Ice Climbing - Exhilaration Defined
In the lexicon of sports, there is a niche known as extreme sports. Many of these supposed extreme sports simply are not. Ice climbing, however, definitely is.
Rock climbing in and of itself is a fairly big adrenaline rush. The first few times you do it, you may become familiar with one of the more humorous slang terms used – the Elvis. This occurs the first time you are up pretty high and make the mistake of looking down. Between getting tired and the heights, your leg will start pumping up and down much like the King’s did when he danced.
Ice climbing, of course, takes all of this a step further. It is not enough to hang off the side of cliff a few hundred feet up. Nooooo… With ice climbing, the cliff is deemed to boring of a vertical surface. Instead, the goal is to find a frozen waterfall or some other iced off vertical face.
Water is both extremely strong and fragile when it is frozen. As odd as it sounds, a frozen waterfall can support your weight with little problem. That being said, the same frozen mass does not take kindly to being struck by a pick axe. Hit the wrong part, and entire sheets of ice can fall from the face of the frozen waterfall. You goal is not to be on them!
As the name suggests, the climate in which you ice climb is entire different from basic rock climbing. The obvious statement is it is cold. In the lexicon of climbing, however, this presents a unique challenge. Rock climbing is much about the subtlety of feel. What is strong hold and what is not? In ice climbing, your hands are in mittens or gloves and snuggly so. There is no “feel” aspect to speak of, so it becomes infinitely more difficult to ascertain what is a solid hold and what is not. Extreme sports indeed!
The mass marketing of sports has lead to the over inclusion of many unique sports in the “extreme” category. There is little doubt that ice climbing deserves its place. If you don’t believe me, give it a try this winter!
Aazdak Alisimo writes about extreme sports companies.
Tags: axe, climb, extreme, frozen, hold, ice climbing, rock, sports, waterfall, winter