Just Another Hot Lap

With alpine fever, Mike Treetops and I blasted down the Icefields Parkway after work yesterday and had a stellar bivi under a full moon, calm skies and still air in front of the Athabasca Glacier. 2am rolled around and the skies opened up blowing things around in a very unfriendly manner, mostly snow into our eyes. Needless to say, when we awoke at 5am to try our route across the road the wind had zapped our reserves and we were left with the question, what now? Thankfully we had french press coffee and we drove north to Beauty Creek and the ice climb, "Shades of Beauty". After a snowy and scrappy first pitch, I brought Mikey up to where he promptly fired the steep and thin 2nd pitch, bottoming out 10cm screws here and there. The ice however was great and very climbable and we were stoked. The last pitch was probably the most fun as stemming between rock on the left and ice on the right is probably the most exciting thing you can do in this world. We topped out and high fived before getting the ropes stuck on the descent. Constant laughs and a really great ice situaton = awsomeness!

Chic Scotts Absence

With the arrival of autumn comes a most enjoyable time of year, quiet. Even though the weekends are still super busy, my walk into work down the calm pathways and silent streets are a reminder of the approaching winter and months of quiet in town. It is with winter in mind that I searched high and low for my copy of Chic Scott's venerable ski touring guidebook for the area but with no avail. My copy was lost. No problem, right? Wrong! The publisher has cancelled printing on this classic in favour of other titles. "marshes and wild-grasses of lower Saskatewan" perhaps?. Who is to say, not this guidebook-less fellow. Needless to say I was in turmoil as my nightly activity past Oct1 is pouring a few fingers of 10yr and flipping through guidebooks, glory at my fingertips and joy in my brain.

Our friends Jay and Jen invited me over for a movie last week while Michelle was in school. "Is anyone missing Ski tours" rang through the room and into my ears. It seems Jay has been collecting the books and now they are worth more then solid gold bouillon so its not a bad collection if you ask me. " I seem to have mis-placed mine".....Well, Jay gave me the book and everything is right in the world.

Half Horse Half Bird

Yesterday, Jay Billing and I had the great pleasure to toy with the idea of ice climbing in October. The route Centaur rises about 300m off the goat glacier in Kananaskis and presents a mixed alpine endeavour. At 7 am we parked the car at the closed spray lakes campground and made our way up the old road through the still forest and soon after, the steep scree and rocks leading to the lateral moraines of the Goat glacier itself. As we dropped down onto the manzanita of ice, boulders and steep moraines the snow became deeper and deeper eventualy reaching about knee height.

We kicked steps to a nice ledge below the route and racked up for the pitch above, a lower angled corner to a roof and traverse right to more easier ground. The ice above that looked a bit thin and we had a chat after Jay tried the corner, maybe this was a bit too thin and a bit too early. The route was probably in climbing shape and perhaps do-able by guys like us but why push it for the first route of the year, right?

We busted down the moraines and scree and enjoyed the morning in solitude. Later on, while sitting at the Drake and enjoying a Guiness it was indeed a great day.

Sawtooth