Since I was last, I got to
watch everyone
else go straight down the hill and
think how funny they looked doing it. Luckily for me, Jeff got
this funny picture of me doing it too. This is also a better picture of
ice axe
use.
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This
gives you a better idea of how steep the pitch was. The toes of my
crampons are stuck in the ice - nothing else. Though my axe is
also buried deep in the snow/ice to help pull myself
up. This would be more like vertical ice climbing, but
not quite. This is also as close to vertical ice as I'd like
to get.
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After practice it was time to start boiling
water for dinner and water
bottles.
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With our bellies full and warm and it dark
outside, it was time to crawl into our tents and sleeping bags.
Since it was only 6:30pm or so, Jeff and I played a mean game of war
till we were tired enough to sleep. The temperature in the tent was
a balmy 55
degrees.
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In
the morning we had some hot chocolate in the tent to get us going.
Jeff was smart enough the night before to make some in his thermos
so it would still be hot the next
morning.
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Up
and in the kitchen to make
breakfast.
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After breakfast we were off for
the days adventures. Our campsite was a mile from the summit of
Wright Peak at 4,580 ft and a mile and a half from the summit of
Algonquin at 5114 ft. Being that Algonquin is the second highest
peak in the Adirondacks, everyone naturally wanted to head that way.
Our instructors were wiser. In winter Algonquin is nearly a cake
walk. You can
do it in snowshoes most of the time. Wright Peak is icier
and usually requires crampons. Since learning and experience was our
main objective (not peak bagging), we headed to
Wright.
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This was our first little obstacle. It didn't
really require crampons, but we figured more practice was worth
it.
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There
was a straight up the
ice route or an around the ice route. I chose
around before I realized this half fallen tree would make it ugly.
Again, good use of the
axe.
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And
another self portrait. Notice the little red/pink spot in the middle
of my forehead? I accidently slept with my head lamp on the night
before. It left this little raw spot in my forehead that
eventually turned into a big zit as I was wearing sweaty hats
most of the weekend. So? I spent the rest of the weekend
with this festering zit in the middle of my forehead. I could feel
it, but couldn't see it till we got back to mirrors on
Monday.
And yes, that's a
grey whisker in my
beard.
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- More -
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