Vol 97 Backnumber An overslept leading to another Over slept

This story was written by Bob (Noboru) Kikuchi

My working holiday visa has finally expired at the end of the October and now I am back to a full-time climber/skier in the Rockies.  One thing I question is whether my savings would last until the end of the winter.

Probably at this time of the year, people in Japan would still enjoy the gorgeous fall weather even in the beginning of November.  However, here in Canmore, it has already turned into a winter and the temperature fluctuates at around -10℃. This change is tough on my body and I am struggling to get accustomed to the quick changes. Especially when I go out for a climbing. 

This story is about an ice climbing that Toshi and I went recently to officially start this year's winter climbing adventures in the Rockies.

On that day, we were supposed to meet up at 6am at a parking lot. So I set an alarm clock at 4am on the night before. The good thing about life is that you can't always stick to what you have planned. when I woke up, it was already 5am...Feeling sorry for Toshi and headed to a parking lot in a rush. Funny enough, Toshi was also running behind so we ended up arriving almost at the same time.

Today's mission was to climb "First Blood"

"First Blood" An icefall that is surrounded by walls of rock

Although we arrived at the parking lot as a guidebook says, we thought it wouldn't be a smart idea to walk through dense woods with no traces under a pitch-black sky. So we decided to wait in cars while waiting for a sky to get a little lighter.  Later on, I woke up to the sound of knocking on the door by Toshi. To my surprise, it was already 7:40am... The sun was already up and this told us that we obviously overslept. Since I had to be back to Canmore by 5pm for an evening shift at a restaurant, we thought the time was too tight to try the initially planned line. So we decided to head to a cragging instead. As we were heading back our eyes were caught by an attractive line that can be seen from the road.  We again changed our decision and agreed on climbing the line "The Evil".

The line developed along the gulley  

After walking along the clear valley for about two hours, we finally got to the starting point of the line at 11am. Getting ready, sorting out our gears, doing rock paper scissors to determine who goes first and Toshi started to climb the first pitch.  The ice was breakable and harder than expected.Also it was just a beginning of the season so he seemed to be struggling more than usual with pumped arms. On top of that, spindrift caused a small avalanche, this took our sight away occasionally.

 Toshi putting up with pumped arms and unforgiving spindrift 

Then I felt my rope being pulled so I started to climb. My body temperature was taken away just in a second and together with the pump of my arms, I lost sensations of fingers in a moment.  Getting to the point that I couldn't stand anymore so I decided to hang onto a rope and shake my arms. After a while, I felt blood circulation come back again together with excruciating pains on my fingers. That was the most painful screaming barfie in my life.

We only had 15meters of an ice wall left and the next pitch was my turn. It was an easy slope but my arms got pumped soon after I started to climb. While fighting with my urge of giving up, somehow managed to get to the top. The guidebook says that there was a bolt on the right side of the end of the line but I couldn't find any. The gulley after the ice line was just covered by snow and there was no ice nor trees. Even I had rock climbing gears with me, there seemed to be nothing that I can use to secure and the wall had just a smooth surface. In a desperate mind, I dug up some snow at my feet in a hope of finding something I can use. Then there was a thin crack run along the rock, Thank goodness, I was able to set up a nut for belaying.

This line required much more time than we expected(Again). Our plan was to start going down at 2:00pm. By the time we started to descend, it was already 3:30pm. I had to start working at 5:30pm...in Canmore... After rappelling down twice. We ran down at an extreme speed through the pile of snow that went up to the height of our knees. We made it to our cars at 4:30pm and to my surprise, I wasn't late for my last day of work.

Next day, I was cleaning the room that I just moved into after a summer-long climbing bum life with a comfortable fatigue from the day before. When I looked at my phone, I realized that I had two missed calls from Toshi. I assumed it would be another invitation for next week's climbing project so called him back. Toshi told me that he was contacted by Raphael who is a Canadian climber and he happened to be in the same area yesterday. Toshi was told by him that this year The Evil that we thought we climbed yesterday, wasn't developed and the line we climbed was only formed this year, which means that what we did yesterady was a first ascent.

So we named the line "Over slept"

Hope you guys have a safe and enjoyable winter and holiday season!

●Our first ascend story was also posted on Gripped Magazine online 

https://gripped.com/news/slept-new-wi5-kananaskis-country/


Translated by Yumiko Mori