Sunday, March 11, 2012

Ice in Cody, WY


I left Durango at 6am and before I knew it I had been driving in Wyoming for 5 hours.  Thats when I realized that I hadn't seen a single cop since crossing the boarder and I could count the number of trees I had seen on one hand.  And with that said I had also passed very little civilization and the wind was blowing at least 30+mph the whole time.  It ended up that the wind didn't ease off until I left the state 4 days later and out of the 4 days I was in Wyoming I only saw 1 cop total.  I arrived in Cody just after 6pm, around 12 hours after leaving Durango.  Chris was flying in from Chicago and I picked him up at the airport later that evening.  After a long day of travel for both of us it was good to be stationary in a hotel room looking at a guide book, trying to figure out what to do in the morning.  We finally decided on a drainage with two routes right next to each other.  "Stringer" and "Desperate for Lovin'".
The next day turned out to be a great day of ice climbing with a moderate approach and good ice.  I had heard that there is often minimal snow in the area and was pleasently surprised to find out how little there was.  On Day two we did more hiking then climbing on a route called "The Schoolhouse Route".  Lesson learned.  Day three turned out to be the gem with a route called "Broken Hearts".   While Chris and I were in the Cody area we saw too many deer to count, bighorn sheep, quail, and a wolf!
All in all it was a fun trip in a cool area!  Below are an assortment of photos.      
Chris leading "Stringer"

Chris following "Desperate for Lovin'"

Chris starting up pitch 2 of "The Schoolhouse Route"

"Schoolhouse Route"


"Broken Hearts"

"Broken Hearts"



Post holing out of "Broken Hearts"

"High on Boulder" on the left and "Moonrise" on the right.
"Stringer"


"'Desperate for Lovin' behind Chris"

Rappelling "The Schoolhouse Route"

"The Schoolhouse Route"

"Broken Hearts"

"Broken Hearts"