Where is all the ice???

Curious if anybody knows of anywhere to find ice to climb right now. Hoping the high peaks of NY have potential. Heard rumor of smugglers notch having potential. Curious what everybody is hearing for ice in ADK, Vermont or new hampsha!!

I have seen better photos from the daks than VT. I would be out poking around up in smuggs today  but my truck died with an electrical problem  code P0641?  I expect that the warm up was a good thing and melted a bunch of snow that is now water in the system. 

Some of the notches in New Hampshire go rn, but obviously changes by day/time of day. Definitely still early conditions though. I was in Crawford last weekend, probs going again this weekend :)

Harry Averillwrote:

Some of the notches in New Hampshire go rn, but obviously changes by day/time of day. Definitely still early conditions though. I was in Crawford last weekend, probs going again this weekend :)

Shoot me a dm with your contact info and maybe we can figure something out for this weekend.

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

I have seen better photos from the daks than VT. I would be out poking around up in smuggs today  but my truck died with an electrical problem  code P0641?  I expect that the warm up was a good thing and melted a bunch of snow that is now water in the system. 

Nick how did you make out with your truck??? And have you made it up to smuggs in the past couple weeks? 

We were in smuggs last week. Have new truck. Lot's of snow in smuggs makes it hard to get to the ice but there's stuff to climb. 

The lake is crazy dry. I drove by yesterday and the tablets are the only thing that formed on the main cliff. A friend climbed mindbender a few days ago but that is probably falling down today. Maybe this thaw will get some water moving but I am not too optimistic given how dry its been up there.  20 below and glass just have a drool on them. Float is bone dry.  ampetheater has one tiny drool at the top of the gent.   Woober Goober and Cold hearted Hor also look dry. 

I am telling myself that the good snow cover will act like a sponge and hold/seep a lot of this rain.

Just amazing to hear that Willoughby is so dry, I'm not recalling ever hearing that so few lines have formed up--even if thin, by this point in the season. What this situation tells us about the state of the groundwater in the region is very depressing.

I know of people who had their wells dry out this summer in NE. Two years in a row of drought conditions aren't good for ice sadly. 

Pisgah was terrible last year and just looks like it will be worse this year. 

Smuggs is doing well, however. 

I would gladly have last years Pisgah ice compared to this years... 

I have over all not been to impressed thus far with the ice this year. The rain storm either completely wiped out most possibilities in the lower elevations. If not wiped out completely most everything else that was a beautiful base not 2 weeks ago is a hollow shell of what once was. Now it seems like the ice is becoming more brittle with the cold coming back in and thus more prone to fractures and cracks within the features that are hanging in a half delaminated state.

I was top rope soloing last night at 14 degrees. I heard the ice cracking while climbing which I know happens when ice is forming, on a lake. However, considering I was climbing up a 90 foot waterfall was obvious spots of open running water and signs of detachment it was cause for concern, but not enough to make me stop climbing. About 6 feet from the top on a 30 foot head wall. There was a nice little concave that I stuck a pick in and as soon as I hit the ice, the whole shelf made a popping noise and an obvious crack formed horizontally in either direction across the shelf. It was at this moment that I decided that it was time to bail glad I wasn’t on lead.

The lake is still horribly dry. Really only the tablets in. Didn't get eyes on mindbender but have heard that it's climbable. 

Should be lots of new ice today after yesterdays ice storm..  Too cold and windy for my old  self to go looking for it... 

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

Should be lots of new ice today after yesterdays ice storm..  Too cold and windy for my old  self to go looking for it... 

Though probably very thin and not necessarily well-bonded to the rock below. Needs time, and maybe a few freeze/thaw cycles, as well as more moisture, to build up nicely---though not too late in the season for that to occur.

Sometimes the day after a rain and flash freeze the new ice is amazing. You just have to get out there and see what you can find. I am not feeling it today though. Banged my knee pretty good falling on the driveway yesterday and it's just nasty windy and single digits out today. 

Unfortunately the rain event did not help Willoughby. The only 3 climbs actually in at Willoughby are Mindbender left Tablet and center tablet. Apetheater is bone dry. 

A little warmup this weekend, a couple of cooler days; a little midweek warmup, a couple of cooler days... Next weekend sounds great to me!  There's a lot of healthy ice out there right now and this forecast is likely to further help things out.  This warmth could have a small impact on routes in the coming days (and if the sun pops out more than forecasted this week, then that could hit the south/west facing routes pretty hard), but long term, this should actually be quite productive for awesome conditions.  Fingers crossed that it helps a bit at Lake Willoughby as well.

I'm lucky to live here in New Hampshire, but if I didn't I'd be psyched to be packing my bags and going climbing! 

ice is phat