"Because it's there."

[Colonel Hogan]

Apologies in advance if this has been addressed on one of the earlier 42 pages, but I've always heard that ice climbing is to rock climbing as cave diving is to a 75-foot open water scuba dive.

That the ice surface is notoriously unpredictable and, as a direct result, brutally unforgiving. The implication is that you can do nothing technically wrong on an ice climb and still wind up very dead. That there is a lot about the surface itself outside your control or expert analysis.

How much truth; how much hype?

 

[Batch]

It's not good rock..........lotsa crumbly stuff

rotten rock.

 

[thør]

Apologies in advance if this has been addressed on one of the earlier 42 pages, but I've always heard that ice climbing is to rock climbing as cave diving is to a 75-foot open water scuba dive.

That the ice surface is notoriously unpredictable and, as a direct result, brutally unforgiving. The implication is that you can do nothing technically wrong on an ice climb and still wind up very dead. That there is a lot about the surface itself outside your control or expert analysis.

How much truth; how much hype?

I think it safer than walking across a glacier.

 

[Peregrinator]

Pics from my 'hood.

ice climbing

That first shot is pretty boney. Too sharp for my blood.

looks so calm.

Looks like palpitations and sweating into you polypro to me.

It's not good rock..........lotsa crumbly stuff

Choss. Vertical mud. Bleah.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y53/curious2c/Work/workpicsdave013.jpg




One I want to climb someday. On the right, in the clouds. It looks like a crater in the top on a clear day, and I've flown next to it in a helicopter... it would be an interesting climb, no doubt.

I'm so there! Get the topo and meet me on Friday...

Apologies in advance if this has been addressed on one of the earlier 42 pages, but I've always heard that ice climbing is to rock climbing as cave diving is to a 75-foot open water scuba dive.

That the ice surface is notoriously unpredictable and, as a direct result, brutally unforgiving. The implication is that you can do nothing technically wrong on an ice climb and still wind up very dead. That there is a lot about the surface itself outside your control or expert analysis.

How much truth; how much hype?

1) Never apologize for breathing new life into my very favorite thread.

2) Mostly hype. Ice is a little less stable than rock, obviously, but it doesn't have to be a gigantic difference. Typically, stuff like this is the result of people talking about the very pinnacle of the sport, where the boundaries are being pushed, where the elite climbers are inventing a new level of difficulty. I've always felt a lot less likely to fall on ice; partly because I've climbed harder rock climbs than ice climbs, but mostly because a solid "thunk" with one tool is enough to keep you from going anywhere, as opposed to a single handhold on rock, which lasts only as long as the muscles that keep you hand clenched. ice tools (and this is slightly out of date, as the latest rage is leashless tools) have a cinched leash around your wrist; you can get a solid stick and then pass out, and you'll just hang there.

There are hazards; ice can fragment, and it's less predictable than pulling a hold off a rock climb. Ice screws can heat in the sun and become crap, so they don't catch you if you fall. And falling, while it's really part of the game on rock, is a really bad idea on ice. Even the shortest fall, a few inches, can break an ankle, as the front points of your crampons catch on the ice and torque the joint. Climbers above you, or just Mother Nature, can and often do knock all sorts of shit down on you. A helmet is mandatory on rock, but absolutely not open to discussion on ice.

 

[thør]

rotten rock.

still, there is some fun to be had....

 

[Peregrinator]

I think it safer than walking across a glacier.

Depends on the glacier, you...Alaskan. You got some serious shit up there, but I was strolling around the glacier in Kyrgizstan without a rope at all.

 

[thør]

Depends on the glacier, you...Alaskan. You got some serious shit up there, but I was strolling around the glacier in Kyrgizstan without a rope at all.

i fixed that link.........the first pic is a bit icier........

 

[Peregrinator]

i fixed that link.........the first pic is a bit icier........

Cool. I liked it fine, it just intimidated me. I've never been all that great a climber, just an enthusiastic one. Tasting my heart in my throat on moderate stuff is fun...

 

[thør]

Cool. I liked it fine, it just intimidated me. I've never been all that great a climber, just an enthusiastic one. Tasting my heart in my throat on moderate stuff is fun...

I'm just an old fart who's a fair belayer.......

 

[Peregrinator]

Thor and Curious, I just wanted you to know that I showed Lady P your pics and she grabbed her boobs at them. In a kind of "Be still, my heart," kinda nostalgic, missing AK kinda way.

 

[Peregrinator]

I'm just an old fart who's a fair belayer.......

