Reaching further
Although most of my contemporaries have headed for rock climbing enjoying sunny spring days in the Rocky Mountains hitting almost 70 degrees I felt the call to journey further into wild to find some remaining ice. The magical feeling of sharp picks in sticky ice proved to be well worth it. Yellowstone National Park just a short drive to the south east still had some treats to behold. Approaching the climb in a t shirt and climbing in thin gloves with a few majestic pitches of ice to be had made for a great day of spring climbing. You might ask how can you climb ice when it's almost 70 degrees at the base of the ice climb? Thermal mass is the ability of a material to absorb and store heat energy. A lot of heat energy is required to change the temperature of high density materials like ice, so basically a really thick climb has energy to give to these warm spring temps making for happy days on ice tools. Stay hungry my friends where the trail ends adventure awaits.