Guyz Blog

Finally in Leh!

2009-09-24T06:20:00.001-07:00

Hi all,

I've finally made it to Leh!

Rewinding a bit to my last blog posting ... after making that posting and saying that I was going to store my bike and just travel around northern India, I went back to the hotel and stared at my bike - it stared back at me (we've been spedning too much time together), and we jointly decided -what the heck, let's go to Manali and see how far we can cycle to Leh!

So, the next day, a 10 hour bus ride that puts the word "semi" into "semi-delux", I got up to Manali, and started cycling the next morning. Of course, the penalty for starting anew from Manali was an immediate pass - so started a 1400m climb up to Marrhi, a small town 600m below the pass. The next day, in a strong wind, headed up the pass and crested it at 3998m. From there, an easy downhill (mostly, on bad roads) to the village of Sissu.

From Sissu, it was a relatively easy cycle to Keylong, where I called Killaine (at about 3300m), and then from there climbed up to Jispa. By the time I got to Jispa, I was pretty whipped (having done a 3rd consective day of over 1000m of climbing per day). Nonetheless, I carried on the next day with American & Spanish cyclists towards "Zing Zing Bar" (named after the river feature, not after the nonexistant alchol serving place). Reaching Zing Zing Bar at 4000m, I was beyond tired. I turned back, and cycled back 10k down the road to Patseo at 3750m, and found a great campsite.

I took the next day off - reading and chatting with the (very few) locals. By the next day I was feeling great, and continued up the road, past Zing Zing Bar, and camped a short distance higher at 4301m. Had a great night (meaning - no altitude effects) and blasted up the road (in figurative terms, of course), covering 16km and 650m up to the Baralacha La pass at 4918m. Spectacular views, and a great ride down through spectacular scenery to Sarchu at 4408m.

But, by this time, it was Wednesday, and I knew it was time to high tail it to Leh. As soon as I pulled into Sarchu, a couple of jeeps pulled up - I asked if they had room for a cyclist - they did, and off we went on the spectacular, yet frequently terrifying, 8 hour jeep journey to Leh. We crossed the "second highest motorable road in the world" at 5399m in the dark - that was one of the many terrifying parts - but the specacular parts were finally seeing the Morei plains - part of the Tibetan Changtang plateau that extends down into this corner of India.

Finally reached Leh late last night - fortunately, one hotel tout was still around, and I got a cheap yet comfortable room in a guest house (although I upgraded this morning!). Spent this afternoon getting bike packing materials (carpet underlay and a potato sack in lieu of a bike box), and I'm about ready to head out for a big pizza!

Guy

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Now, Plan "E" ...

2009-09-14T05:16:00.001-07:00

Howdy folks,

I'm back in Shimla! Not exactly where I wanted to end up, but it's been a fun filled week or so since I last posted something ... so, starting from where I left off last time ...

Had a couple of super excellent himalayan cycle days from Recong Peo through Pooh to Nako. Hotels in Pooh were full, so I was able to pitch my tent on the roof of the building next door. Next day's cycle to Nako was super - very little traffic at this point, hot & sunny day, endless low angled switchback through a world of rock, only interspersed with the occasional orchard clustered around the few streams.

Rolled into Nako at 3600m, feeling the altitude. Nako is a wonderful little town - completely Tibetan in every way - checked into a little homestay place run by a friendly Tibetan couple, and in a traditional mud & thatch roof. Nice little garden out front - incredible views. Felt really good about progress so far, and feeling optimistic to continue to Leh!

Next morning, Cliff (the Australian I've been tracking since Rampur) & I stood out in our shorts in the rain. It was cold. We went for a cup of tea to wait for the weather to clear. The rain picked up. By 11, we decided just to stay the day in Nako (easy decision to make - wonderful village - did I mention that?). The locals said the rain would end tomorrow.

The next day, the local folks said "the rain is ending ..."

On the third day of rain, the local folks said "we have never seen so much rain before".

Later that day ... the local folks reported "the road to Tabo is destroyed". And later ... "the road to Recong Peo is closed".

On the fourth day, Cliff & I cycled up past the village to the "Malling Slide". It's a well known rock slide path, that the Border Roads organization has been struggling to keep open for years. The road crosses and extremely steep & unstable gully ... or at least it used to. There was no more road. It was not just washed away, but completely removed for at least a kilometer across the mountainside. No way around it - up or down - the terrain really is that steep.

So started much speculation and planning & replanning. Clearly, there was no way I could go into the Spiti valley - that was at least clear. However, there could have been a possibility to toodle over to Manali (about 3 days travel), and just try to cycle from there.

