Last Night's Adventure in London: Indoor Ice Climbing

At this point it should be clear that I had one shot too many in my Americano this morning. I'm also pretty jazzed about my experience doing some indoor ice climbing. I've done plenty of rock climbing, but I've always been fascinated with the idea of scaling a frozen waterfall. Turns out you can do that right in the heart of central London (ain't cheap though).

I rented crampons, axes, helmet and harness and got a one hour private lesson. By the end of the hour I had scaled their overhanging wall, which was pretty freaky. It is amazing how well the ice axes support weight on a seemingly thin penetration of ice. Like most other climbing though, the feet are by far the trickiest part and front-pointing witht he crampons takes a bit of practice. It was also four degrees below inside the room. 

Check out the Vertical Chill video below for a look at the wall (I neglected to take pictures):