Abalakov thread, named after great Soviet climber Vitaly Abalakov, is one of the great mountain safety inventions. It’s also known as a V-thread. Generally speaking Abalakov thread is fairly easy to create, doesn’t require any expensive gear to be left behind and, when created and used properly, it’s safe. Here’s a short introduction to Abalakov thread in a way I’m used [...]
I have a goal to have a new post at least once a week. I’m planning for future topics and I would like to get your opinion. Currently I’ve got following topics on my drawing board. So let me know if any of these would interest you. Tell also what else you would like to [...]
While I’ve been waiting to get the schedule of our this year’s “expedition” nailed down, I thought that it would be good time to refresh some of the good memories from the last years ice climbing “expedition”. Luckily it seems that this type of ”expedition” with Jari is turning in to a yearly tradition. During the trip we climbed three ice [...]
Do you consider starting ice climbing? Do you wonder what kind of gear you should get and how much does it cost? Well, this post is for those of you who do. Though, ice climbing is being placed in to extreme end of extreme sports, in some circles, even more so than rock climbing, it [...]
Typically I’m fairly careful climber who tends to avoid unnecessary risks. Obviously there are times when everybody does something stupid, takes a risk he or she shouldn’t or makes a mistake. So far I have been pretty lucky. Apart from frequent burses due falling blocks of ice and one minor fall on ice protection (which [...]
According to manufacturer N-rit heat pads provide up to 20 hours of warmth, the average temperature being 60 degrees in Celsius. Pads are odorless, non toxic and disposable. The extra plus on these is the fact that pads can be put back in to reseal able outer packaging, which stops the warmth. As a result they can [...]
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.
I’m just trying to share some of the love I have for the sport of climbing frozen waterfalls.
