McAlpinism MUU Style: Ice Climbing Road Trip (4of6): Cody; Main Vein (and The Ghosts and Bozo's Revenge)

After the California Ice effort, a break day was needed so we slept in Sunday and took our sweet time getting to Cody (which is surprisingly close to ERB). Driving in, I could tell it had been warm. This was my 3rd trip to the South Fork and it looked a lot like last year: bleak. However, last year I learned where there might be ice when conditions are warm or thin. Monday morning Devin and I set out for the Ghosts way way up Deer Creek. I knew where the climbs were from last year (though we did not climb them) and we got there without too much trouble. Finding the Ghosts is one thing, descending down to them is another. They are located in a slot canyon with very few access points. I went down a class 5 gully a few hundred feet only to get cliffed-out and had to slog back up to the trail. It was Devin's turn to try the next most probable descent gully and he encountered the same thing, an impasse. By the time he had cat scratched back up to the trail we were 3 hours into the hike and neither of us had taken off our packs yet. We agreed that the next gully had to be the right one but there was no way we were going to go all the way back down there AGAIN and climb back up to the trail AGAIN so we tucked our tails and hiked back to the trailhead. The road sodas went down particularly quick this day. We drove around the rest of the afternoon with binoculars and decided that the Main Vein looked like it was completely in and made plans to climb it the next day (Tuesday). We got lucky, it was in. We solo'd all the approach ice and did the climb in two pitches; I got the first and Devin got the money/crux second pitch (WI3). Since the forecast was not cooperating for ice climbing (but great camping weather for being in the middle of the mountains in winter!) we poured through the guidebooks looking for the shady and early-season climbs figuring they would be the least affected by the warm temps. Bozo's Revenge (WI3) claimed to be the ice box climb of the South Fork so naturally, we ended up there Wednesday morning. It was my turn to lead and I sent it fairly quickly. It was no ice box though; more like a cold shower. Devin, the photographer, left his camera in the truck for this one so we dont have any pics.

The approach to the Ghosts starts with atleast 1000' of switchbacks.

According to the guidebooks, you are supposed to steer very clear of these guys because they "will run until they die" and Im sure that some do however these guys hardly batted an eye.