Ice Climbing 101

For those of you who have done any rock climbing you know how tiring it is. Last weekend we went ice climbing for many reasons, one reason being we thought it was easier than rock climbing (which we are not very good at). As we were setting up our gear to start our first climb we were told ice climbing actually takes more strength and is more tiring than rock climbing. Oh that is not what we wanted to hear. Combine that revelation with our lack of belaying experience and the cold temps and my day was looking pretty bleak. But on to the climbing, here I am making it up climb #1, a relatively easy climb.

And here is Ben doing the same climb, yes we both had shaking arms and numb hands when we finished.

Hey that guy at the top is Ben! He made the peak with only a couple of minor infractions. I was also able to climb this monster wall but took some breaks and was wiped and freaked out when I got to the top.

All in all it ended up being a pretty cool day. I surprised myself and stayed warm the whole time, from 9 to 5. Turns out there is some climbable ice right down the stream from our house in Bangor. Now if we only had our own gear!

Snow Day

Ugh no actually make that a rain day. Everything school related was canceled today as we were blessed with 6 inches of beautiful fluff early this morning. But the snow was not the issue, it was the predicted rain. We have had about a half an inch of rain with nowhere for it to go so we are in a flood advisory in FEBRUARY! Hmm this sucks. Ben loves it though, check him out pushing the water out of the garage into the moat he made down the hill to the river. I spent a couple of hours this afternoon cleaning snow off the driveway and then Ben put his hours in with the rain. Pfft I would have rather gone to school then have this crappy rain day.

Sunday we had some fun checking out the The U.S. National Toboggan Championships at the Camden Snow Bowl. The turnout was awesome, there were a couple hundred teams and people were just hanging out around campfires eating chili and chowda. We are definitely in for next year and have big plans to build our own sled. BTW Camden Snow Bowl is the only resort in the world where you can ski with a view of the ocean. Neat huh?


This weekend Maine was a big deal in the Democratic Caucuses. Both Obama and Clinton were in town and I was lucky enough to get within 25 feet of the man I think will be the next president. We waited in a line a half mile long for about an hour only to get denied entry into the audiotorium. The cool thing was Barack's team recognized the number of people who did not get in and he gave a little 5 minute speech on the lawn. He does have quite a presence and is incredibly intelligent which gives him 2 up on the current prez with no effort

Hibernating is not for us

Who says winter is no fun? We have been having lots of fun, our only complaint, the warm weather. It has been in the 30's and melting all our snow :( Who'd have thought we would move to an arctic climate and complain about the mild winters? In the past 3 weeks we have been out ice fishing twice and caught an assortment of fish that are not in season. We did bag one nice togue (trout for you midwesterners) which was delicious. Woof loves to ice fish mostly because we go and bring him with. He loves to go to the vet too, that is how smart he is. Last week he made himself useful and pulled a sled full gear back to the car, good dog Woof.

Another fun winter activity is hauling and burning wood. Wow that is so much fun, I never would have imagined. I am being sarcastic, thank goodness Ben takes care of most everything to do with the wood and pellet stoves. I do enjoy sitting right in front of the wood stove, that is awesome. Also it is a fun treat to roast some dogs and marshmallows in the comfort of your own kitchen.

By far the coolest thing we have tried to do this winter is ice climb. We signed up for a beginnners course last weekend and were super excited to try it out but the weather had other plans. All the ice on the island (Mount Desert Island) that is climbable for beginners had running water on or below it. We were disappointed but still took some photos and had a good time hiking through the woods of Acadia. Seriously someone please send some cold out here. Thank you and peace out.