Shy Gecko | Climbing

Stellar Falls (aka Chairlift Falls) 40 feet

The original plan was to climb some ice at the beginning of January. However, each weekend continued to get warmer and warmer. Finally, the last weekend of January, the weather was….good enough. We drove to Alpental parking lot up at Summit of Snoqualmie. Today was a really cold day. The parking lot temperature was 9 degrees. After crossing “The Bridge” we hiked up for an hour or closely following Armstrong Express chair lift. After reaching our climbing destination, Stellar Falls, we dropped our packs and threw on the harnesses. We climbed on and off for about three hours. Every time I went up, I was getting better and better at swinging the ice tools.

My personal highlight came on my third ascent of the Falls. I was a good twenty feet high up on the ice and my calves were burning and my arms were getting really tired. My goal was to get to a specific notch another twenty or so feet higher. I was fighting some serious muscle failure. At one point, my leg started shaking uncontrollably. I pretty much told my self to suck it up and keep climbing up. As I climbed another two feet or so, this large group of teenage girls came skiing by. They stopped and were awestruck as they witnessed another chick climbing the ice. I kept hearing them talk about how cool the chick climbing the ice was. I then decided I wasn’t tired and continued up the ice another fifteen feet as they watched. I was pretty pumped after that.

Lessons learned: don’t bring deli sandwich as lunch. It was frozen when we pulled it out to eat.

I loved every minute of climbing ice. It is so much different than rock. I can’t wait until next time.