February 3, 2013
Sunday Matt and I headed over to Scruffy Band (WI3) in the morning. The plan was to get a quick lap in before heading over to the GWI for a most unusual ice climbing meetup. Scruffy is a sweet little long single pitch route that reminded me of some of the route in the Daks, sort of a mix of Chouinards Gully and Arm and Hammer.
After Scruffy we headed over to the junk show on the GWI. While any given weekend day on the GWI is a junk show of perhaps at least 10-12 parties, this day was a little different.
I’m not sure who organized it, but a post in the MountainProject.com about a BBQ at the GWI. For the uninitiated the GWI is a great WI3/WI3- route just outside SLC. It starts with a 30 ft, low angle ice bulge. From the top of that it runs for about 100 ft up some snow to another low angle ice. This section is perhaps another 70 ft or so. At the top of this it levels off to the left and it is a huge ledge. At this ledge is where the BBQ went down.
Matt and I headed up to this ledge–at the end of a congo line of 4-5 people. Already on the ledge were about 30+ people some of whom, namely SLC photog great, Andrew Burr, were tossing snowballs down to the climbers on the way up. All in good fun right? He scored a direct hit on my helmet.
Once at the ledge it was a fun time socializing having a cold brew and even getting a nice hot dog fresh of the grill. Quite the junk show with the number of people but in the context it was a good time. Thanks to all the folks who schlepped up the gear, namely the charcoal and the huge Weber grill.
