So, this story starts on Tuesday this week. It was our first day of ice climbing class. It went well. We had a couple short and easy, but fun climbs. On Thursday we had our second day of class. The climbs were a little more difficult, and a little longer. And then today came along, our last day of class. And oh what a day it was. I was all set and ready to get up at 6:45 this morning, my alarm went off, and then I slept till 7:30, and had to rush around trying to get ready and have breakfast before 8:00. So, once we got going we headed out to our drop off place and started our 3 hour ski in to the ice climb. We kept hitting these slushy areas, so our sk
is would get sticky and we would have to stop and scrape them off before we could continue, so that was a little bit of a pain. Finally we got to the climbs, got everything set up and went about enjoying our day. It was so much fun. The first climb I did was a little sketchy. It was cold and the ice was in the shade, so it was really hard and every time I would throw my axe the ice would dinner plate(crack in a circle around the axe). The second climb the ice was rather thin, and I was using dull axes, so it was a little difficult, but fun none the less, but it really tired me out. And shortly after that one I did another rather long climb. It was easier than the second climb, but just as long. I finished that climb as the sun was setting. The view from the top of those climbs was absolutely amazing. We c
ould look out over the lake, and I can't even describe it, you will all have to go out there and have a look to see what I mean. So, we took down the climbs and got supper going. Instant rice, beans, salsa and cheese have never tasted so good. Nicola is an amazing cook! And now we come to the funnest part of the day, and I am not being sarcastic when I say that, it seriously was the funnest. We packed up and headed back around 7:30 in the evening, so by this time it was well past sundown. The first part of the trek back was fairly eventless, but as we skied across the first lake the ice was adjusting to the temperature and we could hear and feel the ice cracking. We would hear this big boom and feel the vibrations in the ice, it was absolutely amazing, then we started hitting the major slush patches again. This was maybe 1-1 1/2 hours into the trip back. A few people took there skis off here and just hiked. We went a little farther and took a brake. All this time Nicola was pulling a sled with a bunch of climbing gear in it, not the lightest stuff, and for future reference Henry and Jordan had left earlier than t
he rest of us, so they weren't with us at this time, and Jordan had another sled. So, we got going after the rest and hit some more slush, a few more people took off their skis. Then we hit more slush. I had managed to keep my skis on until this point, but then they got too much slush on them and they popped off, burying themselves in the slush. I got them out, but they were too frozen up to put back on, and I had other stuff strapped to the side of my pack so I had to carry them the rest of the way, which was around an hour. After all this, Nicola and Jodie are the only two with their skis still on. So we kept going, we kept coming upon slushy spots and we would sink in up to our ankles or deeper, so our feet were wet and we were all tired and
sore, and it should have been an absolutely miserable experience, but it was probably one of the funnest times I have had this year. At this point it was just Nicola, Danita, Dan Riddolls and myself, the others were all ahead of us. Finally we made it back, Nicola still on her skis, laughing and singing and having a wonderful good time. We found out later that Jordan had broken a pole on his sled and had to pull it at an awkward angle most of the way back. And Henry apparently is quite the hiker, he and Jordan made it back in 1/2 an hour less than we did, and Henry hiked the whole way, he didn't at all use his skis. So we packed everything into the van and headed back to Summit. It was an amazing day!!!
