Saturday, March 30, 2013

Perks of the Job.

When I moved to Banff my original plan was to remain unemployed for the first six weeks in order to climb as much ice as possible. Upon arriving and walking around town I quickly realised that there were few places I could see myself working. Being a small town there were no rope access opportunities so I resigned myself to outdoor retail as I figured this line of work would be the most flexible with taking time off and potentially attaining a four day working week, meaning I could work four days a week and climb three. Not a terrible ratio of work vs play. Despite the -40ºC temperatures, I walked around town handing out resumes to a few different gear stores, all the while thinking it was normal for people to run errands and hang about outside in such conditions.


* Patagonia Banff

My face was stinging, the hairs in my nose had frozen stiff, and I was wondering what the hell I had done moving to this land of ice. After all, it was only two weeks earlier that I had been road tripping up the east coast of Australia from Canberra to Byron bay in temperatures of +35ºC, quite the contrast. Despite the cold, I was out there looking for a job and was super excited to discover a Patagonia store, hiding away at the end of Banff Avenue. I had never seen a Patagonia store but was familiar with their gear, strong environmental ethics & initiatives (http://www.patagonia.com/ca/environmentalism) and the role both the company and the owner and founder, Yvon Chouinard had on the evolution of climbing ethics and equipment. Feeling like I was going to freeze solid I walked inside, spoke to people who were soon to be good friends, dropped off my resume and started the cold walk home.

A few days later I received a email from Tim, the manager of the store, asking if I could come in for a interview. Two weeks later I was the newbie at the shop and had started my position at Patagonia Banff. The main incentive for a outdoor enthusiast to work in outdoor retail for minimum wage is the prodeals on very expensive climbing equipment and clothing that you get. You earn little money but are in a position to save a lot of money while building up a technical wardrobe, needed for climbing in the mountains. If you're not aware of how much high end alpine climbing clothing costs then let me give you a idea, my "Rain Jacket" retails for $650 CAD & my down jacket, $480CAD. These are only two pieces of clothing and you're already wearing over $1000, let alone the base layers, mid layers (fleece), socks, pants, gloves,...etc. You can choose cheaper brands and pay less in the short term but you're not saving money in the long term as the quality of fabrics and construction of the garment is not to the same standard. Patagonia prides itself on their uniquely aggressive environmental standards and one way they approach sustainability is making clothing that lasts a long time. It is much less harmful and wasteful to make one jacket that will last ten years or more than producing a product that will have to be replaced every two to three years.


* Gearing up before approaching the North Face of Mt Athabasca.

Working in retail can be a tough gig if you compare the benefits to other jobs in small mountain towns. You're not offered staff accommodation and you don't receive tips, meanwhile the eighteen year old waitresses are earning as much money in tips in a single night as I do in half of my working week. In having said that, you are in a position to meet like minded people (fellow climbers who come into the shop) and every now and again some cool opportunities arise. One morning I checked my email to find Rob Owens, the Patagonia rep, had written to me asking if I wanted to tag along and climb the North Face of Athabasca, a mountain I had tried to climb three weeks prior but was turned back by unfavorable conditions. Rob is a very accomplished climber and a IFMGA Mountain guide. I had only been in Canada a few months but had quickly learnt that his climbing resume was something I could only dream of coming close to accomplishing. Pick up the mixed climbing guide book and you will see his name more than a few times. Rob's email had a catch, there was a purpose to the climb other than the usual reasons - a short advert for a new  Patagonia hard-shell (Rain Jacket). The Troposphere was a new 2.5 layer H2NO Hard-shell and Patagonia needed footage of it hard at work in its natural environment. I was really interested to see how these things worked, how you climb a mountain with objective hazard, quickly, while shooting footage for a advert. The man behind the camera was Andrew Querner, a very talented Canmore based artist and climber. We were to be two teams of two. Andrew & Mike, another IFMGA Mountain Guide and then Rob & myself. Andrew and Mike would walk ahead of us across the glacier on the approach to the North Face, allowing Andrew to turn around and film us as he saw fit. It was a beautiful morning with fantastic conditions overall, there was a team of two others in front of us who had set off 30 minutes earlier, so we had some description of a trail broken in across the glacier but post holing was still a common occurrence. After a short water stop, we put away the walking poles and pulled out the ice axes. The north face has one pitch of steep climbing and depending on the conditions it can be all ice, all rock or anywhere in between. Straight forward climbing up the 50-60 degree snow slopes saw us at the base of the steep pitch (Crux), not far from the summit. The order remained the same, Andrew & Mike would climb it first, position themselves above and proceed to film Rob climbing the crux.



* High on the North Face, approaching the crux.

We reached the summit just after 9AM, roughly five and a half hours after leaving the car. We took a quick photo on the summit and immediately started our descent. There were no clouds in the sky and the sun was strong, warming the snow slopes on our descent and making them more unstable as time went on. This is usually one of the biggest concerns you have when climbing mountains and the reason you start so early, get up and off the mountain before the sun has enough intensity to compromise the stability of the snow slopes and glaciers you have to cross to get home. Despite traveling efficiently and not lingering unnecessarily the descent slopes were still a bit spooky. Upon reaching the toe of the glacier we dumped our packs and re-hydrated. Mike & I lounged about in the sun while Rob & Andrew spent a hour getting a few close up shots of the jacket.

I feel very lucky to have been able to climb with Rob and the others. I strongly value time spent in the mountains, especially when I am able to climb alongside those who have a vast amount of talent and experience. You can learn so much, even if you're not being directly instructed. Simply by keeping a keen eye on how others do things you can pick out subtleties and almost absorb their efficiency. Rob, being aware that I am interested in starting guide training, was kind enough to explain why he would use certain techniques and what he was observing and why as we were climbing.

I feel very lucky to work with such like minded, enthusiastic people. My boss, Tim, and the rest of the staff are so accommodating and do everything in their power to help one another take extended time off for trips. This is not common in many work places and I want to thank those at Patagonia Banff for making so many opportunities possible!

Climbing Mt Athabasca was certainly one of the more interesting and fulfilling opportunities that has arisen from a retail job. Here is the advert that was filmed that day - I'm the guy in the yellow jacket.