Utah Ice Conditions, 2013 - 2014

Trying a figure out what climb this is... It's to the left of ice mate and playmate in the little ouray area. Nice 30-40 feel of ice and someone put up some nice anchor bolts up there ta' boot!

Icemate and playmate are still not formed on the right..

We made the long trek up past the fifthwater hot springs to check out "sixth water" ice fall

12/29/13

It is a bit weird re: Joe's, esp. given the very cold snap not long ago. Surprised that CCC is in (must be drippy?) but it's aspect favors its conditions.

Has anyone made it to Mary's? That usually forms long before the main Joe's area.

haleymay wrote: How was it? I'm heading up there this week.

We took gear but each ended up soloing it. We didn't know what to expect but could have saved a lot of weight had we known. It's pretty short but the whole trip including the hike , climb and a dip makes it a good day.

Along with Mary's has anybody heard anything about Strawberry Pinnacles?

Searching for ice this year is getting tricky. I have machines and can get out there, I would like to be as efficient as possible on the trips. In advance, Thanks.

yo chad
drove the strawberry river road on my way back into town the other day. Zero ice. same can be said about the usual suspects out in the uintah basin.
However, I did spend an afternoon slayin' some WI-1 ice... fishing :p

Moqui Holdout was too thin to climb yesterday:

Moqui Holdout

Drove up Logan canyon New Years Eve day. From the road I didn't see any ice.

Pt

bay wrote:...drove the strawberry river road on my way back into town the other day. Zero ice...However, I did spend an afternoon slayin' some WI-1 ice... fishing :p

Bummer! I'm heading to my Strawberry cabin next week for the month. I was hoping something was forming back behind me. Guess I'll just have to ice fish the reservoir, and maybe take my picks and crampons along and do some horizontal routes...Or, maybe farm some ice blocks out of the lake; or, put the garden hose up a cliff side and siphon some water down it. Yeah, and I'm sure the Park Service and Bureau of Reclamations will love me for it!-')

^^^^^
Why? One thread for Utah ice conditions is enough. Works for the entire state of Colorado.
Please let it work here.

Garret Nuzzo-Jones wrote:Went down to Santaquin today. Angel of Fear is not in. ACT is thin and not touching on the second pitch. Candlestick is touching and down, but in full on WI6 conditions. Squash Head's first curtain was wet and chandeliered. Wouldn't take screws. We decided to skip it. Upper pitch looked like it was in reasonable shape. Backoff was actively forming. First pitch was kind of funky. Foolishly soloed up it thinking it was good all the way to the bolts but ended up bailing before the end of the first pitch. Needs another week or two to form into solid leading conditions. Kitty Litter wall was the consolation prize on the way home. Can't beat that approach with a stick.

Climbed Back Off in Santaquin today Jan 2. Ice was good. first low angle pitch had solid ice. There were dinner plates on every swing for first 3/4 of second pitch, but solid ice underneath, bullet hard, turned to plastic on the last quarter. Squash Head looked good from the road.

Went down to check out the Finger of Fate today in Provo and this is what we found.

Finger of Fate
Decided it was a bit thin for my liking so we opted to check out Millers Thriller. There were a few openings where you can see through to running water, but it was all climbable. Here is what the third pitch looked like.
Millers Thriller 3rd pitch

Happy climbing and keep posting!

Scruffy band new years day, climbable ice but very thin.

Fang yesterday.

Squashead today good upper pitch is wet.

Back off today hero ice.

Just back from Joe's...roadside ice fairly limited. CCC and Deadbolt in and in fair nick.

Donorcicle still hasn't touched and has a fair amount of water pouring off it.

After being bumped out of position on the stairway, by a known local (thanks for ruining our climb)- so much for ethics. I found an item laying on the ground below the 2nd pitch. I would love to get it back to to the owners. (team climbing a pitch above us). PM me and tell me what it is and you can have it back.
Dallen

Upper pitches of stairway don't look so hot. We did the first two but the third is looking kind of odd with all the chandeliered formations. The ice on the first two pitches was scary sounding and looking. It would generate massive cracks and look like it wanted to dinner plate but proved to be totally solid and took screws like a champ.

Stairway 2nd pitch and up 1/5/14

Apron looked good and was getting aggressively hacked up. BVL looks nearly unclimbable at this point. Doesn't seem like it got much water flowing over it just after it formed. BVR looks good, second pitch looks a little beat up. Poor White Nightmare is turning into a dirty staircase.

Donorcicle 4 January 2014

Climbed Miller's last Thursday (Jan 2) and FMR last Friday (Jan 3). Both were thin in spots, but very climbable. Top pitch of FMR was fat. I'll try and get some pictures up.

There were some guys looking for a lost dog on Thursday. We heard it barking all morning. The next day we saw a bunch of dog prints under the WI4 pillar pitch on FMR. No barking though. Hopefully they found it.

Some good looking ice in LCC. Super Slab was thin. So is the Scruffy Band.

Hanging Slab Gully 1/8/14

Backoff in Santaquin Canyon

Got out to Santaquin Canyon today. The first pitch of Squash Head required thoughtful placement of screws but after that it was just amazing ice.

Backoff(the picture above) was just amazing the whole way up.

Go get Some!