Candyland!

I woke up at 7 am this morning to take Laura to the airport so that she could head back east for the holidays. I bundled up in my warmest dog walking gear and stepped outside to a biting cold, the kind that freezes the inside of your nose instantly. My warmest wool mittens were even failing me.

Upon returning from the airport I crawled back into bed under my down comforter and vowed never to leave. It was still pitch black at 8am and felt as if the sun would never rise.

But alas, it did, and then I remembered that I was suppose to be picking up Dean and Kim to head down to Candyland at 10. The cold and dark dampened my mood and I was not super enthused about the prospect of ice climbing. But I went anyway and it turned out to be a beautiful day. And frankly I have adapted so well to standing out in the cold in the past 3 and half years that zero degrees didn't even really feel that cold to me after the sun came up. My nose was a bit frigid but that was it.

Due to last weeks warm temps this climb has melted quite a bit, but it has formed up some in the past few days. It was thin conditions, but fun sticky climbing. We even had to do a few mixed climbing moves. I discovered today that I love climbing thin conditions. The climb was steppy, so I could get good foot holds and than tool around until I found something to hook. Sometimes it was ice. Sometimes it was hard snow. Sometimes it was rock. Sometimes there was nothing there and I just had to use my knees to get up over a ledge. I know, bad form.

Since the ice was too thin too protect (I'm sure some would argue with this) we ended up climbing around to the ledge and setting up a top rope.





On the ledge looking out to the highway...



Kim carefully stepping up the thin fragile ice...



Dean kicking ass climbing all the way to the top where it got reeeeaally thin...



I wish I could do this every day!