December Ice Report
By Dustin Portzline
Stoney Clove West - Entertainment Area
12.28.16
Spend enough winters recreating in the Gunks and Catskills and you’re bound to experience some frustration - weather patterns can fluctuate without much logic, leading to disappointing days out. How do we make the most of the winter sports available to us locally? The answer is becoming an opportunist who lets conditions dictate the day’s activity. Bitter winds? Hide out at the bottom of Platte Clove and run laps on broad waterfalls. High pressure system bringing clear skies and brutal cold? Sounds like a good day for sunny roadside ice cragging at the Asbestos Wall. Linking up Catskills ice and Gunks rock in a single day is a fun option during warm spells. I like to save the high ravines for the longer, less cold days late in the season. And some days it’s better to pull out the cross country skis and cruise around some groomed carriage roads in the Gunks. Flexibility, and eye on the weather and a willingness to try new things can put you in position to sample from the diversity of winter sports and venues available.
Current Conditions: (as of 12/28/2016)
An excellent article covering the formation and structure of ice and some common locations in the Catskills was published by Peak recently and can be found here. In applying that foundation of knowledge to what we see in the Catskills today, it’s helpful to look at the weather of the past weeks. Several cycles of sub freezing temperatures followed by warm weather and precipitation has seen the start of the ice climbing season stall a few times, but that is nothing new for December. After a dry summer season, it has been reassuring to observe a number of significant rain events. This “primes the system” by saturating the forest floor with water, and also increases the flow volume in our waterfalls and ravines. This bodes well for January, presuming the temperatures stay lower than they’ve been.
Spend enough winters recreating in the Gunks and Catskills and you’re bound to experience some frustration - weather patterns can fluctuate without much logic, leading to disappointing days out. How do we make the most of the winter sports available to us locally? The answer is becoming an opportunist who lets conditions dictate the day’s activity. Bitter winds? Hide out at the bottom of Platte Clove and run laps on broad waterfalls. High pressure system bringing clear skies and brutal cold? Sounds like a good day for sunny roadside ice cragging at the Asbestos Wall. Linking up Catskills ice and Gunks rock in a single day is a fun option during warm spells. I like to save the high ravines for the longer, less cold days late in the season. And some days it’s better to pull out the cross country skis and cruise around some groomed carriage roads in the Gunks. Flexibility, and eye on the weather and a willingness to try new things can put you in position to sample from the diversity of winter sports and venues available.
Current Conditions: (as of 12/28/2016)
An excellent article covering the formation and structure of ice and some common locations in the Catskills was published by Peak recently and can be found here. In applying that foundation of knowledge to what we see in the Catskills today, it’s helpful to look at the weather of the past weeks. Several cycles of sub freezing temperatures followed by warm weather and precipitation has seen the start of the ice climbing season stall a few times, but that is nothing new for December. After a dry summer season, it has been reassuring to observe a number of significant rain events. This “primes the system” by saturating the forest floor with water, and also increases the flow volume in our waterfalls and ravines. This bodes well for January, presuming the temperatures stay lower than they’ve been.
Devil's Kitchen
A drive through the Catskills on Wednesday, December 28 was disappointing, however. In the aftermath of a warmup the day before when temperatures reached 45°F, the ground in all areas is bare of snow and most ice that survived is majorly delaminated. The temps were below freezing, however, and the ground was frozen underfoot. Local EMS guide Carolyn Riccardi found solid blueish ice and enjoyable conditions at the East Side of Stony Clove, which was the best ice I saw all day. At this time, we need a few more solid cold nights before I would consider going out to climb, and even then only at the higher elevations like Stony Clove. Moore’s Bridge, the Asbestos Wall, and the Kaaterskill ravines were nowhere near climbable; Deep Notch was also devoid of attractive ice. A party was toproping in the Lower Devils Kitchen, where water is flowing openly; the waterfalls of Platte Clove are all wide open and will need quite a bit of time and cold to develop.
