Climbing After Dark part2

We accelerated towards the first snow bank, only to find out that this wasn’t a snow bank at all. The snow wasn’t light and fluffy it was packed and icy. Making the perfect ramp, we must have gotten at least a foot and a half off the ground. It was insane, and with another snow bank quickly approaching we were looking at doing it again. Only this time Evan slammed on the brakes, and we slid into the snowbank. Now we were high centered on a snow bank, all I could think was bummer. A lot of digging and a few minutes later we had the Subaru moving again. Charging out of the parking lot and up the steep hill, all I could think was we are never goanna make it. Of course we didn’t, and ended up sliding down the huge hill backwards. I’m not goanna lie that part was kind of freaky.

Once we turned around and found the buried road again, we were on our way. Looking around we were the only car on the road. That was super reassuring knowing we made the good choice to travel during this storm, when everyone else stayed inside. Soon we crossed the bridge into Hancock and not long after that we started getting passed by snowmobilers. Which I might add would be a preferred method of travel up there. We came into the small town of linden which is known for the Hungarian Falls. This was the place that we originally intended to climb. The road leading to the trail head was all up hill and covered in snow. We thought we should try to make it up the hill. So Evan gunned it and about half way up the hill we buried the Subaru. What we didn’t know was that we were driving on a few feet of snow already, and gunning it just broke the layers of snow underneath the car. Sitting in the Subaru with snow up to our windows, made it impossible to open the doors. So we had to dukes of hazard it, we climbed out the windows and left the Subaru buried in the snow.

I strapped on my snow shoes and we started the long hike to the falls. On our way we discovered a bridge that perfectly covered its own set of falls. Which was perfect because we could use the bridge as an anchor point. This would mean that we could top rope the water fall, making the climb much safer. Keep in mind that we are climbing in the dark during a snow storm, so safety is huge. Bryan and Evan rappelled down the frozen waterfall, while I took the indirect route down the side. I used my snowshoes as skis and started to ski down the steep hill. Little did I know that I was headed towards a small cliff. The snow was so deep that I created a small avalanche and couldn’t stop myself as I slid towards the small cliff….tune in next week to read the conclusion of this adventure.

Climbing After Dark

It was late on a Friday night, my friends and I sit in a crowded dorm room thinking there has to be something better than this. We looked out the window into the blizzard outside. It didn’t look like anything was alive out there. We saw no signs of life, no cars driving by or people walking down the sidewalk. Certainly strange because this was Houghton Michigan, a town that celebrates the snow and is very active during the winter nights. However this night was different, little did we know that this was the storm that would drop 2 feet of snow in several hours and leave Michigan Tech cancelled for two days.

So like all great ideas that my friends and I have, we decided that we were gonna venture out into the storm and do some ice climbing. We gathered up all of our gear and headed down the narrow hallways. Passing all sorts of people who made the smarter choice to stay inside, where it was warm and safe. We ran into several problems along the way, the first of which was opening the door. The door between us and our half a mile hike to the lot 21 was barricaded with snow. All  of us pushed hard on the door and were able to open it about 8 inches, just enough for us and our gear squeak out the door. Outside presented us even more challenges, the wind was brutal and the snow drifts deep. We strapped on our snow shoes just so we could cross the parking lot. Heading up the hill was tough, it felt like for every two steps forward we went five steps back. Somehow we made it to the dreaded lot 21 which was the furthest lot away. On the top of a hill that had no protection from the elements. The snow drifts in that parking lot were so bad that the snow packed between the rows of cars creating several massive drifts. This is when I asked the question nobody wanted to ask “Evan do you remember where you parked?” 

After a good half an hour we found Evans Subaru. Sticking out from the snow was his black ski box mounted to the top of his car. If it wasn’t for the black ski box, we would have never found his car. After another 30 minutes of digging, we dislodged the Subaru from its snowy grave.  Now all that lay between us and some of the best ice climbing of the season were several five foot tall snow banks. We accelerated towards the first snow bank, only to find out that….Too be continued…..

