Man oh man, this was a goodie. From the first time I went ice climbing in the Alfred Kelly Reserve right next to the MOC house, my eyes were on these two wickedly impressive 60m waterfalls:
Could they be climbed by a few inexperienced ice climbers who've never climbed sustained 90 degree ice for more than 10m? Were we a bit ambitious? Maybe. Were we stoked? You betchya.
We started off warming up on some smaller formations to the climber's right, where Troy whipped out some ice screws he had just bought and had a go at a cheeky lead:
I followed him and clipped into his pre placed screws - exciting stuff. I was very new to leading, but couldn't deny the opportunity. Plus, leading on ice before leading on outdoor rock felt pretty adventurous.
After a little bushwack and the pretty exposed set up of a tree anchor at the top of the falls, we tied two 60m ropes together for the top rope, and began a rappel down. We couldn't see if the ends were touching the ground, but the numbers suggested that they were. Troy proved this to be true, and Aleix began after him: 
I followed last. At the bottom I elected for first go at the climb. It began with some interesting mixed climbing on a thin section of ice, and then quickly became a pump-fest of epic proportions. Grunting my way to the top, I had to take one fall before my forearms exploded, leaving both axes to torpedo down towards my belayer. After topping out I lowered down, feeling like a hero and excited to tell the guys about how wild the pitch was.
Next up Aleix forced himself up with a grizzly tenacity. Finally, just before the sun sunk below, Troy did an impressive flash of the route.
That is all! On to the next trip
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