Intro to Misery at Egypt Lake: AKA Dome Tent Trial Run

The official title for this trip was "intro to complete and utter abject misery", but Kyle and I just shortened it to "Phil's stupid trip". The plan was to take the newly acquired, 40 lb dome tent somewhere into the backcountry and use it as a base camp for the weekend. As we all know, Phil loves to suffer, so we were prepared for the worst. It didn't help that the forecast was calling for -17 on Saturday night. However, in the days leading up to the trip, a Christmas miracle occurred. Phil decided that we would ski to Egypt Lake (where there is a conveniently located hut), just in case we couldn't set it up. How to break the news to Phil that we would rather sleep in the hut than a bottomless dome tent? Well unfortunately for Kyle, got sick right before the trip. The silver lining was that this gave us the perfect excuse to book the hut. Maybe this wasn't going to be a completely miserable weekend after all!

We met in the Sunshine parking lot at the crack of 8:30 after a rental gear mix up. Parking lot faff ensued but we were underway without too many issues. Kevin took the first shift dragging the tent. It wasn't so bad initially as the trail was well established (and I wasn't pulling the tent).

Phil helps Kevin get started with the drag bag

This House of Sky

We left Calgary at 6am headed for the Ghost. Because the days are so short, that meant that we spent most of the off-roading in the dark. Luckily, there was a really good road already broken through the snow, which made route finding a breeze. We stopped to check out some of the open water, but Kyle's truck had no issues with any of the creek crossings.

Scoping out the river crossing in the dark

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)

The Forks and Turbine Canyon Backpacking

On June 27/28th, a big group of us from the WMIG went up to the Forks Campground for a backpacking trip. Half the team left Calgary early so that we could drop off our gear at the Forks and hike up to Turbine Canyon and the Haag Glacier. It was hot already when we left the parking lot at 8am, but the first few sunny kilometers beside Upper Kananaskis Lake passed quickly and we were soon in the forest, making our way gently up to the campground. The trail is well maintained and enjoyable, but you stay low in the valley all the way up to the Forks and the trail is almost dead flat. We covered the 7km to the Forks really quickly and were happy to leave our overnight gear behind, stashed in the woods near the campsites.

Taking a breather on the way to the Forks

Beautiful Century (5.10a)

Beautiful Century follows the obvious buttress in the centre of the photo

May Long Weekend - Golden Bike Trip

It's bike season again! To kick it off in style, I went out to Golden for the long weekend to camp and ride at Mt. 7 with Nick, Matt, Devin and Mikayla. We joined the traffic snake leaving Calgary on Friday afternoon but were able to get to the Cedar Lake Rec Site just in time to snag ourselves a campsite for the weekend. Matt and I went for a quick Moonraker loop after dinner to check out the trails, then we joined the crew around the campfire to celebrate 3 days of freedom.

Early morning calm at Cedar Lake

Early Season Skaha Climbing

15 hours of driving and 1300 km for a day and a half of climbing? Seems a bit excessive, but Kyle, Liam, John, Jon, Andrew and Brett all were pretty excited to head out to Skaha to trade poor snow conditions and a cool overcast forecast for a warm sunny weekend of climbing! To maximize our weekend, we left Calgary at 1 pm and arrived at the Okanagan Falls Provincial Campground within seconds of the other car, perfect timing! It was wonderfully warm and we had some beers and a campfire before heading off to bed, stoked to get on rock the next morning. We all were up very early so had a leisurely breakfast before we met Liam (who was staying at his mom's place) and his mom at the parking lot. We spent the whole day at Claim It All Wall, which was about a 40 minute hike in from the north parking lot but it was worth it. We were the only group there for most of the day and were able to set up tonnes of ropes and take over the whole crag.

