Mt. Edith Cavell

On Saturday night, Michelle and I packed our packs and shot up the highway to Jasper to climb the classic East Ridge of Mt. Edith Cavell. After a quick parking lot bivy, we awoke at 3 am and hit the trail. Our friends John and Martin were also climbing on Sunday and we all launched up the ridge, enjoying the great weather and views, soaking it all in and enjoying the fine company. This was also Michelle's first big alpine climb after she broke her foot in May, it was really great that she could be up there. A really great day!

On the Approach scramble.
Michele with broken foot, all smiles.

Michelle and summit.
Tonquin Valley.

Mts. Woolley and Diadem

Last week I had the pleasure of joining my friends Amitae and Zack for a trip into the Columbia Icefields area for some classic mountaineering. We packed our bags and blasted down the parkway Thursday morning, ready for the scalding coldness of the Sunwapta River crossing. Indeed, a great time was had as we hiked up and made a stellar bivy under the routes and stars. 

When morning dawned, we made coffee in the inky night and made our way up the glacier and the big couloirs. Nice snow climbing and rock scrambling led to the final couloir, leading us to the broad col between the two mountains and after going just a little bit further and basking in the 25 degreee heat at 9 am, we pulled the plug before summiting either one. A good call as the snow was knee deep and only getting deeper. We quickly descended and broke out the coffee and lunches, after looking up at we had gone up and catching glimpses of the neighboring Mt. Alberta and other giants, we could sit back and take it all in- this is one of the best spots in the Rockies.

The Sunwapta double espresso.
The fellas at the bivy, dinner was dried food and enormous talk of the next day.
The second couloir, descending.

Wooley and Diadem. Super classics

Unamed Mountain

Looking down at Lake Louise from the Plain of the six glaciers trail.
The Impressive Mt. Lefroy.

Last week it became winter once again up in the alpine country. Zac, Amitai and mysef loaded up the car for an early start up the classic Unnamed in Lake Louise. Halfway up, the fresh snow and running water turned us around as well as a sky that had been threatening all day. A great day was had as we scrambled up and descended the frosty ridge.

Mt. Edith-South Ridge

Waren on the approach scramble.
In the big chimney at the start of the climbing-Dreamy.
Extreme relaxing on the summit
Mt. Edith

So the last few days, we have had family visiting us here in Canmore. Michelle's sister and brother in law were up from Viking, Ab with their new baby boy Ethan. We had some good meals, went for a nice hike up to Ptarmagin Cirque in K-country and all in all had a good time. Yesterday, the girls let us boys head out to Mt. Edith near banff for a classic climb. It was Waren's first time out alpine climbing and we had a great day up there.

Slack Line Times

So the last week or so has been pretty relaxed.  Last night I joined Marc and Kat in the park for an evening of slack-lining. Essentially you walk on a piece of 1'' webbing until you get plucked off and thrown into the grass by an unknown force. Good times.

The Gnar Shredders Movie

Here Is a little movie I made with Apple I movie, its my first one and is pretty basic. It Chronicles the adventures of the Gnar shredders, ski shots and short clips from this winter past- A dreamy season indeed. Enjoy!

Yosemite Bound

So close, Yosemte is a real Mecca and it is a dreamy place to climb
Our first route in the valley, the classic Sunny Side Jam Crack

Had a great couple of weeks in California with my good friend Mike Pollard. We had one day at Cirty of Rocks, 4 at Lovers Leap, 1 in the high sierra and 5 in Yosemite. A really great and memorable trip. We also brought along our friend Hibachi who helped us grill everything everything from steaks to vegis...I will add more photos soon...



The Matthes Crest traverse
Where is the coin slot for this ride??? Midway on the traverse,

very very fun.

Mike at Lovers Leap, CA. A 4 day stop-over at one of the best climbing areas I have ever seen, sooo nice. Racking up for a route called "pop bottle".
Climbing on Corrugation Corner.
Lovers Leap
Lovers Leap
Bishop, CA. Home of the best bakery this side of the Netherands and quite possibly the best place to live if you enjoy climbing.

The Sporting Life

                                           Jay and the Lamb

So the last week or so anything outside has been put on hold. We have been hanging out with our friends, BBQ'n and basically living out our dreams. On Friday it finished snowing and we were left with 60 cm outside our place. A few days later while bouldering at the climbing gym Michelle fell from about 8 feet up and sprained both her ankles, in fact she dislocated her right one and a loud "pop" was sent through the gym. Zoiks!-She is doing well catching up on her reading and movie watching. 

