Jen is way too sick to go ice climbing and way too psyched to stay at home, so we went ice climbing.It's amazing how many accidents happen as a result of a belayer lowering a climber off the end of a rope. It can happen easily if someone isn't paying attention while doing a pretty mundane task. I topped out the day's first pitch and the anchor was completely covered. So I traversed 30 feet to the left and lowered off a different route. I didn't know it, but the 70m rope was about 25 feet too short to make it up one pitch, across the ledge, and down the other. Jen was tired from a night without much sleep and still pretty sick. It was the perfect combination of distraction and confusion to get me dropped. But... when I got about 30 feet off the ground Jen stopped, and I looked down to see a couple feet of line left before the end disappeared through her brake hand. I secured myself while she tied into the end and got the counter-weight belay. Had my belayer not been paying attention despite her crappy condition, I'd probably be in the hospital right now. Thanks.
Other than that little victory in safety, we climbed a few pitches of ice and one mixed choss pile. Temps are high in SLC, but the ice is still bomber in Provo.
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