What started as a gift from a client that I planned only to wear out of courtesy, inadvertently became my go-to layer for climbing, skiing and traveling. If my house were on fire, my Shak jacket is one of the items I would grab on my way out.
In late January the Vermont ice climbing community gathers for its social event of the year, the Smugglers’ Notch Ice Bash, organized by Sunrise Adventure Sports. The Alpinist staff teamed up with our neighbors at Climberism to put together this video of the 2012 Smuggs’ Ice Bash. (Props to Ray Kania for editing this on short notice.) Between two nights of free beer, a dry tooling competition, one day of climbing hard and another day spent sharing the joy of ice with new friends who had never climbed before, we had an absolutely stellar time. See you next January at the Smuggs’ Ice Bash!
Jon Griffith and Ueli Steck make the first free and one day winter ascent of the Lesueur Route on Les Drus.
First light revealed our next challenge; an eight-inch strip of ice transecting the rock band above. We packed up, and I started climbing. A few delicate tool placements and some dry tooling allowed access to the more moderate slope above. Shortly after Jeff began to simulclimb with me, I found myself at another intimidating challenge, another section of vertical, rotten “snice.” I did my best to not pull the pitch down on myself and, fortunately, was able to place a cam halfway up.
