Once we arrived at the park, the first thing that needed to happen was to put anchors in place. The guide and one volunteer did this while I waited on the ground, 50 feet below. This took a little while, and I was starting to get a little cold, but I was very excited, so it didn't bother me too much.
After the anchors were set up, we were ready to do some top rope ice climbing. There was one other group climbing that day, but there were several routes available to climb along the wall of the quarry.
One side note, in order to ice climb, we had special boots, crampons, ice axes and helmets. On top of wearing snowpants and a winter jacket, this was much less comfortable than the shorts and t shirt with rock shoes outfit that I usually have underneath my harness.
I tried 3 different routes. The first one gave me some trouble, and I had a short fall. The second one was really easy for me, and the third came pretty easy as well.
It was great to finally give ice climbing a try as it was a goal of mine. It was quite different from rock climbing, but definitely provided a similar thrill.
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