Nailing It

Ice climbing, round 2, took place yesterday at Frankenstein in Crawford Notch. It was about a 10minute hike, across railroad tracks spanning a gully with an icy backdrop, one which we would be apart of in the next 15 minutes.

After stepping off the bridge, Keith, advised us to fasten our helmets and secure crampons and ice axes in our packs, "We are going to move quickly through the 'death zone'" referring to the 40 foot ice-covered slab to our right which was known for releasing ice-stakes to the ground or unlucky individuals below. "Your helmet is your protection, so tuck and roll if ice is coming for you," he casually explained. The four of us followed with noodle legs as we made our way over blocks of fallen ice, ice that had broken away from Frankenstein's face, and up to our site of belaying.

Frankenstein's Face

According to guide, Keith, one of the greatest sounds, that gets him all giddy, is the fracturing of ice as it breaks from its slab and the boom it makes as it hits the ground below. "Errrr I Love that!" he yelled as it happened for us.

Guide, Keith

Matt, right before he fell

Jay belay

Andy mix climb

Frozen Face

Andy and I were "jazzed" to climb up a frozen 20 foot 6" thick waterfall. "You have to be very delicate, no kicking or smashing, just stepping and hooking" Keith cautioned. Of course it was cake for both of us.
We did some mix climbing on both ice and rock which proved to be an incredible workout, but nothing we couldn't handle. We want to become friends with Keith so that he can take us for some price-less climbing. The day was awesome we learned how to build anchors and my oatmeal raisin cookies were a hit, I think our guide downed at least twelve of them.

On the way home we stopped at Unos to visit our bartender friend, Nikki, who hooked me up with 3 complementary drinks last time and this time slid me a mudslide.

Last night I had a dream that I went to the hardware store and purchased five aluminum gutter nails in place of stakes for my tent. It was a good dream because the day before I was at Aubuchons trying to remember what thru-hiker, Red used for nails to substitute stakes for his 6moons lunar solo tent (Red is the reason I chose this tent design.) I like it because you set it up with your hiking pole and bringing multipurpose gear is the key to ultra-light hiking.

Red called me back yesterday and said "aluminum gutter nails, just bend the tops of them." So out of all the crazy events that took place yesterday including: the "death zone", mixed rock and ice climbing and Unos, I dreamt about nails...need I say more?