But, on day 5, the road south to Recong Peo was still closed.

Time, unfortunately, has burned away and I slowly came to the realization that the cycle trip was pretty much over. Still, along with two Belgians and Cliff, we rented a 4wd taxi, and drove back down the valley for 10 hours to Rampur. The road from Pooh back to Recong Peo and beyond was heavily damaged by the rain, and there were numerous waits for sections of the road to be cleared. Much himalayan driving drama.

Finally, we got to Rampur, and found out that the Jalori Pass to Manali was closed - that was pretty much the only last chance we had to get up to Manali to even conceive of cycling ... and only if I/we didn't have any rest days or extra acclimatization days. Sigh!

So, this morning, I took the bus back up to Shimla, back to the hotel I stayed at previously, and arranged to store my bike at the hotel. I'm going to take a light pack, and do the travel by bus thing ... I'm headed up to Manali tomorrow, and I'll see if there is any possibility of taking a bus from Manali, over the Rothang La and down into the Spiti valley that way. I'm pessimistic considering the state of the roads ... but we'll see! If going into the Spiti valley isn't possible, then I'll explore the hill stations & towns of Himachal Pradesh, including Dharmsala - a place I've wanted to visit for some time.

It's been quite a week and a bit! But, being "stuck" in Nako wasn't really like being stuck - it was a great town, it had an 11th century Gompa to explore, a fascinating little village, and some great walks (in the rain) up to the Chortens and Mani walls surrounding the town. Got as high as 4200m on a hike with some local folks to visit the high pastures.

All-in-all, quite disappointed that the cycling hasn't worked out, but still looking forward to 1 1/2 weeks of traveling around India.

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Thanks!

2009-09-05T04:03:00.001-07:00

Hey folks,

Thanks for the comments!

Don - I must have missed the MacDonalds, but doesn't matter 'cause I'm doing the vegetarian thing over here anyway. :-) Oh, and the places I'm staying at are small hotel kinda places. My "standard" has come up somewhat over the last few years. :-)

Leonard, Dag, Lynn, Deanna, Al, Fabia, Mike K - thanks for the wishes!

See ya,

Guy

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Heaven, Hell, Himalaya

2009-09-05T03:53:00.001-07:00

When I plan for a trip, I tend to do a meticulous amount of research about the route (just ask Killaine) - stuff like the terrain, the climbs, the state of the road - all that kind of stuff. I even chatted with a few folks via the Lonely Planet and India Mike websites. However, none of the information I had gathered even hinted at the possibility that I'd be cycling through about 30km of a hydroelectric mega-project ...

The day started off great - I got an early start from Sarahan, and enjoyed the fully in-control cycle back down into the valley back to Jeori. Past hotel hell, then back along the road, following again the Sutlej river upstream. The road continued to be spectacular - blasted into the side of sheer cliffs, hundreds of metres above the Sutlej. Fantastic views, great cycling.

I came upon a couple of tragic accidents in short order, however. The first was a head-on between a bus & a truck - I'd heard about this one the day before from some German folks (who past it on a different bus). Not pretty. Shortly afterwards, while cycling along another sheer section, a truckload of police drove up, stopped, and looked over the edge. I stopped and asked them what they were looking at - apparently a truck went off the road the night before (which explained the broken railing). I asked how many were killed - they didn't know yet. I have no idea how they'd get down to the river to recover the bodies - it was a long way down.

Continuing on, the road dropped right down to the river, and deteriorated as I entered some kind of construction zone. Little did I know that this was the start of a new Sutlej river hydroelectricity mega-project. In some senses, cycling through a third-world project of that nature was certainly eye-opening. People crushing rocks (by hand - with hammers) on the side of the road, armies of people digging roads - and many camps where the workers lived in very desperate conditions. Dams under construction, massive tunnels being built into the mountainside for diverting the river flow - fascinating stuff, from an engineering perspective. From a cycling perspective, however, it was 30km of unpaved, rocky & muddy road. At one point I said to myself, "at least it's not raining" ... it started to rain a short time later.

Anyway, exhausting work. Finally reached paved road eventually, and took shelter in a police checkpoint hut (folks are very friendly - did I mention that before?). Continued on to the turn-off to Recong Peo, and then just another 300m of climbing and I pulled in at about 4:30pm - after having started cycling at 6:30am. 92km and 1300m of climbing altogether.

Got the "best room" at the Rindang Hotel, overlooking the busy bazaar. Noisy, but spent a fascinating hour or more just watching the folks going about their business. Really cool just to watch - things slowly start to reveal themselves - the cows wandering the streets do get fed by the vegetable vendors as they sort out the less good produce. The porters ready at a moments notice to unload vehicles. All sorts of folks - tough to describe the whole thing.

