Ice Climbing in New Hampshire
It’s been a great winter (isn’t it always?) but there has been one standout trip this season: ice climbing (water ice) in the spectacular (cold) White Mountains of New Hampshire.
It was well below freezing (15 F, not accounting for wind chill, which made it closer to -10 F). It took multiple swings (and shattering of ice) with the ice tools to get a good placement in. Even with high camp gloves, my hands went numb pretty quickly. But the sight of chandelier ice and cathedrals of frozen water, once having streamed fluidly down cliff slides…well that was something pretty spectacular. California doesn’t have frozen climbable water like that — it just doesn’t get that cold.
Cathedral Ledge | Conway, NH | February 2013
Well then, if the east coast has one thing on the west, let this be it.
