a small world. Frankfurt airport. Start of so many trips.

 

10 hours later, another end of the world. Calgary Alberta, at the 20th anniversary of the olympics.

Eddie the Eagle is here again. Skiing.

We move to Canmore pretty quickly. A place we know, a place it changed so much in the last 10 years.
First couple of days. Playing bums, staying with our friend Janez, roaming streets.Couldn't quite move in. Constantly on alert his roomie might come back, haha. .
Janez helps us a lot to settle in and to get all the info on the climbs and conditions. There was no time to make plans at home. We do it here.

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Seemingly mild winter without much snow is hiding deadly traps on many slopes. Unstable snowpack has caused many accidents lately. some of our friends got hurt, such as Ben Firth.

We meet Ben at the hospital where he's been for the last 2 months!!

Another avalanche just took a life of a local skier Susie. Not too good a start of the trip.

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Is this street avalanche coming on on us?

Louis Marin with his wife Karen - well, entire family -make a surprising welcome at their home. We stay for a while and learn. A lot.
Louis's two kids - Enzo and Anna take us to a special school for future dads..

The fist climbing with Janez! Nigtmare ion Wolf's street in Mt Stanley's headwall. That much we dare with the present snow conditions.

The morning light
Start and a good hour remote goal.
Steep ledge, loaded with snow feels quite uncomfortable, but that's more a feeling than enything else. Still, we protect the traverse. .
Start
Vermillon pass
The second mixed pitch on Nightmare, M7+
 
 
Hollow dry ice on upper pitches offer dubious protection, so improvisation comes handy.
ploughing out, back to the valley
Janez didn't take his skis. Not snowshoes.
Sunny interim play in lower weeping wall.
 
Icefields parkway and Sunwapta pass.
Weeping pillar, Mixed emotions is a mixed line between the two chunks of ice, traversing diagonally from right to left. A good and comitting route.
 
   
Howse peak. Out of limits this time
Skiers at the Bow lake, getting confident. Over confident. A few days later another avalanche scares two of them. .
Another time moved, this time to Val's- Hospitable people are hard to find these days.

Ponovno na vrv z Janezom - Tokrat v superklasiko Curtain Call. Zmenjeni smo ob 5h zjutraj, da bomo ja prva naveza v slapu.

Janez's waking is complicated by a dodgy chinese alarm clock.

Zakasneli odhod po intervenciji na hišnem zvoncu
Good morning near Columbia icefields
Three casual guys on a day out. .
The Curtain call.
Klemen the track setter, setting a forest slalom. Well, following someone else's turns.
 
One of the classics I haven't climbed so far.
No to be missed!
t.

!

 
 
 
 

A quick but beautiful climb, well worh every kilometer of driving.

 
GHost river trip has always meant a good day out. .
 

The Sliver

Burnig in water drowning by flame.Another modern classic...
 
   
to be continued.  
   
This updateing is done in Bagels Co, Main Str. Canmore, over a large vanilla latte and a garden bagel. . .  
  Life is good!

We should do this too. . . Only...has it come far enough? Only one way to find out , since noone has been wondering up there..or at least we haven't heard from them.

So we wait a bit more.

   

Another trip up towards Stanley Headwall.A few days after our back-off due to avalanche hazard, it is decided things have settled...And the avalanche hazard is gone,.

Where it has gone - is not known.

 

Suffer Machine left, Uniform Queen on the righti and Too good to be true (our working name) in the middle. It hasn't formed yet, and cerainly it hasn't been climbed prior this season...

Well, Raphaelhas been climbing in this area last fall, so thi sline shoiuld be the Clocking...

...

 
 
Stanley headwall. final approach. .,
 
_Uniform Queen. Something nice every ice climber should do someday :-).
 
  ten years on...

Wednesday - another trip to Stanley is broken due to low morning temps. too low for climbing on the intended thin smear next to the suffer machine.

Terminator wall seemed inviting as we drove by.

These american _Ultra-Eco-Organic trucks are driven by pure air. That's why squirlls here don't have astma problems.
So, instead of suffering in the cold of vermillon pass, breaking brittle verglass, we jump up the ice nine, which offers something I can only describe as exotic. Rare, comfortable and enjoyable.
plus - there were 6 Slovenians on it at the same time. Talk about exotics here! .

Canadian february from above. Trees and snow. If you don't see this, you have delusions.

 
 
Did I mention that the thing collapsed two days later?

95m high says guidebook. Klemen says it cant be more than 1 pitch and decides to prove it. Stretches a 70m rope and trully finishes on the top. Only I have stopped belaying him a little before. .

 

Supersharp, hyperbent reallyblack ice penetrators. No Microphone.
Such a warm conditions cause ice screws melt out in matter of hours. One hour. or even less. Klemen left 3 behind him. And when I followed a good hour later, things could simply be pulled out by hand. . .  
   
Bagels Co. This is how this is happening.

 

 

 
 

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It is widely known, that ice climbers start losing everything after a day's rest...wits, coordination, precision, important kinds of strikes, feelings for temperature, solidness, steepness, etc.

That's why Canadians always keep some logs and a suitable axe handy. Even in summer.

A dinner amongst friends
A rest day over, in come usual delights. Early mornings, various fuckups and so on....
 
Stanley headwall, 4th time:-) Yep, we liked the approach so much. Black trees and puma traces. Nno, these were left by the white rabbit. The one everyone should follow.
Highway 93 to Radium Springs
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The thin smear called the Clocking. Original start went to the right.
 
 
 
 
We liked it every single meter.
Vistas from the upper floor
All the way up, just before we banged aginst the roof. .
Suffer machine, the Clocking and Uniform Queen
Slopes we didn't dare walking a week ago have gone somewhat tolerant..
 
Dead man's flats. Once a cheap place for staying. Not anymore. .
Calgary. I don't like many cities. But Calgary has somehow got under my skin.
The batle for light
 

3rd visit in 10 years. Calgary has expanded a lot, but downtown is pretty much the same.