Ice Climbing - Provo Canyon

Years ago, after stopping to look at a photo of someone climbing a waterfall, my wife asked me if I would ever go ice climbing. I think she was hoping that I'd say no, and that's exactly what I said. But it was more like, "Are you kidding me? Those guys are nuts. They're just waiting for a crampon point to slip or a giant icicle to take their head off."

Fast forward a few years and I'm totally hooked on climbing ice. I'm not sure what it is, but it probably has something do with the fact that you don't need a hold to move up the vertical face of the ice, you make your own. It's almost like being Spider-Man, only Spider-Man is covered in spikes that could sever an artery or tendon if he takes a fall. I'm not sure how I made the move from being scared to death of climbing ice to staring out of my cubicle window at the frozen mountains and wishing I were up there kicking and stabbing the ice.

I'm fortunate to live in a really great area for outdoor recreation. I'm just 10 minutes from Provo Canyon and 15 minutes from Rock Canyon and American Fork Canyon. Three playgrounds full of rock climbing, mountain biking, skiing, cycling, mountaineering and snowshoeing. Provo Canyon is probably my favorite, it's not only close, but it seems to have the widest variety of things to do. This is also where you can find a lot of great ice to climb. We have an excellent ice formation that comes in each year called Stairway to Heaven. The bottom pitch is a large thick apron with bolts above for top roping love. It's a great place to hone your skills and get into early season condition for tougher and sketchier ice. Depending on the year and the height at which the ice forms, Stairway to Heaven has the potential to be the longest ice climb in the US, 800 ft.

Along with Stairway to Heaven, there are at least 4 other decent pitches of ice to climb in Provo Canyon. On cold Saturday mornings every inch of ice is covered in climbers, too many for my taste. I usually go climbing after work, which means by the time I hike to the base of the climb daylight is pretty much gone. This means solitude and and no one knocking ice on you from above. A good headlamp is all that is needed, you're only working in an 8 ft. space of ice anyway. Everything above and below is extraneous and not to be thought about anyway. Many times I've been up on the ice and heard cars honking as they drive by on the highway several hundred feet below. It must look like quite a site from below to see an illuminated sheet of ice with some crazy person on the wall like some deranged fly on a wall. I wonder what they think when I take a fall?

I've been lucky to have discovered the joys of ice climbing in the modern times. Ice climbing gear has seen a lot of advances over the last few years. I've recently acquired some new crampons and ice tools(ice axes for technical ice climbing). If you're not in the ice climbing circles then you probably have no idea of the current debate of whether crampons with mono or dual points are better. I went back and forth between the two when trying to decide which to buy for my new set of crampons. I found the solution, local gear innovators Black Diamond have created the Cyborg crampons which can switch from dual to mono with the twist of an hex wrench and a spacer. I haven't switched to the mono yet as we've had warm spells and the ice has been mushy in parts and I've wanted the security of dual points. If we don't get a good cold snap I may just switch to the mono-point when I do some dry tooling or mixed climbing in spring.

I really love these new Black Diamond Cyborg
crampons, especially for the variety of conditions in which I've climbed recently. They come complete with anti-balling plates for glacier use as well as just keeping the snow from collecting underfoot on the trek from the car to the base of the climb. All this gear costs a lot of money it's nice when you get the product and use it and don't wish you had your money back.