Parisa's 2nd visit to Calgary, 2007
January 10-20, 2007

After we spent a spectacular 5 days in Vegas, we came back to Calgary to -30 temperatures. Thankfully, Nayden picked us up at the airport with a warm car, and we quickly jolted to have dinner that my mom had thoroughly prepared.

I was house sitting at Theo's and in the days that followed we did regular things like going out for drinks and food, going to the "Best of the Banff Film Festival" held at the University, and squeezed in two ice climbing days. After chilling in Canmore on Sunday with Dow and Stacy, we went to Grotto Canyon the next day... unfortunately the day did not warm up to what was promised. We climbed Grotto Falls and then Hers (15m, WI 4). Due to the cold, I was sure this was Parisa's last ice climb, but strangely enough, once she thawed, she was trying to convince me to go again - eventually I gave in, and we went to the Ghost, to climb the GBU. It was sunny and warmer, so it was a blast. Funnily, we almost got stuck in the Ghost for the night... a few days prior, the batteries on my truck died in the -20 temps. No problem and it wasn't a big surprise, since I had noticed the lower voltage and knew my batteries are over 8 years old, so I just bought new ones and that was that. I joked that this could have happened in the Ghost where it could really screw us, and was glad it happened in Calgary. However, fast forward to the Ghost 2 days later, we got down to the truck after our climb, and she wouldn't start! I couldn't believe it, because Lola has been quite the trusty steed, and she has never let me down. I theorized that the engine starter must have frozen (since nothing was moving when I turned the key) - I've heard of that happening to people, and we did 3 river crossings which were open water, so the whole truck was pretty frozen. I was banging the starter with my ice hammer and started my Webasto, pointing the hot exhaust from the heater toward the starter too. Eventually about 15 minutes later I came to my senses and checked the battery connections - one of the cables had pulled out from when I was swapping the batteries!! Phew. Thankfully there was another car in the valley that day, and they would have given us a ride had things been more serious...

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