So, I had a thought.

[x_cable]

Mostly because I was just exchanging emails with someone who reminded me that we'd done this around here, once upon a time - come January and the right weather, would anyone be interested in learning how to ice climb? There are good places to do it in the Adirondacks. The frozen waterfall doesn't have to be huge to offer a fun afternoon's climbing, after all.

It's a little different than regular rock climbing, and... well, colder. But it's fun, and challenging, and safe as long as it's done properly. Great scenery, too. I don't know how many of you know that I used to climb mountains in my spare time when I was younger and had a decent set of lungs to my name, but I'm an experienced teacher, as climbing teachers go.

Just a thought, but it might be something interesting to do in January.

Comments

[x_cable]

x_ccelerate
2006-12-04 07:46 pm (UTC)
Iced-over walls are damned annoying to run up, I'll say that much.
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x_cable
2006-12-05 12:04 am (UTC)
They're much more fun to climb.
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x_ccelerate
2006-12-05 12:05 am (UTC)
But that takes so much longer.
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x_wildchild
2006-12-04 10:22 pm (UTC)
I'm in. I am totally going to need to see if it'll be too cold for bare feet. I mean, claws good but frostbite bad.
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x_cable
2006-12-05 12:06 am (UTC)
I suspected you would be. And I hate to say it, because I know how much you prefer bare feet, but shoes are going to be a necessity. The temperatures you need to have waterfalls frozen enough to climb are seriously cold.
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x_wildchild
2006-12-05 01:40 am (UTC)
So the busted up Converse aren't gonna cut it either? Those just have toe holes.
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x_cable
2006-12-05 01:49 am (UTC)
You know, there's really got to be somewhere that we can get you appropriate footwear for this sort of thing that takes into account that your feet are different. I'd be terribly surprised if there wasn't some company somewhere that made climbing gear for mutants.

Let me look into it a little? I might have been out of the game for a number of years, but I still have some friends.
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x_wildchild
2006-12-05 01:55 am (UTC)
Good luck with that. It took Doc McCoy like, four months to help me find dress shoes I didn't want to chew into bits. I still mostly hate them but they're not, you know, painful.

You find someplace, I'll totally go try anything on that you want. Climbing ice sounds totally wicked awesome.
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x_cable
2006-12-05 02:14 am (UTC)
It really is. I think I like it better than any other kind of climbing. Especially when you're actually doing a frozen waterfall, because there's just something about knowing that you're climbing something that was moving water a few weeks or months earlier. Plus it takes a lot of thought while you're climbing, to decide where to place your axe - and quick reflexes if you run into trouble.
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x_wildchild
2006-12-05 02:20 am (UTC)
I'm not sure I'm allowed to have an axe.
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x_cable
2006-12-05 02:27 am (UTC)
Stop by the boathouse when you get a chance and I'll show you mine. They're not really your standard sort of axe. They do a few different things for you when you're ice-climbing - I suppose you could probably hurt yourself or someone with one, but it would take real effort.

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x_wildchild
2006-12-05 02:31 am (UTC)
You know what I did the last time I had an axe, right?
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x_cable
2006-12-05 02:42 am (UTC)
Oh, I remember quite well. But I don't think we need to worry about repeat performances, do we?
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x_wildchild
2006-12-05 02:44 am (UTC)
Hey, I want no more severed toes. That sucked and hurt and was gross.
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x_mondo
2006-12-04 10:43 pm (UTC)
I've never done anything of the sort, but it sounds like it could be a lot of fun!

I'd like to try this, Mr Dayspring, if that would be all right with you.

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x_cable
2006-12-05 12:07 am (UTC)
Sure thing, Mondo. When I have more details on when and where, I'll let you know. We might have to do some basic instruction here at the mansion beforehand.
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x_forge
2006-12-04 11:58 pm (UTC)
Ice. In the mountains. In January. You've hit your head again, haven't you?
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x_cable
2006-12-05 12:12 am (UTC)
See, you ought to come. You don't really understand the attraction of it until you're doing it.

And damn, how I wish we were talking about serious ice and serious mountains, rather than the Adirondacks. I miss real mountains.
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x_forge
2006-12-05 12:15 am (UTC)
See your aforementioned response to Kyle. COLD.