February ADK 2017

Headed up to the ADK this weekend for what’s probably the last ice adventure of 2017.

While everyone back home was running around in shirt sleeves, Craig and I were playing in the ice and snow. The week prior saw some fairly low temperatures and got a decent amount of snow. Though the forecast for the weekend was unseasonably warm, the winter weather prior to that set things up for a great weekend. When we arrived Friday night the temperature was 16° F. By Saturday afternoon it was 50°+.

For Saturday we planned to head back along the North Fork of the Bouquet river like we did in January, but actually find the ice we set out to find last time. Now knowing where the trail was, we made decent time despite the 2’+ of snow on the ground.

We definitely found ice. Not sure if it was THE ice as described by the guide book, but it was enough to keep us entertained for a few hours.

There were three distinct lines we could climb. We setup a top rope, so that all three were safely climbable. After a few runs I decided to lead the shortest of the three. I was contemplating leading the second, but after top roping the spicy route you see above (it was very thin and delaminating as I climbed), I’d lost all nerve/energy to lead the second tallest of the bunch.

As you can see the ice we were climbing looks more like snow than ice. It was definitely soft, but not so soft that you couldn’t climb it. It was also fairly thick easily taking 16cm screws.

Before we left and headed back to civilization, we had ourselves a fire and cooked some lunch.

As you saw last month, we’ve started a bit of an initiative to start backwoods fires by different means in different conditions. Considering the snow they’d recently had in the ADK, our first issue was finding a spot that wouldn’t melt 2′ down (though not sure that would have been a total problem). It didn’t take long to find this clear spot next to an erratic to start our fire. We used Vaseline soaked cotton balls and flint & steel to get it started. It was hot and flaming in no time. Craig brought some sausages, and lunch was delicious.

On the way out we passed a lot of dead standing trees. We wondered if it was at all possible to break off a chunk of a dead tree above the “wet line” and light it with flint & steel. Sure enough it worked. We’ll have to keep practicing that one to see what kinds of trees and conditions we’re actually able to consistently do that.

Sunday we wanted to do something closer to the road, so that we could easily head out and get home at a reasonable time. The weather was warmer still, but knowing places like Chapel Pond Canyon had super fat ice we weren’t worried. We decided to try Midnight Cruiser. We’ve eyed it up every time that we’ve climbed Quinn the Eskimo. Today was the day to finally give it a go.

Not my photo and not me

I’m only using it for reference/description. As you can see the beginning is a little hairy with the chimney (narrow area in which to climb) and the log. The snow for us covered nearly half of the log from the bottom. The tricky part is that the ice next to the log at the top of the chimney is vertical or near vertical. Not too big of a deal considering it’s shorter than I am. The issue yesterday was the water. Because of the warm temperatures, there was a flow of water over the entire flow of ice. At the chimney at the bottom, it obviously concentrated into what felt like a faucet. As I tried to climb up and through and set a screw, water was pouring over my arm and leg. I had hoped that Craig got a picture of the spectacle considering I wasn’t actually on belay at that point and there was nothing he could do if I fell, but he said he couldn’t for being so freaked out by the scene.

What-evs. It was just water.

I soon got past that point and to the first belay station where I dried out belaying him up.

The entire route is 180′ – 185′ tall depending on snow conditions at the bottom I think. Considering where I setup the second pitch belay, I didn’t expect our 60m rope to be long enough to get me to the tippy top and be lowered down safely. To be lowered or rappel safely from the top, you’d want to avoid going past the half way point in the rope. Regardless I ascended anyway with a plan to deal with the issue when it arose. Indeed the top was just out of my reach by about 10′. Luckily there was a (permanent) belay point off to the right that was just about perfect for a 60m rope (we’re obvsiously not the only ones who have gambled with a 60m on this route.) If you look close you can see Craig rappelling in the photo above. He’s about 2 body lengths below were I got to. The crux of this route is the top. It is the most sustained vertical section of the route and the exposure is pretty silly (I was sure to never look over my shoulder). I’d say I made it about about halfway through the crux before running out of rope. At first I wasn’t sure I’d make any of the last vertical section. There was a small ledge before doing the final bit of climbing that I had to rest on. Who knew 100′ of ice would be so tiring, but indeed my calves were screaming and felt pretty weak for the final push. After the respite I was able to continue, backup the in place anchor, and be safely lowered to Craig’s position.

All in all a good day. We hadn’t expected to have so much fun before leaving, but glad we did.

– b