![]() ![]() At the bottom, I unhook my safety harness from the rope and wait to make my return to the top - otherwise known as the hard part.ĭuring the summer, Bridal Veil is a wild, cascading waterfall. With Molitoris belaying (using a secured rope) to help me down, it’s easy enough, and only takes a few minutes. But if you like hard experiences, it’s very fulfilling.”ĭown I go, ricocheting past the ice, legs stretched out as much as possible in front of me - skills I’ve gleaned from the few times I’ve been rock climbing. It requires physical strength, more than just technique. “You have to pay attention to things falling on you. “It’s cold,” says Wojtowicz, a financial engineer who lives in DUMBO. Veteran climber Jacek Wojtowicz, 51, is a bit less encouraging. Krauss, here for her first ice climb, cheerfully tells me not to worry, and that it’s “really fun” before heading out of the preserve. Alexis Krauss, of Brooklyn band Sleigh Bells, finds ice climbing to be “really fun.” Christian Johnston ![]() (The last time I saw Krauss, she was performing to a crowd of thousands on a hot summer night at Governors Island). It just so happens that this is Alexis Krauss, lead singer of the Brooklyn-based noise-pop band Sleigh Bells. The good news is that even though I’m wearing eight layers of merino wool, fleece, down and Gore-Tex, I’m still too cold to be nervous about the vertigo-inducing drop.Ī climber suddenly appears at my feet, pulling herself forward and up over the precipice with each swing of her ice tools. I must first rappel down to be able to climb back up. Greg Mionske/Red Bull Content Pool REUTERS/Lucas Jackson Jon Snow attempts a rather perilous ascent of the great ice wall in HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” HBOĪfter a 15-minute trek through the woods of Platte Clove Preserve, we arrive at the top of Bridal Veil Falls, which has turned to solid ice over weeks of freezing temperatures. “When I first started thinking about climbing Niagara Falls, I was still a kid,” Will Gadd, who finally did it last month at age 48, tells The Post. I finally decide to embrace the cold weather - on a 20-degree day - and find out whether ice is nice. “We show them how to tie in, belay, climb.” “You can come with no experience,” he says. Plus, says Molitoris, beginners are welcome. The sport draws an eclectic group, from artists to engineers, and tends to be ideal for people with both a strong instinct for adventure and the ability to stay focused. “It’s more calculated and thoughtful,” says Molitoris, who has been guiding rock and ice climbers since 1991. Kind of like a real-life version of ascending the great ice wall from “Game of Thrones.”īut ice climbing is more than just an “adrenaline-junkie, need-the-rush” sport, insists Marty Molitoris, founder/director of Alpine Endeavors, which specializes in climbing instruction and guiding in the Gunks, Catskills and Adirondacks. And last month it was so cold that ice climber Will Gadd climbed up a frozen Niagara Falls - the first time that’s ever been done. It’s been an arctic winter, the coldest February in NYC since 1934. ![]() That’s why I ended up 2½ hours north of the city in the Catskills, ready to jump off a cliff over a 90-foot frozen waterfall. Sometimes, enough is enough - even for hardy New Yorkers who exercise outdoors throughout the winter, braving single-digit temps while jogging in Central Park or toughing it out on a frigid bike commute. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |