Ice Climbing Adventures
by Robin Silver
When I was first asked by my friend Drew to go on the ice climbing trip I immediately had two thoughts...
1. There is no such thing as ice climbing, it’s just a fancy way to ask me to help him clear snow from his roof
2. You should never use the word "trip" when talking about climbing
After Drew convinced me that it was indeed a real sport, and could actually be a lot of "safe" fun... I was intrigued. A little bit of research and a little bit of reassurance that anyone could do it and I was in. I then spent the next 3 weeks planning, and reassuring my wife (and myself) that I would be fine.
Finally the weekend had arrived! Drew and I both had Friday off work so we would be departing Friday morning early. Funny thing about climbing... can't really do it that easily on the prairies... so off we go on a “short jaunt” to the Mountains by way of Calgary. Calgary took a "bit" more time than we had anticipated... but of course you have to have an obligatory drink with friends that are nice enough to lend you gear, and are unable to come climbing right? So needless to say... 14 hrs later we arrived in Nordegg, AB! First thing I was greeted to was a large group of enthusiastic climbers and the appropriate level of heckling of Drew (hey... he was driving!) for being the last ones to arrive. (Already I was liking the group!) Introductions were given, gear was sorted, and the new climbers (4 of us) were introduced to “crampons”. Nifty little devices they were!
The next morning we awoke and began to gather. Greg and Karla, our fantastic lead climbers took off with an advanced group to set the lines. We would be climbing 2 o'clock falls... which is located about 1 hr west of Nordegg. After a 15 minute hike into the falls I was quite immediately blown away. The falls were a series of cascading rises, each about 20-30' high. If the ice wasn’t spectacular enough, all you had to do was turn around and see a magnificent view of the Abraham Lake valley and surrounding mountains. C’est magnifique! We donned our gear and were given basic instructions on how to walk on ice with the crampons. For us newcomers, the first few steps were mostly the same... tentative stomps back and forth across the ice shelf learning how to balance and walk without tripping. That gave way quickly to confidence walking... so how hard could climbing be?
We were taught the basics, tied in and told to climb. Being 240lbs roughly, I first eyed the rope... looked strong enough.. I then eyed my belayer... looked a bit light....thank goodness they were attached to the ice also! I began climbing and after 5 furious minutes of kicking and chopping with my crampons and ice axes I hoped that my climbing friends would not be too amazed and envious by how far I had gone... I then looked down. Well to be more precise... I looked mostly to my left.... my belayer was still not more than 10’ below me. Hmmm... little bit harder than I had thought! So back to it I went! I spent about 10 mins climbing my first pitch. By the end I was near the top, about 25’ up and my forearms were cooking! I was taught to use my legs but it was hard telling my brain that my feet were more secure than my ice picks. I could “see” the picks in the ice after all ;).
The entire day was spent at 2 o’clock falls. We all took turns climbing, belaying and heckling. A few really interesting notable events happened that day! First, the safety rope stretched along the bottom came in handy. An unnamed climber dropped his axe but it was caught by the rope as it tumbled down the slope! It was all good though... he bought us some beer because of it. Another cool event was Solange, another beginner climber, persevering to crest the top of the water fall. Her rope was getting caught in some ice and she was tiring at 25’ up approximately. Despite this, she managed to get over the top with a lot of determination. In a subsequent climb, her crampon came loose TWICE on a challenging pitch. Both times she just came down and re-attached her crampon and tried again! Very fit lady! Finally, one of the coolest sights was Greg climbing a pitch that was part rock, part large icicles. He managed to scale it with ease...even stopping to do a Figure-Four for the camera!
Exhausted we returned to the Hostel in Nordegg. Right away I won a nice prize... Drew offered to do the gear if I would make us nachos for supper. DEAL! (lot easier to drink beer making nachos than sorting frozen wet ropes and gear). During supper preparation we got to talking with the Edmonton climbing crew that were there also and had some good laughs with them. We had a lot of good food, drank a few drinks and spent the better part of 2 hrs relaxing in the hot tub. Well... it was more of a warm-tub. Apparently having upwards of 15 folks in there doesn’t play nicely with the fuses.
Sunday we were up and off to Cline River for a few hours of climbing before getting back on the road. There was an amazing waterfall area in there that was much more challenging than 2 o’clock falls. Unfortunately, I had left my boots back at the Hostel so spent the day watching them climb and driving back to get my boots. But the group definitely had a fun time based upon their cheer at the end of the mornings climb. It was more challenging and unique pitches this time around... I was jealous!
Overall it was an incredible experience that I would recommend to anyone to try! A big thanks to Drew, Greg and Karla for organizing and leading the climb! It is definitely a lot easier to climb when you have such skilled leaders guiding and coaxing you! I made a lot of good friends that weekend... and I have to say once more... VERY sorry for being the snorer in the room!
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