double set of cams! I ended up hanging on the gear a few times, but I eventually pulled it off. I wasn’t sure if that was going to happen. I really thought I could whip off at some spots. It’s funny, because Kevin told me last weekend that he thought the climbing was “really secure,” and today I felt my feet skate and torques spin. I suppose that’s the difference between a gumby like me, and expert like him. For me, the climb was about big moves between a few hooks, and a lot of torques (where you put your pick in and twist with constant opposing pressure). For Dunbar, it seemed to involve a lot of having one hand out and one tool out. I tried to tell him that fingers were for picking your nose, but I guess my advice didn’t take. I can’t complain too much though, because he did it cleanly! It was impressive.

Dunbar went up a short mixed pitch, and then led up The Unicorn, which was steep and pumpy. I’m glad I didn’t lead that pitch because I was pretty tired. In fact, after we walked off, it was about 2:30 pm, and I was about ready to call it a day. But we walked over the Repentance “just to check it out.” There was a party there just doing the first pitch, so we decided to re-rack and go for it. I led up to the first belay station and continued up the crux to link up the first and second pitches. The crux was scary as all hell! It had the snowy appearance and soft feel that ice gets when it gets baked. I was scared enough to get a stubby in the column (an iffy proposition, at least if the column breaks) and clip a screamer to a V-thread that somebody else had put in. But then I looked at the V-thread, and I saw there was a nice white horizontal fracture line under it! Not psyched, and pumped silly, I shook out, and tried to get my breathing and pounding heart under control. I punched it past the crux, and sighed heavily in relief when I got a nice #2 camalot in.

The rest of the climb was way harder than last week’s lead. There were super good hooks last week that felt secure. This week, it felt like I was hooking on saucers, because the hooks had expanded from the warm temperatures in the valley this week. I felt myself panting and smelled the sharpness of burned rock (from tools and crampons on rock). Scared, but committed, I fought really hard and made it to the belay. I don’t think I’ve dug that deep before on a climb. I brought Dunbar up and he cruised past me to the third pitch. He sent the chockstone! The top of the climb is a wide chimney with an infamous chockstone in it. I managed to do the chockstone, too, surprisingly enough. I had been having trouble making the wide stem (I’m only 5’7”, gimme a break!) so this was the first time I actually did it properly.

Anyways, it was around 6:15 pm when we topped out, and night had fallen. We hiked down the road under a gleaming half moon and sparkling starlight. As we passed the slabs at the North End, the ice caught the moonlight just right, and there was a marvelous glow. We were both totally wiped, but we had made it! That was probably one of the most incredible days of climbing I’ve ever had. We were both at our limits, and we both needed each other to pull it off. That’s a good feeling. It’s been a damn good winter.

More Outdoorness

On Saturday night, Kevin Mahoney asked me where I wanted to go on Sunday. Vacillating spinelessly, I nixed Lake Willoughby because it's apparently kind of baked right now. I decided we should go back to Cathedral, suggesting we do some "single pitch mixed climbing," because that sounded like an easier day. Ha! In the morning, we started up Diagonal, a summer 5.6 rock route or "WI 5" in the winter. That rating is a filthy liar and is not to believed under any circumstances. Neither, in fact, should any of the other ratings at Cathedral Ledge. But I digress. We climbed with crampons on hands up to the ice, which was pretty baked, so we traversed back down and went up Standard Route ("5.7"). It was really hard! I had one tool and a hand out for a whole bunch of it. There are several roofs inside chimneys where the sides are either broken up rock or verglas. If you're leading it, you're supposed to chimney up to the roof, clip a sling (which is around a frozen in rock or something--I thought it was scary because it didn't look all that secure), and then shoot out onto some thin ice or turf. At the end, there was a bit of steep ice. It was quite the adventure. I am definitely not up to leading something like that. But Jimmy and I may try the Just Laughing/Unicorn deal next weekend. Am I up to leading M6 trad? We'll see. Now I'm at Sunday River. I did a double black diamond run today, my first! It went quite well, and it was actually on natural snow, which was new for me too. However, I got on some moguls early in the morning, and that went really badly. I don't know how to turn quickly enough to do them yet. I'm practicing doing some small fast turns with little hops, so that may help. I tried their night skiing today, but it wasn't very well lit and there weren't very many trails open because of grooming, so I just did a couple of runs and took off. It's been a great weekend!

