The Magical World Of Ice Climbing

 

Photos by Lynne Willis

In the heart of the season of wood stoves and hot cider you bask in the warmth of memories when you waded in river pools, hiked mountain trails, and snacked at scenic overlooks under the late summer sun. Those crisp times when you felt so a part of nature need not end with the falling of the leaves. Outdoor adventure is a four-season recreation in the Blue Ridge Mountains; actually, for some, the season of play is just beginning.

Here in the High Country, ice climbing is a marvel that goes against the laws of nature. For ice climbs to form properly (and stay around!) there must be adequate water and a sufficient cold season. Despite heavy rainfall, the southern climate is relatively benign allowing climbers to maintain their rock bound activity year round, but the ice bound activity is limited. Fortunately for the High Country climber, North facing escarpments and the superior elevations allow up to three months of quality ice.

The first ice climbers were alpine shepherds in the sixteenth century who used spiked horseshoe devices on their feet and alpenstocks (tall hiking poles) in hand to negotiate the steep icy slopes they crossed while controlling their flocks in high alpine valleys throughout the highlands of Scotland and the Alps proper. The same shepherds braved medieval lore that demons lived on the mountain summits and glaciers were dragons that would creep down into the valleys at night and drain the udders of sleeping peasants’ cows!

In the early 1800s Victorian England began passing holiday’s in alpine villages and would pay the shepherds to guide the wealthy gentry amongst the peaks. This mutually beneficial relationship caused the shepherds to earn wages as guides and gain exposure to English culture while the clients were educated on the obscurity of mountain life. This mutual interest helped advance equipment and techniques at an exponential rate eventually leading into the late nineteenth century’s Golden Age of Mountaineering that saw the majority of the Alps’ summits attained.

Luckily for us, modern technology has equipped us with fancy new crampons (metal spikes attached to one’s boots, facilitating traction on ice and snow) and ice tools (modified axes with pick-like blades, held in one’s hands and used to climb ice or snow). We no longer are bogged down by cotton and wool in the backcountry, but are liberated by breathable fabrics, quick dry materials, and functionally designed garments that keep us warm, dry, and comfortable while braving nature’s elements. Even so, we are humbled by the intensity of the ascents achieved by our predecessors who performed without any of our modern equipment.

Steep thin ice with marginal gear will get the adrenaline pumping in even the most seasoned ice climber. The lack of natural protection (where a climber affixes anchors for safety) promotes top-roping of the ice climbs (when the rope is anchored above a climb for protection instead of the climber leading up from the bottom placing pieces of protection along the way.)

During the warmer months you can usually spot the road cuts and cliff faces that seem to seep groundwater constantly; these are the gold mines you want to mark down for winter ice climbs. Unusually cold winters bless the South with pitch after pitch (variable length of a climb) of frozen waterfalls, iced up cracks and ice glazed low angled rock faces that provide technical and mental challenges to climbers of all skill levels. However, property ownership and access must be heeded to and permission gained from a property owner that is fully aware of the activity at hand. Luckily a few local climbing areas are off of the Blue Ridge Parkway or on National Forest land.
Park and Play

A roadside attraction located northeast of Boone off of the Blue Ridge Parkway is Doughton Park, a road cut climbing area that has attracted ice climbers for decades. When the gate is closed on the parkway, the ice climbing is on! Since you are literally climbing on the roadside, the only time you can climb is when the parkway is gated off from traffic due to the ice flowing over the road. Parking can be found in the pull off before the gate, and a quarter mile approach deposits you at the main wall, where on a clear day you can see the alpine bald of Virginia’s Mt. Rogers.

Doughton Park offers a plethora of top ropes above the road and a handful of super technical ice and mixed climbs below the road. Mixed climbing is when there is not enough ice to cover one’s path, so features on the surrounding rock (cracks, ledges, frozen dirt) are also used to ascend. Using ice axes or crampons on bare rock is commonly referred to as dry tooling and is done in a gingerly so always extend extreme caution. This is just one example of how ice climbing is about experience.

Other regional destinations include Roan Mountain (along the road before Carver’s Gap), the Route 215 Gap and Parkway junction and a few areas on the Western Parkway. Close to Grandfather Mountain and down in the Pisgah Forest is Big Lost Cove Cliffs. This has a backcountry approach where you rappel down to the base of a couple routes ranging up to WI5 (a high level of difficulty for waterfall ice) and climb out via 100-200 ft. fangs of ice. North Carolina /is/ the New Hampshire of the South when it comes to ice climbing, though the wealth of the climbing lies south of Asheville; i.e. the North side of Whiteside Mountain and numerous waterfalls and river bluffs between Cashiers and Highlands. Less technical, yet just as adventurous, encounters can be found on the now ice and snow covered trails that you scampered up in warmer months. The new perspective on already covered ground is really quite exciting.

The mountains that surround us in the High Country are great steppingstones for larger test-pieces in the climbing world. If the climber is tactical and cognizant, he or she can use the icy slopes of the Profile Trail on Grandfather Mountain, the snowy dome of Snake Mountain, or any of the local ice climbing areas as training grounds. Practicing French technique, a flat-footed step that utilizes all of the

points on a crampon, and other skills will ensure one’s path to self-sufficiency in the mountains and prepare a climber for bigger and more technical ascents just a plane flight or long road trip away. Time spent out in the cold wild will teach you about snow conditions, test your aptitude, and solidify learned methods and systems. Though keep in mind the danger of the mountains and the weather - it is multiplied during the winter season.

Knowing the quality of the ice, your safety protection, and your limits as a climber /only /comes with time spent under the tutelage of a professional and practicing with experienced climbing partners. /There is no substitute for experience/, especially in a sport like ice climbing. Do not climb or mountaineer alone, tell others where and when you are going, dress appropriately, and be prepared like a Boy Scout. You never know what’s lurking in those ageless hills, proudly glistening in their winter skin, silent in anticipation of your arrival.

It is recommended to purchase a how-to book on ice climbing like Jeff Lowe’s /Ice World: Techniques and Experiences of Modern Ice Climbing/. A more suitable suggestion is to hire a guide and take lessons; they are professionals for a reason (even that was understood hundreds of years ago). Literature that will open your eyes to the region’s best ice climbing is /A Guide to North Carolina Waterfalls/ and Southern Fried Ice: An Ice Climbers Guide to the Deep South by Michael Crowder. The auspicious candidate will find a copy of the out-of-print /Shades of Gray: An Ice Climber’s Guide to Dixie/ by Jim Detterline. Now that you’re in the know, take advantage of these southern gems and don’t forget your thermos of hot tea.