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Last weekend Dave Raboy and myself made the 8+ PILL-GRIM-EDGE_By-CAR to our favorite Ice Climbing destination: The Adirondacks.
We were able to leave early, but stopped a couple of hours short of Lake Placid and stayed outside of Albany at a Quality Inn; what a difference a great night rest makes. The motel also had this deluxe continental breakfast that fulfilled many an ice climbing regimen for breakfast furnace fueling.
There had been over a foot of snow last Wednesday and the avalanche danger was very high for the slabs and gully climbs, so we approached with extreme caution. In fact there had been so much snow that the parking lot at Roaring Brook falls was not plowed.
We checked in at the mountaineer for beta and then doubled back to RBF.
Dave led the first pitch which appeared from a short distance away to be climbable. What the Hell was taking him so long? OH MY GOD! If anyone has ever climbed RBF's or read the description in Blue lines, you'd know of the inherent perils of this climb.
While belaying this BIG hot shot well up P1, a chuck of ice, half the width of a tall refrigerator broke off and disappeared into the openly exposed rushing river at the base of the climb, that is Roaring Brook falls. A deep and sustained groan issued from the calving piece of ice; A moment later another piece took the plunge. All the while, the roaring of the brook made appropriate exclamatory expletives muted. It was only after some time, when i began the route did i have deja vu of my lead of Weeping Winds (WI3) on the north face of Pitchoff just 2 weeks before. There I was straddling the terror of sudden calamity with the specter of rushing water between my legs. I swore I would never climb NatGeo grade stuff like that again for fun.
Every Pick placement reverberated a mocking hollow response. Holy Shit, Holy Shit. I wanted off this thing and I had just started with over 300 feet to go.
If you can imagine an f-14 or similar jet aircraft canopy, a clear bubble that the pilot sit under, these clear jet canopies were everywhere on this climb, clear windows of the terror beneath. One small step for man, the last thing he ever did.......oh brother, whatever...
I avoided and tried to skirt these windows into depths of hell, by gingerly and delicately climbing ,as if my life depended on it. LOLOLOLOLOLOL, sniff-sniff. One time as I employed my avoidance radar to safety, I noticed that Dave had place a screw way over there, before he made the traverse, and I had to GO, way over there to clean it....
At the first belay, I looked at my fearless leader in wonder. Dave is Tall, and I sorta mean he's tall, but being a new leader, this was such an uneasy feeling climbing this thing and exciting at the same time. I thought Dave a lot of BIG nerves to climb this shit without as much as an after thought or whimper. Anything could happen out of the blue, and I constantly saw images flash through my head, of my awesome wife and darling little godzilla which added to the drama, the horror. LOL. It was all just taken in stride for Dave, big %%^^$'s Raboy!!!!!!!
We transferred the gear and I lead P2 a walk up for the most part with a small section at first, a plateau, then a 40 ft section of WI3, where I built an anchor. The ice was kinda unconsolidated, snowing, slushy, bubbly and scary. Dave finished the route with all the same kinda terror-aine. At one spot there was a traverse across a partially opened hollowness and you could feel the blast of rushing air . I wanted so much to get off this thing......We did, it was great.
The next day , having to leave early, I planned to lead Roadside Gully (WI2-3)and Buster(WI3).
We got to the climb and I lead this terraced 80ft route and belayed Dave to the top. Then, the weather came. It started to snow hard, the wind picked up, and we couldn't see 3 flows anymore across the lake and we BILED, and lived happily ever after.
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Ice Climbing 
