What a fabulous weekend! Wonderful group of women, great weather and perfect conditions allowed for 2 days of learning and getting after it!
Day one, we headed to the junkyards. A morning of learning the basics, followed by an afternoon of getting lots of mileage in. Colleen even managed to do a lead! So much for ice “intro”! We did all laugh about this, as most of the women have actually climbed a fair amount already. Despite everyone having climbed before, going back to the basics and learning proper technique proved to still be useful. It is hard to second a climb and get feedback from your leader which is often the case if you are doing a multipitch.
Everyone at the Junkyards was easy going and we managed to get a bunch of laps in.
The next day we decided to head for some steeper ice and mixed climbing and spent the day at Haffner. Once again, the few other parties in there were all psyched to share ropes and there was a great vibe in the canyon. We went over a bit more steep ice technique, pillar climbing and also some mixed climbing. I was so impressed with how much everyone got after it! These women were fearless, and jumped on the steepest pillars and mixed routes without hesitation. A full day of ice and rock was had followed by a couple celebratory beers. Thanks Janine, Kate, Colleen, Sarah,Liz and Stephanie for coming out for the weekend and having so much great positive energy. This weekend really affirmed for me how much I love my “job”! hard to call it that sometimes! Hope to see you all in the mountains again soon.
