This past Tuesday sucked... and it sucked really good, bordering on GREAT! The conditions were full on, late winter-early spring melt down.. temps about 32-38, intermittent downpours of rain, slippery rocks, melting snow, ice and mud. What more could you ask for from a training day?
We were out with the Shenandoah National Park technical high angle rescue team getting in some late season ice work.. oh and did I mention that the day was really wet and cold? It was.
The goal for the day was to do some advance planning for rescues in difficult access areas that receive an increasing amount of winter use... and to do a little ice climbing training for the team.
We all had a ball! Well, at least the SMG side of the group anyway... I think most of the rest of the team found the day "memorable".. (except for maybe Alan... who, even though he has a "real" job in the Park, probably ought to be named an honorary member of the SMG team.)
The ice was rapidly eroding and delaminating. Of course for the first time ice climbers in the group, you could hardly ask for better conditions with which to get acquainted with the sport!
The first ledge was only about 20 feet off the deck, but the spray made that first 20 feet the longest, coldest shower you'd ever want to take. That's only my opinion.
At the end of the day, as the park roads were getting closed for the ice and snow that was forecast, we had a chance to remind ourselves that working at the higher elevations, even in the mid-Atlantic, beats the the lowlands... and that we'd take a windburned face and chapped hands any day over cube-life.
