|
| ||||||
& Road Conditions |
About the Ice |
|||||
 |
 |
||||||||||
 |
| | |||||||||
 |
|
 |
|||||||||
Intro
The leaves have changed, the sun is creeping ever southward and you realize that it is once again ice season. Unlike bouldering, which can be and often is practiced nude, ice climbing is extremely gear intensive. Without crampons and an ice axe waterfall ice is a futile non-reality. Often ice gear is tossed into a plastic tub for summer storage, neglected and forgotten until winter arrives. Part of the fun of ice climbing is dinking around with your gear and dialing it in before the first climb of the season. This is always good sense and good fun.
 |
||
|
 |
|
|
||
| Get your gear ready for the ice season! | ||
One method to ensure your gear is in good condition and designed to with stand the forces you may generate is begin with a methodical check up. One way is to start from the bottom and go up. The lowly crampon is very important, as a malfunction is never a good thing. Begin by inspecting the bolts and connecting bars. Has climbing rock damaged the small nuts? If the hexagonal pattern is no longer discernable it is probably a good idea to switch them out. Next step - check out the bails. Be certain that the bails are secure and fit the boots you plan on using this season. It is far more efficient to fiddle with your boot crampon combo while in the comfort of your dwelling listening to your favorite music. Adjusting your set up in the field is cold, time consuming and poor manners. After all, your partner came to climb with you, not to help you look for a small bits of metal in the snow.
|
||
|
 |
|
|
||
| Use cheap and easy wire ties to hold 'biner in postion. | ||
Attached to the harness are your ice screws. As in knives and chainsaws, dull tools are in efficient and dangerous. A screw never seems dull until you're fidgeting with the tube well off the deck. Then you curse those curled in teeth. Often times the ice is thinner than you wished for and your precious tips are ground into the underlying rock. Or look at it from a different vantage: if you are not dulling your teeth you're not getting' after it. One way of sharpening ice screws is to use a hybrid method borrowed from sharpening chainsaws. Here is a step by step method:
|
|||||||||||
|
 |
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||||
| |||||||||||
When sharpening your points with a standard mill bastard (ever wonder what etymology of that word is?) using a fresh file dedicated to ice climbing. If you use the same file for your skis, your skis will suffer.
Instead of walking around an artificial meadow looking for small white balls and then propelling them towards a small hole, take these balls and attach them to the end of your file. This really is the intened use of golf balls and makes for a swell and comfy filing set up.
|
||
|
 |
|
|
||
Next item on the checklist is your ice axes. If you had any incidents that might have damaged your tool, such as leaving it on the roof of your car, driving off and then having a semi drive over it you might consider replacing it for a new tool. If you do not have confidence in your gear you'll be limiting yourself later on. Make sure the ferrule, shaft and head are all in good nick. Obviously if you see any small fracture it is time to retire the tool. The pick sees most of the action. If you climb a bunch and are into dry tooling it is advisable to begin the season with a new pick. For a more standard level of use, as long as the pick isn't bent, it should last another season. There is no cut and dry method for evaluating a picks life span. If you are not getting the warm fuzzy, give it a new life. You can weld them into small garden hoes; miniature canoe anchors or even fashion a grappling hook. Just remember: picks take a stack of abuse and they will break. If you use leashes, make sure they are in adjusted properly.
The last item to check on is your helmet. Hopefully you have been using it in the off season and it hasn't been collecting dust. The plastic on your brain bucket is subject to UV degradation. Most top helmet manufactures have a production date stamped inside the helmet. Take a look and make sure the helmet still has a season in it. The price of a new helmet is well worth the "piece of mind" it provides.
be good, be safe & have fun,
c
Unnamed Wall | Twin Falls Area | Upper Hyalite Climbs | Dribbles Area Climbs | Winter Dance Area | The Mummies | Genesis Area | Flanders Drainage | East Hyalite Climbs
Ice climbing is dangerous. This guide is provided as a substitute for climbing. I recommend sitting at home behind the TV instead. If you do decide to go ice climbing, you will experience an E6 ( 6 on the Epic scale), which involves quite a bit of suffering, injury, and death.
Comments? Questions? Contact Us: Jimurl@MontanaIce.com
