Early Season Ice-Capades
Quarter Climb - East side of Ptarmigan Peak I ce climbing has always been a mysterious, uncharted world of intimidating pointy things, strange jargon, frozen fingers, and prohibitive equipment costs. That's why, when a co-worker gifted me some used ice gear, I took it as a sign that the first hurdle had been passed, and it was up to me to do the rest. Oh boy! (By the way, thank you again, Tom.) First Climb - Blitz - 1/1/2019 H aving heard about my recent acquisition of some weapons of ice destruction, Brendan, friend and fellow Chugach crud tosser, graciously volunteered to bring me out for my first ice climb ever - Blitz! Blitz is a two pitch climb near Pioneer Peak. The first pitch is easy low angle ice, and the second, shorter pitch, is steeper and more interesting. Brendan explained to me the general theory of lead climbing as we walked to the start - the leader would go up first, placing ice screws as he went, build an anchor, bring the follower up, an