Pursuing big ice and pushing my cerebral palsy to new heights, I headed to Canmore Canada and Banff National Park. I arrived in Canmore Sunday January 27th at Rocky Mountain Ski Lodge. This would be my home for the next week.

I spent the day shopping and playing tourist. It was below zero all day. I ended up going to bed early to be ready for my first day of ice climbing on Monday.

With my cerebral palsy I do have some spasticity predominately in my left arm. Cold weather does increase the spasticity. So I prepared for this by putting on a base layer designed for cold weather on both my top and legs. My legs had a mid layer and gortex pants. On top I had a sweater and gortex coat with a neck warmer and hat that fit over my whole head and face. I had 2 pairs of socks inside a double plastic boot for my feet. I also had an inner glove and a heavier gortex glove for each hand. This is what I wore on all my ice climbing days.

With temperatures of -25F and wind chills between -35F and -40F, I met with Joshua Lavigne from Yamnuska Mountain Adventures at 8am. This would be my 4th time ice climbing. We packed our gear and headed to Grotto Falls for my first ice climb of the trip. The start of the hike was about 9 kilometers from Canmore. The hike in was fairly short. During it I remember my toes started to feel a little cold. The hike began with a few minutes walk through snow until we got to Grotto creek. Then we followed the creek up through Grotto Canyon. Since it was all ice, I put my crampons on shortly after we started up the creek. Even with my cerebral palsy the total approach only took about one hour. The creek ends at His and Hers ice climbs (both were a WI4 grade) then we headed to the right 75 feet or so to Grotto Falls. The 75 feet to the base of Grotto Falls is WI1 grade. The ice on Grotto Falls is WI3 and was hard and brittle. It was so cold it wanted to shatter when I tried to kick my crampons in or place the ice axe. Joshua showed me a technique of kicking my crampons in a couple of times to try and build a platform to step up on then not move the foot so it doesn't slip out. Now the problem was applying it — LOL.