Jac Goes to Switzerland!: I am a bad ass

Exhibit A.

For those of you who didn't already hear about this, a few weeks ago I went ice climbing. 2008 brought some kind of bee with it for me, a bee which jumped in my bonnet and said "last year in Switzerland! You gotta do EVERYTHING!!" So I have gone snowboarding taken ski lessons, did the balloon thing, also went snowshoeing (super fun, I loved it, and at least I can do that in Chicago) and last weekend snow toboganning which is in huge inner tubes down enormous chutes in Leysin, Switzerland. I screamed going down all of them like an idiot, but it was fun.

A few weeks ago, I tried ice climbing with a guide who had taken me on the snowshoeing trip. The guide, Roger Fleming, is a super cool laid back guy who is also just a teensy bit obsessed with safety and caution to your surroundings in everything you do. So after meeting him snowshoeing and hearing he did an ice climbing course, I signed up.

You may know that from time to time (de temps en temps, I learned in French last week, and it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to make the "liaison") I have done my fair share of above-average sporty things. I did the Chicago Triathlon. I have done winter backpacking, rock climbing. I snowboard fairly regularly. I also complain a lot!! So while I will mentally want to push myself, sometimes my lazy body, which I think is just an average sporty body, not above average, will cry "why are you doing this to me???" Then it goes downhill. However having done these things means I can do other things, so usually I try them.

The day of ice climbing was after a particularly bad snowboarding outing - we were in big powder all day, fun for about one long run and then I was dead tired (and my legs complained a LOT). Another girl was in the ice climbing course with me, which was in Chamonix. We geared up in our 4 layers of clothes (seriously), boots, gaiters, harness, helmet. Then Roger says "we are going to hike about 15 minutes to the spot, now try not to get warm, because if you perspire, you will be cold, and you do not want to be cold when ice climbing." Of course, the hike was like a 85 degree angle uphill in ice and snow, and I was immediately sweating. And my legs were burning. I was thinking um, what the heck are you doing you idiot??!!! I was thinking about how much I did not really like rock climbing and maybe this was a bad idea. I tried to ignore it and be thinking instead on not sliding off the side of the mountain, which given the icy trek, would not have been that difficult to do. We pressed on and got to the spot, where I practically took off all my clothes, then froze and threw them all back on.

During the day, Roger and the other guide, Kursten, taught us a lot about ice and its strength and weaknesses, what makes good ice, etc. For obvious reasons, ice climbing is done in the shade, and you do spend a fair amount of time standing around, so when that was happening, I was getting pretty cold. We wore crampons and had these big ice picks as seen in the photo (both SHARP). First we learned how to use the picks in the ice. You have to really swing your arm and use the leverage to THUNK it in there. You can definitely feel when it is in good and not. At first we were just swinging like a bunch of monkeys with tools and ice was flying off everywhere! But after about 10 min, we had the hang of it.

Then we practiced going up the ice just using our feet, no arm tools. Crampons are pretty bad ass. They are like detachable cleats of destruction. Roger kept telling us to watch out for the rope or we could easily cut them. You have to just kick in your foot, then the next, and walk up like you are going up a ladder. If the ice was more soft, this was easy, but on the hard ice, it was quite difficult. You also need to not waste energy kicking and kicking at the damn thing. Maybe you just get one of the little diggers in there good, and you need to trust yourself that this is enough. I did find it a little easier than rock climbing, or maybe I just trusted my body more with all these additional claw-like appendages I had.

Finally we scaled up the thing twice (once half way and once all the way up) using the picks and crampons, and on a rope of course. The vertical ascent was like climbing a ladder against a house - not 90 degrees, in some parts a bit, but mostly I would say more like 75 or 80. The climb was very challenging, and partly because my hands were FREEZING cold. I think they just kind of formed around the picks and froze like that. Your hands are constantly for the most part above your head, so all the blood is draining away from them. And they are in snow and ice. BRRR!! But I found I was able to concentrate and get in a good rhythm and just go up, moving left arm, left leg, right arm, right leg, up up up. Hey I was doing it!! By the top I was exhausted, but feeling good and happy. We rappelled down which was fun, also really cool because Roger built an anchor my drilling a hole in the ice!!

Here was what we climbed up (that is Roger at the top, rappelling down)

I am going ice climbing again March 1, probably the last weekend of the season it will be possible, and quite possibly the last time in my life. But I am really looking forward to it.

Our group: