When we got to the parking pull-out, the weather was -1C. As I led off from the base of the climb, feeling the rock sapping the warmth out of my fingers and trying to remember how much traction my shoes get at those temperatures, I found myself wondering why we do these things to ourselves. A few pitches up, laughing ourselves silly and looking out at beautiful snow covered peaks, I remembered that any day in the mountains is better than a day in the city.

I led the bottom half of the route and then turned over lead duties to Katherine which let me climb the rest of the route in insulated gloves and approach shoes. Not only was climbing in insulated gloves way warmer, it actually made the route a much more interesting challenge since I was way more focused on my footwork than I would normally be on this route.