Halloweening and Ice climbing...

Hey kids,

Halloween was a freakin hoot in Cow-town. The sisters threw a private party at this lounge-bar type place where one of em works. The party was probably one of the best parties I've ever been to - beautiful people, no cheeseballs and everyone was in dope costumes. What was I you ask? I went as a Rig Pig (what they call the guys who work on the oil rigs. Here's the one and only pic I have seen so far of me in it from that night, I forgot my camera. I actually have no memory of this pic being taken so you know the Kevman had his engines revving that night!



Yeehaw!



On Tuesday of this week my Calgary Al and I went ice climbing in Kananaskis. Our objective was this beautiful line called R&D (a 4+ for those of you who know what that means). To get to the climb we had to hike up a snow covered mountain with snow almost thigh deep in sections - there is SO much snow around here for Novemeber, looks like it's going to be a killer ski season!





Initially Al was supposed to lead the climb, however he decided to try some new pieces of equipment which were unfamiliar to him and ended up hopelessly pumping himself out about 10 feet off the ground... there was noway he could finish the remaining 140 feet of tricky ice climbing.






I stepped up - kinda wishing for something easier to start off my Rockies ice climbing career, however sometimes you just gotta do what you do. This climb was steep and full of dubious ice (basically means trying to place ice screws that would hold a fall wasn't too easy). I blasted through the crux (hard part of the climb) feeling like I wasn't gonna make it... thankfully i got past the first tier and hit a MUCH needed resting stance... phew. Then the 'Screaming Barfies' hit (basically while you are ice climbing your hands are above your head while gripping the ice tools very hard - so all the blood in your hands rushes down your arms and your hands go numb. Once you lower your hands the blood rushes in... along with it is this horrible pain... which basically hurts so much you arent sure if you wanna scream or barf... horrible sounding I know, but it only lasts 10 seconds).

Anyways, once the barfies left I continued up the long climb taking my time and enjoying this dream come true to climb ice in the Rocky Mountians! I topped out with a giant smile on my face, along with a layer of ice that was covering my helmet, jacket, gloves and pants; the top of the route was dripping water yet the outside temp was -7 so it all froze when it hit me.






Al followed up cleaning my screws just as darkness was setting in. We rappelled the route with our headlamps on. Once down I had to stuff Al's feet in my armpits - he wore these stupid super high-performance shoes that aren't meant for climbing in cold temps. We were worried about his feet for a while actually - he went an hour without feeling them... thanks to my hot body ;) we saved him and his toes!

Down the mountian we went - slogging through thigh deep snow in sections.