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Just last weekend I was climbing with my friend Jari at Korouoma. To clarify a bit, Korouoma is our best climbing spot in Finland (which is still pretty modest compared to for instance average Norwegian spots, just 30-60 meters climbs). This time conditions were a bit different than usual. The thermometer went down to -30 degrees in Celsius, which is coldest, I believe, I’ve climbed so far. Luckily we had a luxury to stay in a cottage instead of tent. Cottage means dry cloths, dry clothes means warmth. Warmth means everything. :-)
Saturday was modest, just about -25, but on Sunday it got colder. The lowest figure we had was -29.5 (measured on our car’s thermometer few kilometers away from the spot), it were most likely even colder down on the bottom of Korouoma canyon.
As many of you may know cold makes climbing difficult in several ways. First of all ice is very hard and it carks really easily. As a result screws tend to fracture ice while screwing, screwing requires more strength, large chunks of ice will detach frequently due to use of ice tools, which posses danger not only climber himself, but anyone below as well, and it requires more skill to build secure belay anchors on the wall etc. Second, cold means freezing, freezing fingers and feats, fingers feeling numb and all the pain related having frozen limbs. In other words one better stay warm.
Few tips for climbing in cold:
- Use only sharp screws. The ones that have seen some stone may bite reasonably well on warmer ice, but will just fracture the cold ice making the placement of ice protection almost impossible.
- An extra large down jacket is a absolute must, even though I had one (+one layer of fleece, two layers of merino wool +extra warm climbing boots) I were having hard time to keep myself warm.
- I would think that a soft shell would do much better than Gore-Tex as an out most layer. Unfortunately I don’t have one and can’t give you a real firsthand experience about it. In theory besides being warmer, soft shell doesn’t have the freezing problem related to Gore-Tex. In other words if temperature is below -20 to -25 Gore-Tex pores freeze and doesn’t let vaporized water out as they should, thus resulting a small internal snow rain inside your jacket.
- Use eye protection, cold ice results plenty of small razor sharp ice bits that poses serious danger to your eye sight.
- Chemical heat pads were a real life saver in a glove while climbing the first 20 meters until you’ve really warmed up.
- Make a good warm up before starting to climb. Swing your hands; take a short walk to uphill etc.
- Have a good thermos filled with extra hot (and sweet – plenty of energy) drink and remember to eat enough to ensure that your body has the energy not just for climbing but to keep you warm – heating takes more energy in cold conditions.
- Where possible and in case you don’t absolutely want to lead climb, you might consider setting a permanent belay position on higher ground and do belaying at the top of the fall, as it is much warmer there than at the bottom of the canyon.
The positive side on cold conditions is the fact that you don’t usually need to worry about staying dry. Water floats less and tends to freeze directly on top of your clothes. As an extra plus you don’t sweat that much either, which again means drier feel.
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