White Pyramid

White Pyramid sits among Mt.Chephren and Howse Peak in what is probably on of the greatest places I have been to in the rockies. On skis it has always been one of the most attractive peaks to try in my mind and it was great times to saddle up with the posse and head up the Parkway on Friday to try our luck.



Up towards the start of the ascent
High on the flanks of White Pyramid, solid snow and cool ambient temperatures made our minds relax.
Towards the top it opens up to amzing views of Columbia, the Freshfields and so many more- We could spend a lot of time pointing them out. Truly stellar.
Oh yeah. The descent was amzing. A hairy section on the ridge turned us around just shy of the summit and we anticipated gnarly conditions to bring us down to the car. Nope, just some of the best spring skiing imaginable. Hero snow from 10-30 cm deep all the way to the flats Outstanding. 1500M down.
Cold beers awaited in the car after an amzing day. Thanks to Sean, Ryan and Mike for a really great time.

Columbia Icefields

So this past weekend Michelle and I teamed up with our friends G and Jon for a fantastic few days on the wind swept expanses of the Columbia Icefields. It was Michelle and myselfs first time up on the neve and we could not have asked for better people to be up there with.


On our first day we navigated to the "trench" where people usually camp for an attempt of Mt.Columbia. We could see the monolith outlines of the peaks around us but visiblitiy was pretty limited to a few hundred metres mostly. A cold night ensued and a new stove barely worked to sputter up just enough water for dinner and soup-barely! Really nice. Above is coming up the Athabasca Icefall-Better eat pasta the night before to mach through there!


We awoke to bluebird weather and my cold that I have had for a few days escaped my mind as the thought of being out in the sunshine was overwhelming. Here is Jonny and G-Force checking GPS facts "13km from the car to the trench" I think is what they were saying.
Michelle in the tent. It was great to be up there with her, She brought smiles to the group often.
Our camp from the west side of the trench coming back from Columbia. The hot weather and new snow turned us around and back to camp. We made it out the same day at 2300 or so. Pretty dreamy skiing down the glacier in the Twilight.
Yup, thats a sledder on the Columbia Icefield and yes that Mt. Bryce in the backgroud. I dont know what to say about this other than we were all stunned. Both because of how they got up there as well as the fact that what they were doing was legal. The Icefields are on the Ab/Bc border and they were on the BC side, Barely. They shoud probably make it a UNESCO site to stop this kind of thing. Water form this area goes to every place on the continent.

Spring Tour Time-French, Haig, Robertson

Today was great. Probably the first time this spring that it has actually felt like spring touring, go figure! I loaded up the Kia, drank a whole pot of coffee and shot down the road towards the Burstall Pass parking lot, breakfast bagel and more coffee in hand and stoke in the mind. A nice tour takes you through forests and canyons before entering the toe of the french glacier which leads up to the Haig glacier and the sunshine. A good lunch of cheese, bread, chocolate and yet more coffee ensued before heading up and over the Haig to Robertson col. A stellar run takes you to the valley bottom and the plus temperatures. Big thanks to Ally, Bill, Tom and Marg for letting me tag along during the bootpack up the the col as well as the descent-good company!

Yoho Yo!

The Bootpackers, Vice President
Johnny Five is Alive! Tea candles work fine for wax


Luc is happy
The skier, the rep, the mazda 323 and their crampon
The run off the President Glacier
Lars Bachman, Skier
A Jubilant crowd
Wow! April!
So I just got back from a great trip with some good folks up at the Stanley Mitchell Hut. Our original intentions had been to open throttle over the Wapta from the Bow hut but that was thwarted by a gloomy weather forecast that was set to drop some snow down (more on that later!). Wow! The area around the hut is awsome to say the least. We enjoyed some pretty good wintery weather back there as we made our way from nice tree runs to a stellar morning/afternoon skiing up and down from the President Pass as well as the token skis off bootpack to the summit of the vice pres. Upon returning from the vice pres we found ourselves surrounded by the sign of winter goodness, huge flakes of light snow fell in mass all around us. We relaxed in the hut before we just couldnt take it anymore, out into the falling spectres we went to soak up more good turns in the treed slopes under the vice president which is a place best described as a private bow summit. Large grins entered our faces as we went up the second time to absorb the fading daylight and take in all of our surroundings. A great trip!