Canada Ice: Day 1 - Kicking Horse Canyon

Our first day of climbing was the second day of the trip. After dealing with issues on the way out of Seattle such as live wires and forgotten passports, we made the long drive up north. We listened to a lot of Neil Young the first day, appropriate for the hundreds of kilometers we spent on the Trans-Canada Highway. Matt played "Powderfinger", which would be stuck in my head for the entire trip.

We made it to Revelstoke the first night, and decided to climb something in Kicking Horse Canyon the next day, which was on the road to Canmore, our intended base camp (and by base camp, I mean nice hotel with cable, a hot tub, and wifi within walking distance of brewpubs and other tasty food).

We climbed a three pitch WI 4 route called Pretty Nuts. Jordan, the designated hitter for the trip, led all the pitches the first day. Climbing as a party of 3 on double ropes worked out pretty well after Matt and I made a clusterf**k out of the first pitch; we would have no other rope management issues for the rest of the trip thankfully.

The approach to the climb involved about a mile (or is it a couple of klicks? I insisted on using 'klicks' to measure everything while we were in the Great White North) along railroad tracks. Fortunately, there were no bridges to cross a la 'Stand By Me'. There was, however, deafening traffic noise since we were right atop the highway most of the time. Every time we wanted to communicate, it seemed that a truck would rumble by.

It was overcast, and not extremely cold this day. Very mild, in fact. I had mentally prepared myself for suffering this trip, having been told many times of how cold it got in Canada. It was nice being able to wear thinner more dextrous gloves! Not so nice when the softshell pants wetted out in the knees (which happened pretty much every single day).



I was in awe of how fat the ice was here on first day. I had never seen such a well - frozen waterfall in Washington (granted a place not known for its great ice climbing).

Jordan led up in fine style, especially the second pitch which was quite intimidating looking from below. The feet on it were much better than it appeared from down below. Jordan and Matt are both far more experienced ice climbers than myself, and it can be seen in their smoothness and efficiency. Almost all of the pictures of Jordan leading on this trip looked like they came out of a Black Diamond or Patagonia catalog!

I felt pretty good after following three pitches today, and was eager to get on the sharp end tomorrow.

We cruised in to Canmore that evening and checked into our digs at the Rocky Mountain Lodge. We also grabbed a bite at the Drake Inn, where we ate some good pub grub. A great start to our trip indeed!