I have been ice climbing for four days. It's been nothing short of spectacular. It's amazing how quickly I've been able to improve considering I've never climbed on ice before. There's definitely a lot of lessons learned from regular rock climbing: conservation of energy, balance, reading the route, etc.
It's an amazing sport. I can't get enough. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow most of the gear save for the boots which I rented. Fortunately the borrowed gear is high quality. The harness, belay devices, beaners are all the same as regular rock climbing.
Ice climbing, in a way, is easier than rock climbing. If you need a foot hold, you make one. If you need a handhold, you can make one as well, and it's a jug! That being said, there are still considerable challenges since a monkey bar/pull-up approach will result in burning out on even the shortest routes.
Areas we've visited so far (I haven't kept track of individual routes; these are areas)
* Cathedral Ledge (North End Slab 2)
* Texaco Slab
* Frankenstein
* Trollville
All the climbing has been on top rope. Our instructor for the first three days (Ron Funderburke) led the routes and built anchors at the top with either trees or ice screws. Karsten Delap is the instructor (and owner of FMG) for the last three days. The FMG courses (the first three days is technically ice climbing 101 and the second three days is ice climbing 201) are great. It's very professional, tailored to the individual and there are many lessons in between climbs, to break up the day into climbing, learning technique and tricks, best practices, etc.
There are simply too many things that I've learned in the past few days
No comments:
Post a Comment