Ice Climbing

Enter The Dragon (M4), RMNP

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My climbing partner Enrico Calvanese just finished editing this video of a mixed ice and rock climb we did in Rocky Mountain National Park this March. This was my first climb coming off of having Covid – I was smoked!!! It was fun to pair up with someone dedicated to the videography as I usually neglect documentation in favor of focusing on the climbing.

Enjoy the video! It should be available with Italian subtitles as well. Enrico has other great mountaineering videos on his channel too – check it out!

It might not be the last time I make an appearance on there…

Ice Season 2022-2023

Daniel 4 Comments

Winter has come to a close here in Colorado. That doesn’t mean we’re hanging up the tools – I’ve been ice climbing in RMNP as late as mid-June – but it does signify a change, a time to slow down and look back. We had a cold winter this year, and I put together a quality ice season.

This is not usually this type of blog, but since I didn’t write about a great many of these climbs, we’re just gonna wrap them all up here.

Some Stats:

  • Days Out (so far): 41
  • Number of unique partners: 12
  • Number of unique regions visited: 8
  • Favorite venue: Rocky Mountain National Park (12 days)

Top Partners (by # of days out together):

  1. Meg K.
  2. Aaron G.
  3. Lacee A.
  4. Enrico C.

Favorite Climbs:

  • The Fang, WI5, Vail
  • All Mixed Up, WI4, 4 pitches, Rocky Mountain National Park
  • Brain Freeze, M5+, 8 pitches, Rocky Mountain National Park
  • Enter the Dragon, M4, 6 pitches, Rocky Mountain National Park
  • Stairway to Heaven, 7 pitches, WI4, Silverton
  • Skylight, 2 pitches, WI4+, Ouray
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Ice climbing >> film photography

Daniel 4 Comments
ice climbing mountains multiple exposure

When it’s too cold and your camera stops advancing the film. I ended up with this accidental multi-exposure — consider it an entire ice climbing trip in one image! Cold choked the battery, I think, because photos I shot on the same film & camera in sunny Phoenix, later on the same trip, turned out fine.

(The top of) Whorehouse Hoses, WI4-5. The orange speck atop the falls is a person.
Lake City Ice Park, Lake City.

Perhaps it’s time to switch to digital?

Almost Winter

Daniel 3 Comments

I talked to an old friend from university the other night on the videophone. “You haven’t really been blogging much,” he said. “In fact, you haven’t done anything creative of late. It seems like all that energy has just gone into climbing.”

It was an insightful comment and made me think a lot.

Anyways, here’s some photos from the first day out ice climbing this season.

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2020 in Climbs

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Normally I write a “year in places” post, but with the COVID-19 pandemic, I spent much of this year at home, in Colorado and other states of the American West (WY, UT, CA). A look back on the year thus involves a bit less horizontal distance, and a lot more vertical!

Most of these climbs involve 5-10 miles of hiking in addition to the technical climbing. This isn’t Europe, and you can’t ride the telepherique to your objective. Here, you gotta walk.

These are the major climbs of the year.

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