Bouldering and Ice Climbing lead to Alcoholism

Got a new pad and went to Flagstaff to break it in. Here is a couple shots of Sam while we were there.

Been ice climbing a few times lately, the most fun being hidden falls in the park, but not many shots of anything really.

Photo: Jonny

Photo: Jonny

Photo: Thad?



Photo by Sam
Over winter break Sam and I headed up to RMNP for a three day stint of winter climbing. Unfortunately, the wind was too damn high. We called Jimmy McMillan to campaign against extremely high winds in RMNP, but he hung up immediately after he figured out it was a long distance call. We got a free room in Estes with Sam's friend the first night, went to bed early after a couple beers at Ed's, got up at six and the wind was worse. We waited till about noon and took off to bivy under McHenry's peak to do Big Mac couloir, the main focus of the trip. We were supposed to have a couple routes under our belts before attempting Big Mac but the winds prevented this. We woke up (well I woke up Sam didn't sleep) the next morning and conditions were still just ok. After much time wasting, deliberation and argument, we went back to the car without getting on anything else. We were planning on maybe shooting up west gully if this happened but neither of us felt like doing much after such a wash. This picture is of the east face of McHenry's peak, Big Mac couloir is main gully immediately to the left of the big prow in the center of the face. The high winds had probably loaded all the slopes dangerously, so a warmer day such as we had could have cut loose a hellish avalanche, and with no where to hide this was a troubling thought. Climbing seems like it's 95% failure, and winter alpinism is 99% failure. Conditions can shut you down so easily, and RMNP is another world in the winter months. There is so much more to consider than one's own ability, and turning around is an ability in itself. We were both very bummed and pissed off.





Yellowstone
Photo: Jonny 



RMNP
Photo: Jonny



Have some
Photo: Jonny



It's good
Photo: Jonny