Interior ice

Interior ice is what grows inside your window if the insulation is bad. But it's also the collective term for ice that is good enough to climb in the Alaskan 'interior'; the best ice climbing is down near the coast at Valdez where its a bit warmer and wetter.

I sampled a little interior ice of the second kind on Sunday with my friend Frank. We left Fairbanks at 5am, and arrived at the trail head on the Glen highway at 8:30am. After some setting up gear and me worrying about the cold (it was -14 C) we took off up Boulder Creek. After one and a half hours of stumbling up snow covered river bed - being careful not to break through the sometimes thin ice cover of the steram - we found some ice that was 'in'.

We climbed two water seeps, one was a slab and the other was more like a pinnacle with some cool-looking chandalier icicles (top picture), that finished up a little snow gully. Frank led and I toproped and seconded.

15 hours round trip is a long day out! But it was great weather, company and fun, and especially great to be out exploring and enjoying the Alaskan wilds so soon after getting up here.

Frank abseiling off the first route, and leading the second formation.