| Stop…Collaborate and Listen! (An ice “newb’s” tale.) Trip Report |
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| Stop…Collaborate and Listen! (An ice “newb’s” tale.)   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Colorado, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 40.10000°N / 105.5°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Jan 20, 2007 Season: Winter | Page By: jfox Created/Edited: Jan 26, 2007 / Oct 12, 2007 Object ID: 264343 Hits: 815 Loading... Page Score: 88.84% - 13 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Stop!I never wanted to climb ice. It just seemed too weird to me. Climbing a brittle tower of frozen water absolutely did not appeal to me in any way. However, once my climbing buddy started climbing ice, what was I supposed to do…watch? Heck no! I suppose I could try it. He had recently roped me into technical climbing and I ended up liking that a lot. Is this “friend” secretly trying to kill me? I wondered. So when he finally asked me if I wanted to go climb Hidden Falls I couldn’t refuse! Great…now I have to buy even more gear!
I would like this TR to be of use to those of you who have never climbed ice and want to try it. If you’re an old pro, you might find this unworthy of your time, or you might get a good laugh out of it!
I do not have ice climbing gear. BUT, I do have crampons and I just recently bought some ice-tools (BD X-15’s) from Charles…thanks buddy! Actually, I didn’t even have the tools yet, since I was to pick them up from Fabio at the trailhead before we headed to the falls.
Collaborate…I was to meet Fabio and Dan for this day of climbing. Dan had invited me a few days earlier and I collaborated to meet them at the TH at 8a.m. sharp. Since I live pretty close to Rocky Mountain National Park I was going to drive myself. Fabio and Dan would carpool together. So I show up at the TH 15 minutes late (of course) since I drove right past the place and had to turn around. I hope they’re still at the TH since the falls are ‘hidden’ I may never find them! But alas they were still there albeit already geared up and ready to go. I picked up my X-15’s from Fabio and we headed the half mile to the falls. The half mile turned out to be one and a half miles! Dan, Fabio and I walked while Eric skinned in on his skis. He had wanted to climb as well, but forgot his harness. Eric spent the rest of the day skiing in Wild Basin.
As soon as we finally reached the falls and I gazed upon the curtain of doom…err I mean ice, I was shocked at how big it was! I had seen Andy’s video of when they were here back in December and wasn’t too impressed (with the falls, not the video!). Now staring at this thing I was a little intimidated! It is 30m in height! That’s ~90’ people!
Warning…ice climbing can be hazardous to your health!
Earlier, Fabio had asked me if I’d brought a helmet (it was hidden within my pack). Now, standing below this curtain of death…err I mean ice, I know why he asked. There was pebble to basketball sized chunks of ice laying everywhere. They could have only come from one place…the ice fall. Later in the day I came to realize that while someone is actually climbing, while they hack their tools into the ice, chips of it fly everywhere with sometimes big chunks cleaving off as well. Good grief! If I’m belaying and there’s a ton of ice rocketing down the face towards me, what am I supposed to do? A helmet is a definite necessity for climbing ice…especially for the belayer! Another thing I learned was that it would behoove you to bring eye protection as well. If you’re belaying and constantly looking up towards your climber, you’ll be getting pelted almost continuously with chips of ice. More importantly, if you’re climbing, you’ll need eye protection too as chips fly everywhere near your face when your hacking the falls.
Let’s climb!
After suiting up, Fabio and Dan went to set the top rope. Upon beginning the climb, they discovered that there was too much friction in the rigging and had to re-do the anchor. Finally it was right and Dan began his climb. By this point we were joined on the falls by two other groups. They were on the left side and middle and we were on the right side of the falls. It was nice though since everyone was cordial to each other and we all switched sides and used each other’s ropes to get in more climbing.
Dan works his way up. |
Dan made his way up and did really well. Fabio was next and I wanted to get some topside photos so I walked around the back to gain the top of the cliff.
