Ice and snow-days leading up to the snowpocalypse

     Well its been awhile but I have been on the road for the past couple weeks so here is a long overdue update.  After ice climbing in banff before christmas i spent a few days in red deer and the rest of the time out at buffalo lake.  My dad and I got lots of cross country skiing in both in red deer on on the perfect wind scoured conditions on the lake.  But before long the mountains started calling to me again and it was time to pack up the ice gear, sharpen the tools and head to the rockies once more. 

sunset ski on the lake

some shots of me and my dad doing the x-country thing.

I was back in kamloops on the first giving me a day to pack up some extra things and grab some food for my first class of the new year...ICE CLIMBING.  We packed the schools van the on the second and met one of our guides...the always entertaining Dave Edgar.  We started off with a couple days in jasper some people in our group learning the basics and a couple of us working on our steep ice technique.  Our second guide was the very knowledgeable Sean Isaac, guidebook author and Black Diamond athlete.  Between Daves constant ranting and Seans calm instruction the whole group was leading grade 2-3 ice after only four days.  We visited maligne canyon tangle falls the cline river gallery and two oclock falls as well as an unknown waterfall we found when we were looking for shwarts falls.  This course was probably one of the best ive had here so far and i feel my technique has been greatly improved.  Our guides were very knowledgeable and always entertaining.  

me climbing some mixed ground at the cline river gallery

Sean Pickersgill at the belay on two oclock falls

Dave Edgar showing us his badass side by climbing all day with no gloves.

Sean Pickersgill on lead two oclock falls

At the base of the climb after our multi-pitch day

We got back from the rockies and after repacking the bags I went to bed and woke up early the next morning to once again head back to the rockies...this time it was me and Sean Pickersgill and Angela Forseille(two of my classmates).  On our instructors recommendation we planned to spend the next week committing our new skills to muscle memory.  We roared off to golden and upon arrival at around 3 pm we headed up the six pitch route green gully.  Sean lead the third(crux) pitch in the dark and with easier rambly terrain ahead we decided to bail early and make some dinner.  We climbed the next day at cedar creek seeps in what felt like -30 with the windchill, we built a fire and did a few ice routes as well as a drytool route.  The next day we spent the day in the white swan natural hot springs which where very relaxing.  Angela was leaving the next day from lake louise so we stopped off at marble canyon to climb the tokkum pole.  Marble canyon can be seen from the boardwalks above and bridges that cross over it, but if you have some climbing skills you can rappel into the bottom of the canyon and climb back out!(the fun things we get to do as climbers!)  We spent the morning climbing various lines up the tokkum pole and then climbed out and headed to louise to catch angelas bus.

unloading at the truck

Sean working the more difficult line on tokkum pole

Angela climbing out of the canyon

Sean dug a cave from the back of the pole out

Sean high on the climb

Angela rapping in

 Me climbing on the pole

Sean

Angela left leaving us four more days of climbing...we probably should have gone with her.  We headed up to rampart creek hostel on the icefeilds parkway.  The first day we got on Meltout, a classic WI3 route that has two pitches of real climbing and then a pitch of easy rambly ice.  It was a fun but fairly short day out and then we were back to the hostel for a sauna and dinner!

Sean leading pitch 2 of meltout

That night the snow began to fall, and it didnt stop.  We woke up the next morning to a huge dump of snow and more snow coming down hard.  We decided to climb the waterfowl gullies due to their low avalanche danger.  Plans changed however...Just past the wardens station we found three cars stuck and spent the next couple hours getting them out.  After that fiasco we were faced with the decision of whether to climb or not and ended up opting out due to our uncertainty about the possibility of smaller avalanches happening on the steps in the gully.  That day the highway was also shut down however our friend harrold at parks opened the gate for us.

