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

Fernie - Resort Pow

Welcome to Fernie - I haven't taken the Volkl One's out in a while!

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