So this winter I have been trying to treat each winter day like it is the last one before the thaw and if I have a chance to get out ice climbing I go...
One of the premier Ice climbing spots in the Northeast is smugglers notch. Stephanie and I are blessed in that it is a 30 minute drive to the parking lot from our house. We have the ability to pick and choose our days and go out on the good ones climbing when we have the free time and are not working on the house.
I have been training a lot for the rock climbing season so it has been a good practice ground this year.
I did a trip with Philip from Montreal a few weeks ago and it was perfect. In early winter season conditions with little snow there are many climbs that are long and ice the whole way that later in the winter just fill with snow and become more avalanche prone. Philip had never really been to Smugglers notch before so I gave him the grand tour and we went up Hidden Gully. It is a great climb in that it is longer than many climbs in the notch and has a lot of terrain. All said taking the middle line up the climb is about 1000 feet of vertical terrain plus 1.8 miles hiking both ways. It made for a great day climbing and the winter has been like this almost all season with just a few warm ups. There have been a lot of good blue-bird weekend days.
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| Start of the hike in from the road. |
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| Entrance to the gully on the first pitch |
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| Top of the first pitch at the belay |
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| Philip leading pitch two |
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| After Philip had gone out of sight on the 4th pitch |
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| Rappel down easy gully on descent |
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| Looking up easy gully from the descent. The hike down started from here. |
