Tag: canada

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canada general

a night at the hockey

It was a night at the hockey at the Calgary SADDLEDOME DOME DOME dome dome… dome. Calgary Flames versus the St Louis… somethings. I spent the night staring at their emblem, which seemed to be a little musical note with wings. According to the internet they’re the St Louis Blues.
 

 
Not having brought oxygen with us, we found the air a little hard to breathe from our seats. Thankfully we were surrounded by rabid Flames fans, which made things all the more interesting. The whole stadium was pretty much solely filled by rabid Flames fans, so the barracking was a little one sided. Apparently St Louis sucks. To the same tune you could also chant Go Flames Go.
 

 
In the end they did go, and won 3-1.

Half time entertainment was reminiscent of the sole AFL (Aussie Rules Footie) game I’ve been to, where small and incompetent children are brought out to play on a miniature version of the playing field.

 

 
Oh, and the had a real live tshirt gun – those things are impressively powerful, no wonder Marge Flanders was killed by one.

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canada general

my deer friend

 

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canada general

bit nippy out

I’m not sure when the temperatures were last above freezing, but I think it was a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately there isn’t much snow looming in future forecasts, but at least all the cold will be helping the ice climbs get nice and fat.

 
But I’m beginning to see what all the Canadians in Melbourne were complaining about. Whether it’s the proper heating over here, the really dry air, or the fact the temperatures don’t seem to jump around so much, I’m finding the cold here easier to deal with than in Melbourne. Of course I might change my mind when it hits -30oC, but by then I can probably get away with whinging about the cold.

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canada climbing general snow

ice ice baby

All right stop collaborate and listen …

 
 

Erm, so I went ice climbing. Nine in the morning and we were strolling along a packed snow path up to Mt Stanley Headwall. Two hours later, and we’d completed the final slog up through deep fluffy snow, arrived at Sinus Gully, and were strapping on crampons. In my case they were a pair of antique crampons that attached to my ski boots via a mechanism involving a couple of trusty leather straps that were probably just as good as they were when the crampons were originally purchased (in Kathmandu in 1972 – no really).

Ice tools and crampons on backpack on the walk-in

 

James heading up Sinus Gully (WI3)

 

Snowy creek on the walk-in

 

Ice screw

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canada general snow

shiny new boots

My old tele boots were a size too big, designed for touring, and I’ve been using them for four seasons now. My feet could have invited a whole other pair of feet to have a party inside them. So now I have shiny new boots that fit (and are designed for turns rather than touring). I plan to thoroughly test them as soon as possible.