Saturday morning found Phil, Ed, Matt and myself headed for Alpental.  It had been really cold so we were hopeful in our hunt for that most elusive and chimeral of quarries: waterfall ice in Washington.

At the ski area Matt and I were still sorting gear when Phil and Ed got the jump on us and headed up the valley.  Unfortunately for them they had made the critical tactical mistake of not bringing snowshoes.  As Matt and I followed them up a few minutes later we noticed their post-holes getting deeper and deeper.  Eventually we passed them, with Ed in front saying it had been his idea not to bring snowshoes and he was staying well ahead of Phil for fear of his life  ;-)   Shortly after passing the post-holers Matt and I came upon a long section of ice right next to the trail.  It looked phat.  Matt and I both wanted to lead it.  I suggested decision by rock/paper/scissors but Matt asserted that these matters were best handled by the one-two-three-shoot method of even or odd fingers, two out of three.  I handily defeated Matt in only two rounds and started racking screws.  Evidently one learns some valuable skills in the playground at the age of six.

People had obviously been climbing it's lower reaches at least in the last few days but this often improves the quality of the ice by cleaning it up.  I figured it might get thin near the top but there were some branches nearby and I said to myself "Hey, I've done worse" so up I went.

     
The lower section with the line I took in red

The lower ten feet of ice was strictly soloable but I put a screw in near the top because the snow gully above it was actually fairly steep once you got on it.  Then next 30 feet of vertical ice was pure joy - solid with good screw placements.  The trouble started below the brushy area at the top of the picture above.  Suddenly it thinned considerably.  I hammered away a surface glaze to reveal sugary snow beneath.  Cleaning it off as best I could I was able to find an occasional spot of rotten ice to get a pick in.  Placements like these were good for balance only and I couldn't really lean back to round bulges.  Whereas on the lower solid stuff it was strictly hammer-hammer-kick-kick-go now I had to plan my moves carefully.  I chiseled footholds in anticipation as I went up, trying to use my whole foot rather than front pointing on unreliable ice.  I was now over ten feet above my last screw and things were getting very dicey.  I was scared, but it was a good scared: the climb was pushing the limits of my abilities and I was learning to be a better climber.
 

     
The upper section.

I was now next to the branches I figured I'd use for holds if it got bad.  Unfortunately they hung down behind me and away from the face I was on, so the balance was all wrong. There was a purple sling off to my left but I couldn't reach it without getting onto some evil looking verglass.  Time to get creative.  I readied a full length runner with a biner at the end and flung it over a thin branch out of reach behind me, catching the biner as it pendulumed back.  Got it the first try (I must be a Jedi or something).  As protection goes it was much but I was ready to haul myself out off the top of this climb and it gave me some piece of mind.  I was now swimming in snow with my picks catching occasional twigs buried in the snow.  I was also thinking that this was potential avalanche terrain - which would really suck.  A little ways up I wrapped another runner around some shrubbery.  What to do now?  Look for a rappel?  Nothing really fabulous for an anchor and I knew walking off is always safer.  Another 20 feet above me was a nice looking Christmas tree.  I started tunneling up to it through two feet of snow.  Shoveling with ice tools is amazingly slow, and the adz is about twice as fast as the hammer.  I finally got to the tree and clipped my daisy chain around it.  I wrote a poem:

Oh tree, oh tree
I'm so glad to see thee

I would later start referring to the climb as "Oh Tannenbaum" in honor of the tree (it is also being called "Kiddieclift" in reference to an a rescue Phil and Dave took part in the previous winter).  I belayed Matt up to the tree where he confessed to not being completely disappointed at losing the lead.  We easily walked off to the skiers left.  When we got back down Matt showed my how my pack and stuff had been completely buried by all the snow that came down.  I would later learn that two friends of a friend would be nearly buried by an avalanche in this very spot the next day.

As two more climbers prepared to get on the flow (the valley was crowded that day with ice hunters) Matt and I headed up to look for Phil and Ed.  We found them just a little ways up the trail doing a couple of lesser climbs.  Matt and I hopped onto one, Matt being eager to do some leading.

     
Matt getting ready for our second climb.
 

It had short section of ice at the beginning and then became a job of tunneling up through snow covering rock with occasional bits of ice and mixed moves.  It was steep enough to deem pro but there wasn't much so I was completely ok with Matt having lead it.

     
Me at the base of the second climb (Photo by Phil Fortier)
 

The first climb we'd done quickly became the most popular route in Washington state, with just about everyone I know who owns a pair of tools getting on it in the next few days, earning it the possible epitaph "the whore of Babylon".  Phil and Jeff climbed it a couple days later, as did Dave and Benji (taking a line further to the climbers right), and eventually Marcus and Emily.  Emily would later say (and I'm getting this second hand now) that Marcus made porno movie noises while climbing it.  Emily watches porno movies?!