Zeke and I planned another ice climbing trip, just for two days, with spending one night near the falls to check out our sleeping bags and to get used to the ice once again.
Sounds simple, but sometimes it's amazing how many things that can go wrong in one trip.
We went to Elm, there about 45min further up the military base is a nice place with loads of waterfalls where the weather is always ugly - that means even dough the sun is shining, there the wind is blowing hard down the mountains and its cold.
From the last time I was there I had memories of loads of snow, so I pressed Zeke to take the skis with him, although he hated it. Well when we arrived there was almost every snow gone, but at least we were able to get to the bottom of the ice falls.When we arrived up there it came to my mind that, while packing, I planned to take the crampons of the wall but actually forgot. I started swearing 'cause I knew that I had to get back down there, and probably drive all the way back home to get my crampons, 'cause my spare ones weren't in the car as well. But fuck it, I told it to Zeke and we went for one pitches climbing anyhow...
We fixed Zeke up and traversed to the icefall we planned to climb, Zeke went ahead 'cause he had brought his crampons. Even though the snow in the valley was almost gone it had a lot at the bottom of the falls brought there by the wind. It was steep to traverse to the bottom of the fall but, we weren't on the rope. Zeke about 10-15 m ahead of me and then it made a crack and the whole ground underneath us was gone. Zeke was hanging at his picks and I was still standing on a small ledge which the avalanche left us. The rest, a quite big amount of snow went down the valley straight into the stones and further down the river.
We both weren't really shocked because of it, dunno why, guess because whatever happens happens! We went on to the fall and started climbing. Because of my fault only single pitch by the time zeke finished his pitch it was already late afternoon, light was passing and the wind made it damn cold. Zeke had to take one glove off to get the cord through the rappelling hole. By the time he was down the pitch he could not feel his fingers anymore. i lend him my glove and sent him ahead while i pulled down the ropes. Few minutes later in the cave we both went through pit(a/h) - pain in the ass / hand until we got rid of the frostbite.
I left Zeke my mobile to inform him when i start hiking back up the hill that he would be ready with the food. Unfortunately the car did not provide me with my old pair of crampons but i was quite fast home and back. So fast that i landed a bit off the road after gliding 10m on raw ice. While parking i received a call from my own mobile telling me that the food wont be ready when i get up there. Zeke had problems to get my brand new stove to work. I was using an old version of the same one before and new the system by heart. Therefor i knew that i would get it running. The rubber of the gasoline pump was stuck inside of it and we could not get it out. But there had to be a way, we were starving and were in the need for a warm meal. Sometimes i wondering my self what kind of equipment zeke buys but this time this over expensive cutlery safed us the evening. This cutlery contained chopsticks, which were small enough to fiddle that damn rubber out of the hole. Finally we got our food.
After our experience, where we spent a night almost freezing to death on our Campo lungo ski tour, we had doubts that this time it could happen the same. But our sleepingbags where much better this time and we enjoyed a warm and cosy night.
Next morning we got up and went for our icefall, this time with the full equipment. After the first pitch we heard that behind the fall something big broke off and 'cause our whole mind condition wasn't really up so we decided to cancel the whole crap and go home.
Cya next time hopefully in better condition....