Cal & Al Mission on motorbikes... A journey from Jasper Canada to Costa Rica

January 16, 2008

Jay Smith and Kitty Calhoun

Jay Filming the Ice Comp , Ouray Colorado

We've been climbing quite a bit with Jay and Kitty. Here we're in the Ice Park getting a little training done for future big routes. Kitty's climbing a nice long route right of the upper bridge.

Jay Smith on Mixed Emotions M6 WI6 5.9

Here's Jay on the second pitch of mixed emotions. A very thin rock and ice start. We were happy Jay was there to lead the whole thing cause it definitly took experience and balls to pull off what he did. He placed nuts, cams and pitons before even touching the ice. Once he got on the ice it wasn't over. Very technical thin ice all the way up to the first anchor, which was a combination of a piton, wire nut and a screw. I'm glad it was him and not me. But watching him in the zone was very inspiring and motivating to learn more about mix climbing and the techniques used to do so. Alain and I felt like we were on a Alpine route. Very cool route.

Ice Climbing under the stars

Gravitational Pull WI6

We climbed this route in the middle of the night which was a blast. I got to climb my first really hard pitch in the dark and Alain took some wicked photos as you can see. The funny thing was that i got about 25 meters up there and my head lamp fell off my helmet and I was about 2 meters above my last screw. I was left in the dark in an awkward but yet reasonably good position. I kept calm and place a screw in what I thought was good ice. It turned out it was cause I sat on it lit up a smoke and untied my rope , lowered it to Alain and then he tied my head lamp to the rope and sent it off to me .....I finished my smoke of course and took of for the summit.........

2008 Ouray ice Festival

Ines Papert of Germany came in 2nd overall and First female.

Winner of the comp - mens division - Jeff Mercier, Chamonix France

First Ascent of Gravity's Test WI6+, Calixte LeBlanc and Alain Denis

A 35 meter free hanging pillar. Over Hang to vertical climbing . As I looked at this wild piece of ice i thought to myself why do I climb?????????? I didn't really know what to tell myself so I just got my shit ready and climbed up. When I got to the top the feeling inside was more than clear. Nothing beets the feeling of success when it comes down to climbing.......

Here comes the pump fest.......

Here they are : Gravitational Pull WI6 on the left and Gravity's Test WI6+ on the right.

Cal having a sip of hot chocolate, before heading out to Gravity's Rainbow WI5 on the left.

December 27, 2007

Ice Climbing In Colorado

Ouray Ice Park

The Park in Ouray is perfect for early season training. The avalanche conditions are high at the moment so hanging out at the park is what we've been doing mostly. We hope to get an open window of good weather to do a few classic routes in the following week or so.

The first few steps of " Get it while you can" a new ice route in Ouray. It's one long pitch , a few technical spots but nothing to crazy. WI4 and a few moves on rock .

Driving dirt bikes in snow... what a trip! Getting them started is the main thing . They seem to dislike the cold lately, at least this time they did. We had to boost them with Jay's truck.

December 13, 2007

Chasing the light in Arches Nat Park

Calixte LeBlanc

We had a slow start that day but eventually we made it out of the house and went for a drive in Arches National Park. It' s been snowing non stop for the past 24 hours so it's very different looking landscapes. The snow makes it all the more interesting....

Driving through Arches was a little chill, but being Canadian we can handle it. The big challenge with driving in cold is how long you can with stand the cold air with out stopping. Stopping is good to warm up and it's an opportunity to take pictures. We stop a lot, we're in no rush but this day in particular we were chasing the light. It seem to be running away from us.