Second post today as I catch up on a busy week. Following last weekend’s avalanche course I had the pleasure of taking Dominic out for his first day of ice climbing. A recent Geology graduate who hails from Lebanon, NH, Dominic has caught the climbing bug. His analytical mind was very quick at grasping all aspects of ice climbing as they were introduced and we found ourselves covering more and more vertical ground and knowledge throughout our 1 on 1 day.

After some basic crampon & ice axe skills, a quick top-rope climb on The North End Slab, we broke it into two pitches and scurried to the top.

From there we made our way over to The North End Pillars and Dominic learned how to rappel.

We took a quick lap on the left hand side of The Pillars.

After a quick bite to eat we headed over to Thresher. Two pitches up that had us grinning at the top.

With time & energy to spare we rappelled back to the ground and returned to The North End Pillars for another lap. As we started to wind down our day we spent a bit of time looking at ice anchors, screw placement, V-threads, natural anchors, etc… Despite the long day Dominic’s desire to learn as much as he could in one day was still apparent.

I’m really looking forward to my next day in the mountains with Dominic. His enthusiasm and motivation is contagious, and what ever we climb together next I know we’ll be having a good time from trail-head to trail-head!

See you in the mountains,

NEAlpineStart