CO Front Range: Ice Condition Reports ('08/'09)

Anyone been up Boulder Canyon? Got some beginners to take out. Falls in or further up by Castle Rock?

Annaliese wrote:Anyone been up Boulder Canyon? Got some beginners to take out. Falls in or further up by Castle Rock?

No ice there, as the water flow has been cut off by the water authority this season. Moffet Tunnel is your closest bet.

Lee, have you been to Plotter Kill Falls outside of Rotterdam? It is the best easy access ice in the Capitol area. Maybe the only accessible ice there. But its great, if you go solo, you can rap the first two falls, hike downstream to the third, and solo them. The second falls are the crux, If you look in the summer, I'll bet there is still a stubby screw in the bottom of the pool below.

Anyone been to Lincoln lately?

Phoenix wrote: Make the drive to Keene, go into Chapel Pond canyon. Man, this season leaves me missing NE and its plethora of fat, thick, plastic, crystal blue ice therein.

The drive to Keene would be about 1800 miles for me. For some reason my profile doesn't list Littleton as my home anymore. I was just visiting Rochester a few weeks back.

Clear Creek ice on 2/15/09

Upper Flow:
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Lower Flow:
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I didn't get on the lower flow, but I soloed the upper and ran a few laps on the stuff above that today. Its hooked to pieces already and pretty hacked up. I basically just hooked my way up it. Seems like its seen a lot of traffic recently as there were a lot of footprints around here. Its getting wet though...not sure how much longer it'll last. Don't worry, I know how to climb w/o destroying ice.

My initial intuition was to keep quiet and be a selfish bastard, but if we all did that the world be be a sad place. So here it goes....THERE IS VERY CLIMBABLE ICE IN BOULDER CANYON!!!!!!!!!!!!! They started running water through the pipe, and the flows froze up. I lead the main flow yesterday and it was not exactly spectacular, but definitely there and about 3+ up top. There has been some traffic, but not nearly the magnitude one would expect. I'm sure this is due to the fact it has only been there a couple weeks and most people had previously given up on it being there this year. But it is, please don't dissect it for your margaritas, given another couple weeks it could actually be in nice shape.

Ssshhhhhh.
lol

FWIW: CCC doesn't look like that any more.

Evan Simons wrote:My initial intuition was to keep quiet and be a selfish bastard, but if we all did that the world be be a sad place. So here it goes....THERE IS VERY CLIMBABLE ICE IN BOULDER CANYON!!!!!!!!!!!!! They started running water through the pipe, and the flows froze up. I lead the main flow yesterday and it was not exactly spectacular, but definitely there and about 3+ up top. There has been some traffic, but not nearly the magnitude one would expect. I'm sure this is due to the fact it has only been there a couple weeks and most people had previously given up on it being there this year. But it is, please don't dissect it for your margaritas, given another couple weeks it could actually be in nice shape.

2 posts in the forum after this... Looking for someone to take me up to the BC ice and learn how to climb...LOL... so much for letting it grow.

Yeah I have been driving by all winter and watching it grow... Just lacked the gear and partner....ah well

Yeah, if it's in and it's thin, with the temps there going to be in the 50's the next few days, I don't think it'll last...probably best to stay off of it for a bit longer. I'm really surprised it came in at all. I've never climbed the ice there, but would like to once its good to do so.

I've only lived in CO for about 3 years, and I see the pictures in my guidebooks for BC, CCC and Silverplume and it blows my mind how fricken' large the flows are. I hope they come back!!!

Just closet the ice gear for this horrible season and get out on the rock.

I've been swinging the tools for 15 years and this year stands out as one of the worst for ice.

shelved the gear myself, just a reccomendation but: don't break your ankle like I did while ice climbing, or falling for that matter forced is much worse than not.

SIde note, anyone have any experience falling on screws, what seems to hold, what won't? I know there are tons of variables, and some research, but personally speaking, what have you found besides it's a bad idea to fall. Any good stories?

me personally, Hidden falls, pulled a shorty just below the anchors, fell 30 feet, broken ankle, hiked out.

Joe Santambrogio wrote:SIde note, anyone have any experience falling on screws, what seems to hold, what won't?

Not that I ever wanted to fall leading ice, but this year I was climbing the first pitch of Stairway to Heaven in Eureka and fell. I was trying to parallel a team already on the route and climbed up into some crappy snice. I had placed a 16cm BD Express with a screamer in some decent ice to my right. I moved about 6 feet above that and while trying to pull a snow/ice bulge my feet cut out and my tools pulled. I caught one of my double ropes on my crampon, that flipped me upside down and broke my ankle. I hit nothing on the way down (about 20 feet) and fully deployed the screamer.

Now I've got 3 screws in my ankle instead of in the ice! Here's me limping out from the climb back to the car:

Mark - so sorry to hear about your ankle. Heal quickly so you can enjoy some rock this summer!!

I put a crampon into my leg in the fall trying to drytool up a section of rock that is normally a really sweet ice flow. Since then I've had the tools on the shelf. At least the snow is decent this year, and avi danger has been on the low side recently... and the warm days are conducive to rock climbing.

--Mike

Joe Santambrogio wrote:Side note, anyone have any experience falling on screws, what seems to hold, what won't?

Climbed Vail yesterday and witnessed a 12+ foot lead fall on a 16cm screw with no screamer (doubled up single runner) the screw held in good ice. Caught the climber with a dynamic belay with no injury to the leader.

16cm screws make up the bulk of my ice rack - not to long, not too short. Then again it all depends on the ice you put them in. Screamers are helpful as well.

Conditions at Vail:
Weird ice - wet in places extremely hard and brittle in others...

How do you put this the right way, I guess I am glad to hear I am not the only one gravity has taken over on the ice this year, glad that everyone so far has been relatively ok, heal quickly and good thoughts to you all. 16 cm was what caught me, clipped in with a quick draw. good thick ice. I get the idea behind screamers....does anyone have guidelines that they use to decide when to use them while ice climbing? Don't want to hijack the posting, but this seems to be one of the more active threads.

Be safe.

Joe

Joe Santambrogio wrote:...does anyone have guidelines that they use to decide when to use them (Screamers) while ice climbing?

Every single screw.

But then I'm a pretty big guy. Nonetheless, on a medium as variable and unpredictable as ice, I like to stack the odds in my favor so I climb on stretchy ropes as much as I can and put Screamers on everything unless I'm practically having to use my tool to crank a 19cm into super-hard crystal clear ice (which does happen on occasion). YMMV and that's fine.