Bridal Veil Falls

Despite the fantastic skiing, I still wanted to do some ice climbing while I was in Valdez. Keystone canyon seemed like the best bet as the approaches are short and the ice was blue. So Ryan and I crossed the road and roshed for the lead at the base of Bridalveil falls..Ryan won.

Ryan was tired and not really paying much attention because he set the first belay a good 40 ft lower than the first belay cave...so my second pitch started out awkward, and the ice was slow and unconsolidated...the rope drag was awful, needless to say it wasn't the most enjoyable pitch I've led.

Ryan got to me and concurred that the ice quality was a little lacking. The Killer pillar looked wicked steep this year. Short, but the only line with any weakness also looked like the unconsolidated crap we had just climbed.

Below the Killer Pillar

Ryan didn't want it, and I wasn't feeling super motivated after the last pitch, so we bailed off.

In retrospect what had looked like awesome pick holes to the top were really large pockmarks made from clearing away bad ice....note to self: pick holes would be much smaller.