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truedecker
Oct 14, 2003, 4:53 PM
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Registered: Apr 4, 2002
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Hey I am looking to Alpine in late December preferrably in the Sierras ... does anyone know a guide service i can contact ... i'm a total novice ...
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watersprite
Oct 14, 2003, 5:11 PM
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Registered: Jan 21, 2003
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I'm looking into a class for women they give in Ouray - possible trips in December...
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blackmountaineer
Oct 14, 2003, 5:42 PM
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December is a funky time to start alpine. It really depends on what you're interested in. There's some early ice (like in Ouray, mentioned by the previous post) but it's not prime in most places yet. You get a lot more issues with snow (avalanches, long approaches, need to ski, etc.) in the NW and CO. For mixed rock/ice or glacier, we usually head south and out of the US from November - January. If you're just interested in your standard, Rainier, hiking-but-with-crevasses-and-ice, type thing, December is not a good time to start. Great for ski mountaineering, though.
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allarounder
Oct 14, 2003, 6:26 PM
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Registered: Mar 4, 2003
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"I'm a total novice..." uhhhh huhhhh.
Anyway, December is good for hard ice on certain peaks in the Sierra, if your willing to brave storms, possible avalanche conditions, and routes in their hardest conditions of the season (assuming they aren't melted out). Gotta know where to look. As far as alpine rock goes, well, again - definition of 'alpine conditions". It ain't novice territory.
ASI guides, teaches ice climbing, and such. But its more fun to get your ass kicked on your own.
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watersprite
Oct 14, 2003, 6:58 PM
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Registered: Jan 21, 2003
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I just threw "December" out there because you have to wait for snow to do ice climbing. no?
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attitude
Oct 14, 2003, 7:10 PM
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Registered: Sep 24, 2003
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watersprite
Oct 14, 2003, 7:26 PM
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Registered: Jan 21, 2003
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oh? Rainier? Shasta? where is there ice all year?
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pico23
Oct 14, 2003, 7:44 PM
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Registered: Mar 14, 2003
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In reply to: oh? Rainier? Shasta? where is there ice all year?
I'd assume aside from glaciers very few places in the lower 48 have ice all year. Some people go to glaciers and ice climb out of crevasses for practice but generally the places high enough to have ice for much of the year are covered with snow or to dry for ice formation.
If you just want to climb ice, colorado is good. Ouray is can be climbed all winter because of a lack of avalanche danger not normally found on CO. Unfortunately most of the rest of CO out of the ice park has a short ice season limited by snowfall and avalanche danger. The waist deep powder that skiiers rave about is a detriment to ice climbers. In a good winter you'd be hard pressed to find better ice than the Northeastern US. Very few areas are heavily impacted by avalanches and it's a fairly long season. Usually you can start climbing in early November and continue climbing into late march/early april although the end of the season is usually dangerous since ice starts falling quite often. The peak of the season is mid december to mid march. Depending on preference you could spend a winter climbing nothing but roadside or nothing but backcountry stuff. From what I understand much better technical ice climbing options than California and the Sierra.
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