SFS Climb 2011 - Day 2

This entry is deliberately brief. The vino has gotten to me, and the details of the day are not of the entertaining degree to hold one's attention for very long. Day 2 brought an introduction to "snow school". The temps around Estes Park continued to hover around the low 40s, and intermittent snowfall remained the norm above 7,000ft. Our new guide Kip Davis, who would serve to guide us for the remainder of the trip, decided that we should head into Rocky Mountain National Park to a place called Bear Lake. There above 9,500ft. we were to practice hiking and climbing techniques specialized for particularly snowy environments. We made our way around the frozen lake and came to a ledge on the left that presented a decent opportunity to try out new skills. As the flakes pattered against the plastic of our helmets, we spent the day learning the footwork neccessary to climb in snow, and we also got a brief introduction on how to ice climb; a passion that I would later come to embrace. The highlight of the day was the portion of instruction that focused on how to perform a skill called "self arresting". This is essentially where you practice falling down the face of a mountain and stopping yourself just before you careen off into oblivion. Disconcerning at first, this actually harkened me back to my days as a kid when sliding down a steep hill of snow would be a thing of pleasure on some random day off from school in February when, by southern standards, the weather was particularly wintry. We practiced arresting both with and without an ice axe, and after several trips down the hill with snow spraying in our faces and occasionally down our backsides, we retired to the parking lot and ultimately the comfortable hamlet of Estes Park.

Tomorrow's activities were a mystery because of the weather, but we were confident that whatever we did, we would learn more important skills to undoubtedly help us further our mountaineering education. Rock climbing tomorrow would present a whole new set of challenges and even a bit of danger along the way. More to come soon....