Ice Climbing!
At last I attended the Ice Climbing course offered through the U. Calgary Outdoor Centre. Quite a day. First task was a wonderful walk through the King's Creek gorge off Highway 40, just before the gate where the highway is closed for the winter. The gorge is probably on 20 metres at its widest spot with very steep snowy slopes up either side. A beautiful creek runs through the gorge. It's mostly covered with ice and snow of course right now. Water on my boots quickly turned to ice and fixed my laces in place.
About 20 minutes walk from the road we came to where a spring from high up the canyon had formed a huge ice butte - our learning site.
Crampons are big steel spikes clipped to the boots. The purpose of the toe spikes is to grip the ice when kicked hard into the ice wall. The purpose of the heel spikes is to gouge pieces out of your calf muscles when you stumble on a slope. (I didn't succeed at that part, but I did ruin a good pair of pricey ski pants.) The problem with the crampons gripping the ice is that any movement of the foot causes the tines to come out of the small holes cut for them, and you slip. Then the novice has to rely more on the ice-picks in each hand. Of course, if an ice-pick also fails to grip then you really fall. Falling isn't necessarily bad because we're always top belayed so that we couldn't fall more than a metre at the most. But falling and suddenly dangling from a rope with crampons on the boots and big sharp picks flailing off the hands can present problems. I found my helmet an invaluable accessory.
Actually, I had very little trouble with the practice climbs, but then I and one other student got it into our naive heads that we really wanted to get up a vertical section that normally would be a small waterfall. We learned that when an undulating section of ice is convex then it is stressed outwards and hitting the ice with a pick causes huge sharp shards to fly off. When the ice is concave then it is stressed inwards and a pick or crampon is more likely to find a home. The vertical waterfall section was a set of connected stalactites with overlapping convex and concave pieces. The strategy is to keep hacking away at the ice until sufficient chunks had come away and the harder, older ice could hold a boot, and a pick. It didn't take too long before I got tired, and impatient, and clumsy. And I fell. Twice.
Of course our instructor, Matt, seemed to be able to climb up the slopes as if they were a ladder. Experience and technique the obvious key. Some physical fitness probably would help too. So now I'm feeling pretty good about the weekend and nursing some pretty sore legs, back and arm muscles. I might take it easy in the gym this week.
More pictures of the day in the photo album.
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