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February 9, 2004 |
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Ice Climbing
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Hiking, camping, canoeing, snowshoeing, cross-country and downhill skiing, fly-fishing, ice-fishing, hunting, biking, tubing, rock-climbing and even ice-bowling - these are all things that we love to do in the great outdoors. But now there is a new activity to add to the list - ice-climbing. The Catskills are in fact a hot-spot for ice-climbing, and many of you have probably seen the cars of climbers lined up on Rt. 214 in Stony Clove in the dead of winter, or maybe even a few bold figures clambering up columns of frozen water on Rt. 23A, deep in Kaaterskill Clove.
About a month ago Chris spotted a new book titled "An Ice-Climber’s Guide to the Catskill Mountains" by a professional guide from Rosendale named Marty Molitoris. The book was a good addition to our bookshelves despite the fact that we’ve never ice-climbed before, and Chris wrote a letter to Marty congratulating him on the book and thanking him for encouraging climbers to avoid private property and respect Forest Preserve and Platte Clove Preserve rules. Marty responded with a generous invitation to teach us how to ice-climb, which Chris eagerly took him up on last week.
Ice-climbers are a hearty bunch, and a whole troop of them didn’t let the impending winter storm keep them from trekking up to the Catskills for some good climbing last Tuesday. Chris met Marty, his assistant Mike Newman, and seven clients at the DEC parking area in the Platte Clove at 10:30am. Our group walked through The Catskill Center’s Platte Clove Preserve and down to Plattekill Falls. The waterfall was a beautiful frozen pile of ice, but we didn’t stop here to climb. Instead we bushwacked downstream to the base of Bridal Veil Falls, where the build-up of ice was very impressive. The 70-foot falls were completely frozen, and the ice was as wide as it was tall. The left side was a straight vertical column, and the right was terraced and a bit more gradual.
Everyone put on their helmets and attached sharp-pointed crampons to their boots. Marty explained things people need to know to go about ice-climbing techniques, safety, and common sense. Then he and Mike each led a route up Bridal Veil Falls, one to the left and one to the right. Once at the top they set up fixed anchors allowing the rest of us to take turns climbing from a top-rope. Chris’ first climb was on the vertical pillar - something taller and more challenging than he would have thought any first-timer could do. But he got a good grip on his two ice-tools (bent aluminum shafts with ice-picks at the business end) and began "front-pointing" up the ice, swinging the picks and planting his toe points into the frozen block. It wasn’t quite as difficult and mysterious as it would seem, and it was a great mental challenge to find good places to get solid holds in the ice. The route was exhilarating, and Chris made it to the top on his first try with a huge grin on his face. Eager to keep going, Chris also took his turn on the other route, and got a sense for how different kinds of ice form, and its variability when climbed.
The heavy snow started falling in the early afternoon, but that didn’t dissuade us. We hiked over into the Devil’s Kitchen box canyon, which the regular climbers call the "Hell Hole". This is truly an awe-inspiring place any time of the year, however in winter it is particularly spectacular and gothic with over-hanging ice chandeliers, rivulets of ice winding through rock crevasses, and numerous long, smooth pillars and chutes cascading into the boulder field below. Marty and Mike set up three more routes here, and we all took turns climbing them. Of the two routes that Chris climbed, one was narrow and meandering, and the other was a straight vertical column that was thick but had fewer good pick holds and was quite "pumpy", burning out his arms by the time he got to the top.
Ice-climbing is certainly a gear-intensive, expensive, technical sport that not too many people feel confident enough to take up. Anyone wishing to try this for the first time should definitely avail themselves of a professional guide (call Rock & Snow in New Paltz). But if you have a hankering for vertical challenge, you’ll have a ton of fun once you give it a try, and probably get hooked like Chris did. He can’t wait to do it again, and now has another way to get outdoors and keep active during our long Catskill Mountain winters.
- Aaron and Chris
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