There’s a famous saying that I try to have be one of the principle drivers in my life.

“If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing in a needlessly miserable manner” – Some Guy (probably)

When I lived in Vancouver, I spent my summers skiing. Skiing’s the best sport in the world, so carrying skis 28km across the Black Tusk Traverse just to get seven frantic turns before a panicked stop to keep from launching into an alpine lake seemed like a pretty reasonable way to spend a Saturday. You could pussy out and climb Sunday if you really wanted. I went 32 months in a row skiing on the coast – my streak was only broken by moving to Calgary.

There’s a problem though. At some point in starting a life in Calgary I started getting a little old and a little soft. I skied when there was powder, I climbed ice when there wasn’t, I climbed rock when it was sunny and warm and I ran when it was warm and wet. It was easy, fun.

And then I watched a movie called Boys in Bugs. Matt Segal and Will Stanhope spent four damn years going to war with a route in the Bugs. They spent insane amounts of time living on a portaledge, working a monster unclimbed route in blazing heat, freezing cold, sun, rain, snow and wind.

Watching that movie I had a sudden moment of jarring clarity. I was getting soft. Being soft is for old people.

I had a renewed mission – return to the spirit of tackling objectives in less than ideal conditions. I immediately found a willing partner in my friend Katherine who’s already got a fine track record of dragging me up questionable climbs.

We launched ourselves into a series of climbs that were almost guaranteed to be miserable, but could safely be tackled in adverse conditions – pushing conditions doesn’t mean you start cutting your safety margin. Easy retreats were the name of the game – you can start up anything if you can safely back off.

We climbed a horrendous 4 pitch route in Crow’s Nest Pass who’s name I can’t even remember because I blocked it from memory. Our friends Jenny and Kyle were getting married in Fernie so we got a super early start on the day of their wedding and climbed the route when it was so cold that we were trying to climb with closed fists because our fingers were freezing. Somehow we successfully got to the top of the thing (and to the wedding in time).

Next we launched ourselves at Sharknado outside Canmore – 4 pitches to 5.9 – now so late into the season that there was literally ice on the route. We got to a spot where we were blocked by a smear of ice on the third pitch so we backed off, safe, freezing cold and laughing like idiots while ducking falling ice chunks.