Full On
From Banff Grotto Canyon
Grotto Canyon, Banff Canada, WI3, -31 Celsius... ouch, now that's cold. Fun day of moderate climbing. We did the same climb about 4 times each because the guys were afraid the other stuff (His and Hers, WI4) was going to collapse. It felt good although in those temps the hands really get frigid quickly above your heart, and thus I have to learn to lower them more often when I have a good stance. It felt comfortable enough that it made me realize its time to either start leading easy stuff or try harder stuff as a second (WI4 and WI5).
I think we should seriously investigate organizing a day or two in the Catskills.
The guys I was with were a nice bunch. John has fought off Grizzly's 3 times, and has survived leader falls on both trad and ice. Garrett does trad and ice, is back climbing after breaking both ankles on a leader fall and getting rescued off a vertical face by helicopter (wait till you hear that story). And Kevin, the calmest of the bunch, is apparently the best leader on ice. Thei favorite expression seems to be full on, which they use to describe every crazy climb.
Here are some more pictures.
5 comments:
Awesome trip! It does look seriously cold though.
And appropriately, yesterday at New Rochelle we discussed a weekend trip ice climbing, probably at the Catskills, and probably guided.
Game?
Damn, that's cold. What are you wearing when you are actually climbing?
I would say not guided, let's instead buy gear and find some climbs we can top-rope (I just can't afford to buy all the screws right now).
As for the clothes I had (for my torso and in order):
- patagonia capilene
- north face el cap shirt
- patagonia r1 hoody
- patagonia r1 vest
- arcteryx gamma hoody (soft shell)
- arcteryx (hard shell) made with paclite
- north face nuptse (for belaying)
Holy damn that just looks COLD.
It was COLD, but luckily, since it is in a Canyon, there was no wind, which made a huge difference. At the top, where you had some wind, it was even worst.
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