New England Ice Climbing

Matt and I both had lost some of our enthusiasm for ice climbing over the years.  Personally repeating routes isn't that interesting and after a while we'd both climbed most of what SW Colorado had to offer multiple times.  The last couple years I've been going to Cody, WY for an ice trip to get on new routes and check out a different area.  This year however the Cody trip fell through, so Matt and I decided to check out New England.  We mostly had our eyes on 'Repentance' and 'Remission' but quickly learned that there was a ton of ice in the North East.  Matt grew up just south of Boston.  He'd spent a lot of time in the mountains out there when he was a kid, and knew the area. Matt flew out a couple days early to visit his dad before I showed up.  I flew into Boston and he picked me up in a Ford Fiesta rental car.  Maybe not the best winter vehicle but we'd make it work.  

Matt belaying P2 on The Black Dike.

New Hampshire: First up was 'The Black Dike' which I learned is on the same cliff where the old man in the mountain was before it fell down.  We walked up to the climb to find another party ahead of us.  The route was maybe a touch thin but still good fun.  We topped out in a light rain and quickly headed for the car.  

Hackett Trembley P1

Maine: The next day we decided to check out a route called the 'Hackett Trembley'.  There isn't a ton of info that we could find on it but luckily it's visible from the road and we found an old boot pack.  At the base we noticed that about 40-50' up there was a section that looked especially thin and delaminated.  I headed up to assess from a closer vantage.  Turned out that the lower bit was also delaminated and I came down after realizing that there was no good gear to protect the really thin bit.  We decided since we were there we might as well bush whack to the top to top rope the route instead of leaving completely empty handed. 

Hackett Trembley P2 on a mega TR.

At about 200' tall the 'Hackett Trembley' is a giant TR!  After tip toeing past the thin bit we were both glad I didn't continue up and risk getting hurt on our second day in the middle of now where.

Called on Account of Rain

Vermont: We next headed to Lake Willoughby which has a whole cliff band of amazing ice climbs right next to each other.  We had heard that 'Called on Account of Rain' was in so we started there.  Things went smoothly because it was picked out from all the recent traffic.  The route apparently doesn't always come in.  We were back at the base at 11am and started looking for another route.  We walked the cliff band until we saw 'Reign of Terror'.  We'd walked under a bunch of ice to get there, but when you are the only one at Lake Willoughby you can be picky.

Reign on Terror

Quebec: A storm was scheduled to hit so we made the logical decision to go to Canada.  Living in Colorado neither of us own a Goretex coat because it's generally dry or so cold when it's snowing that we get away with softshells. All we have are thin rain coats that we almost left at home.  We did both have some old Goretex bibs that we had sprayed some waterpoofing on before the trip.  The storm lasted the entire day and just while we were on the route it accumulated 6".  There was constant spindrift which at first added to the fun of climbing but as we got wetter just made it solid type 2 fun. 

Le Gringalet

The highlight of Canada other than the great experience of climbing in the snow storm was getting back to the vehicle and realizing that there was poutine next door.  What a way to warm up!  The roads had gotten much worse since we'd left the car and the drive to Burlington ended up being pretty epic with lots of pushing the vehicle up hills.

Ragnarock Direct at Elephants Head

Vermont: After sleeping in Burlington we headed for Smugglers Notch and parked with all the skiers  heading for the resort.  We shouldered our packs and started walking up the snowy road to Elephants Head.  Unfortunately the storm that we had driven through the day before had dumped a bunch of snow at Smugglers Notch and we were the first ice climbers up there so we were breaking trail up to Elephants Head. 

Positive Thinking

New York: The last day of ice climbing had us heading on the ferry across Lake Champlain to Poke-O-Moonshine.  We climbed a great route called 'Positive Thinking' and then decided to give 'Discord' a go.  The first pitch of 'Discord' was thinner and more delaminated than I expected but luckily I brought some rock gear which made it doable.  Matt lead the last pitch and we called it a trip.

Discord

Unfortunately 'Remission' and 'Repentance' were not in while we were in New England.  Next time in addition to 'Remission' and 'Repentance' we have our eye on 'Maine Line' and some stuff further north in Quebec.