Ice Finally

Craig and I finally got out for our first ice adventure this winter.

On Wednesday night we decided to head up to Thorpe, skin up the gorge and climb the gully we climbed last winter for the first time.

The gully is about two miles from the parking lot at the end of the Lehigh Gorge trail in Thorpe, and took roughly 45 minutes to “skin” in on our split boards. We used our split boards (snowboards that split into two separate skis) thinking we’d get more glide and get in faster than just walking. According to Google Maps that wasn’t the case.

 

Looking at the climb from the bottom and across the tracks it was quite intimidating. I seriously considering turning back. Being the first climb of the season, that wasn’t surprising.

But once I sank my tools into the ice and had my crampon toe points fully engaged, there was no stopping us. At least not until the 3rd bulge seen here. I had gone first and waited below it for Craig. In that time I spent too much time looking down, then looking up at the 10′ vertical face and decided it wasn’t in me at the moment. As I went around Craig proved he was game until his headlamp slipped off his helmet and I had to light the way for him to  get over the top edge. I was able to scramble back down and get his light before we met up again and continued onwards to the top.

 

The head wall was thin and sketchy. In general the farther up we went the thinner the ice got. We scrambled around a bit looking for a way to circumvent the ice to get over top and setup a top rope, but were thwarted by dense rhododendron growth. By this time it was 9 pm and we still had to get down, then skin the 45 minutes back out, so it was time to leave.

 

All in all not a bad trip for the first time out. I could complain and bitch that we’d done so much more last year by this time, but this is a different year – different seasonal characteristics. It is what it is.

Hoping to get somewhere north and cold soon.

– b