Raphael Slawinski

The steep gully, hemmed in by walls of featureless limestone, opened up into a small snowfield, but higher up it necked down again. As the beam of my headlamp swept up the nearly vertical chimney, instead of the hoped-for snow bowl, it revealed nothing but blank, bulging rock walls. I'd led us into a dead end. Traversing to a snow arete bordering the gully on the right, crampons scratching on rock under a thin covering of snow, I looked down into another couloir. It seemed more open than the one I'd been following. Maybe it was the right one? I traversed back into the dead-end gully and pounded in a knifeblade. Adding a stubby screw, I shouted down, "Secure!" A few minutes later a headlamp appeared below, and soon thereafter Alik himself. After a brief discussion of our options, he tensioned over and down into the other gully. Removing the screw and leaving a 'biner on the piton, I followed, the jury-rigged toprope cutting into the faceted snow of the are...

I'm afraid I've let my blog slide. Not that it matters much, given how these days lengthy blog write-ups are out and insta-posts are in, but I can't help feeling a bit guilty. My excuse is that since I last wrote about Juan's and my misadventures in Hyalite, I traveled to 3 more ice climbing festivals, giving clinics and slideshows. In between these extended weekend trips, I tried to get out as much as possible back home in the Rockies. All the while, the elephant in the room was something called a full-time job. It didn't leave much time for blogging. A matter of priorities, I suppose. To begin catching up, I thought I'd start by going back to last December, and the story of an abandoned mixed project. Tom Ballard was in the Rockies for a few weeks, living up to his reputation as one of the strongest winter climbers around. After we made plans to go climbing, I tried to think of something that would keep young Tom amused. An unrepeated Simon Anthamatten-U...