Full Circle (guest post by Margo Talbot)
Photo by Chris Giles
At the age of twenty-eight I was introduced to ice climbing, and it literally changed my life. And the biggest reason is that it taught me how to be in the present moment. I was plagued with an over-active imagination, a barrage of endlessly streaming thoughts, and bouts of debilitating depression interspersed with periods of mania. As I neared the end of my third decade of life I could not remember a time when my mind had been still, absent from all of my attendant fears and anxieties. But I had also never dangled from a thin rope hundreds of feet off the ground…
On that winter’s day in February of 1992 I hiked into Melt Out, a 200 foot flow of frozen ice 45 minutes south of Jasper on the Icefields Parkway. I had begged, borrowed and bought gear for the outing. My partner and I got out of my truck at 8:30 a.m. and started the thirty minute trek into the climb.
I listened to the squeak of the snow under the soles of my boots as we negotiated the approach. I felt the cold air on my face and far from being uncomfortable I felt truly alive. There was snow everywhere, all over the ground and all the way to the tops of the surrounding peaks of the Canadian Rockies. Before I knew it we were standing at the base putting on our equipment.
I watched as my partner started up the pitch. I listened to the sound of his axe going into the ice and to the rhythm of his crampons moving upward. I allowed the rope to slip through my belay device as needed. Before I knew it he was at the top yelling down to me that he was secure.
It was my turn, and I felt the rope come snug onto my harness as I slipped on some lighter gloves and grabbed my axes. I swung my tools into the ice, and then brought my feet up just the way my partner had done. I wasn’t ten feet off the ground when everything in my mind disappeared. Gone was the never-ending stream of consciousness that was all too often filled with negative thoughts. Gone was the psychic onslaught of deeply buried painful emotions. And gone were the over-active ramblings of a fearful imagination. In its place: peace, tranquility, the feel of cool wind on my face and the rhythmic sound of metal hitting ice.
The etymology of the word ecstasy, translated from Ancient Greek, is “to stand outside oneself”. In other words, outside of the constant barrage from the thinking mind, the superficial fears of the personality, and the programmed reactions of the emotional body. The first time I climbed a frozen waterfall, I was hooked. But it wasn’t just the climbing I was hooked on; it was also the feeling of freedom I experienced from the tyranny of my mind. Slowly, over the years, I felt its power wane, and in its place I found a peace and stillness that I can only describe as joy.
Six years after I started to climb I was invited by the owner of a local sports store to instruct the women’s clinics for the Canmore Ice Climbing Festival. That same year Kim Reynolds, a woman I had met while competing at the ESPN X-Games the year before, began hosting all-women’s ice climbing clinics at her home town crag in Ouray. These two events were the genesis of women’s ice climbing clinics in North America. In the ensuing years I helped organize the ice festival in my home town at the same time Chicks with Picks continued to grow. Few things were giving me as much joy in life as introducing others to the activity that had brought me such a profound sense of inner freedom.
In the summer of 2006, Kim Reynolds called to ask me if I had time in my schedule to be one of her Girly Guides for the upcoming season in Ouray. I couldn’t have been more pleased than to see our respective careers convening at these world-renowned ice climbing events, and in a world-class venue. As a Chicks guide I have witnessed my clients experiencing the joy of their very first forays into the world of waterfall ice. Many of these women climb and stay in touch with me to this day. I am blessed to be able to share my passion with others, and to be able to witness women being transformed by the same activity that continues to transform and inspire me.
Margo Talbot is a world renowned ice climber whose love for the mountains sprang from her discovery of the Canadian Rockies over 20 years ago. Margo shares her passion for ice through guided expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica and through courses she teaches for The Glitter Girls and Chicks with Picks. Margo co-founded The Glitter Girls with Karen McNeill in 2003 and continues their mission of helping women find and grow their own inner goddesses through guided adventures on ice, rock and snow. Her book “All That Glitters” will be published in the Spring of 2011, check out her website at www.allthatglittersbook.com.
Tags: All That Glitters, Glitter Girls, Margo Talbot
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