Something Different for a Change

Last week I had the opportunity to get out to a great little event that I’m sure not many of you have ever heard of. It’s called Festiglace and it takes place in the small town of Pont-Rouge just outside of Quebec City. It is one of the largest ice-climbing festivals in Canada. I got to go there with work, since we are the title sponsor of the event, I think The North Face is even in the official name of the event but all anyone ever calls it is Festiglace.

If you like the outdoors (in the winter) and participating in / watching “extreme” sports this is one event that you should go watch at some point. There were 24 of the best ice climbers in the World on hand to compete and countless other climbers just having a fun weekend on the cliffs. Of course as you approach the site the first thing you ask is where is this friggin’ event going to take place. All around is nothing but farmer’s fields and forests. It’s as flat as all the girls you went to school with in grade 3. Even as you get out car you can’t help but wonder where the climbing will happen… and then you start walking down. Into a gorge or canyon or whatever you want to call it. Once you make it down the harrowing staircase and to the base of the gorge, then you realize where the climbing will happen. On both sides of the river are 40 to 50 meter high cliffs with ice falls sporadically spaced along them. It’s quite an impressive venue.

Aside from being a useless fool on Saturday because I was sick on Friday night I had a great time. I got to watch some amazing athletes performing in their element, spend some time outside on a beautiful weekend and meet some phenomenal people. I had dinner on Saturday night at the same table as two people who have been to the top of Mt Everest, Greg Childs and Mario Dutil. How cool is that? Speaking to them, it is interesting how they have completely differing views on climbing but are both so appreciative of the opportunities that they have to go climbing. Mario especially was beaming about how lucky he is to be able to live the lifestyle that he lives but not in an arrogant manner which we have to listen to all too often these days. He has a passion for his sport and for life that was refreshing. Usually this kind of enthusiasm is something found in the youth of our generations but this guy just cleared 50. It’s refreshing to know that “cynical old man” is not something that we have to turn into.

Probably the coolest event to watch was the speed climbing on Sunday. The competitors raced up an ice pillar and the quickest person up was the winner. They used nothing but their ice tools and crampons. It was most impressive to watch as these guys raced up the ice pillar faster than you or I could run up stairs. The winner, a Ukrainian named Evgeniy Krivo-something-or-another, won with a time of 39 seconds. Think about that for a second… 40 meters of sheer vertical ice in 39 seconds. It’s hard to imagine without seeing it.

A sport for me to try in the future? I don’t think so. Not that I wouldn’t enjoy it but to get to be any good requires an investment of lots of time and money. Right now I just don’t have the time to invest in it, which would frustrate me. I would enjoy the climbing but I wouldn’t have enough time to commit to it to really improve and learn the skills and techniques to become really good… and then I would become bitter. Rather than start a sport I couldn’t really commit to I would rather wait until a point in my life when I would have the time to commit to it.

Regardless of whether you climb or not, Festiglace is a fun outing for anyone who likes the outdoors. At worst you can always take the $40 helicopter ride down the gorge. Now if you don’t find that exciting, you don’t have a pulse.

DF

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Mephisto Meeting Notes... Before the Fact

Mephisto is having it’s annual pre-season meeting tonight. The point of the meeting is to inform prospective new players and returning players what is the plan for the upcoming season. Most people just want to know what the schedule for the season is going to be. Others want to know everything about the upcoming season. I guess you could say I will be leaking some of this info before it’s truly out in the open but since I don’t think this involves any issues of National Security I won’t feel too guilty.

This year looks like it might be a bit different from previous seasons. We will start later in the season; tryouts will only start in May and be completed by CUT which is usually (in it’s two year history) the first weekend in June. On the flip side we will be done at Nationals, which this year is a bit earlier than normal, Aug 9-12. That means we will have a very small window in which to come together as a team. I’m still not sure if such a short season will be good or bad for our team. On the one hand we won’t have as much time as usual to practice as a team. This could be a bad thing seeing as how we don’t have tons of guys who are phenomenally talented ultimate players so we will take some time to emerge as a solid unit. On the other hand the shorter season will allow guys to maintain their focus through the short summer season. Guys won’t burn out and the intensity should be higher throughout the season. That will be a big plus and should outweigh the disadvantages of a short season… assuming of course that every one remains fully committed to the team for the short period that we ask of them.

To help with the point I mentioned in the previous paragraph about not having the most phenomenally gifted players, we are going to put more of a focus on individual improvement through coaching. It’s difficult to do when your coaches are playing as well but it is something that needs to be done if you don’t want your players to stagnate at a certain level. Guys will get more “green lights” this season to work on things that aren’t necessarily within their comfort zones.

What will be the best part of this season is that it will be cheap… or at least cheaper than last year. We don’t have to fly anywhere and we won’t need to drive too far for all that many tournaments. That will be a nice change from spending a fortune last year on ultimate. I’m still wiping the scars from last season from my bank account. Don’t get me wrong, I have no regrets about last season at all, it was awesome but it was very expensive and there are only so many times that you can go through a season like that on my salary.

Perhaps the biggest change that we will need to deal with this season is with personnel. We are losing a bunch of players from last year. The biggest loss will be Sam Kennedy (not so much losing him but losing him to our “arch-nemesis” Goat sucks). But there will be a bunch of new faces that will make up for that. Every year we lose a bunch of players and somehow we always make it through those losses. I don’t think this year should be any different. We have a few prospective players returning ex-team mates that will potentially add a lot of depth to this team. Of course we’ll never know until the season gets underway but it looks good right now.

We’ll see if my guarded optimism remains after tonight’s meeting…

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