Of course, we also had to go through the preliminaries of putting on harnesses and crampons, sorting our gear, flaking out the climbing rope, and so forth. R.L., meanwhile, started climbing the rope (using a mechanical ascender) to get in position to take photos from the side. Karen now scrambled up through the woods to the top to take photos from above. had come here the day before to prepare for the photo shoot by draping a rope down the cliff. Even though I am fairly new to ice climbing (this was only my sixth route and first in two years), I was feeling confident and couldn’t wait to start.Īlas, I had a long wait. It was fairly steep, overall, but with plenty of bulges and ledges for resting. (The two Lowes were not related.)īecause it was still early in the morning, we didn’t see any other climbers during our twenty-minute slog to the base of Positive Reinforcement. Jeff Lowe, another legendary climber, also put up two stout routes in Chapel Pond Canyon.
Ice climber boots series#
We followed a well-trod snow path past a series of ice routes, including a tough one first ascended by Alex Lowe, a celebrated climber who later died in an avalanche in Tibet. After putting on ice-climbing boots, we clomped across the frozen pond toward the canyon. We parked at a campsite on the pond’s north shore. Near dawn on a Friday morning, Sabrina and I rendezvoused at the Stolzes’ and then drove with them to Chapel Pond. Forest rangers and volunteers carried out a difficult rescue in the dark. The day after we did Positive Reinforcement, an ice climber took a terrifying fall on Screw and Climaxe, breaking a leg. dissuaded us, warning that the ice on the route is notoriously thin and thus hard to protect. At first, Sabrina suggested we do Screw and Climaxe, a well-known route on the north side of Pitchoff Mountain. Impressed by the Stolzes’ meticulousness and their results, I asked if they could take photos of Sabrina and me on an ice climb. Climbers served as models while the Stolzes took photos from every possible vantage - from below, beside, and above. Like Sabrina and Rhonda, as well as many others, I climbed with the Stolzes on a few occasions for their forthcoming book Classic Adirondack Climbs.
![ice climber boots ice climber boots](https://trekamaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ethan-walsweer-weFx9RflIfU-unsplash-scaled.jpg)
and Karen Stolz, who own Alpine Adventures in Keene. I first met Sabrina and her partner, Rhonda McGovern, through R.L. In January, I climbed Positive Reinforcement with Sabrina Hague, a graphic artist who lives part time in Keene mostly so she can climb - rock in summer, ice in winter. Though it’s considered only moderate in difficulty, many variations are possible, some harder than others. Since that winter day in 1982, climbers have established nearly twenty additional routes in the canyon, yet Positive Reinforcement remains one of the best and most popular. Positive Reinforcement was the first ice-climbing route in Chapel Pond Canyon. The name also is a tip of the helmet to Positive Thinking, a classic ice route on Poke-o-Moonshine Mountain.
![ice climber boots ice climber boots](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/711rVwd0cPL._AC_UL320_.jpg)
Skinner, whose utopian novel Mellor had assigned to his English students.
![ice climber boots ice climber boots](https://sep.yimg.com/ay/yhst-3786489705811/millet-everest-summit-gtx-boots-2.jpg)
They named the route Positive Reinforcement, an allusion to the behavioral theory of the psychologist B.F. With Mellor leading, they climbed the frozen flow with ice axes and strap-on crampons, then the only kind available. The streambed was now a huge mass of ice, about eighty-five feet high. He returned the next winter with Steve Wisenand, one of his students at Northwood School in Lake Placid. More than thirty years ago, Don Mellor was in a plane flying over the High Peaks region, taking photos for his rock-climbing guidebook, when he spotted a large streambed in Chapel Pond Canyon.