 

This picture was taken a day after the snow storm. Cars remained buried for several days.

Mountaineering

Rock climbing and Ice climbing are just sub classes of the much bigger and better sport known as mountaineering. Most people take part in rock-climbing and ice climbing to prepare for Mountaineering. Its much like training in a gym but instead of weights, you are just climbing and honing your skills. This is one reason that I like to climb. I would love to one day climb a mountain like Rainier or Everest. However I would like to climb it without any Sherpa’s. Which are the people that would usually carry all of your gear while you climb up the mountain. To me that is just cheating, and you’re not challenging yourself.

While mountaineering can involve the use of snowshoes, icepicks, and crampons.  There are many parts of mountaineering where you are more or less hiking. For example in the summer months Mt. Rainier located in Washington is 60% hiking and 40% glacier climbing. Many expeditions take place at night when the glaciers are more stable. People risk there life’s climbing and all precautions are taken in order to ensure everyone makes it back safe.  They only problem is Mother Nature, and the mountain are unpredictable. It could be a blue bird day one minute and the next you can’t see two feet in front of you. My other dream would be to go big mountain snowboarding. I think it would be the coolest thing to climb a mountain and then snowboard down. It would be so rewarding after taking days to climb to the top of a beautiful mountain. Being rewarded by breath taking views that not many people get to see would be like the cherry on top of a delicious sundae. Even better having the chance to go down the mountain in style would just make everything so worth it.

Having two very close childhood friends that think the same way, and want to climb Mt.Rainier also. Makes it super easy to motivate myself because we can help each other through the hard parts. All the rock climbing and Ice climbing we do is just training for Rainier.  I believe that it is good to have a big goal to reach for. It feels good when something seems out of reach yet with hard work and practice your goal can be obtainable. Nothing is better then sitting around a campfire with your climbing buddies at the end of a long climb talking about that wicked face you just climbed. For me Climbing isn’t an individual sport, it’s a team effort. I look forward to future adventures with my climbing buddies and hopefully one day we will see the world from the top of Mt. Rainier.

Bouldering & Free Climbing

If you are interested in rock-climbing and want try it out on the cheap, I suggest you try bouldering. Which is a division of Rock-climbing, but you don’t go any further than 10 feet off the ground. Which means you can cut out a lot of the cost of having ropes, harnesses, carabineers, and cams. All you need to have is a helmet and shoes. (Preferably rock climbing shoes) Having rock-climbing shoes will help your feet sick to the rocks and increase your abilities. If you look at the pro climbers they don’t climb in tennis shoes. They have special shoes with special rubber compounds which grab the rock. Its important for these shoes to be tight fitting and give your foot lots of support. U have to keep in mind that most of your body weight will be supported by your toes. You are only using your hands for balance and keeping yourself close to the rock face. You will also need a helmet, now I don’t mean a bike helmet. Not to say that it won’t work, but there are helmets specific to rock climbing. These helmets are made specifically to protect your head from falling rocks and debris. Once you have these two things you just have to get out and climb!

A bigger division of bouldering is free solo climbing. This is where you actually climb the whole rock face without ropes or any safety measures.  The people who do this are either one, crazy, or two professional rock climbers. Generally this technique is used during speed climbing where ropes and other safety devices are slow and clunky. Although one of the coolest and most expansive areas of climbing right now, would be free climbing over water. Most of this kind of climbing is done in just a swimsuit and climbing shoes. These climbers don’t even where helmets, which I think is a bit crazy. What makes it so popular is the fact that if you fall you end up in the water. Making this one of the safest divisions of free solo climbing. I have never done this kind of climbing, but I hope to plan a spring break trip where my buddies and I can free climb over the ocean. I can’t even imagine how cool it must feel to work hard to reach the top of the face and then jump into the ocean. It must be so refreshing and rewarding, making the climb totally worth it.