...in which I climb frozen waterfalls.

As if I don't have enough hobbies, I thought I'd try a new one: ice climbing! Because when you live in a place where it's winter 5 months out of the year, you should find some winter sports to enjoy. Obviously ice climbing isn't something you can just jump right into, so I signed up for a women's clinic through the Bozeman Ice Festival. It was, in short, probably some of the best money I have ever spent.

Warning: this is a super long, super photo-intensive post. Just a little forewarning. And these aren't even all my photos! The rest will find their way on to facebook I'm sure.

It started Thursday night with the gear expo. You could demo anything and everything you wanted. I checked out crampons, boots, gloves, axes, a harness, a helmet, and two jackets. Check it out:

Free gear! Want to know how much this would
have cost me if I didn't return it? $1,810.
Yes, I returned it all. But I wanted that $350 blue
jacket super badly.

Ice axe close up. Monster! It was sharp.

At the expo, I met a woman named Kristi from Lewistown who was also a total newbie. We carpooled up to the staging area and were in the same clinic. She will be sending me some pictures that she took with her super nice camera, but I just couldn't wait to post everything.

Kristi, ready to go!

So on Friday I got up nice and early (5:30) to make sure that I had all my stuff and to meet Kristi at 6:50. It was snowing, windy, and about 20 degrees. We split into our groups around 8:15 and finally started hiking in around 8:45. We got to our learning area and immediately started doing the fun stuff like putting on our harnesses and crampons. Crampons = sharp and hard to walk in. You kind of have to walk like a cowboy, otherwise you hook your pants and fall over. This is bad for a variety of reasons, but mostly because you look stupid. So we learn to swing an axe (and get nailed in the face by lots of flying ice), then we learn body position and ax position for moving efficiently upward. I don't know that any of us were particularly efficient, but we were moving upward so that's something! I got to go up the ice first.

This is what we learned on. It goes up higher, I swear.

I'm in the red. Climb on! One of our instructors is on 

the left. Her name is Sarah. She was a rock star.

Let's get this train a-rollin'. 

Onward and upward!

Who thought it was a good idea to give

me so many sharp implements?

This angle makes me look way more hardcore than I am.

Successful first climb! My instructor says I'm 

a natural. My instructor is paid to make me

feel good about myself, haha.

So we all took our turn on this first climb. I also learned how to belay, which I've never done before. And I didn't drop anyone! Then we basically got turned loose for the rest of the day. So we moved on to the next set of ropes.

This was our next stop! In case you were wondering, ice is 

rated on a scale of 1-7. These are considered 3-4s 

based on how vertical they are. The learning curve

is steep in ice climbing, you can progress pretty fast.

I'm so excited...

And I just can't hide it!

Monkey climbing!

It is difficult to kick your boots in. Apparently I am

right footed, as my big toe on my right foot hurts.

And my arms, oh my gosh my arms are so tired!
This is probably graded a 3, if you were wondering.

Successful climb #2! This is going to be a good day.

You could hear the water running behind the ice. It was crazy. So after this face, we decided to move on to the harder stuff.

And I'm heading back down to Earth.

I eventually climbed the one that the girl in blue 

is in front of. But for now we're heading all 

the way down to the right.

Ascent #3 begins! Look at that ax placement! Solid.

It's funny how excited you get when you 

know you have a good hold. It makes this wonderful

"thunk" sound and your ax vibrates and you're like
"Yes, I win!"

This is probably a 3+ or a 4.

I had to try this one twice. The first time, I made it just about 1.5 body lengths higher than I am in the above photo. Then I lost an ax. Well, it was still in the ice, but I was a couple feet below it. It is hard to climb with one ax and just your feet. Getting the ax back wore me out, so I came back down. The second time I tried it, I got about 2.5 body lengths above where I am here, and then just nailed my knee on the ice. It hurt so flippin' bad that I had to come down. Good thing it was about 2:15 by that time and we were done at 3:00, because I could only do one more easy climb since my knee was so tender to the touch. Don't worry, it's ok now. 

So, 7 hours, 5 ascents, and 1 minor injury later I was done with my first ice climbing venture. I would love to go again. If someone would give me 2k worth of free gear, that is. Guess I'll have to wait for the festival next December!