Crawford Notch: Round Two

Two weeks prior I had come to Crawford Notch, NH to climb Willey's Slide (in subzero temperatures).  This trip, my goal was the climb the immensely popular Cinema Gully.  Similar in character to Willey's Slide, Cinema is only 3 pitches long and roughly the same difficulty (WI2/WI2+).  The temperature was down right balmy (nearly 20 F) and towards the end the ice was getting a bit sloppy.  Overall the climb was very enjoyable and was in spectacular condition (normally this climb can be a bit "scrappy" with barely enough ice to place a screw.  I did bottom out a couple of screws, but for the most part, the ice was thick enough.  As mentioned, this climb is popular and Saturday proved this most assuredly.  There were over a dozen climbers on the face and at one point there were four separate belays at one ledge.  I have never ice climbed with so many people and I hope never to do so again.  Well worth the drive and having to deal with the junk show of climbers.

Myself starting up the last pitch, skirting one of the many climbing parties

Pondering the masses of people accumulating below me

Looking down Cinema Gully; here they come!

Posing at the 1st belay station (Willey's Slide visible to my left)

At the base of Cinema Gully

-5 in Crawford Notch, NH

Sunday I made the drive over to New Hampshire, specifically to Crawford Notch State Park.  Home to some excellent ice climbing including the famous Frankenstein Cliffs and countless moderate alpine routes.  My chosen route was Willey's Slide, a 4-6 pitch (depending on how much snow is at the base) WI2 ice climb.  Overall this climb is very easy and not very steep, but when it is -5 F without the windchill, everything becomes infinitely more challenging.  Unfortunately Isaac was unable to climb on this day, so I enlisted a climbing partner off of NEice.com, the east coast equivalent of the renowned cascadeclimbers.com.  The approach was a quick jaunt (15 min) straight up hill to the slide.  The first two "pitches" were easily dispatched by merely walking up them.  We roped up at the base of the first "steep" section of ice.  The climbing was easy and fun, though quite brittle.  We swapped leads and were at the top rather quickly.  A great day out on an easy, but incredibly fun ice route.  It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it was REALLY cold all day long (according to NOAA, wind chills at Crawford Notch were past -21 F today).

Looking towards Mt. Willard (Cinema Gully is the left trending gully)

Mt. Webster

Almost there!

Me leading the 3rd pitch

I didn't realize I was smiling because I couldn't feel my face

Halfway up Willey's Slide

Shelburne Pillars

Originally Isaac and I were planning on heading over to NH for some multipitch ice, but the weather forecast called for a significant amount of snow, so we chose to go to Smuggler's instead.  Twenty minutes into the drive this morning, it was painfully obvious that the normal hour and a half drive up to the Notch was going to be more like three hours today, due to snowy road conditions.  We downgraded to Shelburne Pillars.  Shelburne Pillars is an anomoly and its discovery as an ice climbing playground is a mystery to me.  It is located on a small river set in a low "gorge" of sorts, surrounded by suburbia.  To access the pillars, you park in a Rite-Aid parking lot and walk off into the woods.  Overall, it is a nice place to go for a few quick pitches.  

Isaac climbing a deceptively steep flow