Destination story · Photo story
Broken Hearts in the South Fork Valley
12 photographs · Tap any image to explore the gallery.
Broken Hearts is the kind of ice climb that needs a wide photograph. Pull back from the climber and the surrounding walls keep going: towers of rock, snow-covered ledges, scattered trees and more ice tucked into the drainage above.
The route sits in the South Fork of the Shoshone River valley near Cody, Wyoming. It is a multipitch climb with a changing character, moving from lower-angle ice toward steeper upper tiers. The pillars are part of a much bigger landscape.
These photographs bring together Ryan Edwards and Aaron Mulkey on Broken Hearts. The wider frames show the setting. The closer ones bring the attention back to the climbing, with a red jacket standing out against pale ice and dark rock.
Inside the amphitheatre
In the photographs of Ryan, the ice occupies only a small part of the frame. A broad pillar drops over a rock band on the right, while a thinner ribbon sits in the shaded corner to the left. Above them, snow and trees break up the walls all the way to the skyline.
The climber provides the scale. Without that small red figure, it would be easy to underestimate the height of the ice or lose the pillar among the surrounding cliffs. The closer view keeps the same setting, but makes the rope and people at the base easier to pick out.
From the wall to the climber
Broken Hearts builds through a series of ice steps rather than presenting everything in one continuous wall. The upper climbing includes My Only Valentine, one of the route’s named pitches. How much ice forms above the lower tiers varies, which is part of the character of this climb.
The next photographs move from the broad view toward Aaron on the pillar. At a distance, the ice reads as a clean vertical stripe. Closer in, its surface becomes much more complicated: rounded bulges, long grooves, hanging icicles and pockets of shadow. His tools and crampons make the difference between those two views tangible.
A different angle
Looking down and across the pillar changes the picture again. The ice stands clear of the rock behind it, and the snow-covered ground opens out below. A belayer in blue and a coil of red rope give the eye another reference point.
These frames hold both parts of the scene together. There is the immediate action of a climber moving up the ice, and there is the larger shape of the pillar, tapering upward from its broad base. The trees and their shadows stretch across the snow beside it.
The details in the ice
In the tighter photographs, the canyon recedes and the texture takes over. Pale green ice sits against bands of grey and brown rock. Aaron’s position changes from frame to frame, while the rope traces his line back down the pillar.
Together, the photographs show why a single view only tells part of the story of Broken Hearts. The close frames reveal the climbing. The wide ones put it back into the South Fork landscape.
Planning a visit
These are archive photographs, not a report on current conditions. Ice formation and the condition of the upper tiers vary. Anyone considering Broken Hearts needs current local information and an assessment appropriate to the conditions and their team. This photo story is not a route topo or a substitute for that planning.