Feature in Base Camp Magazine
Ice Climbing – Ong Strong
by Wendy Ong
2y ago
I am always astonished by the people who happen to stumble across my blog. One such person was Cass Légér, the Editor of Base Camp Magazine. Taken by my life and stories, she reached out and asked if I could write an article about my accident and road to recovery and back to my life in the mountains. I am usually pretty prompt about attending to tasks and matters in my life but, for some reason, when it comes to writing about myself, I put things off till the very last minute. I know exactly why. So much has happened in my life; so much tragedy and joy, so many emotions and feelings experience ..read more
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Aiguille du Midi and sense of history
Ice Climbing – Ong Strong
by Wendy Ong
2y ago
Aiguille du Midi on the far right The weather on my last morning in Chamonix was clear, so we decided to take the cable car (Téléphérique de l’Aiguille du Midi) from Chamonix up to the top of the Aiguille du Midi. Since the cable car ride is expensive (around €60!), there is no point in paying this sum of money for a day with poor visibility. We had originally floated the idea of taking the cable car up to ice-climb a route, Chèré, and then take the last cable car back down. However, the time of year was not ideal for this; the refuge where we could have stayed overnight was closed ..read more
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Ice, Ice baby: Cogne, Italy (round 2)
Ice Climbing – Ong Strong
by Wendy Ong
2y ago
Based on weather, and because ice-climbing aggravates my leg much less than skiing, we returned to Cogne a few days later to do a route in the adjacent valley to Valnontey, Lillaz. The short approach was very welcome. As usual, Yves carried all the heavy stuff. I always feel kind of lame about my partners shouldering most of the load, but it is for the good of everyone involved. The familiar drive through the Mont Blanc tunnel to Courmeyeur and Aosta It was pretty cool for the initial “approach” to the climb go through the small village. I have not experienced this in North America. Yves’ r ..read more
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Cham area and Cogne, Italy (round 1) ice-climbing
Ice Climbing – Ong Strong
by Wendy Ong
2y ago
I was fortunate enough to have a great tour guide in Yves for ice-climbing around Chamonix. This was actually my first European climbing experience, rock or ice, and what an introduction. Beautiful setting, great partner, fun leads. I am glad Chamonix is a multi-sport destination and we could ice-climb when I could not ski. Since Yves and I had not climbed outside together before, we started off with a mellow trial run close by, at La Cremerie, Argentière. I often feel a bit bad about having to limit our routes to ones with not very long approaches. I do not move well in deep snow ..read more
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Chamonix – Journey and arrival
Ice Climbing – Ong Strong
by Wendy Ong
2y ago
Close to three weeks after departing for Chamonix, I am finally getting around to writing and posting about my experiences there and the surrounding areas. While I was on my big skiing road trip I felt compelled to blog about a place and/or experience quite quickly, so as not to forget details I wanted to document; and also so as not to let things build up so much that writing would feel overwhelming. I know that I have a tendency to be quite emotional/volatile when I am documenting my emotions and feelings soon after an event. While there is something to be said about letting time pass and pr ..read more
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Ice-climbing in Canmore
Ice Climbing – Ong Strong
by Wendy Ong
2y ago
The ice-climbing in Canmore/Banff is world-class, and there is just so so much of it in a concentrated area. One reason for me making a stop in Canmore was to continue to get more experience leading on this medium that is relatively new to me (compared to rock). It was pretty incredible to have my first days of the ice-climbing season be in this location. A typical 9am in Canmore Yeah, it was a wet start to this route. Here is a picture of me before I got really really cold, and in a rare moment when more than the bridge of my nose was showing. So yes, it’s like a lot of Facebook pictures ..read more
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Ouray, CO – Too much to summarize
Ice Climbing – Ong Strong
by Wendy Ong
2y ago
Unfortunately, weather delays meant that Lonnie (the visually impaired fellow I mentioned in Thursday’s post) did not make it to Ouray in time for Danika and myself to climb with him today. So we went climbing at the Ouray Ice Park together. I learned a lot from Danika, who still guides part-time; and we also fit in a lot of fun ice and mixed lines. Ouray Ice Park: I love this place Climbing under/near this dangling formation In particular, I learned some new ice-climbing techniques that help me a lot in getting my feet higher up and thus minimizing the number of swings I need to take. In ..read more
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Smuggs Ice Fest and Thermal Management
Ice Climbing – Ong Strong
by Wendy Ong
2y ago
Despite my usual anxieties about these group events, I drove up to Jeffersonville, VT (a bit outside Burlington, VT) for the annual Smuggs Ice Fest, held at Smugglers Notch. I wanted to check out a different ice climbing area, conditions for ice climbing seemed good (it had been very cold in the run up to the Fest), the conditions for skiing were not good this weekend, and I just wanted to get more ice-climbing practice in. As usual, I was very anxious about holding other people in the group back on the non-trivial uphill approaches on un-maintained roads. I contacted the organizers to tell th ..read more
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Newfound Lake Ice Climbing – Type 2 fun when it is -2 degF (-19 degC)
Ice Climbing – Ong Strong
by Wendy Ong
2y ago
I often feel bad about limiting my partners’ choices of climbs because of my difficulty with long approaches. My partners tell me not to be so silly and that I don’t hold them back at all; but I still have a hard time not feeling bad about it. A lot of it is due to my history of being Sherpa Wendy; being all about dividing the load 50/50 even if my partner was much bigger than me, and usually being front of the pack and moving at a fast clip on approaches. I still have a hard time not feeling crummy asking my partner to carry something for me. We decided to check out some routes by Newfound La ..read more
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Extreme Dry-tooling/trolling
Ice Climbing – Ong Strong
by Wendy Ong
2y ago
Thanks for the demo Nomics, Petzl! I ended up purchasing a pair because I am such a fan of the Nomics. Talk about precision placement Notice the title of the forum thread title: “Ice-Climbing Noob Questions”   ..read more
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