Tuesday, October 21, 2008

ice climbing training

Last Saturday, I went on an ice climbing training run with the UW climbers. We went to the Coleman glacier on Mt Baker. The day was sunny and clear. We were mostly in the shade and near freezing, so the ice was good. Learned a thing or two about ice climbing technique. We didn't focus too much on placement technique -- one really must use individual judgment for this (in addition to reading about it).

A couple of pictures:

The group at the base of the Coleman below Baker.


The whole scene. The big ice blocks we climbed on are called seracs.


Jon leading 40 feet of vertical ice (photo credit Chirs Moorehead).

2 comments:

Poopers AKA 2Ply said...

Wow, neat pictures of those cool ice formations.

Janie said...

Yes, very nice pics.
I'm glad you're learning good ice climbing technique. I'm sure glad that's not a photo of you climbing the vertical ice block. I'd have heart failure!