Mt. Joffre Attempt (Kananaskis) - Easter Weekend

After reading lots of trip reports, we decided to give ourselves 3 days to do Mt. Joffre in Kananaskis (Peter Lougheed Provincial Park). David and Kyle got into town Thursday night and packing chaos ensued.

Route planning on the Thursday night

"Mini" Chickaboom Traverse

I hadn't been out ski touring in months so it was great to get the call from Liam that they were heading out on Sunday to go check out the Chickaboom Traverse. I was worried about the avalanche conditions but it seemed like everyone else was in the same boat so I agreed to go for a bit of a walk and check out a new area.

Chickadee Valley

Coire Dubh/Integral WI3/5.7

 Kyle, Liam and I took advantage of the Chinook that we were having  (6 degrees in Canmore!) to go out and climb one of the easier mixed multi-pitch routes in the area, Coire-Dubh/Integral. The Coire-Dubh part is 3 pitches of ice and snow and the Integral is two pitches of rock with lots of snow in between. The whole route was about 700m of elevation gain. We were told to get an early start, unfortunately for us it was also the night of the time change. 5am came too quickly (since it was actually 4am), but we were the only ones in the parking lot when we arrived.

Alpine start (which felt way worse with the time change)

Rogan's Gully (Groundhog Day) Trip Report

We got up at 5am to meet Liam at the Cascade Falls parking lot for 7. It was -19 when we got there... By the time we had finished faffing at the cars, the sky was beginning to brighten and headlamps were not necessary for the rest of the day.

Gearing up in the dark

Ice Climbing - ACC Ice Review Jan 11/12

With less than optimal snow conditions in the Rockies, what better activity to take up than ice climbing?? We managed to secure a spot on the ACC Ice Review in a beginner group where we met up with some experienced ice climbers who were willing to literally "show us the ropes". We started the day nice and early in the Grassi Lakes parking lot and walked in to the Junkyards climbing area to get our first taste of ice. The approach was amazingly short and within minutes we were strapping on our crampons and gearing up. The guides set up some top ropes for us newbies and basically gave us free reign to try out the tools on a variety of pitches ranging from really easy to getting vertical!

Kyle practicing his technique

Thunder Meadows Trip Report (Dec 29-31)

The original plan for a hut trip at the end of the year was to return to Tunnel Creek, but the hut was already booked. We managed to snag Thunder Meadows Hut instead and planned on going in with a big group of 7 or 8. In the end, there were 6 of us who were going in, 4 from the top of Fernie Resort and 2 from Island Lake Lodge which requires much more touring and route finding. Since we were taking the easy way, we decided to bring in some extra goodies, including steaks for dinner, whiskey, fireball and some fireworks.

Joel with the 4 L of wine and box of fireworks

Bonnington Half Traverse (Grassy and Steed Huts)

To kick off the Christmas holidays, we headed to the Kootenays to explore the Bonnington Range. Due to the technical difficulties of doing the whole traverse (car drops etc.) we decided to save a bit on gas by just do an out and back to Steed Hut, stopping at the Grassy Hut on our first night and on the way back out. We drove from Fernie, arriving at the Bombi Summit on highway 3 around noon. There were lots of sledders out and about, making the ski into the hut really easy as it was basically groomed. We followed the alternate directions into the hut by following the forestry road instead of going directly under the powerlines. It was a much more efficient way to get in, I highly recommend it! After passing the East Munson spur (just after 6km on the logging road - all the km's are marked), we turned right onto the next spur, following it up into the woods towards False Grassy. The book said that it was 9 km into the hut, but our GPS said we actually traveled 10.9 km. The climb up to the ridge was surprisingly steep, but once we got up there, it was easy to find the hut thanks to all the tracks from the guys that had come in the day before us. Having a GPS is a good idea - looking in the hut log it seems like it can be pretty tricky to find.

Skinning up the forest service road at 2:30 on the shortest day of the year!