Wednesday, February 25, 2015

To Much Is Never Enough!


Hydrophobia! Humbling & Amazing!
Work and life have busy and the lack of local ice this year is a sad state of affairs. What local ice we had was gone by the first week of January. I got up to Canada for a quick two day mid January which was great. So a month later I was wanting more after talking to Joe where should we go everywhere out west has been warmer than normal Canada seemed most logical but avy danger was off the charts. So low avy is what we sought-after last minute decisions typical the conversation went like this. The Ghost says Joe Hydrophobia he says so after a hasty pack a late night drive a bivy on concrete in a picnic shelter,and an interesting drive into the Ghost. We find our selves at the base of Hydrophobia an impressive piece of ice to say the least. Hard, very little features, and dinner plates from bottom to top and steep did I mention steep. With pumped calves and forearms pulled up over the top of the route. Joe is strong and a routes like this suit him well. I on the other hand am not that strong and prefer techy ice (more features for feet even if ice isn't as good) so Hydrophobia was hard for me. What I learned is technique for a route like this coupled with better calf and forearm endurance well too much of all of these is never enough for me at least! Keep training and trying! Always a work in progress!
Rapping off Hydrophobia you can see Joe's green jacket at midway and our packs down at bottom. 
The next day was my choice and I wanted to go and climb Whiteman Falls in K Country a climb I've wanted to do for a while. Amazing climb I got to do the second pitch which is the one I wanted. Now this climb suited me better more tech less power great climb!
Whiteman Falls

Psyched to climb Whiteman Falls that alone made the trip for me. A Haffner mixed session for our last day before the drive home capped off a great three day trip. Now it's gym and pliceboard some rock to until next ice trip.

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