| You Get What You Get and You Don't Throw a Fit (How I set out for one party, ended up at another, had a humiliating good time, and found some redemption on the way home) Trip Report |
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| You Get What You Get and You Don't Throw a Fit (How I set out for one party, ended up at another, had a humiliating good time, and found some redemption on the way home)   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Wyoming, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 32.84000°N / 113.91°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Nov 30, 1999 Activities: Ice Climbing Season: Winter | Page By: knoback Created/Edited: Feb 21, 2007 / Feb 26, 2007 Object ID: 272022 Hits: 2492 Loading... Page Score: 90.77% - 29 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
You get what you get and you don't throw a fit. Said to a child, that statement is an admonition to virtue. Said to an adult in the same context, it is not nearly so positive. I caught myself saying those words to myself on my last trip to the South Fork, and found a new meaning in them entirely. This trip renewed many aphorisms, especially Joe Josephson's, "If you can climb well in the South Fork, you can climb well anywhere.". But you have to know how this trip started to make sense of any of this.
The South Fork is our local area in Norhteast Wyoming. In Wyoming/South Dakota terms that means it is only half a days drive away. Naturally, that makes the ice in Colorado and Canada look much more desirable. We had planned to go to Ouray over presidents' day weekend. Birdbrain was in, Ames was in, and things had taken a hit in Cody due to the recent warm weather. Then a snowstorm moved in to Colorado, we heard tell of lines at the bottom of the routes, and we turned back to Cody. Besides, the Ice Fest was happening that weekend and if we didn't manage to get any good climbing in, at least we could have a beer and watch the slide show. Sandbagged? The South Fork is a big area. If you walk up to something and it is not in, you are likely done for the day. To improve our chances, when we pulled in to town we went over to Core Mtn. Sports to talk to the Source. The Source is a very positive guy. He told us Broken Hearts was in, pitches 1-7. He even showed us some grainy pictures, taken from the road, that looked very promising. The 6th pitch comes in in good years. The 7th pitch never comes in. The next morning, we got to the bottom of the first pitch without incident. By the time we were on the third pitch, three other parties were behind us. In his enthusiasm, the Source had told anyone who bothered to ask exactly what he had told us. No problem, until we got to the top of the 5th pitch at 11AM and found that the 7th pitch was not in, and neither was the 6th. Now, we could throw a fit, or we could climb laps. We decided to join the circus (all the others had smacked into the same dead end by now and chose the same option) and climb some laps. Nobody got seriously injured and everybody had a pretty good time. But by the time we got back to town, we were too whipped to drink beer and watch slide shows. Besides, I had a plan for the next day that required a good night's rest. If You Can Climb Well in the South Fork... Two weeks prior, I had been up on Smooth Emerald Milkshake with Rob Yang and we could see that the pillar pitch on Bitch's Brew was in, huge. I knew it still had to be there and I convinced Rich to go up. He has a bad hip from an old injury. The approach is a grind. It took quite a bit of faith for him to burn cartilage in pursuit of this climb which I had only seen across the canyon, and neither of us had ever climbed. Fortunately it was in, a full-on 30-40m, technical and slightly overhanging most of the way. Rich did his lead in typical good form. Now the dilema was mine. My legs were tired from the walk, and my arms were tired from all those laps the day before. This was about the limit of what I can lead, (except when he is having a bad day, Rich is 20-30% better than me). I swallowed hard and declined the lead. This was the last chance for this year, but it would form again, probably in a few years. By then, I would be good enough to come back and lead it in style rather than shaking my way up today just to say I'd done it. Ten Sleep On the drive home, we pass through Ten Sleep canyon. A single rope-length of ice forms there close to the road. It is usually a slab followed by a short, wet, nasty pillar of unprotectable chandelier. Not the best, but it is there, so who can resist. This time, pulling into the parking area, we could see it was different. It was massive, and after the day before, it was my lead. Not 40m of steep, but a solid 20m, vertical to overhanging. No shaking, no sweating, just one good stick after another all the way to the top. Maybe I can climb well yet. Maybe Bitch's Brew will hang in there for a few more weeks. Images
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Absaroka Range > You Get What You Get and You Don't Throw a Fit (How I set out for one party, ended up at another, had a humiliating good time, and found some redemption on the way home)
