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

Joshua Tree

OK, you are in for a long one. Here is the TL;DR in case you are just in it for the photos. We spent 4 amazing days climbing in Joshua Tree. Some of the highlights were the climbs (Overhang Bypass, Right On, Minotaur, Robo Ranger, Fothog, Toe Jam and The Eye), the sunsets and the amazing scenery. If you are heading out there, be warned that there is no water available in the park, so bring lots. Also, the climber campgrounds fill up fast, but we stayed at Jumbo Rocks and it was pretty quiet and still really beautiful. Climber coffee is at 8 am at Hidden Valley on weekends and is a good way to get some beta and meet other climbers. Apparently it gets really windy in J-Tree (our tent almost blew away when we tried to take it down), and it gets cold at night! Finally, the ratings are all over the place so be prepared to get spanked by a 5.5 right after you run up a 5.7. Alright, if you are ready to find out about the trip in more detail, read on and enjoy.

Instead of dreaming of a white Christmas this year, I have been looking forward to heading south for a climbing trip to Joshua Tree. We flew to Phoenix first then drove 450 km to the National Park, arriving in the dark on Friday night. The two campgrounds near the climbing areas (Hidden Valley and Ryan Campground) were both full when we got there so we backtracked to Jumbo Rocks Campground and were able to find a site. We awoke early Saturday morning to an amazing view. Since we had arrived in the dark, we hadn't realized what the landscape was like. The park was full of granite formations and unusual looking plants called Joshua Trees that apparently aren't found many other places. 

Sunrise at Jumbo Rocks Campground

Bozeman Ice Climbing Festival

December has been a crazy month filled with exams and rad road trips. It started off with a trip to Bozeman Montana for the Ice Climbing Festival after Kyle won a facebook contest for a 3 night stay in Bozeman and 2 days of ice climbing clinics for two. I guess people actually do win those things! Despite being up to my ears in school work, I wasn't going to let Kyle take anyone but me. A few emails later, I had switched my schedule around and we were able to leave Friday morning to drive down for the weekend. I wasn't a fun road trip partner as I had to study most of the way, but it meant that we were able to enjoy the festivities together once we arrived. We pulled into the Lewis and Clark Motel (a bit of a crazy place full of strange antique furniture) around 7 and were able to get over to Emerson Lawn to watch the women's and men's World Cup speed climbing finals. It had been really warm that week and into the double digits that day so the event was held on a plywood wall which was interesting, but it didn't seem to phase the athletes who were able to scale it in mere seconds.

We got up early Saturday morning to drive out to Hyalite Canyon, the local ice climbing epicentre. Here we met our guide for the day and the rest of the people in our clinic. There was a big turn-out and groups dispersed all over the valley for the day. We had a bit of a hike to get to the Mummy-Scepter area where we spent the whole day.

Our first look at the Mummy/Scepter climbing area