Today I had the pleasure of taking former AIARE student Ben, and new climbers Ian and Brian out for a day of multi-pitch ice climbing as part of their 3 Day Accelerated Mountaineering Program. Knowing popular routes would be a bit crowded with the ongoing Ice Fest in town I choose a slab route on Willard just to the right of the recently popular Left Hand Monkey Wrench. This slab is just over 200 feet in length and is probably 3-. The first half was lower angled bullet proof ice but the 2nd half was steeper growing plastic ice.

In the above photo you can see Left Hand Monkey Wrench on the left side, and the slab we climbed is right in the center, directly under The Cleft. This climb deserves way more traffic than it sees, and is actually more aesthetic and interesting than Left Hand Monkey Wrench. It has the added bonus of being fed directly from run-off of the amazing “Cleft” climb, and in the current low snow conditions you could pretty much follow water ice from the slab all the way to the start of the Cleft, with a couple bulges just before the gully proper. It isn’t that hard to find either. During our hike up from the tracks I had to grab a photo of some of the 5mm Surface Hoar growing around some rocks. Those who know me understand why 5mm SH is kinda a big deal 😉

Tomorrow these three are heading up Mount Washington for their final day and while I will not be joining them I am optimistic that they are well prepared with very favorable weather and I’m certain they’ll have a great day. I hope to climb with all three of them again soon!