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These two are on the south face of the ridge that comes down from Forest Lakes. The right climb has some interesting short pillars, but it's more of a mixed route with a good chimney start.
There are also two more smaller slab areas a few hundred yards further
west of this area. These are barely worth the trudge uphill through
the very deep snow, but they can be fun for beginners as they're very
low angle. I've gone ice bouldering on them, but they aren't high
enough or steep enough to get a good workout.
This is the left climb from the above photo with a snowshoe for
comparison. (grade 3-4 ?)
This is across the valley from the previous climbs with my pack for
a size comparison. (grade 2-3 ?) You get to this one by walking a very
short distance up the Boulder Creek trail, and then head off towards
your left through thick trees. It's easy to miss the climb in the
woods unless there is a trail already, which there usually is.
This route forms every few years, mostly a series of big steps.
This is looking down the "Scottish Gully" from about 3/4 of the way to the top. The lower part was narrow, but the ice was adequate. After this point I got squeezed out of the chimney to the rotten face.
The last few years, this route has formed west of the "Old Reliable" flow. This route is thin, but fun when it's in shape enough to get up without it falling apart.
This was taken the first week of May of 2011, which is often is the best time for the south facing routes to actually form. This year due to warm weather, a few routes formed I hadn't seen in over 10 years.
A somewhat older picture of the south facing cliff's eastern routes.
A somewhat older picture of the south facing cliff's western routes..
Yes, there is dry tooling at Moffat Tunnel to the right of the normal
ice flow. You can see the two routes we did, The first one is the dihedral
with the moss on it, the 2nd is just past the orange lichen. Both are left
facing. Both had several overhanging bulges, poor pick placements, and
are fun and pumpy. The leftmost route is called "Stunted Grunt", we guess
it's M6. Yes, we know it's silly to name something so short and
contrived.
Yes, there is dry tooling at Moffat Tunnel to the right of the normal
ice flow. You can see the two routes we did, The first one is the dihedral
with the moss on it, the 2nd is just right of the orange lichen. Both had
several overhanging bulges, poor pick placements, and are fun and
pumpy. The rightmost route is called "Grunty Stunt", we guess it's
M5. Yes, we know it's silly to name something so short and
contrived.
Most of the climbs in the Indian Peaks are more frozen snow gulleys and more mountaineering stuff. There are a few pure ice climbs though, but most are inaccessible all winter unless you like very long approaches. unsuitable for day trips.
This is a beautiful climb that's probably one of the finest mixed
routes in the Indian Peaks. (grade 5) The route follows the deep
chimney in the corner. The second pitch has a variation finish,
although neither usually makes it all the way down to the ledge.
This is the first pitch looking straight up. Although it looks low
angle in this shot, this is actually a 18 inch wide smear of ice in
the back of the chimney that goes up to the ledge. This also rarely
seems to make it to the ground, it was in fine shape here.