Ice climbing

That great picture at the top of the blog was taken 4 years ago when my rock climbing buddies took me to Eugenia Falls. Steve, Rob and Dave are expert rock climbers and were kind enough to let me tag along when they decided to climb the falls. I had done some rock climbing with them and I quite enjoyed it so I figured climbing a wall of ice would be a lot of fun as well. They have all the necessary equipment as well so I just had to show up and the rest was taken care of for me. They first checked out the condition of the ice and decided it looked safe to climb so we rappeled down the the ice wall from the top and prepared for the climb. I should point out that the only preparation I was required to do was stay the hell out of the way and let the experts handle everything. Steve (wearing blue) was the first to climb and he made it look relatively easy. I think Rob (dark green) was next and then Dave (red) and myself (orange) gave it a shot. I started off about 15 feet to the left of where I am going up in the picture.  It felt so much different than anything I had ever done before, what with wearing crampons and having these wicked ice picks in my hands. I got up about 6 feet and lost my grip. Because the rope was on an angle from where it was tied up top, when I lost my grip I started to swing back to the right and as I was sailing through the air I also turned 180 degrees and smashed into the ice wall ass first. I am not sure what was hurt more, my ass or my pride. Graceful it wasn't. I took a bit of a break and then gave it another try on the right side and made it to the top. I remember my fingers being frozen because my hands were above my head while climbing so the blood runs away from them. I remember huffing and puffing  because my technique was lacking which meant I was expending more energy than an experienced climber would. I also remember a great sense of satisfaction at making it to the top. That is one of the coolest things I have ever done. I did have some issues sitting down for the next couple of days. The bruise on my ass looked like a 4 inch high by 3 inch wide Australia so I took a picture of  my left cheek (a new role for Daniel Day Lewis?). A couple of days later I was telling my credit union rep (the wonderful Jessie) of the previous weekends adventure and I figured what the hell so I sent her a picture of the continent on my ass. I think that's the best part of the story. How many people could send a picture of a continent on their ass to their credit union rep? Not many and I would bet my _____ on it.