Ice Climbing, Open Rivers, and Lost Phones

I guess the title pretty much tells the story but I'll elaborate a little for you.

Mrs. Grimey is an occassional guide/teacher for some all-womens climbing events. She has spent time in Wyoming for Women That Rock, an all womens rock climbing event. I know that seems obvious but it could be mistaken for a women's concert as well....maybe?

In the winter it is of course too cold to rock climb so she then goes to Ouray, CO to work at another all womens climbing event called Chicks With Picks. This one is ice climbing. Get it? Chicks with Picks? Ice axes, crampons...picks? Funny huh? Ice climbing is Jen's passion. At least it used to be but we have little time in our lives for climbing anymore.

Jen's plane landed in Montrose, CO on the 22nd. Twenty-four hours later the flu that she apparently picked up on the plane kicked in. The flu is not what you want to happen as you need to be 100% on your game. Guiding climbing is one of those things where you're responsible for the safety of the clients. Climbing in Ouray adds another twist as the ice forms above on the walls of a river canyon. There are many times when the river had open spots throughout the canyon. While climbing or teaching, you and your partners are standing on the frozen sections of river in the bottom of the canyon. Over the years we've dropped ice axes, ropes, and ice screws into the open holes. The ropes are easy to retrieve as it's rare for the entire rope to fall in so you can easily just start pulling until the tail end comes out of the river. You have a wet rope but it'll usually dry overnight. Axes and screws are another story. When you fumble one of these spendy little items you have to head to the local climbing shop in town and ask to borrow their magnet-on-a-rope. You then go back to the hole where you dropped your expensive gear and lower the magnet into the river until you find the lost tools. The success rate is pretty high so it's worth the effort.

Yesterday I tried to call Mrs. Grimey a few times to say hello. She wasn't answering her phone so I sent a quick text. Throughout the day I never heard back from her. Not a big deal. She is pretty focused on her clients while guiding so I don't expect a response until dinner time. Later in the evening I noticed an incoming call from a Colorado number that I didn't recognize. I was unable to answer since I was driving though a Nebraska white-out at the time so I spent the next few hours worrying that something had happened to Jen. Remember those open holes in the ice that we drop gear into? Did she fall into one of those? Sometimes the water level rises during the day if the engineers upstream choose to let more water out and fail to notify those downstream. This is a rare occurance but it does happen on occassion. There's also the risk of being hit by falling ice or rock. It's climbing. It has risks that go along with it. We've had many friends die in climbing accidents over the years so I tend to worry about Jen when she's out there. So anyway....the phone call. I finally got a chance to listen to the message. It was Jen calling from a friends phone. She had dropped hers in the river. Yep, those open holes had claimed another victim. Bummer about the pollution but I'm glad The Girl is well....other than the flu.

We'll go phone shopping when she gets back. She'll want something purple and glittery.