18 Feb “Winter is finally here?”
Winter seems to finally have turned on here in the Eastern Sierra with another storm rolling through late last week. Large totals were seen in Mammoth Lakes and the surrounding area. What does this mean for the ice climbing here in our area? Well let’s look at what we have had thus far.
I just spent the last several days climbing in Lee Vining Canyon and enjoyed some very fun ice climbing conditions. While things still look lean for this time of year compared to years past there is still a lot to be psyched about. Chouinard Wall is climbing well in the center on routes like “Classic Curve”, “Piolet”, and “Aqua Seal”. “Comrads Corner” is thin but climbable. It’s important to consider on years like this when conditions are thinner than normal to try and preserve the ice we do have and climb as delicately as we can as to give the ice a chance to keep growing. If we knock it all down in its early stages it may not come back later in the season. Just some food for thought.
The Main Wall has been seeing some action as well and “Plum Line” has been the most reliant feature on the wall so far with “Caveman” right behind it. Both lines have good leadable ice from top to bottom. The canyon has also seen some other interesting ice form up from our previous storm. Hopefully the current storm will continue to build upon those things and we’ll have some really fun stuff to climb here in the near future.
Last notes on Lee Vining- Parking may start to become an issue and it’s extremely important to remember to carpool as much as possible, park economically at the power station and by all means do not block the gate. It is a huge privilege that Edison allows us access and we don’t want to jeopardize that relationship.
I have not personally made it out to June Lake yet, but from what I have heard there is climbable ice at Roadside and at Horsetail Falls. I would imagine that this current storm would only help those venues even more.