When Black Flies Attack!

Many of us were fortunate enough to get out this weekend and enjoy the beautiful weather.  Having a great stretch of sunshine after weeks of rain is always a bonus.  There is, however, one thing that I never seem to be prepared for - the black fly season.

According to what I read this morning there are over 1,800 known species of black fly in the world today.  I also learned that they are an important part of the ecosystem and can be found throughout the world.  Of course the rational side of my brain totally understands how important these creatures are to the ecosystem.  Then there is the irrational side of my brain.  This part of my brain would love to wipe out the entire species as quickly as possible.  This past Friday night while at White Horse Ledge in North Conway I was reminded of something that I already knew: the power of one is no match for the power of many.

A simple outing gone awry...

When Brian and I arrived at the base of White Horse the black flies were nothing more then a nuisance.  It was not until the second anchor of Sliding Board that I fully realized what Brian and I were in for.  As soon as I stepped onto the small ledge the flood gates opened.  They swarmed around my head, crawled up into my helmet and within seconds had completely covered my shins and forearms.  I breathed them in and coughed them up.  There was little I could do other then build my anchor and belay Brian up to the ledge so he could join in on all the fun.

My shins, arms and neck became an all you can eat buffet....

Brian did not stay long.  He quickly stripped the gear from my harness and began to climb.  I guess he thought he could climb above the swarm and leave them behind.  No such luck.  I could see Brian swatting and swinging his arms wildly against the onslaught.  Not an easy thing to do while trying to keep one's balance.  This could have turned tragic since Brian was at least 30 feet above his last piece of protection.

A couple pitches later we put our tails between our legs and began our retreat.  As much as we wanted to continue the climb and enjoy the evening, there was little we could do other then run and hide from the insatiable hunger of the black fly...