Our stuck friends

Sean waiting at the park gate

parks letting us through

The days then began to run together into a mix of endless cups of tea and the canadian alpine journal.  We set up a toperope on some drytool routes on a rock face behind the hostel and waited for the highway to open...On our last planned day of climbing our hostel host nick said that he talked to a guy driving by that said the highway was open.  It was late but we packed our bags and drove off to the weeping wall.  We pulled into the parking lot below the wall and started up the approach trail.  Soon we realized that i forgot the rope so sean kept breaking trail and i ran back to the car and grabbed the rope and almost made it up the trail when i heard the sirens from parks...After a little chat with two parks guys who informed me that indeed the highways where NOT open i ran back to the base of the climb and told sean that we were shut down once again.  The next day we waited until 5 for word that the highway was open and with bags pre packed we were out of there in a flash...well driving through robson provincial park was some of the worst road conditions i have ever experienced but soon we were stopped for two hours because of an accident and then drove a good portion of the drive back to kamloops moving 20km/h following semi trucks.  We arrived back in kamloops at 4:30am and thought the last part of our trip was kind of disappointing it was a great trip and a lesson was learned...ALWAYS BRING SKIS!!!

Sean at the base of the weeping wall

School has started again for a week and then we have ski tour for a week so i will keep posting as things unfold!

An icy start to christmas!

Well its been awhile since ive posted anything up here but that doesnt mean that I havnt been up to anything fun.  Heading back to alberta with my roommate meant traveling through the mountains and its impossible to drive through without stopping in to check out some of the ice.  My roommate Kelsie had never ice climbed before so we spent two days learning the techniques and then we headed up a multi pitch route called rogans gully.  The temperatures where around -19 most of the three days we climbed but we had a great time climbing and rogans gully was a real treat to end the trip.  Here are some photos I am leaving this brief as ive been busy all day getting ready to head back to the rockies this time to jasper and the icefield parkway for a ice climbing course so here are some photos from christmas to wet your appetite and look forward to something a little more in depth when i get back!!!

rapping at the end of the day in johnsons canyon

playing around on some easier ice at johnson canyan

My new half ropes on their first climb review to come later!

working a steeping step on rogans gully

On the final pitch and the steepest climbing of the route

How to ski for free!

Monday was a day off for the rest of my classmates who are doing their wilderness first responder course so of course everyone was heading to the ski hill!  I met up with a couple of the powder hounds in our class and we hit up some slackcountry (backcountry skiing out of bounds at ski hills).  Here are a few pictures from monday!

After a couple of rest days my legs where back to shape so it seemed like as good of a time as any to head back to the ski hill.  Me and my roommate Justin found a ride out to the hill with a lifty but she was staying the night so we needed to find a way to get back on our own...well paying for a hostel was too expensive and a hotel was out of the question, so what does every good mountain man do?  Snow cave!!!!  We spent thursday skiing all day and just before it got dark me and justin put on our climbing skins and crossed the out of bounds line to find a good place to dig in for the night.  After a little bit of uphill work we found a nice snow drift and dug in for the night.

There was a minor miscommunication leaving us with food a stove but no fuel for the night so after eating a few granola bars and apples it was off to sleep.  Our snow cave was cozy but the design we chose didnt quite work out the way we wanted it leaving us sleeping on a slanted platform...we were fighting gravity all night but managed to sneak in a few hours of sleep.  We woke up to one of the most incredible views I have seen since my trip to the bugaboos this summer.  We were treated with a wonderful sunrise and then started packing up our frozen gear.  Needless to say we got first tracks on the hill and then headed to the lodge to warm up and dry some gear.  A few friends joined us in the late morning to enjoy the fresh snow we got over the night!

 

School is done!!! Back to playing!

Well the past week and a half I've felt like a real student!  All fun aside it was time to buckle down and get my papers written, my exams studied for and completed...But now thats all a distant memory!  While most of my fellow students are doing their  80 hour wilderness first responder course...a few of us are feeling pretty lucky that we already did that course.  So to pass our time while we wait for everyone to finish its long suffering days at the local ski hill sun peaks!!!!  The weather was looking nice saturday morning when me jessie and justin loaded up the car and headed out.  It was all smiles as we headed up the lift for our first run of the year!

The trees where white, the snow was thin....but we were not in class anymore!  After a few runs I heard my phone ringing mid run...Another classmate arrived at the base so we sped off to meet him and complete our team to make an even four.

We skied all day and learned where to good runs were on our new hill...it was smiles all around and you could hear shouts and WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE's all the way down the runs...we were treated with beautiful views everywhere we looked, so without further adue...i will stop talking and let you see the goods!

Well Ive got a week of nothing but skiing to look forward to...hopefully my muscles will forgive me for it!