| Summary | |
| Owner | MITOC Gallery Administrator |
| Creation Date | 2007-04-27 13:09:05 UTC-0400 |
| Description |
Arethusa Falls: snow-wading & ice climbing February 17th 2007 Stefan, Chayil and Vesna A beautiful day dawned for our long-planned Arethusa Falls ice-climb. The talk of the drive up was about how the skiers must be having a ball with all the new snow. But it never occured to us that it also fell on our approach trail... We got to the trail 10-ish, saw 2 climbers on snowshoes retreating after 200yds. Snow up to your ears, they said. Stefan: come on guys, what about a little adventure, it's a perfect day! So we went on and dived in the knee-deep to waist-deep fluff, with Stefan breaking the trail most of the way. We arrived to the falls some 3 hours later. Just as we started gearing up, a cohort of snoweshoers arrived on our tracks and thanked us for breaking the trail. Hmpf! The climb was great, despite of more wading at the base and the mid-pitch ledge. The plan was to lead up the middle, mildest section, but the hollow areas in the snow below it made it look unstable for a long traverse from the right side where we were. I didn't feel like having a bath at all. So I lead the steeper route on the right with a super-sketchy bit above the snow ledge (thin drips + rock on the right, aireated bulge of iclicles on the left). Didn't do the rocky finish (too scary, heh-heh) but anchored at the tree instead, ignoring the frozen/rotten slings and a decent-looking biner left there who knows when. I belayed Stefan and then Chayil from the tree. While Chayil climbed, Stefan bouldered at the base, traversing to the middle of the Falls. The snow at the base seemed so solid that he summersaulted onto it from ice to see if it will break. It didn't, and Stefan escaped with all his limbs intact and the brain, too (it seems). The view from the top was so lovely, I felt like staying a night but I finally rapelled down in the sunset. We hiked back along the snowshoers'highway and cought up with Jen who was just off Frankenstein. We devoured lots of delicious pizza at Flatbread's in North Conway and sealed the day with a sip of Talisker and a cheer. A whole day of post-holing for a single climb, but what a climb! Vesna |