On Sunday I returned from brief foray into Baxter State Park to climb the Cilley-Barber, one of New England’s finest ice climbs. A good friend Zebediah Engberg provided original the impetus for the trip. Our schedules synced up, and we were both psyched, so off we went with three others in a fully packed car from Boston.
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| Point A is Mt. Katahdin |
Nick, our British chauffer hustled up the north-woods highway late at night, then slowed to sluggish speeds on the snow covered back roads past Millinocket. We arrived after midnight and the psyched kept us up late into the night. Zeb’s snoring kept me awake until I asked him politely to “ please turn on your side.” He mumbled something, and rolled over. The snoring ceased.
After oatmeal and hot drinks the next morning we took off with heavy packs for the twelve-mile slog up to Chimney Pond (2,913 ft.). The snow conditions were such that skiing wasn’t an option and walking on the rocky trail was difficult because you couldn’t see what you were stepping on. That night we met with the ranger, Rob, about plans for the next day, and stayed in a lean-to.
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| Hiking in with the Hyperlite Mountain Gear Ice Pack. |
Hannah (a Harvard climber who studies China), Tom (a GE engineer) and Nick slept in while Zeb and I woke up at 4:30 to get on the route. (They went up the Cathedral trail to Baxter peak and over to Hamlin peak and down.) The approach was easy: we followed a snow-covered drainage to the base of the route. Then we popped on our crampons, and headed up the first two pitches of ice. Some nasty, low quality frozen water forced Zeb to stray right, making pitch one an extended traverse. Pitch two was a little drippy, shorter, and probably WI 4.
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| The Cilley-Barber follows the main weakness in this image. Part of the route is obscured by the rock face. |
We scrambled up a few hundred feet of snow, got on some more ice, and continued upwards, battling cold hands. The route is in Katahdin’s shadow and get’s no sun. More ice, more snow, and a fair amount of simul-climbing lead us to the base of the crux. This is a short, perhaps 75 foot, slot of WI 4 with reasonably thin ice. Zeb was a bit nervous, but crawled his way up the pitch with his usual grace. He placed one piton and a couple of screws. I followed, getting very cold hands, and finished the last pitch of ice.
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| Looking up Katahdin from the route. |
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| Zeb finishing up the crux. |
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| After topping out the last ice pitch. |
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| On top. |
Several hundred more feet of steep gully lead us to a right below South Peak. Just under an hour later we were at Baxter summit (5,286 ft.) and walking down the snowy and windy Tablelands back to camp. That night was colder, -10 F, and Zeb’s snoring was more erratic than usual. This time I elbowed him: first a gentle nudge, then a medium prod, and if that didn’t work a full-bodied thrust. We repeated this dance several times. Nudge, prod, thrust- silence. Nudge, prod, thrust- silence.
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| Snore machine. |
Revenge came in the morning: we all awoke to hear him pounding a water bottle against the lean-to and slapping his frozen hands together. In the night his water bottle leaked half a liter in the bottom of his bag. Down doesn’t insulate when it’s wet…
More oatmeal and hot drinks and twelve miles later we were back at the warm car. Nick then expertly reversed our tracks out the snowy roads to the highway. We hustled south, blasting music, to Dysart’s (Maine’s best truckstop) for Big Rig burgers and cookies. It was great to be back up in the north woods and to get out in some real winter. Ice climbing is fun.
Endnote:
The cool looking and ultra high performance packs in these pics are the Hyperlite Mountain Gear Ice Pack and Cilo Gear 30L W/NW. We also slept on brand new and also super rad Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Xtherm and XLite pads.
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| My favorite photo from the trip: Zeb's frozen hair on top of the mountain. |
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