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Ghost River Wilderness: A Place To Behold

The name is long, but so is the list of positive words you can use to describe climbing in the Ghost River Wilderness. Driving through rolling hills and prairies splashed with the fire of a rising sun, watching the mist hover over the creeks and rivers as you blast down the gravel roads, coffee in hand. You cant really leave the Ghost the way you came in. No, part of you is still there climbing the frozen gulleys and falls, calling you for your next days off where you get to do it all again.

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

Fall on Yam

So the Floose and I shot up to Yam to do a nice classic moderate route before the snow started to fly. Well, the snow flew anyway and we had a great time on the route "western union".

California Dreaming

Part of me thinks that when judgement comes, if there is such a thing, you will be standing there at the pearly gates as some great one is flipping through shots and moments of your life. Its conclusion as to if you lived your life with "flavor" being your entry pass into the place with all the clouds and flowing cappuccino. If any of that has a bit of truth to it, then the last two weeks on the coast and in the mountains of the western USA with Michelle Walker added to the bank of images.








Day Needle, Keeler Needle and Mt.Whitney. A granite climbers dream.








We climbed sun drenched granite in Idaho, drove "tank to tank" through the deserts of Nevada. Held the tent down from blowing away at Mt.Whitney, California and bouldered in the cool morning hours in Bishop before the days heat. Tuolomne meadows granite and seafood in Sanfrancisco. A really good trip!

5 Weeks, One Summer

With the flocks of tourists leaving canmore, we are immersed once again in the quiet cloak that covers the hills in the fall. With the hoards, the dying days of summer are also past and its a good time to sit back and think of the good times of the last few months. I didnt post any specific trips. No, just some random shots of climbing and mountaineering in the selkirks as well as a few from a little closer to home. Sport climbing kind of took hold till mid August then it was time to head high and visit the alpine, mostly the Selkirks.

P to the paddle

Last weekend our friends Catherine and G invited us on a 2 day kayak trip down the Red Deer river. After a good breakfast, we rented the kayaks, loaded them up and drove to innsifail where we would put in for the day. The river is not really fast water so we had a nice time enjoying the scenery, telling some stories and having a pretty relaxing time before arriving at our campsite for the night on a small island.
The next morning we had some coffee and quesedillas before heading off down the river to Catherine and G's house which is literally right on the river. Our bellies where staring to make noises so right after washing things off with the garden hose we went for a great dinner at a Japanese resteraunt called Shiso. We said our goodbyes, stopped for a timmy hos and shot off towards canmore very content and relaxed from a great trip with good company.

Black Feather Canyon

Yesterday Michelle and I joined our friends Catherine and Sean and shot up to Lake Minnewanka where we hiked a few kilometres on the wide lake path before branching off on a lovely side trail leading through the forest and soon after, Black Feather canyon itself. The Canyon boasts some of the nicest 5.10s any of us had done in a while and we had a great time climbing them before moving on to something a bit harder. All day the sun shined down on us and we couldnt believe how lucky we were to have the place all to ourselves on the busiest weekend of the year!

Limestone Astronauts

Today, Jeff and I shot up to Yamnuska to try our luck on the Bowl route. The day started typically enough, coffee at the summit cafe, turning around because I forgot my sneakers and am not man enough to walk up in my flip flops, hiking up the trail in the heat of the late morning with shirts off and anticipating the climbing ahead.
The Bowl is a old school classic that blasts a stellar line through some roofs and corners near the middle/east part of the cliff. As usual, we had a good time hooting and hollering up the burly moves and taking in the exposure and setting. Its a great climb that delivered good climbing on decent stone. At one point you even get to clip an old 2x4 that was placed on the first ascent, moldy and rotten as it is!Good times!

Its Neither

Its been a long time since my last posting. Its probably because I have been doing a lot of short climbs at the sport areas in the evenings when the weather is good. Michelle and I had a good day out on a nice long easy route on Cascade mountain on Saturday as well as John Peachell and I had a nice time on the classic multi pitch "Gooseberry" in Banff townsite the day before. The weather around here hasn't beeen to great for climbing so mostly we have been sticking to things where retreat is easy and strighforward, like Wednesday when Jay Billing and I shot up to yam to climb "Rejection of the faith" but were turned around halfway on account of an approaching storm. Jay and I joked around after because we have been out three times together and have'nt got up a single thing, we still always have a good time though.The only other thing lately was the flooding basement at work which we managed to pump out in a few days.

A Good Year

So thats it. The rock gear is out and being used, the skiis are in the shed along with the boots, poles and power tools. Today is a stellar sunny day in Canmore and I have a gnarly head cold going on so I thought I would make some coffee, sit down at the confuser and pick a few shots that have some meaning from the 300+ that I took skiing this winter...
Early season powder skiing at Emerald Lake.
More than anything else, I will recall the many amazing weather days that seemed abundant this winter. Here is our group skiing under Mt. Whitehorn towards a perfect 3 day weather window for climbing Mt.Resplendant in March.
As usual, good friends were what always makes the trips inportant too. Here, the man himself, MA and I are physched after having another stellar day in the hills.