After such an exhausting day yesterday, I took a rest day today. I also had to get an "inner line permit" (i.e. permission to cycle close to the border with Tibet) - it was easy to get, but a good excuse to take the day off. Went to the Aru car wash and mechanic to wash the layers of mud off my bike, but in true Indian fashion, a fellow washed my bike up for me - making it cleaner than when I left Canada! A bit of oil on the chain, and good to go.

BTW, also super impressed that my fancy tires & Killaine's wheels held up to the rigours of yesterday.

Onwards tomorrow to the village of "Pooh", then up to Nako at 3600m and then finally the descent into trans-himalayan valley of Spiti. Not sure when the next Internet access thingy will be.

Summary of the trip to date ... fascinating & challenging!

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Escape from Jeori

2009-09-03T05:47:00.001-07:00

Ok, I'd better make this quick 'cause the power is somewhat unreliable up here ...!

Yesterday morning, I left Narkanda nice and early - a nice sunny day, and what a way to start with a 2000m vertical downhill into the Sutlej river valley. The descent went nicely - stopping every 200 vertical meters to let my wheel rims cool, then putting on the sunscreen, then putting on the insect repellent as I descended down into the malarial zone. Finally, "hit" the valley bottom at 800m where it was very, very hot.

I had about 30km to do along the valley to Rampur. Slowly the heat sucked the energy right out of me, and my water bottles were drained quickly. I pulled into Rampur - a neat little town clinging to the valley edge above the river. I pushed my bike down into the bazaar - a maze of shops and services - looking for a hotel. Unfortunately, the one I was looking for was full, and the alternative didn't look too appealing, so back up to the road, and back the way I came a short distance to the nice Himachal Tourist Department's hotel.

Another cyclist (!) was also staying at the hotel, although we didn't meet up until this morning. He was lamenting the weight of his load - it turns out that he was carrying, among other things, a laptop and a big SLR camera (and I had a serious debate with myself as to whether I would take my ipod). But, his bigger issue was that he tore the sidewall of his tire on his second day out. He had a spare, but of a much lower quality. This was a bit of a concern for me, 'cause in the interest of saving weight, I decided not to bring a spare tire! Oh well, I guess I'll need to be careful ...

Today's plan was to cycle a short 22km to Jeori. A nice, short day, considering the heat from yesterday. However, I wasn't really looking forward to the hotel in Jeori, which was described in one of my books as "fetid". Now, there is an alternative to staying in Jeori, and that would be to cycle an additional 17km ... and 700m vertical, up to the village of Sarahan, where there is a popular hindu temple. Obviously, I wasn't keen to do that in the heat.

I pulled into Jeori, and found that the hotel was even worse than I could imagine! Now, I've stayed in some bad places in Pakistan & Tibet, but this place was bad - comically so. The fellow showed me the room - there was an empty whiskey bottle on the floor, along with the cigarette butts and other trash. Don't ask what the bed looked like. The view across the river valley was brilliant, at least. I tried to "make the most of it", but then slowly realized that the only thing separating me from a decent hotel was a short bus ride. So, I grabbed the next bus, and 45 absolutely terrifying minutes later, I was in Sarahan and in a much, much better hotel. (the bus ride up was scary - the road was narrow and with a huge precipitous drop down to the valley - I remembered again why I chose to cycle over here - it's safer!)

So, I'm in Sarahan now. It's pouring outside - a monsoonal day. If all goes according to plan tomorrow, I'll cycle back down to Jeori (all downhill!), then 74km to Recong Peo. It'll be a long day, but should be cooler as the road in the valley goes from about 1500m up to ~2200m in Recong Peo).

Final notes - the people are super friendly, virtually every car/truck/bus that goes by honks merrily and people wave. Scenery is spectacular. Big hydro projects under development. Clouds still obscuring the highest peaks. Stomach is holding together nicely. Kickstand on bike has broken, and I lost my cycling gloves in Rampur!

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Narkanda

2009-09-01T05:05:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm in Narkanda, after my first day of cycling in India!

Where to begin ...the flight getting here went well - Jet Airways is actually quite nice. Picked up at the airport by a guy from my hotel, and the hotel in Delhi was "ok". Next morning, to the bus station for the 10 hour ride to Shimla. It was a comfy air conditioned bus (temp. when I landed in Delhi was +29, at 9:30 at night!). Fascinating bus ride through the Indian countryside, with the final few hours spent climbing up improbable roads on the side of steep, green hills up to Shimla.

