2023 was a big year in terms of ice climbing for me and resurgence of my interest in skiing. I also managed to get a little bit of rock climbing in, but not a lot at all.
In January 2023, Alex and I headed over to Winter Park to ski with Viral, Dragos and some of their friends. It was an awesome 4 days of skiing in a pretty big place. I wa obviously getting back to it after some time so it was a bit of a journey. I did also plan to combine that with a trip back to the PNW to visit my friends in winter and get some back country skiing on. Winter Park was a really fun time but kind of that classical ski resort experience - ski, hot tub, good food.
The rest of the trip out west was just an awesome adventure - crashing with Aidan and Pat and then with Nick and Juliette for a bit. Great trip. Pat had a few days off since he was between jobs and we went to a spa in the forest. It is a secret spa that really is an unbelievable location. We then took a day to go Whistler and do some resort skiing. Then we went back for a day of slack country skiing of the bowls at the back of Whistler. The deep powder stumped me again and I struggled the whole trip again dealing with it. Struggled a bunch on our way out which was still fun but a reminder that I need to get better. We also skiied off the FSR in Squamish to Roundtop? mountain. Again flailing my way down the mountain in knee deep powder.
Great to see these guys!
After my return to NYC I plotted some time on ice which lead to a fruitful ice season.
Ming Wojtek and I went to New Hampshire with the intention of climbing Pinnacle but due to a general lack of confidence, we decided to do Willeys slide instead. Since we were up there for two days we climbed at some falls which I cant remember the name of. It was a day of top roping but it was bitterly cold - well below -20 C. Really kind of a pointless experience because we barely climbed and froze every part of our body. We did Willeys Slide the next day which was not enjoyable. It was a bitter cold day, I dropped ice screw and the only thing I gained was a backache from the rope hauling and sore calves from all the low angle front pointing. Among the worst ice climbing experiences of my life, second only to the day before where I thought my finger and toes were going to fall off.
Luckily, my season was redeemed when Wojtek and I headed up to the Dacks to climb. On the first day we went to a place called ???. A little bit out of the way - we had a nice time in a slightly less trafficked ice crag. Got some pretty nice leads - mostly short climbing but a great day out. The next day we headed to Chapel pond to climb:
- Lions
- Whales
- Rule of the bone
- G spot?
- Playground
- Randomly found steep ice
It was really awesome to finally lead something substantial and do some engaging leads.
Later in the season I went up with Miles to Dacks again, climbing at Pitchoff on the first day to get Miles back into it a little bith. Followed that up by climbing Multiplication Gully and Cold Haggis and Toast the next day. Both climbs were absolutely fantastic and maybe my favorite ones to date. They were highly engaging climbs and in settings that felt very remote. Fun trips out.
In the summer I was able to back to PNW (again!) and was able to go to Mazama and Washington Pass for some alpine rock climbing. Awesome days out - swapped leads with Nick, Aidan and Pat. They got on epic stuff while not climbing with me :D. But I had an awesome weekend that pushed me - since I had not climbed outdoors consistently.
Routes that I climbed:
- Beckey Route (liberty bell)
- North west face(liberty bell)
- Southwest rib (sw winter spire)
- North face (concord tower)
Nick and Aidan managed to get on Liberty Crack which was unreal and super impressive. Nick and Pat also got on some pretty rad stuff. We also took a day off and went to Winthrop to get some food and enjoy some mini golf to relax. It was a gruelling trip for me because we had about 2000ft of hiking in everyday and we climbed 3 days.
The rest of the year was fairly mellow. I started school and got busy with that leaving little time for anything else apart from work.
– G