Family-Less Friendly Elk Lakes Trip

To kick off the winter season, Phil organizes a "family-less friendly" 18+ trip to the Elk Lakes Hut, where typically there isn't enough early season snow or ice to do much, but there is a wood stove and lots of wine. This year, there was more wine, more people and way more snow than anyone had really bargained for. Preparing for the worst, everyone brought enough adult beverages to keep themselves entertained, but Phil used the extra money from the extra participants to bring a back-up supply, mostly in the form of beer. This resulted in a very heavy load that he dragged all the way to the hut in a duffle bag and looked absolutely miserable. We were more than happy to help lighten the load over the course of the weekend for his ski back to the car on Sunday.

It was cold and still for our 11km ski tour in. The climb up to Elk Pass was quick on the groomed cross country ski trails. Beyond the pass it was downhill to the hut for 5km, but we were breaking trail all the way in. The moon was dazzling and illuminated our way, making the snow sparkle magically. Kyle and I used our mountain bike headlamps to ski down under the powerlines for our first turns of the season. The snow was great, but the terrain wasn't terribly steep. Upon arrival at the hut around 10:30 pm, the fire was lit and introductions were made while we waited for Phil to arrive with his cargo. Everyone was in the mood to celebrate and the stragglers trailed off to bed around 3:30 am. Phil hadn't suffered quite enough yet so he slept on the porch for some reason.

Bright moonlight to light the way into the hut

Smith Rock

Somehow I got a week off! Kyle and I left the beautiful fall weather in Calgary and headed south with our fingers crossed that we weren't making a big mistake. Fortunately, it was even nicer in Oregon, with temperatures in the mid 20s and sunshine every day! We put in our long day of driving on Friday afternoon and slept in the Kennewick Walmart parking lot in our trailer. This made our drive on Saturday much more manageable and we pulled into River Rim RV park near Redmond Oregon early in the afternoon. This gave us time to set up camp, sample some local beverages and play disc golf. We cooked a thanksgiving dinner on the BBQ and camp stove, but had to retreat inside to finish the cooking when the wind picked up. We were in bed super early, eager for climbing at Smith Rock State Park.

Little american town - somewhere in central Oregon

Devil's Head Scramble

Due to a questionable forecast in the rockies, we took the opportunity to go into the Ghost for our first summer visit! We got Alan on board with promises of scrambling and got an early start from town Friday afternoon. There were plenty of people already camping along the road on the way to the big hill and it was hot and sunny! We had no issue driving into the North Ghost with Kyle's new truck and found a great spot to camp just after the 37 km marker.

Truckasaurus in the Ghost 

Mt Victoria SW Face and Lake O'Hara

Kyle's family invited us along on their annual Lake O'Hara camping trip this past weekend. We took this opportunity to try for Mt. Victoria and Mt. Huber, two of the 11,000 ft peaks in the area. We had a spot booked on the bus on Friday afternoon, which meant that we could bring all sorts of stuff up to the campground. We arrived early and wandered around Lake Louise for a bit before our departure. This gave us a chance to take a look at Mt. Victoria which towers over the lake. I was feeling a bit apprehensive!

Looking up at Mt. Victoria from Lake Louise and feeling nervous!

Nicaragua

Although this wasn't really a pleasure trip, I was able to take some time to explore Nicaragua on my weekends. I will keep this post restricted to the adventure part of the trip and leave the work stuff out because that's not what this blog is all about. On that note, here is what I got up to when I was in Nicaragua for a month this summer!

I flew into Managua at the beginning of July. From there, we took a bus to Juigalpa, the capital of the Department of Chontales, which is known for its beef and cheese. We got to experience lots of local food in our first few days in the town, it was very tasty but also very salty and fruits and veggies were not really available (except from the street vendors).

Looking down a street in a Juigalpa neighbourhood

Mt. Cheops Scramble

Upon my return from Nicaragua, I invited myself along on Kyle's long weekend with Alan. En route to Revelstoke, we stopped in Roger's Pass (Alan's wintertime stomping grounds) to go for a hike. By the time we left the parking lot, it was already noon, but that didn't faze Alan who wanted to climb Cheops. Unbeknownst to us, this was a pretty significant undertaking for a seemingly lazy afternoon. 15.5km and 1278m in fact!

Heading up the valley to Balu Pass

Tent Ridge Hike

My family came to visit! I wanted to take them on a really awesome hike and spent quite a bit of time looking into which one in the Calgary area would give the most bang for our buck. I settled on Tent Ridge because I had actually just been on it a week and a half before, so I knew where I was going, and for the elevation gain, the views are spectacular. It is a bit of a drive from Calgary, but I think it is worth it! From the Spray Lakes Road, the parking area is on the same road as the Engadine Lodge (about 1.5km past the lodge). The trailhead is back up the road 200m from the carpark, and the whole trail is an 11km (650m of elevation) loop that returns you right to the car.

The first few kilometers follow an overgrown trail with lots of deadfall up through the trees to an alpine meadow. It starts off steep, but flattens out for a nice walk through the trees with some stream crossings. From the meadow, you can see all of Tent Ridge above you in a horseshoe shape. The trail was a bit hard to follow through the meadow section, but re-formed in the trees on the east side (left) of the horseshoe. We tried to stop for a snack in the meadow, but there were way to many bugs and it was too wet to sit on the ground. We moved on quickly to get away from the flies.

The view of the the west part of the ridge (we hiked this part after lunch and descended on the right side of the ridge)