wimpyalpinism   welcome to the world of cowardly mountain activities …

Today we decided to go and do something local because of a forecast of snow. So we went to an icefall that is next to the side of a tunnel there was a lot of ice! Thankfully the temperatures had climbed to about -3 ish and the ice was alot less brittle than the yesterday – making it alot easier to climb. So we could get a load of bombers – Quoting dad! We started the route climbing up a slope of bits of ice, later we would find why…. The first pitch was ok for dad, but when it came to me climbing, I got half way up the steep ice when a shower of ice particles rained from the mountain above. In this exposed spot I was forced to stop in my tracks because I couldn’t look up without a hail of ice hitting my face. So for about  3 minutes I hung on to my axes whilst the chunks of ice battered my helmet eventually it stopped, giving way to incredibly nice climbing. At the top of the pitch we could now see all the ice stretching the rest of the way up. Eventually we got up the slope and clipped in on the bolted belay. Then dad set off to conquer the final piches, however he backed of because the temperature was climbing and there was more and more ice falling down the ice fall. While we were waiting for mum to absail off the pitch I was hit in the hand by a small rock which hurt a bit!  So I abbed off and and did the bum slide from the foot of the route to the path.