Kehlerfall: wet, but warm
Two short pitches in poor ice. Not the conditions you set out for.
Machine-translated from the German original. The German version is the one I actually wrote.
Two short pitches, and the ice was poor.
Wet and warm is the least pleasant combination in ice climbing. Wet means you get soaked and your gloves are useless after the first pitch. Warm means the ice softens and both tools and screws hold less reliably.
You climb more carefully and more slowly, and it’s a good deal less fun.
We were out, though, and in February that’s most of the point.