Mixed climbing skills good for ice?

I'm thinking about taking a class near Canmore in late November. I've been told it's mostly mixed climbing, which I've never done.

I want to improve my ice climbing skills but is learning mixed helpful for getting better at ice? If the mixed routes had a lot of ice I know it would, but what if it's mostly dry tooling?

My 2 cents: spending some time mixed climbing will make you more comfortable placing your frontpoints on little rock edges. That's something that can make a lot of ice climbs a bit easier/less stressful. Not so much if you only climb huge fat flows, of course, but when it's a thin runnel you're on, the ability to step out to the side on a rock edge can be significant.

Besides, all the cool kids are mixed climbing these days, right?

As you get on to harder ice routes you'll find more mixed terrain. This may be because you want to link sections of ice, or it could just be because that section of climb hadn't filled in.

Also, climbing thin ice is similar to the movement required with drytooling, where you must place your picks and front points rather than being able to kick and swing.

Plus, drytooling is crazy fun. Ice can only become so challenging before it starts to get really dangerous.

Ok, I'm sold on mixed. As a bonus, an excuse to go out and buy more gear.

Thanks for the input guys.

An excuse to go climb more with the gear you have!

I've found that mixed climbing helps ice climbing as the former demands thinking about how to move in a three-dimensional space. It wasn't until I began drytooling that I stared to think about approaching pure ice "gymnastically", which meant seeing more/better placements and being more efficient (fewer placements, longer reach, etc.).

Additionally, after climbing a bunch of mixed roofs, vertical ice will seem like the easiest thing ever!

Go for it, mixed/drytooling is ridiculously fun, and there are a lot of great areas around Canmore to explore.

SavageMarmot wrote:An excuse to go climb more with the gear you have!