Noah's First Ice Climbing

My six-year-old son Noah has been bugging me for three years to try ice climbing. Of course, like any good young boy, he is jazzed on sharp implements. Who cares about movement and stunning scenery when your father attaches spikes to your feet and gives you a weapon to swing. I put Black Diamond strap-on aluminium Neve crampons on his hiking boots, which in their smallest setting were still too big so I had to use zap straps to keep them in their collapsed position. Oblivious to the rain and wind, he was in Heaven and could have spent all afternoon chipping at the ice. The toe of the Athabasca Glacier at the Columbia Icefields was the venue of choice for his introduction to the dark art of ice bashing.



photo: Black Diamond Neve crampons with gerry-rigged zap straps to make them smaller