Ice Ice Baby

The ‘Seven Summits’. What’s next? Everyone asked. Unless you go to the Moon, you can’t climb higher than Chomolugma and I wasn’t interested in another 8,000m peak.Learning new skills however, and pushing my mind and body out of my comfort zone is a different pie. I wanted to wait until the next project to come naturally.

What excites us the most about the First Ascent is the UNKNOWN. We’re unsure just how much rock and ice we will encountering en route, so we are preparing for all terrain.

Max and I had a chat about the time frame we have for the preparation and decided to focus on snowy – icy training at the moment, as the season for ice climbing will last only for another couple of months here, then it’s time to hit the climbing gym and gain confidence on the rock in the summer.

front points of the crampons and the pointy edges of the ice axe to hold me. We were probably slamming the axe into the ice a bit nervously, wanted that grip to be strong. Then lift and place right foot left foot zak-zak, and ice axes again.

The ice wall we trained on was actually half way up a much bigger face, so you don’t really want to make a mistake. When I got to the anchor point, it was time for me to put my life into Max’s hand who belayed the first time in his life. Nervous? No. Totally shaking and heart almost jumping through why chest? Yes, very much so. Max did an amazing job (well, I’m typing this right now!) And next it was his turn. I could tell he was anxious too but the second time he moved with a lot more confidence. Then we had to climb with one axe only, which was quite a challenge to keep the balance and only reply on the crampons and a single hand. Giulia said climbing with two will feel much easier after, well it would have but we moved to a new location – a vertical ice wall.

This was actually a lot of fun. Both Max and enjoyed this part and it was great to finish on a high. Literally!

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