Repentance, Take 2

Kevin Mahoney and I went out to Cathedral today. We rolled up at the extra early time of 8 AM (early if you consider that I had to drive up from Cambridge) but there were already three parties on or queued up for Repentance and another on Remission! We checked our Deidre, which was formed weirdly, but there wasn't much ice on the hand crack higher up, so we bailed after doing the first pitch and trying the second. Then we did Just Laughing, which is probably about M6 (too burly for me to lead right now, but I didn't fall following it) to The Last Unicorn (4? 5?). We thought about doing some ice-toproping, but I've had enough ice-toproping to last a lifetime (at least, for this season). We headed back to Repentance, and magically, everyone was gone! I linked up the first and second pitch. Everything was hooked out, which was nice. Things were going well...I chugged up past the first belay, hooked up the crux (a swiss cheese of ice screw and pick holes), and found a nice little V-thread someone had put in. I even got to stick some screws into old screw holes! Heh. I got higher up and then I realized there was trouble brewing...I was out of draws! I guess Kevin only normally carries 8, but that's a bit thin for a full 60 m pitch. I did all sorts of bullshit like clip things with the carabiners on cams. I even wanted to take the neutrino off my bullet pack and use that, but I was wearing the pack, and that would have been tricky. Because I couldn't extend any of the higher pieces, there was atrocious rope drag, but I grunted through it. I had to run it out (by my standards, not Kevin's) a bit to cut down on any further drag, but I punched it to the belay. Then Kevin led up to the top and I followed. I actually made some progress on this chockstone thing. I feel it's very mean to short people like me. Maybe Hannah can stem like crazy, but I can't. I bridged the wide chimney at full extension, with my toes pointed, and even with my gloved hand in a fist to get a little extra reach and I just barely made it. Higher up, the rock rippled a bit, and I couldn't quite make it happen. There's basically one or two moves in that extremely wide area that I need to work out. After that it's a hook, some turf shots, and a high step to the finish. I swear that it's waaay harder for short people like me. But then again, it might be easier in the chimney section for me. So who knows? I'm just psyched I got to lead one of the classic hard routes in New England...and it wasn't even a sketchfest! I heard Steve House soloed Repentance and Remission and found the chockstone the hardest part. In fact, I heard he nearly decked on it. Holy shit. Kevin said he threw away his glove in an effort to jam, but then found that his hand was too small! I'd be crapping my pants if that happened. Yikes! Oh well, I'm still impressed...

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.

Power Play

This week, we've been on the infamous annual HMC trip to the Adirondacks. On Tuesday, Bayard took me up Power Play, a classic grade 5 route at Chapel Pond. It was in pretty thin condition, but when I followed it, I took the opportunity to examine the gear and anchor placements. I talked to Dunbar about it, and he said it was too thin to do at the moment. But after taking a day off to learn how to downhill ski at Whiteface on Wednesday, I convinced Dunbar and Lauren to come check it out with me on Thursday. I admit I was pretty nervous Wednesday night. In these conditions, mistakes would have at least R-rated consequences. But still, I felt pretty solid when I followed it, and more the point, really psyched. Here's the route:


Although it has a direct variation (hard), the recent spate of warm weather hit it pretty hard and it probably isn't very well-bonded or safe to lead. We rambled up a series of ramps. There were small bits of ice on them that could be hooked, but I wouldn't call it secure by any means. Still, I tried to test every placement and climb very carefully. This was important, because I didn't get a good piece of gear until I got about 50 or 60 feet off the ground (#2 camalot). I got a sketchy tipped out stubby before that and a bad green C3 after that, but once I was on one of the higher ramps, I got decent yellow and blue screws every fifteen or twenty feet, which made me feel a lot better. Near the end of the first pitch, I basically ran out of rope, and Dunbar and Lauren had to simul-climb up first few moves (easy) to let me clip a cedar tree for an anchor.

Dunbar following the first pitch.

Dunbar led the short second pitch exit to the end, a steep curtain. I'm glad he led it, because I was feeling pretty tired. It's short, but no joke--an impressive lead. Lauren, amazingly enough, followed this with one old BD viper and something called a "humminbird," which looks like a hammer with a pick added as an afterthought. Still, it was marvelous:

Lauren styling it on the second pitch.

