Protecting Cauliflower Ice?

Hello All,
I am looking to up my ice game this year and try my hand at the Rigid Designator and other harder ice climbs in the Front Range...

One question: What is the best way to protect on cauliflower ice? And any other assorted info regarding climbing WI5 +/- would be awesome!

Thanks in advance,
Doug

With a top rope.

At least that's how I do it. ;)

--Marc

Sometimes you can find good ice down deep in between the protrusions and use a runner. Sometimes you can excavate. Most of the time (on the Dez or the Fang in particular) you just run it out. If you wait to late season the cauliflower fills in and then it’s WI3 to a column.

Is that time of the year already?

cobras & don't fall

If you do decide on the top rope, make sure you throw a couple biners on the webbing, maybe even run the rope through them

Buff Johnson wrote:cobras & don't fall

Crap - I have the vipers - guess I am totally screwed...

Tits McGee wrote: Crap - I have the vipers - guess I am totally screwed...

If you have the new vipers, you can buy some of the road bike handlebar tape with a carbon fiber print. Wrap that around the shafts of your vipers and, voila, you have a the new design cobras. now, just don't fall...

Climb rock.

Shawn Mitchell wrote:Climb rock.

best answer yet.

But when it gets cold my fingers hurt....
hulu.com/watch/24386/happy-…

at least on ice I can wear gloves and justify my obscene addiction to gear...

Just go for it and don't fall

You should sling the cauliflower like a horn in the flatirons. Or you could wrap a sling around the entire Designator, may work on the Fang since it sometimes is thin enough.

Or maybe you should stop being a pansy...hahaha... I can't wait for ice.

What I've been using for awhile now and it seems to work fine (although I haven't tested this theory) is to take a special tool out of a wire hanger. Simular to what I use to thread a cord into a V-Thread.
Take a wire hanger and at one end make a look that you can put a cord through. With the other end bend the wire into a little hook and file a sharp point into it. When you are leading on that nasty cauliflower stuff stop where you wanna place a piece and clear away some of the ice. Then use a long, 22cm ice screw to make a couple of holes that intersect and spread the weight out. I use a dynamic 7mm cord, like a short cordellette, and thread it through the holes.

The problem with cauliflower ice is that it is so unstable and poorly bonded. You have to clear off the surface stuff to get to the thicker, better bonded ice and that takes time and energy. On a climb like the Designator the "leaves" are bigger because the angle is less than the Fang where there is cauliflower but with smaller and better bonded leaves so it is easier to get in some reliable gear.

Come out with me one day this winter and we'll check out the ice.......
Speaking of which........we are very close to ice season........

Jack

Thanks for all of the constructive and not so constructive (but funny) advice.

Jack - Thanks for the technical advice. I definitely will take you up on the offer, can't wait for ice...

Thanks again,
Doug

Cauliflower is tricky to protect, but certainly can be protected. Often times you can find a small cauli and bash the hell out of it at its base - creating a good surface for a screw. Or in a gap in the cauli, put a screw into the lower part of the next tier. Be creative and patient - and protection can be had.

Climb Ohn. Wally