Steamboat Alley

Ok so here's the pictures from this Monday.  Mike and I climbed "Steamboat Alley" on Steamboat mountain, which is on the way to Cataract falls south of Augusta.  We climbed it last year for the first time.  I led that year and Mike led this year.  It's a sorta sublimated / polished WI5, vertical on a slightly overhanging wall, older ice as the water flow shuts down early in the year.  It was a thin, intimidating but a really really fun lead. This year it is in great shape (lots of ice compared to last year, although Mike would disagree!)
 
It's about a 4 hour hike to get into it, and it's a total biatch.  Steep, slippery, hard. It sucked last year and it sucked this year too.  But the climb is awesome, so it makes you feel like it was worth it, but we probably won't go back there again this year.  Unless global warming forms the top part, then I'm there dude.

The cave at the top has a nice little flow in it that wasn't there last year at all, and the top part above that is dry (the black water streaked rock you can see from the road).  So you can climb out of the cave, but then you're sorta stranded.  You can just barely see the ice in the cave from the road with binoculars. 
 
V-thread and rap the route.

It's a sweet route and I recommend it, just start early and stash some beer at the truck, cause it's a long day.

Thad