Snowline and Girl Power
I headed out to ice climb on Saturday morning with a new partner, another rarity, the female ice climber. I have climbed with other gals in a group of friends and it's always been fun. This situation is less common for me to have a girl partner where we decide what we're doing, we have all the proper gear, we're both dedicated climbers. Just us and our estrogen. Embarking on a (as my friend Kim likes to say) "a dickless ascent". I'm not dissing my male partners at all, they are great and lots of fun. But when you're in a sport where you are always the minority, sometimes its nice to just hang with the girl-peeps when possible. We climb differently, we talk about different things and share common experiences.
Yuka is an experienced rock climber but doesn't ice climb as much. She has plenty of experience in the outdoors and I thought it was very cool that she had been a part of the Search and Rescue team when she lived on the coast. After my adventure first aid course, I had started to wonder if I would like to get involved with Search and Rescue so it was interesting to talk to her about it.
We plan on climbing Moonlight. Actually I am hoping to bag a Gr 4 that I had been told was in easy shape due to the traffic of other climbers. I had seconded it last year, so I felt I knew what to expect.
Once we got to the climb we found another party on it. No worries, we decide to climb Snowline beside it. I feel dissapointed since Snowline looks abit easier and I wanted to lead Moonlight to gauge my improvement from seconding it last year. I am assuming that I will lead the climb since I know Yuka doesn't have the same amount of ice climbing experience as I do. However I'm already thinking I will offer her the option to lead a pitch if she wants it.
I begin up the climb and as I had heard about Snowline, the ice was thin at the bottom. Thin enough that I did what I said I'd never do, use the shortest screw I have, that I've always called the "desperation" screw. The placement was lousy and I realise the screw is really only for Moral Support, certainly not to save my life. I keep climbing, another lousy placement, the ice is not super steep but it becomes an issue of how high up do I want to be without protection I trust? Finally, I sink in a nice 16cm screw and I see a steady core of ice when I am screwing it in. I clip in and breath a sigh of relief.
Now about this ice, brittle, dinner plating, which means plate sized chunks of ice shearing off. I have to swing at least 3 times to get a solid tool placement, one that I think I can trust my life to. I know I am climbing conservatively but ya, that's how I'm going to climb on lead. But CRAZY, I am getting so damn tired! I am resting on screws, the calves are screaming. As my friend Steve has said to me "it is a different world when there is no rope above you" I decide I am going to take my time and rest when I need to. It's not a contest up here, it's about me making choices and getting experience.
As I'm climbing, I see another group of climbers walk up. Yuka tells me after that one of the guys, being friendly, strikes up a conversation with her as she's belaying and asked if we were with the other guys climbing on Moonlight. He doesn't expect to see 2 women out Ice Climbing on their own.
I set up the belay in probably the shittiest position to effectively belay Yuka up. Another rookie leading mistake, not dangerous just very inefficient for me and I make my job much harder than it needs to be. Yuka is a strong climber, she SWINGS and climbs confidently.
The second pitch is as hard as the first in terms of tool placements but it's easier to get good protection in and I can tell where the climb has been chopped out so finding feet placements is pretty good. But the challenge is swinging on the alternating fragile/bullet proof ice.
At the end of the day I am glad that I didn't find myself leading Moonlight. I know I could have done it but I think my fear/gripped factor would have been quite high. As it is I felt like I had climbed 3 climbs with the amount of swinging I had to do. eeesh!
Yuka leads the last 10m of the climb and does a great job. Only her 3rd lead and on difficult ice. Our rap is efficient and I can quickly see where Yuka's experience outweighs mine in the way she does her rope management. I am thinking that rock climbing with her would also be a whole lot of fun.
At the car she displays her savvy as a good partner by presenting 2 Traditionals and we toast to our first climbing experience with each other.
Yuka is an experienced rock climber but doesn't ice climb as much. She has plenty of experience in the outdoors and I thought it was very cool that she had been a part of the Search and Rescue team when she lived on the coast. After my adventure first aid course, I had started to wonder if I would like to get involved with Search and Rescue so it was interesting to talk to her about it.
We plan on climbing Moonlight. Actually I am hoping to bag a Gr 4 that I had been told was in easy shape due to the traffic of other climbers. I had seconded it last year, so I felt I knew what to expect.
Once we got to the climb we found another party on it. No worries, we decide to climb Snowline beside it. I feel dissapointed since Snowline looks abit easier and I wanted to lead Moonlight to gauge my improvement from seconding it last year. I am assuming that I will lead the climb since I know Yuka doesn't have the same amount of ice climbing experience as I do. However I'm already thinking I will offer her the option to lead a pitch if she wants it.
I begin up the climb and as I had heard about Snowline, the ice was thin at the bottom. Thin enough that I did what I said I'd never do, use the shortest screw I have, that I've always called the "desperation" screw. The placement was lousy and I realise the screw is really only for Moral Support, certainly not to save my life. I keep climbing, another lousy placement, the ice is not super steep but it becomes an issue of how high up do I want to be without protection I trust? Finally, I sink in a nice 16cm screw and I see a steady core of ice when I am screwing it in. I clip in and breath a sigh of relief.
Now about this ice, brittle, dinner plating, which means plate sized chunks of ice shearing off. I have to swing at least 3 times to get a solid tool placement, one that I think I can trust my life to. I know I am climbing conservatively but ya, that's how I'm going to climb on lead. But CRAZY, I am getting so damn tired! I am resting on screws, the calves are screaming. As my friend Steve has said to me "it is a different world when there is no rope above you" I decide I am going to take my time and rest when I need to. It's not a contest up here, it's about me making choices and getting experience.
As I'm climbing, I see another group of climbers walk up. Yuka tells me after that one of the guys, being friendly, strikes up a conversation with her as she's belaying and asked if we were with the other guys climbing on Moonlight. He doesn't expect to see 2 women out Ice Climbing on their own.
I set up the belay in probably the shittiest position to effectively belay Yuka up. Another rookie leading mistake, not dangerous just very inefficient for me and I make my job much harder than it needs to be. Yuka is a strong climber, she SWINGS and climbs confidently.
The second pitch is as hard as the first in terms of tool placements but it's easier to get good protection in and I can tell where the climb has been chopped out so finding feet placements is pretty good. But the challenge is swinging on the alternating fragile/bullet proof ice.
At the end of the day I am glad that I didn't find myself leading Moonlight. I know I could have done it but I think my fear/gripped factor would have been quite high. As it is I felt like I had climbed 3 climbs with the amount of swinging I had to do. eeesh!
Yuka leads the last 10m of the climb and does a great job. Only her 3rd lead and on difficult ice. Our rap is efficient and I can quickly see where Yuka's experience outweighs mine in the way she does her rope management. I am thinking that rock climbing with her would also be a whole lot of fun.
At the car she displays her savvy as a good partner by presenting 2 Traditionals and we toast to our first climbing experience with each other.
posted by Lise B at Sunday, February 26, 2006
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home