North America, United States, Utah, Winter Ice Climbs

Publication Year: 1986.

Winter Ice Climbs. In March Bill Robins and I climbed a new frozen waterfall located in Santiquin Canyon. This climb—Angel of Fear—consisted of a single, mostly detached 200-foot pillar of ice. We ascended the left side of the pillar, up much overhanging ice, to a welcome cave. Bill made an unsuccessful attempt to chimney behind the pillar and turned the lead over to me in order to stop my uncontrollable shivering, since I had gotten soaked on the previous pitch. Climbing straight up the exposed outside face, for 100 vertical feet, I wearily pulled over the top as a blizzard hit with full fury. Tying into a small, shaky bush, I brought Bill up. The descent was erie, because the storm cut the visibility to about 20 feet, and we had a hard time swinging back into the cave from our free-hanging rappels. The rest of the descent and ski out was made in a hurry. We both think that this was the hardest ice climb yet done in Utah. The two falls to the west were also climbed: Automatic Control Theory, by Mark Bennett and Dick Jeffers, and The Candlestick, by Bennett and me.

Brian Smoot