Weekend Summary

Something is up with this memory card, twisting up images

The summary of the weekend is easy.  Warm weather SUCKS for ice season and turf sticks!  Laura and I were motivated enough to try to find a little something to climb.  We took a drive to see if we could get on some of the better formed lines as of recent, but to little surprise it was a bust.  The ice took a severe beating with multiple 55°+ days.  Now the ground is thawed and things are back to square one.  Here's a photo of what we set off to climb today.

From almost good to almost gone!

Son of Beast was looking good a few short days ago

We left and headed for Rattlesnake rocks salvage the day and get in some dry tool groveling.  The woods felt like spring not winter.  The ground is no longer firm and has turned to muck.  My hopes for a serious winter season are hanging by a thread.   Blah, Blah, Blah, enough about our lack of cold... Our hike up to the rocks was pleasant with temps in the mid 30's.  We were excited to get on some climbs, hoping to get on or up something new.   We decided to warm up on the climb we had done the last time we were there.  Its about M5 or so and was a pure blast to climb, so seemed like a great place to start and clear the cobwebs.  The climb went well until I realized that the last time we climbed the line the ground was frozen and the rock has ice plastered in some of the cracks.  The climb today was nothing like the friendly M5 we had climbed last week.  This time the lovely, frozen turf and roots were merely unusable loose dirt.  The roots weren't frozen and a couple crucial small blocks that  were mortared into place by ice now wiggled unnervingly in their current location.  They were quite questionable indeed, but needed to support full weight as the wall doesn't offer much in the way of feet.  These moves came near the top at a distance out from my last gear that would land me quite close to the ground.   The blocks held and so did my nerves.  The fun, warmup climb turned into a different experience.  

Laura seconding our warm up and only climb of the day

Laura seconded the climb agreeing that the climb took on a little difficulty and upped the commitment level considerably.  We enjoyed a cup of coffee at the top and made our way to the bottom.  I decided to do a little dry tool bouldering across the blood wall.  I started out with everything going well.  Hooking, camming, steining I was like hercules making my way across, well not really, but I went to make a move left and my crampon got  a little stuck.  No big deal happens all the time.  A little jostle and ping out it came.  Thinking nothing of it I moved on making moves left.  All of a sudden I realized I had no front point.  

My dart became a DA. Time for some new ones.
I might have to try the new Grivel G20.
Watch for an upcoming review!

Shittttt!  I busted the front point off of my dart.  It must've been jammed a little tighter than I thought.  Low on morale and motivation, we decided that the broken crampon was the deciding factor.  Time to call it a day.

We set off to climb ice, got shut out.  Went to drytool, climbed a cool line again.  Broke a crampon and called it a day... Par for the season.   Maybe our luck will be better next time!  Happy climbing to all