Plutonian Shore 5.9 Raven Crag

The alarm buzzed at 7 am on a sunny Sunday morning. Kyle rolled over and hit dismiss and we fell back to sleep. No alpine start for us today! We finally left Calgary at 10:30 am, heading for Banff to climb Plutonian Shore, a 5.9 sport multi-pitch route. After sitting in traffic on Highway 1, only a few kilometers west of the Cochrane turn-off, we bailed on that and turned around, heading for the 1A. We were not the only ones who had that idea and it took us forever to get through Cochrane. As a result, we finally made it to Canmore around 12:30. To add to the faff of the day we stopped to drop some shoes off to be resoled and picked up a coffee. Finally, we made it to Banff and parked at the Cave and Basin parking lot to head for Raven Crag.

The approach was very straight-forward. We followed the paved road to the bottom of the hill, then took the dirt trail up to the left (identified by a sign indicating area closures). About 300 metres up the trail, there was a small cairn marking a narrow trail heading up to the left. Once we were on the trail, it was easy to follow the cairns up to the crag. At the fork, we took the lower left trail which traversed under the cliffs. The descent trail joined back up with the approach trail at that same fork. The start of the climb was at the end of the traverse trail and was obvious thanks to the well bolted route.

Kyle leads the second pitch

Black Rock Mountain - Hiking in the Ghost

Distance: 10 km round trip

Elevation Gain: 900m

Difficulty: moderate hike/easy scramble

-some scree and loose rock on the steeper bits above the treeline and near the summit

For Mother's Day, Kyle wanted to plan an adventure. We took his family into the Ghost to show them a different part of the Rockies and to hike Black Rock Mountain. It was warm and sunny when we left Calgary and had been unseasonable warm all week. The adventure began before we reached the turn off to the Ghost when we saw a fox along the side of the road. The day was off to a good start already. There were plenty of people camping out above the big hill, but as we descended into the river valley, it wasn't as busy as we were expecting. We drove north for a few km, following the riverbed to a small orange diamond marker with a 37 on it. There were about 8 cars already there so we knew we were at the trailhead, and where everybody was! It was an uneventful drive, with no water to cross at all. We walked across the dry river bed to the northern shore where a steep trail rose up onto the bank. Half of the old trail sign was there marking the way, as the start of the trail had been washed away by the flood. Once we were on the bank however, the trail was wide and well traveled. We had no problems finding our way.

Lots of sunshine on Phantom Crag

Rundlehorn

We have been having a beautiful April! With a forecast of 20 degrees, Jen and I decided to warm up our climbing for the season on the Rundlehorn, an easy 5.5 multi-pitch that claims to be 11 pitches, but really is only about 5 if you skip stations and use your whole rope. We parked at the falls because the golf course road was closed for construction. This added a few minutes of walking, but the approach was still really quick and we were at the bottom of the route before we knew it.

Nice morning view of the Banff Springs Hotel

Northwest Territories

For the first time since I was probably about 9, I traveled to a new region of Canada! Despite living in Canada my whole life and living in 3 different provinces, I have only visited 5 provinces and had never been to any Territories. This March, I was able to tick one off the list thanks to a rural elective through school. But wait, I am getting ahead of myself! First I spent 2 weeks in northern Alberta, in a town called High Level. High Level is over 1000 km from Calgary (mostly north) and the entire drive was dead flat. I had been warned to watch for animals along the highway and there were signs everywhere warning drivers of deer and moose, but the only animal I saw was Khyber, my travel companion hedgehog. There wasn't much worth stopping to check out, but it was pretty cool to be driving through places that I had only ever heard of in high school geography like Peace River. The most exciting part was the intersection where the highway split into the Alaska Highway to the west and the Mackenzie Highway to the north, a pretty cool landmark in my mind and a place to return to for future adventures.

Heading due north on the Mackenzie Highway

Rogers Pass - Puff Daddy

For the second time in two months, we got the privilege of skiing with David and Tyler, and this time Tristan came along too! After a slow drive out to Revelstoke through a snowstorm, we spent the night in the Revelstoke Mountain parking lot. The other guys had skied the resort on Friday and had talked us into driving past Rogers Pass and joining them for another resort day on Saturday. It was well worth the extra kilometers and we had a fantastic time at Revelstoke before heading up to the pass for the night. We spent the night in the trailer (David and Tyler slept in their Subaru) and woke up to a brilliant sunny day. I am pretty sure everyone I know was checking in at the visitor centre, and it turned into a very social morning before we got on the trail.

Sunny skies and fresh snow in Roger's Pass

Ghoster Coaster

I have been wanting to climb with Brett for a long time, so when he suggested Ghoster Coaster, I was double stoked! I have wanted to try that route for a while. We invited a few extra people to join us, knowing quite well that it would make the day a bit more of a faff. In a surprising turn of events, we slept through our alarm and were awakened by a phone call from Charlie wondering where we were. As we scrambled to get out the door, the friends we had invited went ahead without us, and Alan had to meet everyone without us there. Despite oversleeping and my headache from a bit too much wine the night before, we arrived at the climb to find Charlie and Alan working on the first pitch of ice. 

One of the lower pitches on the route

Huckleberry Hut

Christmas Day: Kyle and I spent the day alternating between family Christmas celebrations and frantically attempting to pack for our trip to the Bonningtons.

The mess that eventually turned into a (relatively) neatly packed truck