I should've gone to New Jersey this weekend, it probably would have been 2 or 3 degrees warmer way down south in Princeton

Here are some photos from this weekend's climbing. Mark F's tip on tucking a hand in at the _base_ of the neck/upper back saved me from numb fingers for the umpteenth time this winter. (thanks Mark!)
Climb photos

N i c e !
Gear shots are my favorite. Plus, pictures always perk up the message _base_!


I couldn’t resist touching it up a bit.

I guess my last officially-winter climb was last Wednesday on a bur oak in a park south of Minneapolis. Just a quick one while the rest of my family was at the Minnesota zoo. Snowy cloudy day, nice typical park-grown bur oak. My main concern was losing any dropped gear in the snow. The sheriff drove by at one point, but I don't think he spotted me - hasn't developed a search image for climbers yet.

That said, we have another month or so of more or less winter-like climbing. It's spring, but northern Minnesota is a bit slow on the uptake about that - temperatures in the single digits at night and a few inches of snow on the ground. The nice thing about climbing is that I don't have to wait until it warms up; just need to find the time somehow...

Moss: glad the handwarming tip works for you. Apparently the eskimos use it all the time - they only put on gloves when it's really bitter and they aren't doing any fine work with their hands.

Here in the frozen northland -- north Georgia that is -- about the closest I have come to a winter climb was getting out in some ankle-deep white stuff along the Appalachian Trail and ascending a white oak that is locally known as the "h" tree, because one limb apparently bent over many years ago and got stuck in the ground about eight feet from the main trunk. It then began to root itelf and grow along with the main tree. I was able to ascend the main trunk and then lower myself onto the top of the "h." The tree is located on the eastern slope of Big Cedar Mountain, between Woody Gap and Neel Gap, along a very popular stretch of the Appalachain Trail.

FYI -- those of you in the real "Frozen Northland" will want to sweat a little when I tell you the daytime temps here have been in the mid-60s to lower 70s for a month now, and the overnight lows have rarely dropped below 45 degrees. But the best winter weather, in my humble opinion, was found down in the Republic of Panama in January -- when it was about 85-90 during the day and 60-65 at night.

Have you hugged your trees today,
Wild Bill from Dawsonville
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Bill. . . The “h” Tree???
If ever your out that way again, a couple of photos would be great.
Sounds like a mighty interesting phenomena!

Waiting for Warmth in NJ,
Electrojake

Bill: I'm with EJ - I want to see the "H" tree. I've seen holly do the falling over and re-rooting trick a lot in the Big Thicket of SE Texas, but I've never seen an oak pull that off.