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.

Drying out the gear

Somewhere over Greenland

A bit better than Stansted

and Ryan Air. The taxi ride here was a bit fraught though. Emergency
waterworks: how ironic, if we'd missed the flight?
Typing this on the bus from the terminal to the plane, feeling better
after a wagamama.

Places in Canmore

Thanks to Will Gadd's Canmore Guide and Googlemap, we're sorted for places to eat drink and be merry for the next couple of weeks.

Temperatures in Canmore

*** Anorak post alert ***

Ultra-sensitive to the forecast after a trip to Norway 2 years ago when the ice was in full melt, I've been obsessively checking the temperatures in Canmore over the last month...

At the moment things look pretty good, after a warmer spell of daytime temps ranging from +2 degrees to +5, nights at -4 to -9. On Tuesday and Wednesday daytime temperatures look to drop to -4 then -8, nighttime -13 then -18.

Looks like we'll need our duvet jackets on the belays!

Cycle Denmark

By way of contrast with the last post, here's a different approach to travelling. Grit your teeth and ignore the cheesy bloke at the start, it gets much better.

Thanks to Sonnie Trotter

Ugh. An hour and no movement

Stuck on the A12. Must be a bad accident.

Good party!

Garufa - "Argentinian Grill"

"Grill" gives completely the wrong impression. It is a Grill of course, but this place does for beef what a top Ocakbasi restaurant does for lamb. In retrospect we should have gone for red wine instead of beer - though the Argentinian beer was fine. The wine list looks good. 

The surprise was the Argentinian black pudding. Soft and subtly spiced, completely delicious.

If you don't believe me, trust Time Out which gives it six stars. 

Biggest London snowfall in 18 years

I'm listening to a load of grumps on the radio, moaning about how shocking it is that the transport system can't cope. "New York never has this problem!" said one, but this was my favourite: "Think of all those Polish people laughing at us!" 

Take a chill pill and look around you. It's a winter wonderland out there.

And is this the best snowman, EVER?

More photos here. 

OH yes!

I'm feeling as gleeful as I did as a ten year old, when
the 1972 miner's strike led to power blackouts and total disruption to
all routine.

Today in London all bus services are down, tubes and trains are hit,
and I don't have to go to work. Joy!

It's mustard, Richard. MUSTARD.

Let's hope the food's better than this on the flight to Canada...

(Thanks Nick. Very funny!)

In case you were wondering ...

what climbers do when they need a pee half way up a multi-day climb, wonder no more. 

Frosty Glemham Park

(Nick - you should have gone to Wales!)