Whyte Museum Show

I've been working on a new slideshow for the Whyte Museum, "20 years of icicles." Originally I had planned to mainly do the relatively recent history, but then I started thinking about the eras before I was climbing in the Rockies. I called a few friends from that era, and suddenly I had some amazing shots of the "early years" of waterfall ice in the Rockies, absolutely great stuff. So the title now should really be, "Almost 40 years of Icicles" in the Rockies, I'm really fired up to share some great photos from back in the day from various pioneers of waterfall ice climbing. The energy and excitement of those photos from the early 70s to mid-eighties is just too good not to share. When I look at these photos I just have to smile, these guys were somewhere between flat-out crazy and very gifted climbers, likely a lot of both. Thanks to everyone who has graciously shared their photos and stories with me (who knew that warm milk laced with sugar was the ultimate anti-hyopthermia conconction? Thanks Tim Auger), it's gonna be a fun show.

Norwegian Ice Climbing Info, Alberta Ice

I've spent the last couple of Februarys in Norway, home of big ice and crazy potential. I really like the Norwegian vibe and the endless opportunities for big ice. My friend Andreas Spak has just produced a new Norway web page, it's a bit rough yet but has some good info, check it out.

I also have some trip reports up on my old Gadfly blog pages, here. Spak's other site also has some good info.

After a week of crazy warm weather (wet slides, falling ice climbs, etc) the ice is back on here in Alberta. Be careful on the ice, we lost a fellow climber and nearly two due to a slide a week ago. Another climber reportedly had to be rescued after the climb he was on in the Ghost fell down, leaving him precariously balanced on a small rock ledge he managed to somehow catch himself on. His partners went for help, but it was four hours before he was plucked from his stance, likely not so fun. Temperatures are back to "normal" now so collapsing climbs should be less of a problem, but there's a lot more snow up high than the bare valleys would suggest.

WG