I can’t imagine I’ll be getting out for anymore days on ice after today, but considering how good todays was I don’t really care. At about 9:30 a.m. this morning I decided to go see if Cloudwalker was in up in Huntington Ravine. I figured it was worth a solo attempt since it doesn’t really take screws anyway. I didn’t get up to Pinkham Notch until 11 a.m. or so, so I trucked up the trail as fast as I could. I got to the base of Cloudwalker around noon, nowhere near in time to climb it. There were remnants up high, but it looked like rain decimated it several days ago. So I shifted to Plan B — solo Pinnacle and Damnation. I was right at Pinnacle, so I hopped on that first, then I trucked over to Diagonal, downclimbed that, and went up Damnation. I had planned to head out via Lion’s Head, but the wind was bad enough I opted to climb down Central rather than cross the Alpine Garden. I hustled down the trail and got back to my car at Pinkham just before 4 p.m. It was a beautiful day, nice enough for my face to get sunburned. I saw only a handful of people in the ravine — one party on Pinnacle, one on Damnation, and then two skiers heading up Central. I know lots of people are thinking rock climbing (as am I), but when days like this arrive they aren’t for passing up.

I shot some video of the day, which I pulled together here:

Also, I got a pretty good shot of one pair of the four guys climbing Damnation. It was great to run into you guys! Hopefully we’ll catch up again.

Other than that, I think this officially marks the last hurrah of ice for me. I got in a few thousand feet today. It’s going to have to last me through next fall, at which point I’ll be gunning for the Black Dike as soon as it’s cold for three nights in a row. Until then.