We started out the day with great ambitions. Head up to Loch Vale, run a couple of laps on Mo Flo than Go to sink our picks into the first fat ice of the season and then go do a couple of mixed climbs. That quickly went out the window when we hit Glacier Gorge parking lot and heavy winds, cold and snow!

We bundled up for the hour walk to the Loch and made tracks. We were surprised when we got there; we were the only ones there. There were a couple of other climbing parties that left before us. They must have had other ambitions.

Mo Flo had derogated a bit since we saw it last week, but was still in good shape. Most of the other climbs were pretty sketchy, so Mo Flo it was. We bundled up even more when we reached the base of the climb. None of us were feeling really ambitious at this point, but hey it is winter!

Ryan lead the steep pillar on the center left of the flow and set up a top rope. Renee was next and she cleaned the climb and quickly made her way up. I brought my new Rambo 4’s with me this weekend and was anxious to stick them into some fat ice.

As I started up on my first run, I was amazed at how those crampons just stuck to the ice with little effort. I went about half way up and quickly pumped out my forearms. I rested and tried to shake out, but with the cold and wind, I felt it would be much nicer standing on the ground in my nice big down jacket. As my punishment, Ryan made me down climb the route. So I down climbed and went to get warm.

We made several laps and then Ryan went up and put a directional screw in so we could climb the steepest part of the pillar on the far left hand side. This I would guess would go WI4 + in these conditions. Renee made a beautiful run on it this section, although she did catch a nice dinner plate with her face.

At this point it was starting to get colder. We took a short break and got some hot fluids in us. Nobody was really jumping up to the front of the line to climb at this point. We finally got ambitious again and each made another lap or two.

We decided to call it a day. Once we started down on the mountain, the weather actually got a bit nicer. It was a normal hike back down to the car, actually peeling off layers. Then we reached the parking lot and were blasted by gale force winds once again. Looking up at the gorge it was socked in again and really didn’t look like much fun being up there.

We made the right decision. We loaded up the car and headed back down to Estes and Ed’s Cantina for a couple of beers and a late lunch. We were surprisingly sore when we got home. I don’t think it could have had anything to do with carrying a 20 pound rock rack to climb 40 feet of fat ice!