Khumbu Climbing School

To read about our experience with the Khumbu Climbing School, please check Part I of III of the story on the new Petzl North America Website: http://petzl.com/us/outdoor/news-2/2009/04/23/khumbu-climbing-school

Ouray Ice Festival

Each year, I look forward to the Ouray Ice Festival, in Colorado. Three years ago, I moved to the USA, drove to the Ice Fest and met my husband there. So naturally, this event holds a special place in my heart. It's also a time to see friends again, catch up on the past year, make plans for the new year.It's conforting to check back in with a the nomadic climbing community, share stories, party, climb... and compete!

Competing is how I actually started ice climbing. I was hanging out with my ex boyfriend at an ice world cup event in Couchevel, France, when someone suggested i enter the comp. I had never ice climbed before and made a total fool of myself. Yet, something clicked and I was hooked. I spent the following three years competing while attending law school in Switzerland and eventually quit competing for the mountains. Yet, there was one more event I was hoping to attend someday: the Ouray Ice Festival. So, when I moved to the USA, it was only natural that I would take my first ever USA roadtrip to compete there.

The scenery was breath-taking: red rock cliffs plastered with ice and snow, a little town straight out of a Western surrounded by dramatic mountains, and in the heart of it all, a deep canyon where hundreds of ice and mixed lines begged to be climbed. I was blownaway. Instantly, I fell in love with the place... and with a man :-)

I have attended every event since. This year, it was an invitationnal only event and I was lucky to be invited to compete on my friend Vince Anderson's route. I met Vince almost ten years ago at Festiglace (an ice climbing competition in Quebec)and we have been friends since then. He is local and was the one who inspired me to attend this event in the first place.

The route started with a long pitch of steep ice, which we toproped to the start of the rock. From there, the angle of the terrain went from vertical to horizontal. It hurt my neck to look up at the line of free hanging draws and green spots on the rock, pointing out where some of the holds were. The line followed the lip of a steep roof, offering a mix of ice and rock for the tools, but nothing in the ways of feet...at least for someone my height! I resorted to heel hooking (with no spurs...ah the rules!)to relieve my arms. I wasted a lot of energy trying to clip the first bolt but kept going, shaking out on each hold. The pump was insane. My only training for the event had been in my backyard, hanging from tools on the swing in my backyard, doing pull ups and knee raises, and climbing in the park the previous days. Eventually, I reached what would be the last hold for me on this climb, and hung on a while, desperately hoping to make one more move... which didn't happen! Come to find out, the three first - Dawn, Zoe and I - tied on the same hold and time is what broke us apart. Since I hung on the longest, I came in third. I lost sleep over it, imagining that one more move...that one more move that could have made the difference.

I am now in Singapore, flying to work for the Khumbu Climbing School (www.alexlowe.org/KCS) and the ice festival is long gone. And so are the results. What remains is this: I got on one of the best mixed route I have ever been on - Heavy Petting is the name of the comp route -, got to share some amazing times with amazing friends, sent a beautiful route - Chinese Water Torture, enjoyed teaching clinics, was inspired by slideshows given by friends and I can't wait to go back next year!

Bozeman Ice Festival

Just got back from the Bozeman Ice Festival in Montana. What a great event! Check it out @ http://www.montanaalpineguides.com/bozemanicefestival/index.html.

Adam and I drove to Bozeman straight from Zion, where I belayed him for his free ascent of Moonlight Buttress (http://mountainproject.com/v/utah/zion_national_park/moonlight_buttress/106138026?highlightphrase=moonlight+buttress&). He really wanted to send it before he turned 30, on December 4th, so needless to say that he did not have much time ahead of him to send. It took him only 3-4 tries to send the whole route, which was lucky, because despite the route being "only" 5hours away, it's still 5 hours away! I was really psyched for him and inspired by his ability to just get it done, so fast!

We drove through a snow storm to get to Bozeman and ended up staying at my friend Amy Bullard's house for the night. Together with her husband, she built the most beautiful and cozy house I have ever seen and it was a treat to be there for the night, sleeping by the warm chimney and eating a home made mix of porridge in the morning.

The Icebreaker comp started at 7am the following day, in Hylite Canyon. We had been randomly paired the previous day with local women, for the women, and men for the men. I was lucky to climb with the person I was really hoping to climb with: Sarah Hueniken, who I had climbed in Iceland with and guided for Chicks with Picks with. She had the comp the previous year and won and was now considered a local, although she had only climbed there once before! The goal was to climb as many pitches as possible in the day, hitting three of four areas in the canyon. Needless to say, the comp ended up being 70% hiking for 30% walking. I am definitely more into the opposite ratio: 70% cimbing for 30% hiking, if that! But all the same it was really fun... and cold! my lungs were not acclimated to cold temps at the point and I feel that I have been coughing since then. Or maybe it's because I fell into the frozen creek, getting soaked all the way to mid thigh! To win this comp, it's good have a strategy and know that this strategy should include climbing as many short pitches as possible, versus longer routes, which earn less points. Next year, I'll know better. Also, I'll know what to expect more. And I'll try to not have this be the first day of ice climbing of the year for me! Jen Olson and Lilla Molnar - from Canada - won the title, crushing our score! Way to go to both of them!

