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Ice Climbing in Valdez
As I mentioned, I went ice climbing in Valdez last week. On the first day there was nothing doing – even in town we had wind gusts of over 100 km/h (60 mph). So I didn't even bother driving out to the canyons, where the wind was surely whipping through twice as fast. But I had to do something. (At those wind speeds, a tent isn't exactly a place to relax either :-).
So I drove to the glacier lake right at the edge of town. In winter the lake is frozen, of course, and the icebergs that float around in summer turn into perfect "ice-bouldering icebergs".
On the way across the lake to the icebergs, I sometimes had to crouch down low, crampons and all, so the gusts wouldn't blow me away.
But I actually managed to find a few (almost) wind-sheltered ice caves in the icebergs. And after about an hour, two other crazy people suddenly showed up with the same idea as me: iceberg bouldering!
On the second day......
I drove to Keystone Canyon. There are easily 6 waterfalls here within a short walk of the highway alone! From there I unloaded the snowmobile and rode into two more canyons to marvel at even more waterfalls.
Valdez truly is a mecca for ice climbing. The waterfalls cover every level of difficulty, and most are so tall that it takes 4 or more pitches to top out. And the best part: the locals are all super nice and genuinely happy when someone's interested – simply because they love sharing their passion for ice.
I had no trouble finding a local to take me climbing..... But on the very first pitch it started to dawn on me that my strength would never, ever last for 4 pitches! Still, I gritted my teeth and we managed at least 3 pitches of WI4. By then, though, I was so exhausted and my hands were cramping so badly that I was afraid they wouldn't be able to hold the rope on the rappel. I could barely hold on to my ice axes anymore :-)
Of course, in reality it was no problem at all, and the feeling of hanging about 100 m (330 ft) up on a block of ice easily 3 m thick and 10 m wide was simply breathtaking!!!!!!
And that feeling stayed with me for days. Many thanks to my climbing partner (or rather, the guy who hauled me up there) Nick J Weicht.
Below you'll find a small photo album of the waterfalls in Valdez. None of them takes more than half an hour to approach!
