After a year of climbing in warm areas it’s time to have some fun again in the ice!
This time we went to Cogne in Italy and started the holiday with some easy climbing to get used to it again. The conditions weren’t the greatest with not much ice and to much snow, so we picked a waterfall that was safe to climb. First, we had to get to the waterfall in fresh snow, which is already a good exercise to warm up those muscles.
As you can see the weather was not the best, but at least the sun wasn’t melting the ice, which was nice.
I started by climbing an easy pitch with some terraces in it before we got to the main pillar. Normally terraces are nice to relax a bit, this time it meant some extra snow plowing. But I made it through and found a nice belay-spot.
Although it might be freezing outside, and the waterfall is frozen, somehow the material always gets wet. If you’re not climbing but belaying it is really enjoyable to have wet stuff in your hands, in freezing temps, and standing still.
The pillar was a nice vertical climb with good ice. Although short, this was the real ice-climbing again!
After we rappelled down, the sun got out making it a great end of the first day of the season.
Wow, that's pretty amazing! How long was the route? How long did it take you to climb it?
Although I'm a climber myself, I never ice climbed before. So there are few things I'm curious about:
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Thanks for your reply, upvote and resteem, it is appreciated!
The route itself was about 80 meters of climbing, not to much, considering that the difficult part was only 10 meters. It took about two hours to climb it i guess, didn't pay that much attention to the time as it was short and we didn't have to worry about rappeling in the dark.
An ice drill can be placed pretty fast. You unclip it from the harness, slam it into the ice so it doesn't fall down when you try to turn it, and after a couple of twists (where it really gets into the ice) you try to get it in as fast as possible. So if the ice is good, and you're standing relaxed you can do it in around 30 seconds. If the ice is not really good and you need to search a little bit it can take up 2 to minutes. If it takes longer you probably are better off climbing a little bit further hoping for better ice.
You place as much protection as needed, if it is really difficult i prefer to have in a screw every 2 / 3 meter (although falling is not really an option), but in easy parts a piece every 10 meters is not an issue. If you can't get through a part, you can hang in your anchor point, screw in the next, and repeat until you can climb again. It works, but takes some time.
Axes are quite good protection. If you want to rest, you can hang your rope over an axe and just hang from it. Or if you want to place an ice-screw, you can clip the rope to your axe so you are secured. You can even use them as an extra anchor point for your belay if needed.
Thanks again for your post, and if you have more questions, feel free to ask :-)
Thank you for your fast reply and the info. That's amazing. It seems there is a lot more you have to consider when going ice climbing. Pretty cool when you can just aks someone with experience. :-)
Can't wait for your next post.
Although it is not as straight forward als regular climbing, once you now the basics it is not that difficult anymore. The most difficult part is making sure you aren't in any dangerous location. If the sun gets out, there is more falling ice, if there is a lot of snow, avalances can occur, climbers above you can (and will) drop ice on you or even drop ice-screws, carabiners, etc. During the whole day you are looking at the risks and making sure you are safe.
I'll try to make a next post later today!
Cool shots! I always wondered about how best to stay warm when belaying. I guess there's only so much you can do. I need to meet some people that know the ins and outs of ice climbing, and get them to show me whats up. It looks fun!
Stay safe!
A big down jacket helps staying warm, so you can put on an extra layer when not climbing. The rest is just accepting that you won't get warm until you get to a fireplace in a pub ;-)
Those victory beers at the pub are so good too. Worth it!
Wow! That is so cool!
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