Ice Climbing in Lee Vining

Lee Vining is a small town close to East Side of Yosemite. Before this trip I have crossed it multiple times but always during the summers. Either on way back from a long drive from Vegas or as a part of  visit June Lake. This time we were visiting the area to get some ice climbing experience specially after struggling on the bergschrund in Palisades. For this trip we going to stay in a motel and not camp. Sleep comfortably and be ready to get our ass kicked. I was doing this trip with Melanie and Kique and Kique had brought along Melonie an aspiring guide. This allowed us to climb in pairs without having to wait.

Trail to Chouinard Falls

Trail to Chouinard Falls

On Day1 the conditions were not ideal. The trail was snow covered but just not deep enough to use snow shoes. We needed to be careful to not punch through the edge of rocks.  This approach should normally take 30 mins from the parking lot but due to the non ideal conditions it took us close to an hour and half. 

We were the first party to reach Chouinard Falls and to be honest the frozen waterfall was quite intimidating. This was definitely way outside my comfort zone. I had not being climbing in the gym recently and was really scared.  I was pretty cold and already started to get hungry as we couldn't get any warm breakfast.

Kique lead the two routes and set up top ropes for me and Melanie to start practicing. The waterfall was frozen solid and it was solid blue ice. I was the first one on the route and Melonie was belaying me. The goal was to reach the first bench (flat section) but midway up one of my crampons came off and I slid a good 6-10 feet. This was pretty scary for me. Both ice axes scraping on the wall as I slid down. This incident really shook me and I came of the rope to take a break. After Melanie climbed the route I went back up. The second time was a bit better but the previous fall definitely had an impact on me. I was very cautious and my heart rate was quite high. I was incorrectly using my arms too much and they got pumped up very soon. 

Chouinard Falls

To help me and Melanie improved our technique Kique suggested using only one ice axe for the next attempt. This exercise was devised to reduce the reliance on our arms and use our feet more. This further helped me to gain some confidence on standing on the two front points of the steel crampons.  Melanie and Kique did some laps on the mixed route climbing on the left side of the wall.

Day2 climbing a frozen waterfall in June Lake

On Day2 we had the option of going back to Chouinard Falls but we wanted to try something else so we headed to the June lake area. Here we hiked up an old cart line to a frozen water fall. We chose this area given Chouinard Falls would be very busy and we wanted something a little bit easier. The chosen waterfall in the June lake area ended up being a blast. The ice was softer here and the terrain less steep. This in addition to a good breakfast was more ideal than day1 :)  We hacked on the ice climbed to the top and practices some v notches in the ice.