A little route history here, the “Thang”, also known as “the Frigid Inseminator”, is an icicle that forms from a seep that leaks out of some horizontal cracks below the roof that the larger and more famous “Fang” ice pillar pours over. Historically this little bit of frozen drool is fat at the top but tapers down to nothingness a meter or two from the ground, kind of like an inverted traffic cone suspended from beneath the roof. In the olden days when dinosaurs roamed the Earth wearing foot fangs this thing might touch down on a really phat ice year, but still be no thicker than your wrist. Mountain Project has Paul Sibley and Steve Pomerance as first ascensionists in 1985. Jack Roberts reports that Paul Sibley aided up the three bolts placed in rock on the right side of the climb, traversed to the ice and led up to the top while Steve followed whilst eschewing the use of aid. It was during this same general time period (mid 1980’s) that Mike Carr and I did it as a straight on ice lead with no bolts, but I am unsure of the exact year.
I had returned to the Denver area in 1984 from an enforced absence caused by the mental self abuse known as graduate school and immediately struck up a very productive climbing partnership with Mike Carr. I had known Mike and his twin brother Tom in Gunnison in the 1970’s but had been somewhat awed by their reputation as completely gonzo skiers. This reputation was well deserved as Mike and Tommy had made the first descent of Cross Couloir on Mount of the Holy Cross on both alpine skis and telemark skis. Tommy would go on make a ski descent of the Liberty Ridge on Mt Rainier at exactly the same time my friend John Ferguson was climbing it – they missed having a high speed meeting of the minds by about 50 ft, but that is another story. Those first winters back in 1984 and 1985 Mike and I climbed a lot of ice together, especially in Vail. Our routine was to get a thermos of coffee and a half dozen donuts, drive up to Vail before the sun was up, and climb until we were delirious with fatigue and starvation. One morning after the required lap up “the Dez” we wandered over to the Fang and admired the phatness of the ice plastered to the rock behind it. We started ice bouldering the moves to get onto it and both got up about 10 feet when we thought “wall heck, we can do this”. Mike won the coin toss and got the lead, putting in a couple of screws in the upper portions of this approximately 80 ft climb. I do not recall there being bolts in the rock (which may say more about my memory than anything else), so Mike was at least 20 feet up when he felt the ice was thick enough to take a screw without compromising the integrity of the whole thing. After joining Mike at the top, we made a “vee” tunnel in the ice with two screws, then threaded some webbing through the holes to make a rap anchor. This was the first time I had ever done such a thing and thought it quite the clever trick – certainly more secure than some of the u-shaped trenches I had carved into the ice with my big bird to make an ice bollard rappel anchor. It is my understanding that rap bolts have sprouted in the rock above the seep that forms this thing. I only did this climb one other time some years later when those three bolts had appeared at the start of the climb. I must also note that I have never seen it as thick again as it was when Mike and I did it.