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Brilliant video. (Pretty much nothing happens in it, but still brilliant) and very scary...
https://youtube.com/shorts/c6DifINvxJ8?feature=share
chilling
"So this is it, I'm going to die."
I can't work out whether to say props, or idiot. Ice climbing is bastard hard work in controlled conditions, let alone exposed like that and on your own.
Ice climbing is bastard hard work in controlled conditions, let alone exposed like that and on your own.
Aside from the two or three indoor ice walls I can't think of anything less "controlled conditions" that ice climbing.
Somewhere there is a photo series of a chap climbing a lovely big icicle in Canada or N. America. Pic three shows the ice breaking away and four the whole thing descends quickly with the climber. Some injury but no death as a result.
The most alive I've ever felt was when in extremis on a long winter climb. It's mostly post activity well-being though.
We watched The Alpinist the other night - mind blowingly insane solo ice and mixed climbing...
First film is hilarious.
The Alpinist film is great.
Aside from the two or three indoor ice walls I can’t think of anything less “controlled conditions” that ice climbing.
Aye, that's what I was alluding to.
I did an ice route called the Undertaker in Sweden once.
Scary as. My feet popped and was hanging on a single axe.
Makes you really feel alive.
I can’t think of anything less “controlled conditions” that ice climbing.
Sometimes people forget this. In good conditions, with modern kit it can feel pretty controlled. It's certainly much less sketchy than climbing snowed up rock at the same grade*. However it's such a variable medium that you can go from solid to sketchy as **** in one move.
* this is one of the things that made Marc-Andre Leclerc so impressive.
The Alpinist film is great
Great and horrible in equal measure.
Winter climbing is the a ticirt I want to do more than anything. As youngsters we kept trying to do it and failing to varying degrees due to our available time and resources.
But now I have more of both, I need to find a partner. Of course I have no desire to do that kind of dangerous shit.
Of course I have no desire to do that kind of dangerous shit
You could encounter spindrift like that on an easy route although if you're roped the margins are a bit wider!
I tried ice climbing once indoors at the Glasgow snow place at a work event, everyone else was skiing etc. It was brilliant fun. I loved it. Right up until my 'climbing buddy' forgot to properly control my descent from the top, until I was about 2ft from the floor. My left side was bruised for weeks after slamming into the ice wall when he finally stopped me falling. 😂 Still brilliant fun though.
Brilliant video. (Pretty much nothing happens in it, but still brilliant) and very scary…
How was that filmed?
But now I have more of both, I need to find a partner. Of course I have no desire to do that kind of dangerous shit.
Can't quite follow this. Are you saying you want to do it at an indoor wall?
If so then great, but if not IMHO there isn't a way to do it without that kind of dangerous shit in the UK ( most years)
Unless you get a solid low level freeze, and hence can go and toprope some seeps, the easy ice climbs aren't really much safer than the hard ones. The belays are usually shit, and runners non existent. And you generally end up on top of a big scary hill, tired and about to get dark.
How was that filmed?
Would l9ve to know. Guess it's some helmet mounted 360 cam like you often see on ski vids.
Since we're on the subject of ice climbing, this piece is brilliant
https://www.climbing.com/people/ben-nevis-accident-ice-climbing/ 686
Shamelessly pilfered from UKC
IMHO there isn’t a way to do it without that kind of dangerous shit in the UK
Quite a lot of the dangers of that clip can be avoided. Not climbing solo and not going in gullies when there's lots of fresh snow are two obvious things.
The belays are usually shit, and runners non existent.
Obviously there are times when this is true but it's not a given. There are plenty of routes of all grades out there with solid belays and good protection, you just need to be a bit canny about what you do and when you do it.
How was that filmed?
It sounded like it was from a helicopter, and I was wondering how much of that spindrift was blowing naturally, and how much was downdraft!
Looks like drone footage to me.
... if he fell off and did a lot of swearing, it'd be an obscene drone fall.
We watched The Alpinist the other night
just from that picture I can tell that I couldn’t do that- he hasn’t even got gloves on 😳
Can’t quite follow this. Are you saying you want to do it at an indoor wall?
No, I want to do easy routes. Of course they can be dangerous in bad conditions, but an easy route in bad conditions is not as bad as a hard route in bad conditions.
Where are you based molgrips?
No, I want to do easy routes. Of course they can be dangerous in bad conditions, but an easy route in bad conditions is not as bad as a hard route in bad conditions.
Go and climb cascades - frozen ice falls in the Alps etc - rather than Scottish winter stuff if you want to get some actual metres of ice climbing done rather than spending all day scratching up dubious chimneys with spindrift pouring down your neck before emerging into a tornado force hoolie on some pitch black ice-covered plateau and getting rained on as you walk out is my advice.
I was wondering if an easy route in bad conditions would be preferable to a hard route in good conditions 😉
an easy route in bad conditions is not as bad as a hard route in bad conditions
Not necessarily.
I'd rather do a grade VII snowed up rock route than a grade I gully in bad weather, far less likely to come a cropper. But the real trick is not to go near either in shit conditions, go for a walk or go out on your bike instead.
"all day scratching up dubious chimneys with spindrift pouring down your neck before emerging into a tornado force hoolie on some pitch black ice-covered plateau and getting rained on as you walk" But isn't the pub good afterwards? A damp tent outside the Clachaig after closing time isn't though.
“all day scratching up dubious chimneys with spindrift pouring down your neck before emerging into a tornado force hoolie on some pitch black ice-covered plateau and getting rained on as you walk” But isn’t the pub good afterwards? A damp tent outside the Clachaig after closing time isn’t though.
Oh yeah, the definitive Scottish winter experience 🙂
Go and climb cascades – frozen ice falls in the Alps etc
Oh I'll just hop in the car then 😉
I know how hard it is to find good conditions. I've been up to North Wales dozens of times and encountered wildly different conditions every time. Lots of interesting days out in the hills, only two actual proper successful winter climbs completed!
just from that picture I can tell that I couldn’t do that- he hasn’t even got gloves on 😳
Other than the insane climbing skills my main take from the film was he never seems to wear many clothes! At 3000m in Patagonia in winter he seems to be dressed for the Lake District on cool day in summer. His bivvy sleeping back looks 2 season at best. I suffer from cold hand climbing in in Cairngorms in winter....
How was that filmed?
I assumed a drone in 'follow me' mode...
Drone footage - I don't think that on a good weather data in Patagonia it's that cold. Bad weather - uff
Have you seen this before -
- absolutely astonishing. You climb the last couple pitches of styrofoam tunneling inside.
Even 25 years ago getting decent conditions in N Wales was an elusive pleasure.
The upside of chasing frozen cascades are that they're more predictable, and you get to climb vertical water ice. The downsides are that it's cold (can be really cold even compared to Scotland), and an apprenticeship on vertical ice involves a lot of top roping to start with , and not enough leading on hard to find less steep stuff i.m.o,
Oh how times have changed. In north Wales spring of 86 saw bits of red climbing tape in the sea. We all blamed Gary Gibson who was famed for using the stuff and had done some ice climbs on the sea cliffs. Tryfan on bonfire night 85 with chest deep snow and still climbing ice high up at Easter 86. A couple of us also did the first (only?) ascent of Moonlight Flit in the Rivals staring at sea level and 4 long pitches of 3/4 water ice.
We had some good winters in the 2000s here in South Wales but I never got up North. There are some gulleys on Pen y Fan that might've been in condition during those winters given how much we had.
DuPost
Surely not. It's got insane wide angle distortion, must be a helmet cam like this....
People I climb with went yesterday apparently. I went bouldering 🙂
That would be pure frozen water, no snow at all