A Cold Morning's Climbing near the Divide

     January is here and ice season is going strong. I spent this morning near the continental divide, in the Front Range, and it was wind-howling, snow-blowing cold out there. Although the approach was harrowing, the wind nearly abated at the ice flow's location. Nearly. 

fellow ice monkeys hitting it up

     I thought I would be alone at the ice when I started the approach up, but was surprised to see some climbers from Denver hacking away. Our recent snow in the eastern Front Range made for fat ice, and there was much to go around.

my chest-harness setup

     My goal for today was to test out a self belay system. This is a rope system that allows one to essentially belay themselves along as you go creep upwards. A local AMGA guide taught me this system during a self rescue clinic that I took back in September. I put to use a system in which you pull slack through a Black Diamond ATC Guide in "guide mode" as you climb upward. Also, as instructed by a co-worker, I was using a Petzl Mini-Traxion self-jamming pully on a chest harness as a kind of backup. The pulley works by camming the rope as you slide it up. This specialized device is usually used for glacier travel or wall-climbing, but it works great for ice too.

ATC Guide in guide-mode

     You can see the ATC setup in the photo above. The great thing about guide mode is that you can use it to ascend ropes. If you have something attached to the rope above, you can unweight the ATC and pull slack through it. Because of it's orientation, it locks itself off onto the rope, so that if I were to fall, I wouldn't go anywhere. When you get to the top, you clip the lower carabiner on the ATC into your belay loop, and you are on rappel, and can zing back down to the ground.
     The system worked well. Once you got a few feet up, the rope would often feed itself through the pulley device. Although I would still have to rest and pull slack through the ATC, the pulley was often enough security to make a good move or two.
     You can also see  in the photo that I was set up and ready climb in my big belay parka. It was truly a chilly one.

a sweet lead by another local

     I was pleased to get back to the mountains and test out a new system this morning. I even made some new friends. Another fine day in Colorado.