Trip Date: December 23rd, 2009
Grace and I climbed the main flow on Hubba Hubba hill Wednesday. We were headed east to spend Christmas with her family, and spotting a good weather window, we decided to do some climbing on the way!
We didn't get to the base of the climb until noon, and then sat around eating lunch until about 13:00 before starting up. We had the whole place to ourselves, and the weather was perfect: 28 F, no wind, fat solid ice.
This was our first time ice climbing on our own without any sort of guide. I'd "led" a pitch of WI4 in Lillooet last year, but with pre-placed protection to supplement my screws. At WI3+ and 2 pitches, Hubba Hubba seemed just the thing. Jim lent us his tools and ice screws while he's away in MA for Christmas, so I had 12 screws for the climb. This glut of protection was probably not entirely a good thing. I felt no need to conserve, and so I sewed up the first steep section right off the ground, wearing myself out more than I should have.
Overall an awesome climb. The first 20 feet (above an easy ice apron) was the hardest. Nearly vertical and pretty strenuous. Made especially so because I put too many screws in. Then things eased off with a one or two more steep bulges before I ran out of rope. The 2nd pitch was mostly an easy ramble, with one more short steep step of featureless ice.
For a number of reasons it took us a long time to do the climb. Grace had a hard time. With flexible boots and 10-point crampons she found following an exercise in frustration. The belay was a bit of a tangled cluster. And I seriously over-protected the first pitch. It was dark when we topped out, but luckily we'd remembered our headlamps, and there was a nice moon to find our way back down. Overall an awesome day!
Grace and I climbed the main flow on Hubba Hubba hill Wednesday. We were headed east to spend Christmas with her family, and spotting a good weather window, we decided to do some climbing on the way!
We didn't get to the base of the climb until noon, and then sat around eating lunch until about 13:00 before starting up. We had the whole place to ourselves, and the weather was perfect: 28 F, no wind, fat solid ice.
This was our first time ice climbing on our own without any sort of guide. I'd "led" a pitch of WI4 in Lillooet last year, but with pre-placed protection to supplement my screws. At WI3+ and 2 pitches, Hubba Hubba seemed just the thing. Jim lent us his tools and ice screws while he's away in MA for Christmas, so I had 12 screws for the climb. This glut of protection was probably not entirely a good thing. I felt no need to conserve, and so I sewed up the first steep section right off the ground, wearing myself out more than I should have.
Overall an awesome climb. The first 20 feet (above an easy ice apron) was the hardest. Nearly vertical and pretty strenuous. Made especially so because I put too many screws in. Then things eased off with a one or two more steep bulges before I ran out of rope. The 2nd pitch was mostly an easy ramble, with one more short steep step of featureless ice.
For a number of reasons it took us a long time to do the climb. Grace had a hard time. With flexible boots and 10-point crampons she found following an exercise in frustration. The belay was a bit of a tangled cluster. And I seriously over-protected the first pitch. It was dark when we topped out, but luckily we'd remembered our headlamps, and there was a nice moon to find our way back down. Overall an awesome day!
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