register |  login
› DENVER
Loading Ad
Visit Other Hubs:
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Tower
Blog
Blog Entry 30 of 40 Azimuth Publicus
Measuring the status quo's distance from true North, looking East for answers to dawn on me. I wonder how long I'll wait? (0;

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~Azimuth7

Brrrrrrrr this is great

Contributed by: Mike Woodson   on 2/16/2006

Some added comments in honor of this snow on the ground:

Feelings of survival that kick in when we're out in the very cold weather turn our minds to shelter, and where we may find it, and how soon we may wrap our hands around a mug of something warm. But that feeling is usuallly after we've spent more time than not indoors.

When I first moved here, I was exhilerated by the snow, getting out in the snow, cleaning off of the windshields, shoveling it from the sidewalks and so forth. The cold felt good to get into, because it made me move to stay warm and then when the sun warmed things up, I could take off the gloves and let the hands get cold shoveling the snow around. The activity and the sun would warm-up the hands.

As I struggled through some complications of transferring my career life from one state to another, I became more focused on the non-physical exigencies of getting by, dealing with a higher standard of living (including prices) and the like. So I spent too much time indoors in that period and had to force myself to get out.

My fondest memory was of the blizzard of 2003. I'll upload a photo from that storm to add to the ice climbing hop to Silver Plume below.

WARNING: ICE CLIMBING IS A DANGEROUS SPORT. GET PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTION FROM AN EXPERIENCED, WELL PREPARED CLIMBER AND TEACHER. ALL WHO CLIMB, ICE OR ROCK, DO SO AT THEIR OWN RISK.

This morning the ice was brittle at first, since we had some very cold days, however it warmed up rapidly and the ice was wetter, holding the axes and crampons better, instead of shattering off.

The other night when I posted the philosophical ice climbing blog, my friend had planned to go Friday night with headlamps to Silver Plume. With the moon out, it is really pretty easy to see. However, with wind and super-cold, it changes the view. I checked the weather forecast: - 15 F with wind, and feeling like - 21 F. Winds, 15-20 mph. I called my buddy and told him, hey, let's climb early-early Sunday a.m., with the weather calming down and 35 F forecast. He agreed, and on Friday night I was sitting on the couch with my wife watching Tommy Lee Jones act overly serious in U.S. Marshals on TNT.

Back to Silver Plume this morning; every now and then the entrance to the canyon leading up to the water falls changes shape due to bulldozing. So we did not immediately recognize the true canyon bottom to follow the frozen creek and snow up to the falls. We had to sidestep down some rocky, slide-prone areas created by the earth moving, mining and anti-avalanche / rockslide work done up there. Once we found it, it was a pretty simple, short hike.

The sun breached the canyon, and it turned out to be a beautiful morning. Most climbers are real gentlemen and ladies. People work together up there, share the routes, and today was no exception.

Today I felt fear because it had been a while since my last climb, and when it takes time to get up there, sometimes I don't plan my climbing as much by visualizing a route -- I just dig in and go, creating more unknown situations.

I felt fear when I pulled myself up over an outcropping, and my ice axes were engaged close to me, but I couldn't see my footholds, just feel them. If you can't see your feet, lots of times it is because an outcropping of ice is between them and your eyes, meaning you are crawling over the outcropping or out of a depression in the face of the wall / ice / mountain. Sometimes, the ice axes are a little stubborn to pull out, and because I couldn't see my feet, my natural inclination was to grip the ice axes hard and load them with muscle pull. It's a natural reaction, and like many natural reactions in sports, not always the best, because it quickly fatigues the muscles.

Even though my climbing teacher was belaying me via a rope clipped into heavy protection at the top (top-roping), and our equipment was in good working order, it is easy to forget all of that and tense up. Knowing this, my climbing coach, I call him Doc, said a couple of times, "Let yourself fall."

The rope held me close to my position and I didn't fall far, but just dangled securely from the rope. That's because Doc is a good belayer, always keeping himself as a counter anchor to my weight and making sure he takes up the slack in the rope so he doesn't fall much if an axe should come out or a crampon lose hold. And of course all of the safe rope handling, harness wearing and many other climbing skills are part of the whole experience. Being proficient at every aspect is crucial for safety.

You can tell I am a novice. But I've got a good climbing mentor and friend who patiently insists on the correct ways of doing things time and again, and doesn't plan climbs that would be completely beyond my level of skill and ability, or his own. Thanks Doc.

By the way, you've got my jacket in your truck and it has hard boiled eggs in the pocket.

WARNING: ICE CLIMBING IS A DANGEROUS SPORT. GET PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTION FROM AN EXPERIENCED, WELL PREPARED CLIMBER AND TEACHER. ALL WHO CLIMB, ICE OR ROCK, DO SO AT THEIR OWN RISK.


SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above blog



Current Rating
Based on 1 user ratings.

Talk Back : submit comments to the blog

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Mike Woodson has posted 40 blog entries and 0 comments since joining on 1/17/2006. Mike Woodson 's average blog rating is 4.5.
SAVE AND SHARE THIS BLOG ENTRY
BLOG ENTRY RSS FEEDS
BLOG LIST
WANT TO WRITE FOR YOURHUB.COM?
Want to see the stories you write and the photos you shoot featured in the YourHub.com Thursday print section available all over the Front Range and with home subscriptions of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post? All you have to do is  register,  then post a story or column, start a blog or tell everyonewhat events are happening in town. We will print the best stories, columns, event listings, photos and blog entries in our print sections.

ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

Loading Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

This YourHub.com community is produced by The Denver Newspaper Agency
Web Development and Channel Analytics provided by Indigio

terms of use //  privacy policy
the staff //  advertise //  help & faq
buy photos