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I have never done any real ice climbing. I have done some fairly easy mountaineering but the challenge was always endurance on long slogs.
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I am also not trying to be a hater or a troll; this is a legitimate question.So, what makes ice climbing hard? It seems like with two wicked ice tools and climbing-specific crampons, you could just float up. The objective danger definitely seems higher than rock, but is the movement actually challenging?
Ice tool dead hangs Wear gloves if you can, it makes it easier on the hands, also if you can put your feet on something like an edge for the end burn. You will do 4 sets and resting between sets will be push ups until failure. Ice Climbing Training 101.
Do you get pumped when you're always holding onto two handlebar jugs? Is it technically hard to place your tools and crampons well? What holds someone back from climbing harder grades on ice?From watching videos and common sense, it is much more obvious to me why mixed climbing is hard, especially the overhanging stuff. But when you're strictly on water ice, what is actually hard about it? Not so much to answer your question.but last year a buddy of mine asked the same question before we headed to an ice festival. Now he is a STRONG rock climber IMO and climbs sport in the 12+/13- (usually in a few tries, not projecting over a long time) range and trad in the 11's pretty competently.
It didn't take too long to have his question answered. He did very well, but it wasn't quite as easy as he thought it'd be.To partially answer your question: yes, you have jugs to hold onto, but imagine that even on a rock climb that hold the same jug in the same position can get tiring. Now imagine that you have to swing over and over again to get that 'jug' to be good and take some effort to remove said 'jug' and repeat.Now, it is true that you have potentially good feet, but it is much more difficult (compared to rock) to feel when those feet are good and fully trust your feet and keep your weight on them. Just like with rock, the more you don't fully weight your feet, you default back to hanging on your arms.Ice is not a perfectly flat uniform surface either. Just like with rock climbing, there are features and some are easier to stand on and some take better sticks with your axes, and some features just fall apart when you hit them. There is skill to efficiently picking the right places to step and to swing.not all that unlike choosing the most efficient line while rock climbing.
And just like with rock climbing, there is a skill to using balance and position to optimally use the available features.Finally, ice changes! A route with new, soft, thick, sinker ice will climb differently to beat up, hard, brittle ice. Conditions matter and will change the very same climb from one time to the next.Try it, I bet you'll like it! My 2 bits?- You are a bit more anxious: no falling.- That anxiety makes you grip harder sometimes.- The screaming barfies are real.- The objective danger is right in front of you (think this - every time you swing some of the WALL comes off?!@, not a rock issue)- A 6 foot fall on crampons can shatter your ankles.- Confidence is a steeper wall than rock IMHO - confidence in your placements, your technique, etc.ICE sure makes you feel alive. Of all the climbing sports, it's actually my favorite sport. It's so rewarding to me. Very interesting to attack climbs.
Reboot wrote:The logistics (gear buying, driving, approach, staying warm) are way hard than the actual climbing, which is why I and many of my friends have gotten out of it.This is totally true. When I used to climb ice (in New England), it seemed like the ratio of logistical BS to pitches climbed was usually pretty poor, and least compared to climbing on rock.A hypothesis: Ice climbing has more difficult logistics, a shorter season, and more fickle conditions than rock climbing, and thus it is harder to rack up sufficient mileage to really get good at ice climbing. As such, ice climbing seems hard just because most people aren't very good at it, just because it is so difficult to get adequate practice.Still, ice climbing is actually hard, just not in the sense that rock climbing is hard. When we call a rock climb hard, we mean that it is difficult to get up successfully, and easy to fall off; we mean that it takes a high level of skill.
Ice climbing is not hard in this sense, it is more hard in the sense of being arduous. Ice climbing is not hard because you feel like you will fall off, if is hard becuase you are cold and tired and your hands hurt, and you are scared. Just a different sort of difficulty.(For these reasons, I drastically prefer rock climbing. People who prefer ice are an odd breed.). Its the medium. You really cannot fall. Endurance is much more than you think (I once spent 2 hours leading a single pitch of Curtain Call).
If its vertical ice, you are not in a vertical plane with your body. You are overhanging as you lean back out.
Above all, its fear. Like aid, you have to factor in the danger with the grade, not just the difficultie.I've known a number of 5.13 limbers who said 'Its no harder than 5.11', but none of them really pushed the ice standards. Its a lot harder than that. A4 can be an 80 foot pitch of ice that is 4 inches thick in most places and only a few stubbies go in, or it can be a 150 pitch of thick, perfectly smooth ice that you have to go fast on to make it before you fail.
Putting in a screw 25 feet above your last screw, when you are really pumped in both your calves and arms, can be harrowing. Your facing a 50+ footer with bladed instruments in your hands and spikes on your feet that will likely catch on the way down.
Like A4 or A5, you just can't fall. Screwing in an ice screw on lead and having it open a faucet/hose and channeling the water down your shirt, pants, etc. (My first Ice Lead). This makes you cold (duh) but also really helps you realize what you are climbing on.The last couple winters we would ice climb in CCC for the first half of the day and then hit Tabletop to rock climb for the last half of the day.
Complete shock everytime we put on the rock shoes-completely different and a bit of an adjustment after ice climbing for the first half of the day. Try it!Ice is a whole different monster.
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