After a week off from climbing to get final errands done before Christmas, Renee and I went up to Hidden Falls yesterday. On our last trip up to Loch Vale a couple of weeks ago, as we made the turn into Estes Park and saw the weather we made the comment that we should just get breakfast burritos at Ed’s and call it a day.

Fortunately that day we made the right decision and went up to Loch Vale and had a wonderful day. Unfortunately yesterday that scenario didn’t come into play. We should have opted for the burritos! As we looked up at long’s Peak and Mount Meeker, it looked like the big snow plumes coming off of Everest. All of the high peaks were engulfed in huge winds and blowing snow.

We pulled into the parking lot at Wild Basin and the temperature was 3 degrees and a steady 20mph wind gusting into at least the 40’s. The only difference between our first time up this year and our first time up last year was it was 8 degrees warmer this year!

We figured that we were here, so we might as well go on up, hoping that it would be shelter somewhat from the winds and we could still climb. If nothing else at least we could see what kind of shape they we in this year.

As we were loading our packs a couple of cars pulled into the parking lot and promptly turned around and left. We sat in the car for a few minutes and had some cider to warm up again before we set off.

The walk up to the falls actually wasn’t that bad; since we were moving we stayed pretty warm – until a huge gust of wind would just about knock you off of your feet. We reached the base of the falls and were pleasantly surprised at how well they had come in this year. They are still forming and a bit chandeliered in places, but very fat. The upper pillar was in great shape and actually the ice had formed all the way back into the cave where the bolts are.

We were surprised that there were a couple of people their just getting ready to set up a TR. The winds weren’t quite as bad, but still blowing hard and a lot of spindrift coming off of the top. It was also probably 5 or 10 degrees colder than in the parking lot.

I figured since we were already here I would just throw my crampons on and do some bouldering on the lower section until they got their top rope setup. The ice was brittle, but due to the weather conditions, that's to be expected.  After about 20 minutes of that I was sufficiently frozen and Renee couldn’t feel her hands, so that was the end of our first day at Hidden Falls this year.

We ran into a couple of climbers in the parking lot just getting ready to go up to the falls. They asked how it was. We informed them of how cold and windy it was, and they replied, “Well that’s part of ice climbing”. I replied, “So is drinking beer afterwards”, and that’s what we did! Maybe next weekend will be a bit tamer. We hope to take our son Drew and nephew Doug up for their first ice climbing experience.