So a little bit of ice then?

After drying off and getting a couple of hours kip I started to get restless again. I mean I’d woken up in a snow hole that morning but I wanted to do something with my day! A quick check of ukc and google earth found Newmoreton and the location of the “Oui Oui” ice fall. With our recent cold weather spell and my vast winter experience (note: sarcasm) I figure it was in. Anyway it was a 30 minute drive away so it was worth a look. I knew I would have to sell it to Andy as a good idea, but he was pretty restless with no climbing for the past 4 days so I went in with:

“40metre, grade III icefall, 30minutes drive, what do you think?”

“I’m in”

I don’t think we’d ever geared up so quick, slung a load of ice gear in the bags and boot of the car and we were off. About 30 minutes later we were driving down a little country road staring as the crag next to us looking for some ice. I was beginning to get a little despondent as there appeared none. As I started to think about turning back into vied came this beautiful little icefall nestled up on near the far end of the crag. We’d found it.

About a million other people had had the same idea as me, although possibly a few hours sooner because the little parking area was crammed full. I managed to sneak jess onto the end and we ran in. Well I sort of semi ran/slipped and Andy podded along. All the people walking back down gave us more and more information about the condition of the icefall. I kept hearing it was melting out and was getting a little unstable. I figured we could just climb quick and safely. I didn’t think I was going to collapse, but we’d make our final decision when we saw it.

Hanging for a little at the base of the route we could already see about 2 other teams on the route. After an inspection of the ice at the base and a discussion with everyone else I didn’t seem all that bad. It was quite deep ice and it just meant that placements would be harder to come by and necessitate a little digging. I was sunbaked too. I wasn’t too worried about it to be honest, but I think this was more from ignorance rather than good judgement.

I dived on the route easily climbing up the first little slab after choosing a decent line. The gear required a little digging but it was alright. I’d only gone up with a light rack of 6 screws and my superlight rocks and pegs, thinking it would mainly all be ice. It was good enough ice. The angle was quite nice and not taking on the calves and there was good ice in the wide cracks for screws. I even had some company as a guy was seconding along side me.

I think I should describe this place a little. There was a waterfall hanging above some slabs which is what fed the icefall. The water fall didn’t have any routes on it, seeing as it look unstable and thin but the slabs below provided some great ice climbing. You then climbed off the massive ledge and abseiled off a tree to the base. As I came to about 4 meters from the end of the route it needed a traverse off to the ledge. I told the guy seconding to go first as we would just end up with tangled ropes. I now stood and waited below the hanging waterfall…

So much for my limited experience. I heard a sickening crack and looked up. I always thought that slow motion was clichéd but it happened. I looked up to see that a pillar had snapped off the waterfall right above my head. I just held tight onto my axes and yelled “shit” as long as I could. I kept my head down and tucked myself into the ice as much as. I thought that was it, I was done for crushed by falling ice. If it didn’t kill me it would rip me off for sure and I’d end up injured.

It hurt a lot getting hit by the pillar and it seemed to last forever. I kept expecting to have a horrible sensation of holding on tight to my axes, but moving through the air as they’d been ripped clean out. It didn’t happen, instead to roaring was over and the guys at the belay were yelling to see if I was ok. I yelled I was, shook off the ice from me, yelled to Andy I was ok and then climbed as fast as I could to the belay. I think I was shaking, in fact I know I was shaking. I felt so glad to still be there.

I think the defrosting pillar was a curse and a blessing. If it had snapped off and been solid then I really don’t think I would have escaped without injury (or at all) but instead it broke when it hit me and I got a nice beating from a couple of tones of ice instead. It’s something I’ll remember forever and an experience I’ll learn from.

Andy still seconded the route, but really quickly as we needed the screws out. Then the guys who had asked me if I was ok let us abseil on their ropes, save the faff of throwing down two ropes. We abseiled down and plodded out, the car park was now empty, unsurprisingly.

I think I should point out that our youthful inexperience ignored a warning in the guide book:

“If there is any hint of a defrost then Do not climb on the icefall the risk of collapse of the waterfall above is too great”

We were lucky.