Ice Climbing - Main Flow WI4 - The Narrows - Full Climb

Climb: Main Flow WI4
Area: The Narrows
Region: Eastern Pennsylvania / Delaware Valley
Climber: Adam Nawrot
00:00 - Full View
00:03 - Starting the First Pitch (Bottom Tier WI3 & Middle Tier WI4)
02:13 - 1st Screw on First Pitch
06:35 - Topping Out the Bottom Tier Step
07:02 - Starting the Middle Tier
09:05 - 2nd Screw First Pitch
09:34 - Continuing up the Middle Tier
11:55 - 3rd Screw First Pitch
12:38 - Continuing up the Middle Tier
14:08 - 4th Screw First Pitch
15:04 - Left Foot Blowout
15:38 - Topping out Middle Tier
15:52 - Looking up at the Top Tier
16:12 - Starting the Second Pitch (Top Tier WI3)
18:09 - 1st Screw Second Pitch
19:13 - Top Tier Ramp
22:29 - 2nd Screw Second Pitch
23:27 - Top Tier Ramp Continued
27:08 - 3rd Screw Second Pitch
28:04 - Finishing Up the Good Climbing on the Top Tier
30:22 - 4th Screw Second Pitch
30:50 - Questing into the Brambles
32:40 - 5th Screw Second Pitch
33:25 - ZigZaging the Choss
35:27 - Wishing I had used my extension on the 5th screw instead of the 2nd.
35:50 - Trying to remember where the bolts are
36:05 - Bushwhacking
38:45 - Topping Out the Second Pitch

[@larryborshard7824]

Breathtaking! I may have been grumbling things that I'd need to tell myself on this climb (like lose 20 lbs!), but the fact that you didn't fall and you completed the climb says it all. Mad strength and stamina to put in screws on a bent arm, wow! Nice finesse, not a lot of icefall. Much respect for climbing on so much candlestick ice. Tough to put in more screws with those conditions. Thanks for an awesome and inspiring video!

[@SWISSPOWERJET]

very cool - very good climb and pictures - what camera and stick do you use ?

[@webhiker2]

Nice Video! Great lead some serious runout!

[@philwaters9751]

Excellent stuff... Steady as she goes Capt'n... Can you post a pic of what the camera rig looks like? I'm off to the Alps in 3 weeks for a bit of a tour, and can't stand having a camera on my helmet. ( A cheapo chinese one, not a GoPro. I'd love to take some footage of some of the ( much easier) ice I'll be scratching if only to get a grip on the gaps in my technique. I've no idea how you get these shots without the boom/stick getting in the way, assuming that's how you do it?

[@sourlandhomemovies222]

Hey Phil! I use an insta360 RS One Inch camera on the insta360 10ft pole and let it hang out of my back pack. Not at full extension, but enough so that I don’t hit the camera with my swings and a little extra.

[@philwaters9751]

Cheers mate. I'll look at the kit. Last time I made a climbing movie was on the White Cliffs of Dover with Mick Fowler back in 93. It's definatly changed since then! ( as have I). I made an A frame camera mount for a pen vid camera, with a 4 foot lead to a pro batamax back pack VCR. Weighed about 28 punds. The frame was a proper Heath Robinson affair made from water pipe and gaffer tape. The link failed within minutes, so we re did lots of tight shots of picks going in, hands on handles, front points teetering etc, and stitched it together in editing. It was pretty far out for the time and the first climbing film ever on chalk. If your ever in Blighty, you have to have a go on the chalk down near Peacehaven/Newhaven way, not far from Brighton. You can do it in shorts in the summer! ... A-mazing. Stay safe matey... xxx ;-)@@sourlandhomemovies222 .

[@sourlandhomemovies222]

@@philwaters9751holy cow that’s gnarly! What kinda gear do you use to protect chalk?

[@philwaters9751]

That's a good question. We used to use snargs, but they could take up to 70 blows with a 2 lb lump hammer to place. When establishing a route, especially on the lead, I pioneerd using a cordless drill with a wood bit and then hammering modified re-bar into the holes. Then I started using cheap ex russian titanium tube screws. Much more user friendly, and they'd squeek as you tourqued them into the hole, just a bit bigger than the core, but not as big as the threads. I did a few routes leaving flagged plastic tubes in the holes for others to then utilize, but then moved North and ain't been back for over a decade. No...I tell a lie. I visted Newhaven, just below the old castle there where I opened up a small top rope training area with a bird a few years back. I could just make out the old re-bar hangers and tat. It all gets pretty dirtied up in the English weather. You can drive to the base of that wee crag... Others set up superior leading and top roping 'gyms' near Saltdean under massive overhangs. Niel Gresham, Dave Peglar ( ran a local climbing shop, I never met him) and friends with sponsorship, a place called The Pleasuredome. Spectres and Bulldogs are very good in the stiff, sometimes very hard chalk, especially on the lead. If I get the old movie compressed someday, I'll ping you a copy, though I imagine there are other more up to date movies out now. I think Neil Gresham made a few, and once did it for a sausage advert on telly! But it is still very niech. You have to watch out for the sharp flint nodules, sometimes a good 10 inches long, sticking out of the chalk, as a whipper can pull the ropes over the flints and that's not a great idea. Phil Thornhill and Mick Fowler, Britains most famous Alpinist and light weight Himalayan legand were the original pioneers I believe. There will be something about it in his book, No Easy Way. The Challanging Life Of A Climbing Taxman... Which I'll buy as soon as the price drops...😂@@sourlandhomemovies222

[@sourlandhomemovies222]

Haha! Wild stuff Phil! @@philwaters9751

[@badacerske]

Is this the Delaware water gap?

[@sourlandhomemovies222]

This is an area called the Narrows between Upper Black Eddy and Kintnersville along the Delaware in PA.