Is this the beginning of the end of ice season? It sure felt like it this weekend– well Saturday anyway– with 34 degree temps and water rushing down behind the ice in places. Saturday was very pleasant as Shawn, Matt and I headed to the Workout Wall in Smuggler’s Notch. We broke trail on snowshoes (thank goodness for those!) but even with snowshoes Shawn was sinking in waist deep in some places! We climbed on the right end of the Workout Wall for a while, striving for good technique and climbing with one ice axe to work on balance and footwork, then we moved around to the left end to get on some burly stuff.
On the left end, two other climbers set up a top rope and as they were rappelling, one of them stomped through the ice dam that was keeping the far left end of the ice dry– as we watched them climb, the water was cascading over them! We had a much drier climb with nice soft ice. We climbed here until the hands could no longer hold on.
Sunday brought rain in the valleys but snow, wind, and colder temps above ~1200′. Good thing Matt got a decent view of the Notch on Saturday… it was socked in today. We followed the trail that fellow Petra folks broke on Saturday (thanks guys) to climb Jeff’s Slide and climbed just right of the far left side. So much snow! A quick avy assessment reassured me that the whole shelf wasn’t going to go sliding off with me on it. Once in the cave, we headed off climber’s right on some excellent steep, soft ice. We decided to call it a day after descending from J’s Slide so that Matt could recoup before the drive back to MA this afternoon.
Thanks Matt and Shawn, hope to see you again soon! ~Andrea Charest
