How to Win at the Approach

How to win at getting to the quarry for ice climbing?

Answer: start walking on the tracks just as the railway maintenance truck goes cruising by. Jump on.

Winning!

Yeah. That pretty much made the day. To boot, the weather was perfect: 2 degrees and cloudy all day. Jon, Stef, and I managed to snag in what might have been the last good day at the Quarry for some time given today's +11 degree weather. I bagged Iced Cheese in o.k. condition. The ramp was run-out on thin ice but the headwall took good screws and was thick. Stef got a good lead in of Cosmic Orgasm in thin conditions. While cleaning it a pillar I was standing on split completely horizontally and dropped 2 inches. Spooky.

Iced Cheese right was In.  The center... not so much.

We also played on a steep mixed climb just left of the Drain Pipe. Although it's certainly climbed before it's not in the ice guide. The start involves dry-tooling on what appear to be a few drilled bat-hook holes. Perhaps this was a place the early climbers were practicing aid? That might make sense given the Drain Pipe was established very early on (late 1970's). Two bolts and a stubby would make this an exciting little climb.

...and oh yeah, watch out crossing the pond on the approach. It's not frozen. Stef went through and got a soaked boot. That was last weekend before the warm weather

...and oh yeah, I guess there was something at the belay anchor ledge of Drain Pipe that looked suspiciously like a poo. If that was yours... not cool.

Sorry there's not much for pictures today.