Ice Climbing in Cody 2008

Mean green, duck soup, and other climbs.

A week after going to Eagle Lake we went on a real climbing trip in Cody, Wyomming. Just east of Yellowstone NP this little town is used to turists, but apparently not in winter.

We stayed at a small hostel run by an enthusiatic climber. $20 a head for our own little cabin with kitchen and warm running water was great, way cheaper than my place in Berkeley. And with Paul doing the cooking, way better food as well!

This is a typical spot. A frozen river is followed until we get to a too steep part. Then we have to climb it and keep going. This wall was not that tall and we were fresh so it posed no problem at all.

The Cody area has some of the best waterfall ice climbing in the US. But it is pretty back country, climber trails are less prominent than animal trails (we often took off along the "obvious" trail just to quickly realize that no humans had travelled that path before us).

The guide book (Winter dance!) is fairly free from maps, and we ran in to a pair of Brittish climbers that had picked one up for $18. The most expensive piece of paper I saw on this trip. Except the $20 bills we paid our "hotel" with. Anyhow, it was not always trivial to find the right place. I was surprised that there was not more snow on the ground, but apparently the mountains to the west of Cody catches all the rain/snow.

First day was spent getting used to the area. I loved all of it, even though we did not get more than 3-4 pitches of climbing in. The weather was around freezing and a little snow fall. Nothing horrible, having four pairs of gloves makes it possible to switch to a dry pair every so often (and then you have wet gloves for the rest of the day).

Second day we set our aim at Mean Green, a WI5, that was really fat (lots of ice) this year. It was pretty amazing. But we were not in amazing shape to match this.

Paul enjoying a cup of tea.

I want to be in the picture too!

North side of the valley in the background. Note that my glasses have been epoxied in 3 places. That might be a record for Swedish Army glasses.

The third day we went exploring.

The directions in the book were not correctly interpreted. We crossed the right stream but saw the face. Going back was three times as fast as going in.

But the patient people are rewarded. This beautiful waterfall was finally reached after several mini falls that we "bouldered"(no idea what the ice equivalent of that is). We saved it for next year though. After two days of climging and half a day of bush-bashing I was not in the mood of pushing myself up this thing. Nice large snow flakes are everywhere!

Cody was lovely. It is amazingly remote and not for people who are not ready to do some hiking to get to their climbs. But that also makes even the most popular climbs to have fairly little traffic.