Raphael Slawinski

"Let's go to the Headwall tomorrow." And that's all that needs to be said. When Rockies' ice climbers talks about the Headwall, there's only place they could be talking about. In the twenty-odd years I've been ice climbing (has it really been that long?), I spent a lot of time in its cold, blue shadow. Some seasons it seemed like I did half of my climbing there. A couple of years ago I put in seven days just on The God Delusion : stumbling over snow-covered scree in December, skiing up loaded down with rack, drill and avy gear in January, either way coming out by headlamp. But this year, February was already more than half gone and I still hadn't been to the Headwall. I began to feel an unease, a feeling of guilt almost, as if I'd neglected to visit an old friend. All the same, I needed a reason to go; otherwise I'd just be going through the motions. While hanging out on an unloved face above Canmore that was Ian's latest obsessio...

Last November, in a dark studio in the bowels of the Banff Centre, I had the chance to talk for an hour with the English climbing journalist Ed Douglas . I'd long been a fan of his lively yet careful writing, so it was a real treat to speak with him in person. He rose even further in my estimation when I found out that, being from Manchester, he knew some members of New Order . For a while Ed had a hard time steering the conversation away from that band's history and music, and those of its ill-fated progenitor . However, eventually we did get around to other things - like alpinism. By rights my friend Ian Welsted should've been there too, but he was actually climbing  at the time. Recently the Banff Centre started releasing on its  YouTube channel  the wealth of material it had collected over the years. There are some real gems there, like Geoff Powter's conversation with the quirky duo of Rick Allen and Sandy Allan . For the record, here's Ed's and my chat...