Smuggs Ice Bash 2011
The 5th annual Alpinist / Smuggs Ice Bash takes place this weekend.
Friday, January 28: Kick off the Ice Bash weekend at Petra Cliffs in Burlington!
6:45 p.m. Matt McCormick presents “Climbing & Culture” – world class photography and video from Pakistan’s alpine playground, the Charakusa Valley.
7:00 p.m. Drytooling Competition begins – watch the area’s best climbers battle it out to a winner take all finish. Presented by Petzl.
Saturday & Sunday, January 29-30: the 5th annual Smuggs Ice Bash, the local’s ice climbing festival at the foot of Smuggler’s Notch, will be offering some great clinics for women, beginners, intermediate and advanced climbers alike, and a wicked slide show by Ian Osteyee at the village tavern, 6pm
For complete event info, schedule and clinics, visit: sunrise adventure sports.com
New M8 at “The Lake”
Tiny Dancer
Lake Willoughby, VT
FA: 01-21-11 Ryan Brooks and Josh Hurst
“Tiny Dancer, It’s between Plug and Chug and Call of the Wild. It’s a modern mixed route that deserves to see a lot of traffic due to it’s accessibility, reliability and rock quality” -Josh Hurst
P1: M7 Climb 20′ of Plug and Chug than diagnal right on ice blobs to the center of the overhanging rock. Take the weakness up and right to more ice blobs on the mid-cliff ledge. Belay on left in the ice. It is possible to take ice blobs directly up to the rock in some years.
P2: M8 Start up the flake system to a small roof. Trend right, crux, to a shallow corner system. Once behind the icicles take the line of least resistance to the top.
Rack: 5-8 ice screws, standard rack to 2″, no pins needed, 12 quickdraws
Photo’s by Ryan Brooks.
13th Annual Catskill Ice Festival
January 21, 22, 23 & 24
Last year was great fun! This year again will have multiple clinics on all the skills and techniques you need to get out on ice – from basic skills, to dry-tooling, to glacier travel techniques.
Slide shows on Friday & Saturday evening featuring ice climbing in the Catskills, and a special show by Freddie Wilkinson on Friday. Slide shows will be held at Rock and Snow at 8pm. – Marty Molitoris / Alpine Endeavors
"Rollies"
Matt, Matt, Naomi, Freddie, Aya and Bayard - Photo by Matt Gluesenkamp
Mountainfest FUN!
Sunday night after Matts slide show, we all went to the Bivi. Visiting climbers Matt McCormick, Bayard Russell and Freddie Wilkinson played “Rollies with the Legendary Joe Szot. Well you live and you learn, the boys definately got schooled!
“Most of the crowd made it to 4 and some cranked into the 5th round.
Matt McCormick made it into the one on one final with the Champ Joe Szot.
Matt bowed out with 8 rolls and Joe took the bar to crank out 11” – Brian D.
Photos by Brian D.
Watch an earlier video of Joe Szot finishing the last of a set. Simply unbelievable! Never challenge this man to “Rollies”. He is the master and you don’t stand a chance.
-Doug Millen
Will Gadd – Ice Climbing
Marble Canyon
ARC’TERYX Will Gadd Ice Climbing in Marble Canyon from ARC’TERYX on Vimeo.Arc’teryx athlete Will Gadd climbs a thin ice pillar in beautiful Marble Canyon, British Columbia.
Find out more about Will Gadd on his Arc’teryx page:
http://arcteryx.com/Athlete.aspx?WillGadd
Endangered Species
Video
Endangered Species from Matt McCormick on Vimeo.
On Friday January, 14. Bayard Russell, Matt Horner and I climbed a line on the “Big Wall” section of Poko-Moonshine in the Adirondacks. The line paralleled the legendary Jeff Lowe route Gorillas in the Mist which hasn’t seen a 3rd ascent since Alex Lowe and Randy Rackliff repeated it the day after the FA in 1997.
We called this new variant Endangered Species WI5+R M6+
-Matt McCormick
Endangered Species
Poko-O-Moonshine – Adirondacks, NY
01/14/2011
Adirondack Mountainfest 2011
Story Up-Date 1/20/11 from Bayard Russell
True to Mountainfest tradition of establishing new climbs, Bayard Russell, Matt Horner & Matt McCormick established – “Endangered Species” M6+ NEI5+ R. The climb is just to the right of Jeff Lowes legendary line “Gorillas in the Mist”.
“It’s so cool that, after all these years, the Northeast continues to generate some of the most exciting winter climbing in the country” – Dougald MacDonald
The 2 Matts having a go at Gorillas / Endangered Species earlier that week. No tools left this time. Photo by Smike
We were treated with photos and a video of the ascent Sunday night at Matt McCormick’s slide show. A very impressive climb by some very motivated and committed climbers. Well done. See the video..
Matt Horner’s tools on Gorillas in the Mist, 2008. – Photo by Jessew
Many attempts over the years have been made on this section of cliff . Lack of good ice has always blocked the way. Back in 2008, Matt Horner tried the climb in an after-work ascent where he ended up lowering off his tools in the dark, that was the best anchor he could build in the thin, candled ice (see photo).
See Fifty favorite climbs: the ultimate North American tick list By Mark Kroese for information on Gorillas in the Mist
The Big Wall section of Poke-O. The thin strip of ice is the new route “Endangered Species”. Photo by Jim Lawyer
More on the NEice Forum
Source: Matt McCormick, Matt Horner, Bayard Russell, NEice Forum, Facebook & Climbing.com
Story Up-Date 1/20/11
“There are a couple of things that we did do, and a couple of things that we didn’t do; here’s the deal” – Bayard Russell
Mountainfest 2011
The 15th annual Adirondack International Mountainfest takes place January 14-16, 2011 (this weekend!). This year’s event will kick off with a slide show by Freddie Wilkinson on Friday night. Saturday’s speaker will be renowned Exum guide and mountaineer Mark Newcomb, and Sunday’s entertainment is Vermont’s star climber Matt McCormick. Freddie, Mark and Matt will join local guides Chuck Boyd, Emilie Drinkwater, Jeremy Haas, Carl Heilman, Matt Horner, Chad Kennedy, Colin Loher, Don Mellor and Jim Pitarresi to lead instructional clinics on ice climbing, mountaineering, snowshoeing and avalanche awareness on Saturday and Sunday.
Too Warm? Beware!
Dangerous Liaisons
Warm spells can create freeze-thaw cycles that are the stuff of new route dreams. But, as NEIce member RAH found last week, underestimating how much warmth is too much could have been fatal.
Now you see it, now you don't!
For the whole story, see RAH’s post:
https://www.neice.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=56833#Post56833
Another close call last winter at Willoughby for NEice member dpowers. A huge water release: https://www.neice.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=6941
North East Ice
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