Well, after some double-rope management shenanigans and avoiding a huge rock on the way down, we made it. I'm pretty psyched. This is probably my hardest lead (of any sort) thus far.

Pictures From Cathedral

Bayard took some awesome photos. These are from Repentance, I think:

Another Few Days in New Hampshire

A few of us went up to the Flume yesterday. I've seen it colder there, but with little sun, it's definitely a chilly spot. Dunbar got beaned with a chunk of ice on his eyebrow and forehead. It looked like it hurt. He got a few stitches in Plymouth but didn't seem to need a priest. I think we all had a good time overall. I got to coach Karen a bit and that got me psyched. It's nice when you shout some advice and it actually helps someone instead of just annoying or confusing them. Dave Ford seemed to be having a good time. For only his second day on vertical ice, I thought he was doing rather well. (By comparison, my second day on the ice was atrocious. Let's not say any more!)

Bayard and I went to do Repentance at Cathedral Ledge today. Here is a picture below. I like the dark aspect of this picture. I think it captures it well.



Now, the guidebook gives this an ice grade of 5+ (accurate), a commitment grade of IV (also accurate), and an old-school mixed grade of 5.8 or so (can't remember exactly, but it's bullshit). I mean, OK, maybe it's 5.8 or 5.9 if you're an elite climber or a guide, but for us mere mortals, it's pretty hard. I think of 5.8 as something a gumby does on his or her first day at the gym or on top-rope. This was way harder.

This morning, I told somebody at the Frontside Grind coffee shop that I was going ice climbing on Cathedral Ledge and he explained to me that "ice is for gin and tonics." But I went anyways. The climb starts with about 80 feet of this "5.8" drytooling to get onto the ice (in the picture above, you can see the ice doesn't start right off the ground). When Bayard and I tried it last year, the ice didn't really touch down very far, so there was a big runout to get to the ice. This year, the ice started (thinly) after the good drytooling, so we were off to the races. Some pumpy, technical, and generally awesome climbing on good ice got us to a nasty sloping hanging belay for the second pitch. The second pitch was super hard, and probably the crux. A thin, horribly candled, and wet column (visible at a vertical white streak in the picture above) led to an awkward squeeze chimney. The column was really scary and I was only following it! There were very few good places to swing/tap, as almost every surface was convex. But I'm starting to get the sense, from climbing all these scary little pillars, that they're not impossible. If I get maybe twice as much endurance, then I'll be able to work for my tool placements, and actually do these things on lead. As it is, I'm desperately shaking out on every hold, which really pumps me out overall because it takes me a lot longer to climb the whole route. I can't swing too well when I'm pumped, either. The chimney was actually the crux of the route. Crazy sideways chimney moves and little taps/hooks on a thin, transparent smear of ice in the back of the chimney take you inside the climb to a roof. You get a hook in a crack just above the roof, swing out, and it's over. More or less. The third pitch was a wider chimney which was technical, but not quite as hard. Overall, it was a stellar route. I got pumped out of my gourd. My manubrium hurt in a weird way when I chimneyed. I got soaked on the second pitch. It was a good day.

Tuesday: We went to do Repentance today. It was thin and tricky conditions. The column off the first belay was way thinner than when I did it last year. In fact, it didn't even touch down--it was a dangler. The ice was brittle and fractured a lot. I'm sure it's not very nice on lead when you swing into the ice and white marks appear everywhere. Still, I climbed it like I was leading: solid sticks everywhere, every placement tested, every hook set, good footwork, etc. I kept looking around for gear. There are definitely some heady runouts involved, at least for a weenie like me. I had the whole route dialed except for the top where there's this massive chockstone. I kept switching positions for twenty minutes, trying to send it, but eventually I just took on the rope. Bayard kept telling me to stem onto the right somehow, but I couldn't really figure out how to do it. After a while, I just sort of powered my way through it in a sketchy way, but I wouldn't feel too good about doing that on lead. I think if I did eventually get up there, I'd consider just aiding through it. There's a great #3 cam, and then a fixed alien, and then another #1 placement above that. So that's all possible.

I'm totally worked now. Time for a nap.