The ice climbing season which got off to such a fine start has come undone. After a period of fifty and even 60 degree days the ice is gone and that includes the North Country where there has been both record snow fall and now record warmth; very strange. On the bright side, as Peter Doucette said to me, we are about to start another early season season. There is an enormous amount of water in the ground so as soon as temps truly drop (it's 30 as I write this) we will be in great shape.
I did get a handful of good days in and just before X-Mas I made a quick trip north to visit my old friend Patrick Hackett in Lancaster NH. Patrick grew up playing around on the cliffs of Ragged Mt. in Southington, CT. When I met him in the mid 80's he and his brother Will were already notorious rock trolls climbing hard and terrorizing the more stodgy elements in the climbing community. I took my first real climbing road trip with Patrick.
One cloudy cold November afternoon we set off west in Pat's Ford Ranger with just enough scratch to cover gas and grub for a month long ramble through the west's warmer climbing areas. We drove straight to Eldorado Canyon and as we rolled into the narrow gash with South Boulder Creek rumbling by I could barely catch my breath, I looked up in awe at the towering Red Garden Wall and the Bastille and what seemed to me to be endless rock. I could never have guessed how familiar those walls would eventually become. Patrick and I climbed a little bit in a lot of places; Boulder Canyon, CO National Monument, Indian Creek, Mount Lemon, Hueco Tanks and The Tennessee Wall. On Nov. 17th we climbed Mexican Hat in the Four Corners area of Arizona, an upside down sombrero of dusty sand stone along the Colorado River, a wild and quiet place to look at the world on my birthday.
Patrick has been climbing hard ice routes more or less since I've known him, over twenty years. He has the north country wired, is competent, tough as a badger and has all area watering holes sussed out for atmosphere and pint by price.
We climbed a day in Crawford Notch and a day at Lake Willoughby. The snow was super deep and temps were moderate. At Willoughby we climbed the Last Gentlemen. Conditions were ideal with the first pitch direct start being in allowed us to climb the 450' route in three long pitches. The route having gone smoothly we went ahead and shot ourselves in the foot by choosing to walk off rather than rap the route. Waist deep snow made our traverse across the top of the cliff and back along the base an energy sapping stagger; what's ice climbing without some suffering?
As I look out my window at that too long red line on the thermometer at least I can daydream about a great day of climbing shared with an old friend.
