Hyalite Ice: East Fork; Slight of Hand

Got to go to the East Fork again with Sam. This time we climbed Slight of Hand, a Hyalite classic and now I know why. This chunk of ice is unique so far as my climbing experience goes. Never have I ever got to chimney climb a section of ice before! Chimney climbing being a style of climbing where you have your back against something (ice in this case) with your feet straight out in front of you, about waist high. Obviously, in order to chimney climb, you need a chimney; I have never seen an iced up chimney before let alone get to climb one! And boy did it go from hero to zero in a matter of seconds. We planned on topping out on Slight of Hand and trudging up the mountain to Cave Gully and climb that pitch but seriously 60 seconds after shouldering the packs and walking up hill the blizzard hit furiously enough to force us to turn around. By the time we were driving out, it was nice again. I guess thats life in the mountains! Driving out Sam spied some ice through the trees that wasnt familiar so we walked up to it only to find out it was Pallisade Falls in unclimbable conditions.

Slight of Hand: The chimney is in the upper headwall, right side, not really visible. Note the clarity...

Looking down a long 35m.

This photo doesnt really capture how hard it was to open your eyes at this point due to the rapidly falling snow. 

Down goes Sam

Nice gloves!

I love flaking ropes! Not!

I think the right flow is the Killer Pillar and the left flow is the Big Sleep.

Our newly discovered first ascent ice climb! Haha! We're such suckers.