Cold Aid Climbing in LCC

[price1869]

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Didn't even thread any toprope belays though just slings.

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[jumar]

Looks like fun :five:

[price1869]

I may as well post the story here too. It's originally on my blog.

It snowed and snowed. Feet up in the mountains. It was raining in the desert. Then came our saving grace. Adam texted me, "Do you want to go aid climb a roof in LCC?" "Are you serious?" I responded. "Alright then, let's do it."

The snow was deep as we made our way up to the base of the cliffs where the LDS Church recently quarried stone for the Conference Center. Fitting that it was conference weekend. We were having a little spiritual time of our own. In some spots there were holes between the boulders and we would sink in waist deep. I started up the cliff just to see how difficult it would be. The roof pitch was high above us, and it would take a lot of careful climbing over wet and icy granite (I know, it's monzonite) to get there.

I was well into the "no-fall" zone when i decided that I better get out my harness. Seemed it wouldn't be so easy to get up there after all. Carefully balancing on a tiny one-foot perch, I got into my harness and threw the rope to where Adam could belay me. Cleaning off four to six inches of snow from every hold left my hands stinging. Sometimes, I couldn't even tell if I was gripping the rock. We were aid climbing though, so really nothing is off limits. When the holds ran out, I slung a lone brush oak sticking out of the wall. Mantling on a tiny bush with frozen hands and no gear didn't discourage me. In fact, it did quite the opposite. The spirit of summer sprang back to life. We were doing something epic.

The holds ran out again and all I had in front of me was one muddy seam. I got out my rarely used hook. It was a poor placement but all I could get. One tiny iron hook, cocked slightly sideways in a muddy little crack. I pulled on it, and it held me. Two more moves and i was into some thin weeds that miraculously held my weight as I tugged on them. A small lunge got me to some sturdier little oaks and I slung one and got ready to belay Adam.

We left the climb well after the stars were out. Rappelling by headlamp, we left my rope hanging from the tree. The morning would bring more adventure.

Sunday morning I knew what was coming ... or did I? We made our way back to the cliff face. Our rope was still there. There wasn't a single new track in the deep snow. Sunday was different though. It was sunny, so sunny I thought I'd be snow-blind in an hour. The ice was trying to melt off the exposed faces of the cliff. As we geared up to ascend the rope, we got a taste of what we were in for. Chunks of ice were falling off all around us. Most were easy to dodge. Most were pretty soft and harmless.

At the top of the rope, we set up for Adam to lead the first pitch of the day. He took his time getting around a small cave. We kept watching the ice shelf that was so precariously perched above. Then it came. I burried my face in my hands and let my helmet and back take the brunt of it. It was like getting doused in Gatorade in the first quarter. Brrrr....

Adam missed most of it and climbed through the pitch. Two and one-half pitches later, we were above the roof that we had originally set out to climb. we rappelled in and then climbed out, then rappelled back down again.