Brett working his way up Stubborn Streak (5.10b)

Thailand - Getting our Tan (and Climb) on in Tonsai

At the end of March, Kyle and I ventured overseas (our first trip abroad together) for two weeks of fun and exploration in Thailand. Neither of us had been to Asia before and we didn't have much time so it was a blur of sight seeing, activities and trying to squeeze in a bit of R&R. Although we wanted to do some climbing in Thailand, that wasn't totally the focus of the trip. It was really nice to spend some time being tourists for once, mixed in with a bit of recreation too. For this blog entry, I have focused mostly on the climbing, since covering the whole trip couldn't possibly do it justice. We met so many amazing people, checked out some fantastic places and only just scratched the surface of what Thailand has to offer. It would be really hard to put all of those experiences into words, but hopefully I can pass on some useful info for anyone interested in heading over to check it out for themselves.

Within hours of arrival, we had determined that Chang was our beer of choice

Valentines Ski Touring - Seven Summits Trail

Family day long weekend gave us a chance to get a bit farther away from Calgary than a regular weekend. We signed up with the Breakey's for their annual ACC Nelson ski touring trip a few months ago with dreams of powder, but sadly this season just hasn't delivered. Despite the unseasonably warm temperatures and miserable snow conditions, we were just excited to get away with friends. A few people had bailed off the trip at the last minute so we were able to take two vehicles. Kyle and I drove Casey and Kyle D out to Cranbrook on Friday night and met the other 5 at the hotel. We got up very early for some reason and left just after 7 am. Some people hadn't had breakfast so we all descended on a small cafe in Creston. The lone server seemed very overwhelmed to have 9 of us in there. The breakfast ended up being very leisurely as we were not in a big rush to get out of there. Matt had a two course breakfast, Kyle and I had second breakfast, and nobody really wanted to get moving.

Breakfast!

Ice Climbing - Rogan's Gully and Junkyards

David and Tyler came to visit me in Calgary! We had a really fun weekend, although we did none of the activities that we had planned for. High avalanche danger and very unseasonably warm temperatures prevented us from getting out backcountry skiing so Kyle and I took them out ice climbing for their first time. We picked Rogan's Gully because Kyle and I had done the route before and the overhead hazard isn't as bad as some of the other climbs in the area. We were pretty cautious though, and turned around when we encountered avalanche debris in the gully about 3/4 of the way up the route.

It felt like spring on the approach

Rogers Pass - Motel Mayhem

After a long ski hiatus I got back on snow this weekend in Rogers Pass with the ACC Motel Mayhem trip. It was a weekend of firsts - first time skiing in the Pass, first ACC ski trip, first time skiing with Phil and Kathrine, and the first time I seriously regretted not bringing my snorkel on a ski touring trip. We met Friday night and drove out to Golden to stay at the Dream Catcher Hostel. The owners were incredibly friendly and the hostel was clean, cozy and comfortable. I highly recommend staying there if you are ever in Golden. We entertained ourselves with the left over beer from the Ice Review, socializing and planning out where to ski on Saturday. 

We left the hostel just after 8 am and drove up to the Discovery Centre to collect our Wilderness Passes before parking at the Loop Brook parking area. There were lots of groups gearing up, it was going to be a busy day!

One-eyed ski ninja

Cactus Christmas in Arizona

After leaving Joshua Tree, Kyle and I drove back to Scottsdale to join up with my family for the rest of the Christmas Holidays. It was awesome to spend time with everyone, it isn't very often that we are all together anymore.

Gingerbread houses - much more fun to make than to eat

Beowulf (WI 4) and Grotto Canyon - Ice Review (sort of)

The annual ACC Ice Review took place this past weekend. Its amazing to think that I only tried ice climbing for the first time at this event last year. It is amazing what can change in a year! As an unofficial trip for this years Ice Review, Kyle, Alex, Cat and I decided to go into the Ghost Wilderness Area to climb Beowulf (WI 4, 6 pitches, 450m). Road reports were not optimistic, and neither were trip reports from the week prior, but nonetheless we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best as we rolled out of Calgary at 6:30 am. I had woken up feeling terrible so was only semi-conscious for most of the drive to the Ghost access road. I was not going to let a cold stop me from climbing, so I put on all my layers and snuggled up with a blanket and pillow in the backseat. Once we arrived at the big hill, it was too exciting (and rough) to continue dozing and I stared out the window eagerly at this amazing area that I had only heard stories about as the sun slowly rose.

An amazing sunrise welcomes us into the Ghost