Anyway, here are some pictures and a video:
I am in the red, Phil is in the blue. We fixed two lines from the top and then rope soloed so that we could get more laps in. We have been using this technique a lot this winter to do as much climbing as we can in a short amount of time. It works well, but it's made me lazy. I now almost feel like complaining when I have to belay.
The pillar that I am under is our favorite line. It's about 40 feet of 4+/5- ice. It's the best steep section on the wall. There are other steep sections, but they usually stay pretty wet, thin, and shorter.
Myself on the pillar. I'm wearing the Scarpa Phantom Guides for the first time on steep ice. They are a much higher volume boot than the others I've been using, but they lock my heels down much better. Normally I have to crank the boots really tight around the ankle to hold my heel in place, but my heels hardly moved with these and they weren't laced very tightly. So far I really like them.
Phil climbing up the pillar.
Phil finishing off the central/pillar line.
Then Kelsey hiked up for some exercise and to say hi, so she became the photographer
This is the first pitch of Malan's Waterfall in Ogden, UT. Mountain project rates this pitch as WI4+ on the right side and WI5 up the pillar. I have heard other Ogdenites (who have been known to sandbag) call the right 3+ and the pillar 4+. I think the right side feels like WI4, the pillar 4+. The pillar is dead vertical for about 40 feet. The second pitch (WI5) has been really thin all winter and today looked sketchy. A friend of mine (who is a very strong climber) got on pitch 2 yesterday but ended up retreating because the ice was thin and rotten. We decided not to test our luck.
It's definitely not Canmore, Cody, or Ouray, but we can't complain.
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