The Perils of Ice Climbing in Canada.

Don’t Yell Help Help.

pop quiz: the lyric above is from what song and artist? clue: you need to be a child of the 70s to know who Hair, Bubi and Square are.

There are many dangers of going ice climbing in Canada. It’s cold, I mean really cold; the danger of frost bite is very real. It’s remote, I  mean really remote; you need to be prepared to be self sufficient. It’s big, I mean really big; multi pitch starting or ending in the dark. And, there are bears…

Greg was behind. “Bear, aaaaaaargh.” I spun to watch Greg sprint past me and in hot pursuit was a Grizzly.

This article by Nick Bullock gives a really detailed account of ice climbing in Canada over a decade or more of his experience; it ends well, but it so easily could have been much worse!

I’ve been to Yosemite in California. I’ve stood at the bottom of El Capitan and looked up and gone; “f*&% me!”.

So, this article together with Alex Honnald’s account of going solo up El Capitan leads me to one conclusion…

If I ever go to Canada, I think I’ll stick to ski resorts!

pop trivia: the genius of Hanna Barbera bought the Hair Bear Bunch to children’s TV in 1971.