Mountain Skills Climbing Guides and Gunks Rock Climbing Instruction
Gunks Rock Climbing – 845-853-5450 – www.mountainskills.biz – Guiding the Gunks and BeyondArchive for February, 2009
Catskill Ice Climbing Conditions 02-27-09
YES Network filming John Mackey leading up a thin Plattekill Falls
Thursday we took out the YES Network to do a show on ice climbing in the Catskills. We went in to Plattekill Falls for the shoot. We first started out at Rock and Snow for most of the content and than headed up to the falls. We had a ton of fun with these guys. The program will start airing on March 9th. The day before we scoped out the area by walking in the Devil’s Kitchen which was FAT. Walked over to Bridal Veil Falls and soloed up the right side to check the creek conditions for the next day. Everything was in great shape. It was cold again last night so hopefully we don’t get to much rain today. Seems like this warm up will be short lived and the next 10 days in the Catskills will be cold again. They still have a good amount of snow in the high elevations so keep your finger’s crossed. The ravines looked Fat from the road, Asbestos is out, Palenville Corner is out, the Black Chasm was great on Wednesday.
Catskills Ice Climbing Conditions 02-22-09
We went ice climbing in the Catskills Friday and Saturday and the conditions have improved nicely since last weekend. Plenty of snow on the ground for the hikes to the climbing areas. We have 2-4 more inches on the way today. The ice is pretty fat, get out and get it while you can.
Trap Dyke Avalanche Pass, Adirondacks
Trap Dyke from Avalanche Pass, Adirondacks
Mt. Marcy from the top of Mt. Colden
John Mackey on the Top of Mt. Colden
Guide John Mackey soloed the Trap Dyke in Avalanche Pass 02-16-09 and had a stellar day. Blue bird skies and firm neve snow. He said the ice in the Trap Dyke itself was amazing. Congratulations to John for going for it alone. If anyone is interested in climbing routes like this and the North Face of Gothics in the next coming weeks now is the time to do it under great conditions.
Catskill’s ice climbing conditions 02-18-09
Moore's Bridge ice climbing
We took some folks up to Moore’s Bridge on Wednesday. The ice is still hanging on. It started to snow around 12pm and by the time we left around 5pm we had around 3 inches in the truck bed. We turned around at the Asbestos/Buttermilk Falls parking area. The ravines look really good but Asbestos was toast. Palenville corner is toast. Didn’t really get to look at Jeff’s Wet Dream but it seemed like the ice down low was still climbable if you don’t mind a lot of running creek water close to your feet.
Catskills Ice Climbing Conditions 02-15-09
We had some clients out on Saturday and with the serious recon we did on Friday managed to make things work out. John got up into Buttermilk Falls with some promising news. The creek crossing is still raging and a good deal of running water Buttermilk Falls itself, but the ravines are in good shape still. Ralph and I headed into Deep Notch and found with the sun and not so cold temps the ice is getting undermined, but still hanging on. We need some cold temps and cloudy days and everything should start to heal itself up. With the 10 day forecast we should be back in business in no time. Oh yea, we are back to the usual nasty Catskill top outs on a lot of routes.
