First day

After breakfast at Beamer's Coffee House at 06:15 (coffee: not bad; egg & bacon bagel: fine; muffin: sheer greed) we drove 5 minutes out of Canmore to an area called the Junkyard, described in the guide as good for a bit of practice climbing. Did 5 pitches of WI3s and a WI4 to reacquaint ourselves with the ice.

I felt rusty to start with, nervous and slow, perhaps not that surprisingly as I've not been on ice for 2 years. I kicked too hard and over-gripped the axes, wasting far too much energy. But after a couple of climbs I began to remember what it was all about and relaxed a bit. Nick looked relaxed from the start, damn the man!

Tried to switch my camera on but it was dead! Either it took a shock in transit or the cold has affected it. I'm trying to get it working, it'll be a b*gger if not.

Now to write a shopping list for a trip to Safeway.

UPDATE: the camera's working now. Phew. Here's a couple of photos Nick took, including one of me looking VERY tense.