The 2014-2015 Colorado Ice Conditions Thread

The Blueprint Part Dank wrote:What was your rack for Alexander's?

Climbed Alexander's today and we brought a rack of screws (13-17cm), a rack of nuts and a run of Camalots from .3-#2. We probably could have gone without the nuts and .3 Camalot.

The route is in decent shape but is kind of picked and kicked out with no real new ice forming as of late. Each ice pitch felt to be about WI3+ and the Chockstone Pitch felt M4ish even with good ice and snow.

Lamb's Slide is good windblown snow up to AC. There is about 6" of new snow covering a lot of rock. All in all, a great route and it's in great shape right now from top to bottom.

seano wrote:I saw some apparently good ice below Crestone Peak last weekend, if you're up for a bit of a hike:

Climbed this line in October of 2002 with Patrick Grace and Ben and Holly Bruestle, who were living in Alamosa at the time . Its never made much of a splash on MP or elsewhere that I know of, and even Jack Hunt did not mention it in his guide book Life by the Drop (San Luis Valley, Wolf Creek ice).

Took the liberty of giving it a name, assuming we may have been the first parties on it, but there is no telling!

Grendel's Lair, WI3 Grade IV, 400'+

A strong party could link the ice climb and make the summit of Crestone Peak via the north gully (which feeds the climb) in one day from car to car with an alpine start. The snow in the couloir can vary from being a suffer fest wallow (snowshoes?) to crampon-perfect neve. There are short WI2-3 ice steps to negotiate but they can all be soloed.

As Sean said, or alluded to, it is a long way in for WI3, but it offers solitude and a majestic setting under those beautiful dark gendarmes.

Drools....

Andy Hansen wrote: Climbed Alexander's today and we brought a rack of screws (13-17cm), a rack of nuts and a run of Camalots from .3-#2. We probably could have gone without the nuts and .3 Camalot. The route is in decent shape but is kind of picked and kicked out with no real new ice forming as of late. Each ice pitch felt to be about WI3+ and the Chockstone Pitch felt M4ish even with good ice and snow. Lamb's Slide is good windblown snow up to AC. There is about 6" of new snow covering a lot of rock. All in all, a great route and it's in great shape right now from top to bottom.

Spot on description Andy. I felt fortunate to even be on ice, definitely picked and kicked to ice park levels. But, as you said it was still super quality. The patches of snow on route were firm enough to prevent wallowing. Lambs Slide was similarly easy to travel. As of 10/24 the crux on the Chockstone pitch was nearly completely free of ice, but it sews up with rock pro and was super scratchy in the best possible way.

I couldn't fathom a better way to have kicked off ice season.

I just really hope we can get a bit more precip and a good couple days of freeze-thaw so that the rest of ya'll can enjoy the route in good conditions. Barring that. I would imagine that after the inevitably heavy traffic this weekend (there were four parties on route yesterday, a WEEKDAY) that it'll be pretty destroyed.

smear is in.

justin dubois wrote:smear is in.

It looked like it was even touching down... minimal mixed climbing? Looks fat towards the top.

Pictures????

seth0687 wrote:Pictures????

From yesterday. Best I got.

does any one know the conditions of lamb slide to the loft? looking to do it this weekend

I can tell you that the loft looked like this on Saturday.

Meeker / Long's Cirque.

Forecast for Long's for this weekend includes "Gale-force winds" above treeline according to Mountain Forecast.

Good thing I'll be on Quandary because it's never windy up there..... oh.....wait.

Alexanders chimney on October 28th, 2014. Its getting snowy up there. Quite a bit swimming up snow over ice. Excellent climb.

Alexanders Chimney
Above the first fixed anchor.

Leading up under the chock stone.

Anyone looked at Thatchtop nw gully, deep freeze, or necro?

Necro, Deep Freeze and NW Gully need more time. It's very dry up there. Very little ice.

North side of Crestone.

NE Side of Crestone Needle (climber's left of Ellingwood Arete).

Poking around in the South Colony Lakes area.

From AMU's page from Rick Casey:

All Mixed Up.

Just posted 3 "new" routes above Eureka. All pics are from last couple weeks. Great moderate climbs. Enjoy!!

Nice work on Alexander's Camilo. You dealt with a hell of a lot more snow than I did two weeks back, that's a good, hard day in the mountains. Props.

Lotta precip in RMNP today, then a few days of warmer weather with cold nights. Hopefully this will fatten up AMU and start building up the other Glacier Gorge routes.

Is anyone farming Moffat Tunnel ice this year? The main pillar formed up well by January last year before developing some major horizontal fractures. I have a rule about TR-ing pillars, in that I don't do it. Too disrespectful to those strong enough to lead them. I wasn't feeling strong when the Moffat Pillar was in, but an off season of training has me feeling strong, and that would be an awesome send.

The Road on Evans was in Sunday however it was a bit thin on the two more difficult ice pitches 1 & 4 for us.

What else could you expect? You are reading a CO ice thread in November afterall...

The Road 11/2/14

The Blueprint Part Dank wrote:Is anyone farming Moffat Tunnel ice this year? The main pillar formed up well by January last year before developing some major horizontal fractures.

As of a few weeks ago, the hoses were set up at Moffat Tunnel and water was flowing for both the pillar and main flow.

Speaking of Moffat Tunnel, does anyone know what the two bolted, mixed lines to the left of the pillar go at?