The most fun part of the route is pulling the bulge, which was about 50 feet up the route from our current belay. We needed to traverse right and place one more belay below the short, steep section before pulling up over this last and only real obstacle. Unfortunately, the ice below the bulge was some of the worst on the route, as Brian would find out.

Brian: As I led off on the next pitch I learned another self-evident truth. That while ice is formed by water, not all water turns to ice. This was made abundantly clear as the leader above called out "Water!"

Water? What the hell was this?

I found out in short order as a veritable river came cascading down to my left. I spent the rest of the pitch moving right and trying to avoid soaking gear and myself.

I don't remember when the screws froze up on me. Suffice it to say that I was more than annoyed and it put a real damper on my leading. What it mostly did was take two screws out of action from an already meager rack. Now I had to lead with less yet still keep two in reserve for the belay.