Fabio Makes Short Work of Some WI4 |
Up here I tied myself into a tree and laid down on the edge of the cliff right next to the falls and snapped some great pictures. Fabio made it all the way up and walked down the back side. Now it was my turn…gulp! I wasn’t too keen on the idea of climbing by now but then figured I’d give it the ‘ole college try.
…and Listen!Here I go!
Before I got on the ice, I took some good advice from my mentor, Fabio. I listened intently to his every word so as not to perish from what I was about to do. He gave me some solid advice: “Swing high, elbows high, keep your heels down, and test your holds before pulling on your tools…” O.K. got it…yeah right!
Stepping up to the ice I was a bit apprehensive. “Were my crampons (BD contacts) gonna bite enough? Am I going to whack the ice just right so that the whole thing collapses like some huge brittle house of cards?” Shut up and climb! O.K…here goes nothing. This fall was pocketed pretty badly since it’s obviously popular. I was able to step into some jugs with my feet and hook my tools into nice pockets. Up, up I went hacking away at the ice. I had put on my ski goggles to protect my eyes, but since they're cheap ones, they almost immediately fogged up. Can’t see a thing…whack…whack…step…step. O.K….gotta remove the goggles. Now since I’m terrified of blindness, I closed my eyes with each strike of the axes. This seemed to work out fine but took a bit longer since my placements weren’t bomber each time.
Now the real problem I began to notice was my feet. I don’t own mountaineering boots so I was wearing my summer hikers, Montrail Torre GTX’s. About 10 feet up the ice, my arches began to burn pretty good. I was wearing flexible boots on flexible crampons on vertical ice…not good! After some more advice from Fabio and Dan about keeping my heels down and hanging on the tools I tried to keep going. But it was no use…my feet were in agonizing pain. “I'M COMING DOWN!” I shouted to my belayer a whopping 10 feet below me. Oh well, at least I tried!
Meanwhile…The crag (is that the right word?) was getting crowded. There were now four groups of us vying for an avenue of ascent. Dan and Fabio continued to trade off ropes and routes with the others and climb higher and higher. I rested my arches, drank coffee and continued snapping pictures. All in all it was a fine afternoon to be outside. “Ready to go again?” I was asked…”Uhh…yeah.” I enthusiastically responded.
O.K. but this time I want to try the center route and I want to try out Dan’s BD Fusions. The ice here seemed somewhat better and the route was a little easier on me than the previous one had been. I quickly made my way up and much to my amazement, my arches were feeling better and somehow stronger! I quickly made it up the first section and now found myself at the foot of the upper falls which was WI4. I rested here a bit and contemplated my fate.
 Made it to the upper section!
There was no way I thought I’d make it anywhere near the top of this monster, but I couldn’t leave without trying. So, to the cheers of the now very large group that was watching me, I hacked my way up the upper falls for a few steps. Whew! But here my climbing was over. After sending some big chunks of ice and nearly killing my belayer (sorry Fabio!) I was finished. My arches were hurting again and it was time to come down.
Conclusion…Ice climbing is fun after all! It turns out that I did really enjoy myself. With the proper equipment, I would say that this is a very entertaining activity. I would highly recommend it to anyone. I would hazard to guess though that it might be wise to have some rock climbing under your belt before tackling the ice. Right? It may take the edge off of your fear…a little bit. I’m not sure I would have tried this if I hadn’t already had some time on rock, but who knows? As my activity list grows at the expense of my bank account from buying even more gear, I have no regrets. Two years ago I had never really even walked up a mountain! Now here I am climbing rock and ice. To all of you contemplating or wanting to try ice climbing, I say go for it and enjoy every minute!
No fear…it’s just ice, ice baby!
Recommended gear list for us “newbs”• Helmet
• Eye protection
• STIFF SOLED boots!
• Crampons
• Ice tools (X 2)
• Harness
• ATC and locking carabiners
• Rope
• Coffee (or other warm fluids)
• Down jacket for belaying
• Sense of humor
• Experienced friend(s)
Images
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Hidden Falls Ice, Colorado > Stop…Collaborate and Listen! (An ice “newb’s” tale.)
