Rain in the valley, Flying ice on the Mer de Glace

It was raining pretty hard in the valley today and we didnt have much motivation to get on the bus to go ski in zero visibility, so we procrastinated for a while and decided to go play with ice tools on the bottom of the mer du glace. I have never been ice climbing, and while this probably doesnt quite get me my merit badge, i did get to spend some time on the front points of my crampons. Fun day.

Rylan scoping out the best ice crag on the glacier....and maybe picking his nose?

We built a short toprope on a curved ice block near the end of the glacier, and spent about an hour playing around. fun stuff. the guys that climb really steep ice must be animals. cause it is hard.

Here is Jason protecting himself with a two-ice screw anchor, just in case the 4 feet of exposure made him black out again. just kidding jason.

So we skipped the rainy day in Chamonix for some rainy roped ice bouldering, and had waffles in town to follow it up. not a bad day....