M - End of a full and exciting year

Well, I finished the working year having got most things done. I've never really has a job where the whole place shuts down for the Xmas season, usually I am doing some kind of customer service role where the operation carries right on through. So it is a bit of a new experience to have to get every little thing done and shut up the factory for an entire week. I was more or less up to date so there was no nightmare situation of staying late on a Friday night in a panic. I as however the second to last person to leave. I can only hope the last person wasn't far behind me.

As you can see my ring is finally ready. I am really pleased with it, all the ladies at work went nuts, they are great, it's like having 15 aunties.

Josh and I are heading off to Sante Fe in the morning, to have Christmas with family who are living there, and more family who are visiting there at the moment. I am really looking forward to seeing them all, especially my niece and nephews. Packing was a problem, we have only one pack and lots of presents to take down! We really don't have any friends to speak of here in Calgary, so we are glad we won't be sitting here in our dungeon of an apartment having home made pasta, which is how we celebrated Thanks Giving. We did finally meet some really cool people at the Canmore Ice Festival, a German girl and her Aussie husband, but they have gone to Aus to visit his family for a month over the festive season.

When we come back from holiday it will be full on effort to try and get out to do some ice and mixed climbing. I have been to one popular spot already, which is easy access and you can top rope some ice routes, or there are bolted mixed climbs. This is great as we don't have any ice screws. We don't have axes, crampons or a rope either but somehow they are all easier to come by! Buying a car has really come in handy.

The air is amazingly dry here, and it can be a real problem, people actually buy humidifier machines. Both Josh and I feel very dehydrated when we wake up each morning. I have never used hand cream in my life but now I run for it every time I do the dishes or have a shower because my hands are totally stripped.

Flying all the way to New Mexico does seem like cheating, and I keep thinking of all the places I really want to see and climb but that we will just fly right over the top of...

A very happy new year to everyone and your family!

J - Canmore ice festival

We recently spent the weekend at Canmore for the Canmore Ice Festival which was fun. It's a combined thing with ice courses, slide shows, competitions etc. We decided to camp because the weather was going to be good, but found out to our dismay that the floor of our tent is only about as waterproof as a t-shirt these days and we melted all the snow with our body heat and it formed a soggy pit where we slept. Strange because the last time we used it it was sweet.

The ice festival was fun, they put up a scaffold with chicken wire on it and dribbled water down until it turned into an ice wall. The early part of the morning was busy with the public trying ice climbing, myself included. I liked it and convinced the various industry stalls to lend me boots, ice axe etc to enter the intermediate competition, held on a mix of overhanging plywood and plastic holds, topping out onto chainsawed off icicles.


Lucky for me everyone who was looking good, fell off and I came second via the turtle approach.

Sport ice climbing has a downside though, lots of standing around doing nothing on very cold days kind of saps your motivation. Both Merewyn and I were very impressed with the Petzl Charlet new ice tool 'nomic' as well as the whole leashless climbing thing.

It is actually much easier to climb leashless with your ice tools because the leash cuts off the flow of blood to your arms as well as supporting your wrist. And on sport ice who cares if you drop it. Except maybe your belayer :)

M - oh yeah and I went out on the Friday to do an Ice Climbing Clinic, that is on real waterfalls...

M - Sorry...

Time for an update, we have forgotten about writing the blog for a while although I do mean to keep it up still.

We have been very busy with all the usual every day things, working buying groceries etc. All that got easier when we bought a car about two weeks ago, but then the temperature dropped to -25 and the rear shock which we knew was a bit dodgy froze solid! I kept driving it (carefully) but it would make this god awful banging noise over every bump. BOOM BOOM!! over the railway lines!

So we called around and managed to buy a new shock for $60, and changed it out. We did the work in the parking garage below Josh's work which is heated to about 15 deg or so, much better than our backyard in the snow. But there was a catch of course, the main bolt which goes through the bottom of the shock and holds it in had badly damaged thread, and we couldn't tighten it, it would go pop and be all loose again like the lid on a cheap drink bottle. Would you believe that bolt is a discontinued part... Turns out there is a help yourself wrecker like Pick-A- Part, so there we are in -25 plus wind chill pulling an old crashed car to bits with our minimalist tool kit. We got a bolt ok, and triumphantly we went back to the garage to put it in... then it turns out the nut it goes into which is welded into the axle was stripped as well...

We gave up about then and I took it to a mechanic to have the nut cut out and a new one put in. A bit of a nightmare in the end, but the car is pretty sweet now, if a little small!

We celebrated by going to Banff for a hot pool and a bit of adventure in the car. It seems to use no petrol at all, 339km trip and we got 5.8 litres per 100km!


Josh learns to drive on the ice with the rest of the calgarian lunatics


ice on the road


ice on the river, which doesn't ever properly freeze it just goes all crusty.


exploring Canmore a few months ago.


My job is going well, it's a cool little company. Josh is finding his job interesting, his boss suddenly got sick and won't be back at work until next year at least, that has meant a few changes and bit of extra trouble in the office.

I still don't have my engagement ring. I wanted to design my own so it has taken a while to get the design sorted and then have it cast. It is very simple with a single sapphire, I hope it turns out nice! Its a bit scary to commit to it when you can't quite imagine the result. They mock it up in this horrible green wax which makes the stone look awful, tough to convert that to white gold in your minds eye.

We are both really looking forward to Xmas, we are going to visit My brother and family who are living in Sante Fe, and with the Erasmus's coming over I will see my 3 nephews and niece. Richard, the Dutch guy we met in Alaska might be there too, he is on his way driving to Patagonia. Christmas shopping is proving tough. I haven't seen anyone for ages so I can't think what they might need, plus it needs to be small and portable (or edible) and the shops here are nuts. Most of them are reporting being only half staffed, the labour market is so tight, but the economy is booming and so everyone seems to have stacks of cash to spend. Not a happy mix for shopper or shops!

I hope everyone is well out there, leave us some comments so we know how you are all getting on.