Ice Season 1998-1999

Part of Ice climbin' is standing around in those dorky clothes trying to look cool...

November 1998

Hike to Notchtop Mountain in the post-Thanksgiving days, when Brother Dan and Yours Truly hiked, post-holed and even crawled in to Lake Helene, to observe the Ptarmigan Glacier change its shape (read: slide, or even the-more-dramatic-if-not-entirely-accurate avalanche). We arrived at Grace Falls too late to do anything but turn back for the car... alas...

December 26, 1998

Coors Lite, rated Water Ice 2 to 3 (or "W.I.2" to "...3") over Clear Creek on Colorado State Highway 6...
Dan-O and Ben go out on a Saturday after Christmas to a close cascade, close to Cheyenne, climbing on one of the warmest days of 1998's last gasp, post-Winter Solstice that is... The final 30 feet is missed because Bentley is too afraid to climb chandelier ice so early in the season... although, let's face it, is there ever a good time to climb that stuff?!

Dan-O following Lower Flow

January 9, 1999

Big Thompson Canyon's Lower Flow (W.I. 1-2), and Upper Tier (W.I. 3)... again, another Saturday, wherein it is written, that only one or two people shall live up to the old Wyoming Myth of being, truly, "#!!?@&*%?! Greenies," while all the other !!?+*$%#!! Greenies are actually quite nice... Brother Dan-O tests Charlie Moser's tools for him (get it??) whilst Brother Bentley manages to bend the Bejeezus out of his wonderful Black Prophet ice hammer... One of the best days yet, ever, of fat ice climbing...

The Author testing calves and forearms on the Upper Tier

March 6 & 7, 1999

A weekend away from the Women, looking for the last of the ice.

Found the normally 100-foot Saint Vrain Ice Flow a mere slimey glazing of verglas on black-lichened, snow-dusted rock. A tiny 3-foot curl of ice remained at the very top. We left it for any possible visiting Scots...

Away to known ground: Big Thompson Canyon. The ice we'd visited in January had become fatter and more battered. We found less people on this day than the last weekend we had visited. The upper tier was alot thicker than before. Dinner plates rained down everywhere. We then drove in to the Denver Metro Area, looking for lodging and beer, but that's another story...

After a spartan night in the food category, we arrived at Montgomery Reservoir, which is itself fed in part by the beautiful, blue Lincoln Icefall. The "ten minute" approach took all of 45 minutes, climbing 700 feet of mostly snow to the 400-foot ice managerie. We completed a line up the severely-battered Main Gulley, which would have been a little over two pitches, but our rope, being only 125-feet long, forced us to leap-frog our belays. Many, many people frequent this ice, as it has the least objective dangers in Summit County. Anyway, we came down the west side and found a practically untouched section of Booth Falls, and having again reached the second level, Dan-O lead us up to the top again using that most useful mountaineering technique, Piolet Grovel through feet of snow overlaying decaying ice.

I do believe that the season is behind us...

Okay. I think that's it for the season. The Ice is about to fall down...

HINT:
Check out CAMERON M. BURNS' book entitled Colorado Ice Climber's Guide

Or check out Ice Climbing on the World Wide Web...

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