A look at the future forecast can give us an idea of where to expect ice conditions to improve first. Moderately cold temperatures (between 10 - 35°F) are ideal for ice growth on seepage climbs, as a modest amount of water is released from frozen reserves during the daytime and then freezes solidly at night. Consistently bitter cold temperatures (below 20°F) lead to fast growth on waterfall climbs, aided by the decrease in water volume as sub-freezing temperatures diminish runoff. If temperatures remain below freezing for several weeks, as they did in 2014, then seepage climbs lose their ability to “refresh” from multiple free-thaw cycles; if temperature rise quickly, especially if paired with dreaded heavy rains, then waterfall ice formations can be quickly eroded away.
Mixed climbs, such as the traditionally protected lines in Stony Clove or bolt-protected routes in the Devil’s Kitchen, benefit from deep freezes as some of the rock is questionable and “turf shots” are often critical. It’s wise to wait until things are welded together and not risk pulling off a crux hold or moss hummock with an ice tool.
Most experienced ice climbers would be wary of such thing as a “long term forecast”, for good reason. I expect a reasonable season and a lot of fun days out, provided one keeps an eye on the forecast and this ice report (and Facebook) to find the goods. Stony Clove will be in good shape after several more freezing nights, and provided we don’t get a heartbreaking January rain, the ravines will be in great condition by the end of January. For what it’s worth, the Old Farmer’s Almanac claims that winter in our region will be colder than the last (a poor year for ice) but still above average temperatures, with above-average snowfall.
Activity:
A few teams of climbers found several short pitches of solid ice to climb around December 16th in Hillyer Ravine, a high north-facing cleft on the flanks of Kaaterskill High Peak above Route 23A. Our biggest snowfall of the season was in the early hours of December 17th, and reports of enjoyable outings at Platte Clove’s Dark Side and in Stony Clove trickled in through the holidays as ice built gradually. It’s still early in the season but I’m looking forward to hearing what everyone gets up to! If you have some conditions, great days out or new routes you’d like included in the next edition of this ice report, drop me a line at [email protected]. Climb safe and I’ll see y’all out there - Dustin Portzline
A look at the future forecast can give us an idea of where to expect ice conditions to improve first. Moderately cold temperatures (between 10 - 35°F) are ideal for ice growth on seepage climbs, as a modest amount of water is released from frozen reserves during the daytime and then freezes solidly at night. Consistently bitter cold temperatures (below 20°F) lead to fast growth on waterfall climbs, aided by the decrease in water volume as sub-freezing temperatures diminish runoff. If temperatures remain below freezing for several weeks, as they did in 2014, then seepage climbs lose their ability to “refresh” from multiple free-thaw cycles; if temperature rise quickly, especially if paired with dreaded heavy rains, then waterfall ice formations can be quickly eroded away.
Mixed climbs, such as the traditionally protected lines in Stony Clove or bolt-protected routes in the Devil’s Kitchen, benefit from deep freezes as some of the rock is questionable and “turf shots” are often critical. It’s wise to wait until things are welded together and not risk pulling off a crux hold or moss hummock with an ice tool.
Most experienced ice climbers would be wary of such thing as a “long term forecast”, for good reason. I expect a reasonable season and a lot of fun days out, provided one keeps an eye on the forecast and this ice report (and Facebook) to find the goods. Stony Clove will be in good shape after several more freezing nights, and provided we don’t get a heartbreaking January rain, the ravines will be in great condition by the end of January. For what it’s worth, the Old Farmer’s Almanac claims that winter in our region will be colder than the last (a poor year for ice) but still above average temperatures, with above-average snowfall.
Activity:
A few teams of climbers found several short pitches of solid ice to climb around December 16th in Hillyer Ravine, a high north-facing cleft on the flanks of Kaaterskill High Peak above Route 23A. Our biggest snowfall of the season was in the early hours of December 17th, and reports of enjoyable outings at Platte Clove’s Dark Side and in Stony Clove trickled in through the holidays as ice built gradually. It’s still early in the season but I’m looking forward to hearing what everyone gets up to! If you have some conditions, great days out or new routes you’d like included in the next edition of this ice report, drop me a line at [email protected]. Climb safe and I’ll see y’all out there - Dustin Portzline
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