A solo ascent of Martha, Rocky Mountain Natl. Park

Up in Rocky Mountain National Park, right beside the mighty Long's Peak is Mt. Lady Washington.
This is the home of Martha 5.4 WI2 M2. ?    It's an 800ft. mixed climb of steep snow,
with five constrictions of rock & ice steps.  These constrictions are the cruxes of the climb.  During our ascent we found the first, and the last of steps to be the main cruxes.  The first step was dry, and required dry tooling up a chimney type feature.  The hard part about this was wearing a pack.
The last step provided the best ice of the climb, and was a nice steep bit of fun.

Chasm Lake / Long's Peak

In training our legs for Patagonia (February 6th departure!!) Liz and I thought it would be a good idea to take a hike in our boots, with a heavy pack of course..  As we walk across the frozen Chasm Lake, our climb comes into view.  Neither of us had climbed this before.  It looks easy Liz states, followed by let's try to solo it!  What babe?  I mean YES, we should solo it.  We can always stop and rope up if necessary.
So upward we go!  1hour 45 minutes later we sit on the top of the route, but below the windy ridge.
We take in the lovely sunshine, fire up the JetBoil, and sip on some Starbucks instant coffee.
What a great day.  Here is a picture journey, mostly all of Liz soloing up behind me.

Awesome bubbles rising through the ice!

Put that rope away!

Step 1

Above step 1.  The whole climb is like this except for the 5 steps.

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Another shot of step 4

Step 5      Good ice!

Starbucks anyone?

A nice view on our hike out.  Damn those guys look tough!