I know Mark get's this all the time in the far northern rogue outpost of Bemidji, Minnesota but...

Last Sunday we did our annual winter climb hosted by my friend Ian Sporre with a group of New England climbers. No photos from me unfortunately. I started out the day at 6am with a 3 hour drive to the far reaches of southwestern Connecticut. 10 climbers met in a dirt parking lot, reduced down to a few vehicles and headed off to the trailhead. As we hiked in it was 10°f., the walk was all uphill so by the time we reached the climb site everyone was pretty much overheated and taking off layers. Ropes were set in white oak, black birch and shellbark hickory. I only had one good shot with my slingshot before the slings got too cold to do anything. I packed the slings in with some handwarmers but it wasn't enough. Worked on hand throwing after that. A few climbers had Kevin Bingham Rope Wrenches, a good demo was done showing line placement strategies, I was impressed at the teeny tiny branches folks were able to climb on due to distributing the SRT line through the upper crowns of the trees. I set up around 75' in a hickory and started firing my foot slingshot at whatever trees I could get to that had a climber. Finally got a line over to a white oak. Climber on the ground anchored one end of my 200' HTP on a mini portawrap art the base of the hickory and tensioned with my compact 4:1 rig after the climber in the white oak tied off the other end. Was the most obstructed traverse I've ever done, climbed through the tops of three black birch. The traverse was generally uphill, I noticed I was struggling too much and realized the cam on my Microcender progress capture was upside down in the device. The twisted wire connecting the cam to the shell had broken just after my ascent into the hickory. So... that little wire not only prevents a climber from losing parts in the tree, it also makes it difficult to orient the cam incorrectly. Bit of a problem. To solve I stood on the very top of a black birch and took the Microcender off the rope. I still had my micropulley attachment to the rope to help me out but it was a bit of a dance with the tree and rope movement. With the cam installed correctly I only had a difficult ascent up the long incline instead of an impossibility. By this time temps maxed at 20°f and we were thinking it was pretty balmy. We caught some pretty good winds in the tops of the trees but they were intermittent gusts only so it was enough for some excitement but not enough to be miserable. Back on the ground no wind, the sun shone and it felt like a great day to be in the woods. Out of the woods we headed to a local eatery, washed downed some hearty fare with good brew and told as many lies as we could about all the amazing things seen and done in trees.
-AJ

Sounds like a really nice day.

Yeah, 10 deg F is getting on the cool side, especially in the wind. 20's definitely qualifies as mild. I'll be up in a nearby research pine tomorrow in torrid but windy 30's.

75* and sunny here in Jacksonville, FL today.

Yall have fun now, ya hear.

We almost hit 60 a couple days ago, still warmish for this time of year low 40's. So far this is not a winter, I don't know what it is but it's not a winter.
-AJ