Ice season has arrived!!!

The weekend started out with a relatively late night in LA before heading home to get a few hours of sleep. I needed to be in Simi Valley by 8 o'clock on Saturday morning for Tatum's Gymnastics State Championships. A 5am phone call woke me with the news that the freeways between home and the competition were closed due to fires. After scanning the news and checking on what roads were still open, I found an alternate route that I hoped would work. Thankfully it did, and despite the smoke filled valley I made it in plenty of time and had a great morning watching Tatum perform!

After making it back home I packed for the trip to Whitney Ice Falls. Carlos fought the same traffic and detours to make it to my place late afternoon and we were on our way north. After a quick dinner at the Pizza Factory in Lone Pine, we met up with our other friends at the Lone Pine Campgrounds. They had been to the ice falls earlier in the day and had great news about conditions. We were psyched! As we relaxed by the campfire before getting some sleep, we sharpened tools and crampons, anxious for morning and some ice!


We hit the trail at 7 Sunday morning and made it to the falls at 10. I led the first climb of the day and set up an anchor above the second step using screws. Carlos then got in his first ever ice climb, top roping the same line! Once he finished with the climb, he lowered off and we pulled the rope so I could get in another lead. After Carlos followed that line we top roped some other lines from the same anchor and by then the day had come to a close. We hiked out as the sun set and made it back to the car right as darkness really set in.





Carlos had a great day and definitely is psyched to do some more ice climbing! Pretty awesome day in the mountains and totally excited to get back on some ice!