The 80's and Iceland

It was a fun weekend. On Friday I put together the best "Flock of Seagulls" look that I could, in less than 15 minutes, and Ashley donned her Members Only jacket for the "Rockin' the 80's" climbing competition at the Miramont Wall.

Megan, Kelly, and Heidi were looking the part as well.

Ashley won the Female Open division, and I managed to climb some problems that were really hard for me. I got 3rd place in Men's Open, and Ian Dory came in first.

Our plan for today was to climb at Redfeather with Jacob. When we arrived at 11:00 it was snowing, and the wind was strong. Even Jacob didn't think it looked worth trying to climb. We started driving home quite disappointed with the weather. Ashley suggested driving to Poudre Canyon and checking out an area we recently heard about called Iceland. We didn't think conditions would be good, but we'd at least get a look at it. We turned around and within 20 minutes we were there. The sun was out, the wind was moderate, and the river was still frozen.

Iceland is a unique area with a very short season. The large boulder overhangs the Poudre River for it's entire length so you can only climb there when the river is frozen. As the warm day progressed a large puddle of water formed under the center of the wall. Holes in the ice upstream became noticeably larger. By next weekend the ice may be gone. The rock is solid, well-featured, river polished gneiss that sometimes feels as smooth as glass. The angle and height of the rock is perfect, and we did a variety of problems at about every grade from V1 to V6. Two classic hard problems are there as well, but it will probably be next year, before we can get on them again. After two weekends indoors it was great to be out again.