Ice Curtain Top Out

15m of slack from the belay hung loosely as I muddled up through a soggy stream of water-logged ice clumps and moss that sluffed away beneath my wet dry tooling. Here on the 4th pitch of Knuckle Buster, I moved up a ladder of ice bulges that teetered on collapse before slinging a couple of limbs dangling from the lowest section of frozen alder. All the ice in the shade gave way when my partner, Ray, followed the line moments later. The icy curtain formed below a steady drizzle from the creek above and was only about a hand's width at its thickest. Great gymnastic finish with the crux right there at the climb's culmination.