Day 1:

One of the greatest things about traveling is the crazy situations that present themselves, often by chance.  We seem to been destined for these fluke opportunities this trip - right place at the right time… turns out being in Saas Fee this weekend was just the case.  Sheila and I both got all access passes into the Northface World Cup of Ice Climbing.  From what I can gather climbing up frozen surfaces is a pretty popular winter sport here.  They have flooded the center ten stories of the village parkade, and hung inverted ice bells along side a huge man-made frozen waterfall creating a perfect indoor climbing surface.  Contestents (from pretty much every cold country in the world except Canada )  trade turns climbing the parkade, attempting to reach the final ice bell which stands equivalent to 10 stories high.  Judges start a time clock, and the spectators stand near the top of the parkade cheering (if it’s a Swiss contestant) and seeing how many bottles of beer they can consume through the duration of the judges timer.  While it’s not exactly the type of spectator sport I’m used too, after a few climbers (and a few bottles of beer) I was hooked.

After the first night of qualifying everyone retired to the basement floor of the parkade, where organizers had put just as much care into building a huge, two room night club – complete with climbing handles on the roof, dancing cages, disco balls, etc.  Unfortunately we had come ill prepared to disco (about six layers of clothing, winter jackets, and hiking boots) a mistake we wouldn’t repeat the night after.

Day 2:

A Swiss Champ! congrats to Simon Anthamatten, who pulled off an amazing last minute upset – reaching the top ice bell in under twelve minutes… needless to say after the closing ceremonies, and medal presentation, much partying was in store.  You may think mixing ice climbing, or any climbing for that matter, with partying and alcohol is a bad idea.  No freaking kidding it’s a bad idea.  Google ice climbing, and then look at the stuff you require to ice climb successfully - note the weird ninja axes, and spiked shoes and stuff, now throw in a few vodka/redbulls… it’s either a recipe for disaster or a typical party in the Alps.  So what if I wore an ice climbing helmet all night… I think I got a lot of free drinks out of it, and bonus – I didn’t have to remove a pick axe from my temple the next morning.