Unfortunately, Roadside Gully and Hidden Amphitheater have not recovered from the thaw that hit us on January 30-31. We never received an extended period of single digit temps in February, and the photos below show the result.

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Roadside Gully's approach is washed out, but Glass Menagerie looks in. - 3/3/2013       Open water and thin delaminated ice conditions at Hidden Amphitheater - 3/3/2013

Looking across the river at the Gemini Gullies, it appears that those climbs fared much better that Roadside and Hidden. The first pitches look fat, but I am unable to assess the top outs on the final headwalls. The Geminis are the only safe bet for anyone exploring the area.

Randy Edelman and I enjoyed warm winter conditions today at Ricketts Glen. A "classic" PA Ice Climbing area! Other than open water on Ganoga Falls, most routes touched down and were in climbable condition. The warm sun did cause the routes to the left of the falls to bake out, and they became a challenge to protect.

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Crossing the stream was a challenge. Setting up to climb.

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Cradleboard was an easy lead. Randy led two seperate variations.

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Dutch Eagle (L) and two separate pillars on War Bonnet (R) were touching down. Dutch Eagle was quite baked out in the sun, and screws would have been suspect. We opted to toprope.

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Savage, War Bonnet and Cradleboard (L to R). Ganoga Falls was running strongly.

Took a quick recon up to Roadside Gully and Hidden Amphitheater and Roadside Gully this morning. Unfortunately there has been minimal ice growth in the past week. Conditions have not improved much due to the excessive runoff remaining from the heavy rain event 10 days ago. Both Roadside and Hidden are still flowing strongly, and we will need at least a solid week of single digits to recover those routes. The Gemini Gullies look to be the best bet for climbing at Lock Haven.

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Still open water in both Roadside Gully (L) and Hidden Amphitheater (R).

Ice is coming back from the wipe out we experienced last week. Wayne Barnard has recovered his ice tower, and is shown doing laps on this ~50 ft free standing pillar that is setup in his back yard. It is quite the ice gardening project.

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It's time to "Go Climb"!

The ice really took a hit from the record warm temps and heavy rain this past week. Below are some pics I took this morning of the Bucktail Canyon climbs, and Wayne Barnard took some shots of the routes at the Montgomery Cliffs.

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Roadside Gully has open running water the distance of the low angle approach, and the first steep tier appaears to be partially washed away. Hidden Amphitheater is currently a strong running waterfall from all the runnoff coming down Green Run.

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Looking across the river from Rt 120, it appears that the Gemini Gullies did not get hit as hard as the other locations in Bucktail Canyon. At Montgomery, Route 2 was wiped out with only new ice re-appearing.

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At Montgomery, Route 3 fared a bit better than than the others. Route 4 was washed away. It is interesting to look at the same routes in last weeks conditions posts and see how much the routes suffered. With the cold temps this weekend, they are starting to recover.

Wayne Barnard took a recon trip to Montgomery today. The routes currently look climbable and protectable, but the weather forecast for tomorrow is quite dismal. Hopefully this is not a "here today and gone tomorrow" scenario with the record highs that are forecast. Hopefully some ice will remain and cold weather will return to recover the routes.

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Route 2 and Route 3 at Montgomery Cliffs 1/29/13. Photos by Wayne Barnard.

Route 4 at Montgomery Cliffs 1/29/2013. Wayne Barnard photo.

Randy Edelman, Dutch Sanders, Dwight Kempf, Roger Moore, and I spent most of the day in Hidden Amphitheater. We were able to get good screw placements in all three pitches, and then finished up the day doing top rope laps on the second and third tiers. At least three other parties were taking advantage of the fine local conditions and were climbing in Bucktail Canyon today.

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Come and get it!  Took a solo recon up Rt 120 to see how the ice conditions were progressing. With only 5 nights of single digit temps this past week, I was not expecting the ice to be in as good of condition as it really is. The photos below show why I am currently thumping my tail in delight. Have at it folks!.

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Roadside Gully: Observations from the road 1/26/2013. The low angle approach is filling in nicely. The first steep tier (buldge) appears climbable. The second steep tier looks a bit thin. Glass Menangerie on the third tier appears to be touching down.

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Hidden Amphitheater 1/26/2013. All three tiers appear thin but IN! Topping out on the second and third pitches look to be quite sporting.

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Hidden Amhitheater: The first tier looks a bit thin but still an easy route. The second tier looks pretty good considering the short cold snap we have experienced. Topping out on the third tier will be a scratch fest.

Not sure how things will fare next week as the temps are supposed to rise up to the high 40's. Then, cold conditions are supposed to return by the weekend.

Wayne Barnard, Randy Edelman and I took an early morning recon trip up into Bucktail Canyon to assess the ice conditions on Roadside Gully, the Gemini Gullies, and Hidden Amphitheater. Nope, not ready yet folks.

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Roadside Gully - Jan. 5, 2013                                                                                  Hidden Amphitheater - Jan. 5, 2012

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Gemini Gullies - Jan 5, 3013                                                                                   New sign in front of the Geminis.

We never had the opportunity to climb ice in Central Pennsylvania last season, as it never stayed cold long enough for any routes to form. Hope this is not a trend, and this year will be better than last.

Feel free to check our Ice Condition Archive Pages located along the right sidebar to see what we can expect if the weather cooperates. Please use this site and www.NEIce.com to assist you in determining where to climb.

HELP WANTED! Please help keep this site up to date. Use the conditions form listed on the "Submit" tab above, or email your Pennsylvania Ice Climbing trip reports and photos to dave@hikebikeclimb.net and I will post them to this site.