With record breaking high temperatures throughout the US it was inevitable that the climbing at Michigan Ice Fest wouldn't be ideal. Climbable alpine/waterfall ice is a variable medium that needs to be nurtured however depending on temperatures can lead to brittle bullet hard ice that makes you work for that mantle. However this time there really wasn't much. Pillars collapse and gullies melt, leaving the Fest to officially cancel their clinics and classes. Even Luckier for the situation, this has become the 2nd Ice Fest i've missed when my partner's car's alternator gave out on the way to Marquette. Staying in the hotel we figured it would be good time to relax and we took to local honey beers in the sauna and hot-tub, binging the endearing adventures of Moomin.
On monday we had gotten our car back and briskly plotted what climbs could be done. Combing over a guide book I stumbled upon a crag that offered mixed and alpine ice (Ice-melt from the mountain yonder). Not too sure of our skills we figured we should at least try. A nice hike in with a view of Hogsback Mountain, we talked and quickly found the crag at the base of the mountain. Moss and lichen covered cliffs with a creek that lay dormant nearby revealed what we saw in the guidebook. A short once mixed, now messy crack formation that ran up its jagged lines. With no real certainty I'd even be able to scale it as it would be my first purely drytooling climb. I hoisted up the side of the cliff to attach a toprope. With careful procedure I slowly made my way up with the bubbling mixture of awe and anxiety as to how I can stand on these millimeters of steel on rock dimples. Pull tests on pick placements that I can't see make teeth grit. With a few more steps of this awkward dance I finally hoist up. And with a lower down my partner looks at me, remarks how my smile is covered in dirt and lichen.
