Mt.Niblock

Saturday found us making our way to Lake Louise for some hiking with our friends Catherine and Sean. Mt. Niblock is approached via the very busy trail past the lake and up to the Lake Agnes tea house, contouring the lake brings you into the alpine and soon after, the summit of Niblock. We had a great day enjoying the view and splitter weather.

Mt.Temple, East Ridge

Was going through the photos today and stumbled across these babies. Zac Robinson, Shane Jensen and I did the route in perfect conditions in late July of 2004.The rock is superb and the position fantastic, a must do route.

Mt.Colin Hut

On friday and saturday of last week, Michelle and I headed into the Colin range near Jasper. We really enjoy heading to Jasper every once and while for a little old schooly mountain town good times. It was my second time into the colin area after Mike and I had our rain fest 2001. It seems Colin is wise to its old ways and for the second time it foiled our plans, this time with thunder and lighting....oh vell, a good time at the hut.

Mt.Assiniboine

After our trip into Mt.King George we headed up Assiniboine creek on the southern approach to Mt.Assiniboine. About 7 hours of walking takes you from valley bottom, past a picturesque lake, through an alpine scree slog, onto a glacier and soon after, the R.C Hind hut. Our second day was spent watching the weather change about twice an hour from the hut and our third day we awoke to perfect weather conditions, it was time to climb. At about 6 am we donned our stripped down packs and stepped outside into the alpin-glow. Our friends from the hut had left an hour before as they were the first to arrive and we could see their headlamps bobbing in the scree across from us. We made quick progress and were at the summit by 10 am, the climbing was secure when the angle was steeper and the rock quality was above average. Later that day we lay around at the base and took it all in, a great 7 day trip topped off with an ascent of a classic peak. We drank some coffee and ate some food before heading back towards the car. Arriving in canmore at 12 am, we had just made last call at Boston pizza, we sat and talked about the trip while we gourged ourselves on pizza, reveling in absolute contentment.

Mt. King George

On an annual trip connecting the "Edmonton contigent" we made plans for a 7 day trip into the Rockies for some classic mountaineering. Mike Pollard and Guirellmo Barron are great friends and solid, safe climbers. Together we made plans to try Mt.Robson but that was stymied by poor snow conditions and a gloomy weather forecast. In return, we decided to spend a week on the logging roads east of highway 93 south, climbing in an area that sees few people and fewer climbers. Mt. King George is positioned in the middle of the royal group in south eastern kananaskis and is said to have nice climbing with an attractive position. We drove about 65km up gravel roads where we continued with a full days hike through the bush to a lovely campsite in position for the climbing. After an early start we discovered the couloir mentioned in Bill Corbetts book leading to the climbing on the SE ridge had meleted out (SUVs, coal factories) to uncover loose, crumbling terrain. After trying to rock climb through another gulley, we headed back down to camp and decided to head into assiniboine the following day. We spent the balance of the day walking through alpine meadows, drinking coffee and enjoying great company.