After two weeks out in Cody, WY and Bozeman, MT in December then plenty of torpor and lassitude from the holidays, it was time to get out climbing. Preferably something local and something icy. With high freezing levels and little snowfall in the last month, Jeff W. and I headed back to Illumination Rock. Slightly more rime build up than in December but cracks were easily found or dug out and the gear was solid throughout. 80 meters up and I got shut down by a glassy 8-inch wide crack with nothing for tools or crampons. 45 minutes of beating my head against it and trying to find a way around led to me bailing from there back to the deck. Turns out we climbed the first pitch of a route Donnie K. tried back in ’08 and started up a new route to the right of what he climbed. Would have liked to finish up what we started, but that will have to wait till later or perhaps next week.
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- About to battle the offwidth
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- Sunshine on Illumination Rock
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- New Nemesis on I-Rock
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- Looking down to the glacier below
