Airport Ice climbing!

Greetings!

Jody Leading

Yesterday a bunch of us went out to climb some ice near the airport.  Despite Juppe's train losing power we managed to get to the crag for his first ice climbing experience.  Jody was very kind to lend him some boots that fit and some crampons.  Seems like everyone in Finland has small feet or something!

Once we got sorted out, Jody and Toni J did some climbing on their own.  Toby, Juppe and I sort of formed another group.  I took the first lead up this small ice fall that led to a bit nervy of a top out.  There was a good six vertical meters or so of deep snow on top of rock.  At the top I also had to tunnel though a small cornice which felt a bit funny in Finland.  In any case Toby seconded the route and after Juppe followed.  He seemed to enjoy it although his hands got pretty cold.  I then top roped a mixed line next to this one and stupidly fell off.  Felt kind of dumb so I just asked to be lowered off. 

The next route Toby led up the middle.  The ice was very good here but he still did a good lead.  I seconded the route and felt pretty comfortable.  Nice to get another clean climb after just falling off.

Toby then took the reigns again and tried to lead a pretty steep route further on down the cliff.  Despite being halfway up he decided to back off due to the thin ice.  So then I took over on a line just next to this one which looked like it had some thicker ice.  With two ice screws I managed to the top.  Once I was at the top I started to belay Juppe up.  Halfway up he twisted his crampons off!  I decided just to lower him off and abseil down.  It worked out okay but a bummer for Juppe as he was feeling good on the route.

My Lead

Then the funny part began.  I didn't realize that Jody had moved my car so it didn't get ran over by a dump truck.  So after the panic subsided and they teased me a bit I realized that there was still some of my equipment at the top of the cliff.  So after some funny scrambling to the top and a nice 2km(exaggerated) walk I came back to the cars.  Nice little jaunt!  hehe.  Then once we jumped in the cars and sped home I realized I had sometime lost an ice screw!  :(  Bummer!   Hope I find it in the next days.

Overall it was a great day of climbing.  Thanks to Jody for lending the shoes and crampons!  Thanks to Toby for being so patient and to everyone for the good company!  =)  Can't wait to get out again on the ice!  Thanks for reading and stay tuned! =)

Topping out