Shimla is a beautiful city, perched on both sides of a ridge at 2150m. Much, much cooler and pleasant than Delhi. Good hotel, finally unpacked the bike (it survived the journey unscathed). Next morning, waited for the rain to ease, then started cycling to Narkanda. Although the hills were initially steep, and it started raining again, both eased and it was a great bike ride along the roads. Green forests, steep drops and not too much traffic. Goats, cows & monkeys along the road.

Caught up to and passed a Swiss tour group - made it here to Narkanda (2650m)in about 5 hours, finally giving me most of an afternoon to finally relax. "Should" be an easier ride tomorrow down to Rampur, but the 2000m drop will put me back into the heat, so not looking forward to that!

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The Bike

2009-08-27T21:24:00.000-07:00

Here it is, all decked out for a ride across the Himalaya:

The story of ... "the bike" ...

For the Himalaya, the preferred ride is one that is robust and easily repairable. Although I've got two other mountain bikes, the fact that both of them are alumnimum frame (can't be welded in the field), have hydraulic disk brakes (I have no idea how to repair those!) and shocks (something else to go wrong) meant that they weren't quite appropriate for a trip like this.

The other significant factor is, well, that I didn't want to risk losing one of my nice bikes over in India!

So, I was going to use my old 1992 Scott Mountain bike that I'd bought in Germany and cycled up the Karakoram Highway, but sadly it was stolen from a friend of mine. Thus began the hunt for an appropriate bike.

A few weeks of lurking on Craigslist and trying a few bikes, and I finally found something close to what I was looking for - a ~1995 steel frame Kona Hahanna. Decent bike, but needed some tweaks to it. Over the next month, I:

Replaced the head stem to raise the handlebars and bring them a bit closer;
Replaced the rear gear cluster - finding a 32-tooth 7 gear cluster was a bit of a challenge, but found one at the Bike Doctor
Replaced the chain
Replaced the front large chain ring
Replaced all the cables
Replaced the brake pads (probably good to have decent brakes in the Himalaya)
Replaced one of the shifters, fixed up the other one (multiple visits to Our Community Bikes to find the right bits)
Put on 3 water bottle cages
Put on rear carrier (original from the Pakistan trip, so should be solid) - required just a little grinding to make it fit
After much turmoil, got an expensive Tubus front rack, and figured out a hopefully strong way of mounting it on the front fork
Swapped out the single wall wheels with the double wall wheels from Killaine's old mountain bike (Thanks, Pumpkin!)
Put on some fancy Schwalbe Marathon Tour Plus tires. Much gnashing of teeth trying to decide between 2.0s and 1.75s. Went for the 1.75s in the end.
Bar ends, of course
Mounted the speedometer
And, finally, swapped the seat with the comfy one from one of my other bikes.

Phew, that's it. Hopefully it'll hold together! It's all packed and in it's box downstairs. Copious amounts of foam & bubble wrap will also hopefully protect it on the long flight and bus ride from Vancouver to Shimla, via Toronto, Brussels & Delhi!

Weather in India

2009-08-20T00:04:00.000-07:00

Some details on weather along my cycling route:

Shimla (~2100m - start)
Rampur (~800m - day 2)
Leh (~3500m - end)

Shimla & Rampur should be cloudy with thunderstorms - considering that they get the monsoon there (which is still going on when I start). Rampur will be hot, being at a low elevation.

Leh is surprisingly warm right now, but getting cold at night already! It's going to be chilly when I get there at the end of September.

Shimla to Leh

2009-08-09T16:17:00.001-07:00

Here's a bit of an update on a trip I'm planning this September!

The Concept

I'm planning on doing a bit of cycling in India this fall - from Shimla on the south side of the Himalayas, across to Leh in Ladakh, on the north side of the Himalayas, essentially in the Indian part of geographic Tibet.

Why

Ever since I pulled out of the Bugaboos to Roger's Pass traverse trip, I've been looking for another trip to do. I tossed around possibilities of kayaking up the sunshine coast, and various hiking alternatives, before my mind migrated to India. I pulled out the trekking in India Lonely Planet guide and started thinking about doing some hiking over there.

But, the more I read, I slowly started learning about the trans-himalayan valley of Spiti (trans-himalayan essentially meaning in the middle of the Himalaya). Then, I learned that there is a road through there that hooks up with the Manali to Leh highway. Then I read that people have done cycle tours through there.

So, I thought it might be a fun idea to link up a bike route through Spiti with the Manali-Leh highway - a route of about 1000km across the Himalaya.

