When I look back on “Summer 09″, I will definitely think about my new-found love for cliff-jumping. Cliff-jumping was the purpose for my recent trip to Jasper, Alberta. I have a regular spot that I go to near Calgary, with the cliffs being about 40ft high. This gives you a decent adrenaline rush but I also know in order to truly push my comfort zone, I need to conquer higher heights. After doing some research I found a place called “Horseshoe Lake”, which was about 20 minutes from Jasper. The cliffs at Horseshoe Lake stand 85ft tall! Watching videos of people jumping these, I KNEW I had to do it. Now, you also need to keep in mind, getting hurt from 40ft cliffs isn’t likely, but 85ft cliffs have the potential for trouble – just ask this guy, who fractured two vertebrates!
With the weekend off, Adrenaline and I decided we would head out to Horseshoe Lake, and conquer them. Jasper is a 5 hour drive from Calgary, and also a 5 hour drive from Edmonton (where Adrenaline is from), so we decided to make a camping trip out of this.
I packed up my things and headed to Jasper around 2pm on Friday. After meeting up with Adrenaline at 9, we went to find a campsite before dark. He called “Whistlers” campsite earlier in the week to make a reservation, but was told they weren’t necessary as it wouldn’t be a busy weekend. This is a story in itself, but needless to say, the campsite was full. Off to overflow camping we go! After paying for our permit, the worker leaves me with these parting words: “Oh, and there’s a few bears that like you live here, so, make sure you leave the food in your car.” “Awesome…” I think to myself sarcastically.
It’s getting dark out so we are in a rush to setup our tent. What better combination than an aspiring geologist and a dating coach! At last we are all setup, and we decide to head back into town for some beers. While waiting for Adrenaline early in the day, I hung out in a pub called “The Jasper Brewing Co”, and tried their “Blueberry Vanilla Ale”. It was the most delicious beer I have ever had. Wanting to show Adrenaline my newly found treasure, we went back there. Unlike earlier in the day, it was a packed house this time! A few beers, multiple UFC fights, and the entertaining bartender later, we head out to walk around town.
While walking down an empty street, I proclaim “I hear club music!!!” to Adrenaline. We race up the steps to find “Pete’s”, which is the nightclub in Jasper! We are both definitely not dressed the part, but we didn’t care. For the next hour and a half, we just sat around, danced when we wanted to, and that’s about it. At one point Adrenaline decided he wanted to do the cyclone, and went into the middle of the dance floor and just spun.
“Are you guys from here?” asks HBafro, a girl who stood nearby. “No.” we say breaking rapport. She walks off. I am intrigued as to what her motive was. It could be either she is from out of town and wanted to meet locals only, or she is a local and hates tourists. She is also there with a friend, HBmexico, so I figure they are a good match for us. After a bit I position myself properly, and again she asks “Are you guys from here?” I reply “Calgary, he’s from Edmonton.”
HBafro: “I’m from Edmonton too!”
And in true Elektro fashion, I reply “I’m sorry!” with a touch to her shoulder.
HBafro: “You’re sorry!?”
Elektro: “You’re not an oilers fan are you?”
HBafro: “I don’t watch sports. I’m into the underground scene, I’m a raver.”
Elektro: “Cool”
HBafro: “I work at twilight.”
Now here is where a lot of guys would fuck up by crossing the line between qualifying themselves and showing high value. It’s a very simple tweak in language.
Elektro: “That’s cool, I have a friend who plays there a lot, good times.”
HBafro: “Who?”
Elektro: “Jason.” (So calling him by his first name is key, because it shows he actually is -likely- a friend, instead of just some guy you know, and of course, she will ask…)
HBafro: “Who?”
Elektro: “DJ name”
She goes on to say she knows him blah blah blah and I tease her about having really expensive cans of coke. I tested the waters for a pull, because she had a hotel room which is nicer than a tent, so I wanted to see if she would invite us to stay at her place. She didn’t, and although I knew if I pushed for it we could make it happen, I decided I was totally OK with sleeping in a tent. I seeded the day2 for tomorrow, grabbed her number, and went back to our tent to sleep.
Initially we had tentative plans to go cliff-jumping as our day2 around 1pm. Adrenaline and I wanted to go for a hike first, so I sent her:
“Hey, we’re going hiking now, if you want to come text me back, if not cliff-jumping at 1 be ready.”
She sent me a text back saying she wanted to come. When we got to their hotel, Adrenaline was like.. “Ummm, did you not know we were going hiking? You are wearing flip-flops…?” She was totally content with her flip-flops so off we went. Not only was she wearing flip-flops, she was also wearing a “shirt-dress”… or in other words, no pants. We arrive at the Edith Cavell hike entrance, and I throw her sweatpants and a winter coat to keep her warm. She looked so funny, it was awesome. Everyone on the hike kept making fun of her, making little jabs at her choice of footwear. She let them know they were hiking flip-flops, and I reminded her to rock her steez.
We end up at the bottom of the glacier, and decide to go check out the ice cave nearby. What a beautiful site inside it was.Adrenaline wants to see how far we can go inside, and I’m reluctant at first thinking about “safety”. Eventually he convinces me by saying “Dude, you will regret not coming.” So we begin our trek further inside. Did I mention it’s pitch black, and the only light we have is from Adrenaline’s camera flash? I’m pretty scared, and we eventually come up to a point where we will have to slide across these big ice blocks. The height here is low so we have to walk crunched over. Once we reach these blocks, I’m trying to get us to turn back. I’m terrified at this point. He continues to force me to march on, and we find a big stream of water coming down on the other side of these blocks. “Thank god” I think to myself, figuring we had come to the end and could now head back. We see light at the top of this waterfall thing. Sure enough… “I’m going to climb up” says Adrenaline. Fuck! He begins to climb, and while I begin to get very nervous. I can hear a rock falling down this stream, and BAM, it smokes my leg leaving a huge gash. Now not only am I very scared, I’m hurt. If a bigger rock fell down I could be in some serious trouble.
Adrenaline reaches the top, and begins to climb down. This feels like forever. He begins shouting to me, asking if I could find my way back on my own? I couldn’t piece together what he said after that. Did he need help? Or did he think he could climb out and meet me by the front again? So he climbs down and tells me to head back, and he will meet me at the start. I don’t hesitate thinking it was a chance for me to get the hell out of there. Of course, I get lost on my way out, and begin to panic. My legs are shaking. My heart is raising. After a bit I am able to find my way out, and a huge sigh of relief goes through my body. I get out and can see Adrenaline way up the mountain climbing his way down. Amazing. I was so pumped for him, even though he’s absolutely insane.
We meet back up with the girls again and drop them off shortly thereafter. Adrenaline and I part ways, and I get in my car to head back to Calgary. Even though I wasn’t able to go cliff-jumping, I definitely had my adrenaline rush for the day. I had taken a bunch of pictures with my iPhone, but unfortunately it crashed out and I lost them all.
Elektro
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Where is your spot that you go to around Calgary with 40ft cliffs?
the spot is in sebbe, alberta. (about 10 mins from canmore).
the spot i jump off is different than the common one that you could find by googling around. spot isn’t too hard to find but a lot easier if you have someone to take you. you can add me on facebook if you want and in july ill bring you along
http://facebook.com/elekt