I rushed back to give a slideshow and then taught clinics to women the next day! It was all really fun and met some amazing people. What struck me the most is everyone's kindess and fairness. I look forward to coming back to this event!

Thanks to all the organizer and volunteers for me making it happen, and a special thanks to Amy and Jojo for all their hard work!

Now, let the temps drop and plaster our local crags with ice!

To baby or not to be?

Women's night. The evening is slowly winding down. A few of us are sitting in the kitchen while another handful of ladies are talking in the living room. Two women come in from the living room and crack up laughing as they hear our conversation.

We are all in our early or late thirties. We are mostly all climbers. We are all wondering if having babies is a must. None of us feels the urge; the clock ticking; the intense desire for "that" kind of responsabilities. Yet, we all wonder. We are all nagged by what, at our age, we are expected to do: having babies.

We live in a time of choice, where we can have kids or not, we can be women with a job - or not, we can become president of jobs who were men only jobs just yesterday, we can be married or single or divorced and it's no longer stigmatized, we can be gay, straight, bisexual, we can live anywhere we want.

But with choices come questions, existentialism, a loss of social status that we need to reinvent on our own. We now need to define who we are, who we want to be, on our own, because we no longer have to obay social structures. But defining oneself is no easy task. What is my role as a women in the world? what is the role of a man in the modern world?

At 32, I wonder. Deeply. I went to law school, knowing that law "wasn't my thing", but I decided to push through and finish. I did. Later, I started going through the mountain guide certification . I love the mountains. I love people. I will finish my certification. Yet, I need to be fulfilled both physically - my guiding and climbing life - and intellectually. I need the latter to be motivated in the physical realm. I need to find a balance between the two to be fulfilled. Yet, at 32, I wonder what it is going to take to satisfy my intellect: going back to school is stimulating, yet, how much sense does it make, when I am at the age when women should be thinking about having children. Shouldn't I be just having kids? but to have kids I need to be making money, and to make money I need to be going back to school. And all the while, I want to climb, climb and climb. And I still feel no urge to have kids. But I feel like I should be wanting to have them. And sometimes, I feel that I want them, because I feel it would bring an easy answer to the turmoil of life questions.

As Emery said tonight, you can't have kids to find fulfilment in your life. You need to find fulfillment within you first. But what is fulfillment: is it being where you are socially expected to be at? is it being successful in your job? is it having babies? or is it having defined what you expect yourself to be and being just that? or maybe, it's just being satisfied with what you have right now...

I wonder....

Tolerance in the time of elections?

The elections are taking place today and I can barely stand still. I have lost sleep over it. I am just as antsy and excited as I was twenty years ago, waiting to open my presents over Christmas. The tension is high everywhere. I have never seen so many people stand up for what they believe in: people express their opinion by putting up signs in their front lawns; friends are sending text messages as a reminder to vote; some Facebook members have given their status away to remind the world to vote, others – from countries around the world – are urging us Americans to vote; parties and celebration are being organized to celebrate Obama, because who could imagine that anyone else would get elected? Even my yoga teacher has made the elections a part of her class opening speech. Yesterday, in class, she was talking about how she has butterflies in her belly, because she is so worried about the election outcome. I, myself, have been loosing sleep over it. I am frightened by Sarah Palin’s appalling lack of experience in every issue this country is dealing with and in her inability to actually build a proper sentence! She is not fit to be the VP of one of the most powerful nation in the world!

I live a sheltered life, within a community who will vote for Obama because that community – the outdoor community – is sick of this useless war, worries about the environment, about health care, women’s right, and much more. A few days ago though, I was exposed to people who have different views of this country’s future. And, although I had never voted before and thought that I had no political opinion, I felt personally attacked that anyone could even envision voting for McCain, especially since he chose Palin as his VP – an illiterate, uneducated, unworldly, contradictory women who is against women’s rights, on top of it all! It is scary that this woman could one day be the president of the most powerful nation on earth.

Again at yoga though, that same teacher expressed that right now is a great time to practice tolerance. She said that, but I could see how hard it was for her too to put that in practice. How can one be tolerant when your own values and ethics are at stake? When everything you believe in has been trashed for the past 8 years and there is now hope to remedy to what Bush has done to this country? I love this country and I feel that I know what is best for it. Much like the rest of the people surrounding me. But truth is, everything is relative, and people voting for the other party are probably feeling just as cheated by me as I am by them.

In the light of this perspective, I realized that my intolerance of other’s views of politics is the same intolerance leading to wars, leading to people voting to protect their own little comforts, leading to people being afraid of change, and therefore leading people to vote McCain / Palin. This perspective has helped accept that not everyone will vote Obama today and be somewhat OK with it. We can agree to disagree.

As a friend just wrote to me:

“It will be what it will be (the election that is)... nothing to worry about. Barak by a landslide :-)

And, if I'm wrong, which is often the case, McCain is an okay guy. He means well for the most part. If for some reason Palin ended up in the driver's seat, impeachment is always a handy tool that is possible.

And, if things become incredibly unbearable, Canada has great climbing!”

But let’s hope that we don’t have to move. Let’s hope that everyone votes. Let’s hope there will be no cheating this time. Let’s hope that people vote for freedom. The real freedom: that which is not imposed by fear and war. Vote for change! Vote OBAMA!