Ice, Ice, Baby

Saturday I headed out at 6am with 4 guys and one goal: To not get cold. Where were we headed?

We attended what I think was called "Ice Fest" it was held at the ICE PIT. Okay, so i am bad at details, but I have some pictures!

This is the ice pit, its a quarry that the 'ice climbing people' have turned into an ice climbing gym:

Apparently its not normally this packed, but everyone was out that day for to try out thier ice climbing skills at ice fest!

This is Dan (in orange) ice climbing what may be a 100 foot quarry wall.........

This is me trying to ice climb......There are two main pieces of gear involved in ice climbing....... AXES and Crampons

The boys, who prefer to be called men, but are still really boys, LOVED the axes and breaking ice. Personally I was afraid of the axes, and the crampons (crampons = pointy spikes on boots pictured below). I was afraid of poking my eye out or accidentally kicking someone or something and breaking it. That is a foreshadowing to my initial opinion of ice climbing.So we tried climbing what was said to be an easier climb in the corner of the quarry..... After climbing and climbing and hacking at the ice for what felt like a good long while I was pretty tired and felt like I should be nearing the top....I looked up -DEAR GOD the top is freaking FAR!- I realized that it was gonna be a while till this was OVER. I looked down.....I was about ten feet off the ground. From below they shouted "How's it going, Katie? Do you like ice climbing?" My only response was.... "Ummm Scary"

I stubbornly trudged on towards the top of the wall, still not exactly sure what i was supposed to be doing- or the 'rules of the sport'-hacking at the ice and poking things with my crampons. When I FINALLY got to the top my fingers were frozen and i was more than ready to get back to the ground. i felt good and accomplished.I only climbed two climbs that day, the second one was much shorter, more comfortable and I liked it. Ice climbing was.... Ice climbing. If that makes sense? Just hacking some axes into the ice and climbing. I'm glad I tried it, but can't yet say that I am in LOVE with the sport. Would I try it again, definitively yes. It felt great to do something fun and different and new with a lot of friends.

Greg climbing....Melissa and Kim, also trying to keep warm :)