Dude, we are so going out to play someday.

 

[thør]

Thor and Curious, I just wanted you to know that I showed Lady P your pics and she grabbed her boobs at them. In a kind of "Be still, my heart," kinda nostalgic, missing AK kinda way.

DAMN!

 

[thør]

Dude, we are so going out to play someday.

The IPA is on me.

 

[curious2c]

Thor and Curious, I just wanted you to know that I showed Lady P your pics and she grabbed her boobs at them. In a kind of "Be still, my heart," kinda nostalgic, missing AK kinda way.

Whoa... they're boob grabbing worthy? damn... gotta run... I'm going to go through all my pics and see if I have more that are worthy.

 

[Peregrinator]

DAMN!

Whoa... they're boob grabbing worthy? damn... gotta run... I'm going to go through all my pics and see if I have more that are worthy.

*laughs*

She just went to bed, saying "I did not."

The IPA is on me.

Numbers 4-6 are on me.

 

[fair_warning]

With the recent death here in New Zealand of Sir Edmund Hillary, mountains and mountain climbing are topics that have been to the fore of late.

Here's the thing - the other day I caught a snippet of a discussion about the view from the top of Everest. I was fascinated to learn that from that vantage point one can detect quite clearly the curve of the Earth. It is something I had never given much thought to - what a mountaineer might see from the summit of a particular mountain.

What is the most enduring or amazing view you have seen from the summit of a mountain?

 

[thør]

With the recent death here in New Zealand of Sir Edmund Hillary, mountains and mountain climbing are topics that have been to the fore of late.

Here's the thing - the other day I caught a snippet of a discussion about the view from the top of Everest. I was fascinated to learn that from that vantage point one can detect quite clearly the curve of the Earth. It is something I had never given much thought to - what a mountaineer might see from the summit of a particular mountain.

What is the most enduring or amazing view you have seen from the summit of a mountain?

The rest of the world........It put things into perspective.

 

[Peregrinator]

With the recent death here in New Zealand of Sir Edmund Hillary, mountains and mountain climbing are topics that have been to the fore of late.

Here's the thing - the other day I caught a snippet of a discussion about the view from the top of Everest. I was fascinated to learn that from that vantage point one can detect quite clearly the curve of the Earth. It is something I had never given much thought to - what a mountaineer might see from the summit of a particular mountain.

What is the most enduring or amazing view you have seen from the summit of a mountain?

From Everest (not me; never been there):

http://www.himex.com/c_images/c_content/41/cms_img_Image_3-0-0-749.jpeg

One of my favorites, from the first ascent I managed in Kyrgizstan:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Peregrinator/207_0722-1.jpg

Most if not all of the peaks in that picture are unclimbed...and no one but me has ever stood there. It was right around sunset, as you can see from the colors, and the wind had died, so it was perfectly still...a pair of ravens flew over, glunking in their Kyrgiz accents, and then it was quiet again.

 

[fair_warning]

The rest of the world........It put things into perspective.

I think that is a view a lot of Americans should see.

 

[thør]

I think that is a view a lot of Americans should see.

I've never been Everest or the like....I can just climb above my home.....most people can't....

 

[thør]

From Everest (not me; never been there):

http://www.himex.com/c_images/c_content/41/cms_img_Image_3-0-0-749.jpeg

One of my favorites, from the first ascent I managed in Kyrgizstan:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/Peregrinator/207_0722-1.jpg

Most if not all of the peaks in that picture are unclimbed...and no one but me has ever stood there. It was right around sunset, as you can see from the colors, and the wind had died, so it was perfectly still...a pair of ravens flew over, glunking in their Kyrgiz accents, and then it was quiet again.

Quite the place.......maybe I'll go next time.

 

[Peregrinator]

I think that is a view a lot of Americans should see.

I knew there was a reason I loved you. Come away with me, Dear.

Quite the place.......maybe I'll go next time.

I really would love to go back...one could go two valleys further West and be in entirely virgin terrain...

 

[thør]

I really would love to go back...one could go two valleys further West and be in entirely virgin terrain...

I'll have to relate a kyrgyz story to you over a beer.

 

[Peregrinator]

I'll have to relate a kyrgyz story to you over a beer.

I bet yours are funnier than mine. One of these days, I have to post a series of pics from that expedition. I could do a sort of pictorial story of a mountaineering trip. Maybe some folks here would be interested.

 

[fair_warning]

Thanks perg, they are beautiful.