| Summary | |
| Owner | MITOC Gallery Administrator |
| Creation Date | 2007-04-27 14:09:57 UTC-0400 |
| Description |
Dracula and Widow's Pillar/Cave (left of Widow's Walk) March 4th 2007 Jamal and Vesna I've wanted to climb Dracula ever since I've seen it from the railroad tracks at Frankenstein, at the start of our Standard Right adventure last year. But as I know only one or two highly sought-after climbers who can actually lead it, I could only dream about it till I met Jamal from IMCS few weeks ago at the Ice Festival. He said Dracula is not so scary, so soon enough we hooked up and gave it a go. Early start was totally unnecessary, as we climbed it in a blink. Brad, his son and his son's trainer were just finishing as we arrived and we chatted about the route as we were gearing up. Jamal's lead was something worth seeing, elegant and effortless--a living proof that muscles are not all there is in this business. He took the left side, chatting as he went, turning around mid-clip to point out this or that as if he were chilling out over a pint at a bar. The truth is, I thought Dracula is THE climb, but as we got closer to it through a curtain of gently floating snowflakes, it looked easier and easier so that when we finally stood face to face with it, I thought: This is IT?? Perhaps it grew in my mind as the circumstances took me further away from climbing it? In any case, I felt so emboldened by the discovery the darn thing is not that scary after all, that I cruised up to Jamal too fast to savor the cool sticks, flashy stems and powerful squeeze-the-dimers. The ice was great, just a bit hacked in few places. Before I could say hooray, we were already walking down to the little gully that caused me such torment last year while walking off from Standard that took too long with Stefan and Steve. The gully was now covered with well-consolidated snow, as opposed to last year's WI2 ice, and we were descending it in daylight instead of in dark without headlamps! I didn't feel like climbing anything else that day, lest I spoil the pleasure of a perfectly executed and defamed route, but Jamal said I'd love the Widow's Pillar even better, so we walked over to it. Sure enough, it's a beauty: a double pillar with a thin curtain inbetween, to the right of the Cave Route and to the left of Widow's Walk (or Run, I forget which). I pulled out my mini-camera to record it for posterity, but lo! the display blinked with 'lens error'. Not now! The damned thing jammed again, for the umptieth time, so neither the Widow's Pillar nor the Black Dike from the next day got recorded for posterity, courtesy of Casio. Bah! Two guys were just getting off the Cave Route and we had a chat with them. When Jamal started his lead up the Widow's Pillar, they stopped to admire his moves--talk about stemming! Jamal went up like a ballerina, with each foot on its own pillar, now front-pointing, now heel-digging, dropping a knee here and there like a vertically-minded tele-skier. WOW! I can do that, I thought. So I start and before I made a plan, I hacked my way to a full stop underneath the curtain. Gasp! This thing is SO thin! And I bet it weighs a ton. Gasp squared! Nothing more than a tap-tap on that curtain, mind you, but best to avoid it entirely, said Jamal from above. Ergo the stemming. So I went up, doing my best to repeat the tricks but couldn't get that drop-knee anywhere. Where the hell did he do it? A-ha, there's a neat little step to flat-foot--tried this angle and that, but nothing felt right till voila! my frontpoints went vertically down while my knee dropped on its own and I made my first true tele-move on ice! What a difference it made to my biceps, I could finally chill and pull that screw out. Feeling so acomplished already (but there was still two-three vertical moves to cover before the anchor) I went on to expound on how easy and fun this was, all the while cleaning the screw. As I waved my hand sweepingly to seal the expression, I forgot that the screw was in it and I promptly poked it straight into my right eye and then onto my cheek! What pain!! Flood of tears!! Panic, I'm blinded!! The neat little scratch under my eye was pale compared to the halved field of view I now had. Ahhh, the joys and perils of (talking while) ice climbing. A great day and two awesome routes in perfect condition--who could ask for more? Well, I did... I wanted Black Dike too, and the next day, I got it! Vesna |