Cleopatra's Needle

:D I find this time of the year is always the most exciting for Ice climbing. Each day there is new ice forming with so many variables entering into the equation that you never truly know what is happening with conditions until you take that long walk, this is when the mountains are alive with change. I can never say exactly when the season will start but I always seem to find myself walking the various canyons, searching the places I know hold the best chances for ice to form and hoping the season will be plentiful. This is the time of the year when I?m hungry for the adventure, it marks the best of the best for climbing and we watch and wait while the mountains transpire into this season?s fruit. As each route begins to form it symbolizes that one time when the mountain candy becomes ripe for the picking, unspoiled by others biting into the skin, hanging and tempting us to pursue, waiting for someone to pluck each juicy specimen. After each subsequent ascent the fruit becomes a little more rotten and you can see each of the bites taken before. For those who love the hunt and adventure, the desire to have the best of the fruit is always found with the first tracks up any route. Yesterday Cleopatra?s Needle tasted like the sweetest Hyalite plum! Kristoffer Erickson [img]http://montanaice.com/forums/user_images/DSC_0006.lr.jpg[/img]