The Park Weasel: ratting out the ice conditions for RMNP
October 8th, 2008
My oh my, what a season it has been –too bad that it has to come to an end so soon. You should have been there over the last two weeks when everything came in, because it’s all melted out now. Vanquished, Hallet’s Chimney, Womb with a View, Smear of Fear, even Necrophilia came in as a huge pillar (and you know we linked that sucker up to Deep Freeze’s dagger). What a season! I guess it’s time to hang up the tools and poons, and now I can go rock climbing and skiing.
It’s actually pretty dry up in the park, now that ice season is over. Maybe stuff will come back into shape, post-season style, but it’s pretty slim pickens for now. The North Face of Longs (Cables route) would probably be pretty killer right now as an ice and mixed route. It seems to be sucking up all of the snow in the park like some wicked vortex, and that snow has not gone anywhere. If anything, that snow has consolidated into nice neve and ice, making for a good high altitude route. As for other things on Longs, Alexander’s is decent right now. The first roped pitch was lacking enough ice to avoid ruining it for everyone else when we climbed it, so I politely climbed the fun rock out right. The cruiser gully pitch is good and filled in. Pulling the chockstone will leave you wanting for ice, but it is certainly climbable. Not much ice getting to Broadway ledge, but there rarely is. The Eighth route (above Alexander’s) had some ice, but not a ton. The raddest and baddest alpinist over at mountainproject.com has been kind enough to put info all over the internet about the radical routes to do. Perhaps someday, your friendly park weasel will aspire to climb such things.
I climbed a route on Mt. Meeker last week; I think they call it Dreamweaver. After years of attempts, I finally sent this long-standing personal project. I can see now why everyone raves about this classic line. I would like to thank my sponsor, the wildyx ice tool and crampon demo program, for all their support and encouragement that made this dream a reality.
Elsewhere in the park, the weasel remains uninformed. Mostly, I’ve been chillin’ with my bros (the marmots), playing gamecube and drinking Natty lite tallboys, maybe listening to a little Jack Johnson and Dave Matthews Band. You can be assured that, even though the ice season is over, your friendly park weasel will keep sniffing around for post-season ice. I would imagine that Notchtop will be the next potential line to form up, you know, if anything forms up at all. Whatever the case may be, you can find all of your beta here on the wildyx blog, straight from the weasel’s mouth.
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