The Plan

Here's a google maps view of the route:

View Shimla to Leh Cycling Route in a larger map

I'll start by flying out from Vancouver to Delhi via Toronto & Brussels. One night in Delhi, then a 9 (or more) hour bus ride to Shimla.

From Shimla, I'll start to cycle. The route first heads east, following the Sutlej river, and slowly climbs in altitude until it crosses through into the Spiti valley. From there, the route continues through Buddhist villages and climbs up the Kunzum La at ~4500m, the first major pass on the route. It then descends down (what sounds like) a pretty rough road, eventually meeting the Manali-Leh highway. This first part should take around 10 days to 2 weeks.

Then, the fun starts on the Manali-Leh highway. There's 4 major passes to cross - the Baralacha La at 4918m, the Nakeela La at 4937m, Lachulung La at 5077m, and finally the Taglang La at 5300m. Pretty high cycling. The area between the Lachulung La and the Taglang La should be very cool - the terrain is actually geographically part of the massive Changtang - the high plateau of Tibet.

Finally, I'll end up in Leh - the capital city of the region.

As I mentioned, it's about 1000km, and I'll have 25 days of cycling. Hopefully I'll average ~50km/day with a rest day every 5 days.

When To Go?

Figuring out when to do this trip was a challenge! There's two opposing weather forces - the monsoon - lasting through to "the beginning of September", and the winter snows, which generally don't come until later in October, but have been known to come as early as early to mid-September.

After much consideration and consulatation on the Internet, I figured that it would likely be better to brave the rain rather than snow, so I'll start at the end of August and go 'til the end of September.

The Bike

I was expecting that I'd just take the same bike that I cycled the Karakoram Highway on back in 1998. Unfortunately, it was on extended loan to a friend, and it was stolen from him. So, I first had to find an appropriate bike!

For a trip like this, the ideal bike has:

a steel frame (more resilient than aluminum);
a rigid front fork (less maintenance than a shock);
cable-actuated brakes (which I can fix on the road - unlike hydraulic brakes);
decent components.

After a few weeks of lurking on Craigslist, I eventually found close-to the right bike - a Kona Hahanna. Then, after a fair amount of work, I replaced the drivetrain, replaced the wheels with wheels from Killaine's old bike (much stronger), replaced the stem to make it fit better, worked on the gearing, adjusted the brakes, put on my water bottle carriers and racks and, to top it all off, put on some new Schwalbe Marathon Tour Plus tires.

Alternative Plans

Travelling in India is never straightforward nor easy, and sticking to a pre-determined plan can be challenging! The weather could slow me down, or I might just find that my plan is overly-ambitious. I might decide to dawdle along the first half of the route slowly and enjoy the area, or it could be that I'll be delayed starting and might have to be happy just doing the Manali to Leh portion.

Or, I could have a catastrophic bike failure (or lose it!), and have to revert just to having a bus-borne holiday interspersed with some trekking. That's India!

Very Cool Fog Pictures

2009-01-21T12:38:00.000-08:00

Very cool pictures of the fog that's been sitting over Vancouver for some time now - both were taken from Cypress Mountain and were not taken by me (forwarded on to me from other friends):

Sunrise

At Night

Tweedsmuir Park - Rainbow Range

2009-01-18T18:39:00.000-08:00

Finally finished the story on our trip to Tweedsmuir park back in August.

Hanging Lake

2009-01-17T12:00:00.000-08:00

Mike, Simon & I headed out for an exploratory trip to the west side of Mt. Sproatt, accessing it from the new Whistler Olympic Center (where the ski jumping & x-country events for the 2010 Olympics will be held).

The great thing about the new Center is that it has an all-weather (i.e. plowed) road up to 900m, giving good alpine access to the Sproatt/Rainbow area. I was supposed to lead an Alpine Club trip here in December to explore the area, but I canned it due to lack of snow.

We made an early start and left the Olympic Center area at around 8am. The instructions for getting to Hanging Lake from the Olympic Center can be found here. The route description was good, and we made pretty good time on our way up.

The conditions were a little "wierd". It was a beautiful, blue sky day, with highs in the alpine to go into the double digits. The concern was what the warm weather would do to the snowpack. Sure enough, as we made our way up through the trees, we encountered areas of ice (in open areas), and soft snow (in the trees), but kind of randomly dispersed.

There was only really one steep (but short) slope to traverse which was fine when we went up. We debated what the warming temperatures would do to that slope later in the day. Nevertheless, we continued upwards and got to Hanging Lake at around 11:30 (with numerous breaks to chat on the way up!). We went up a bit higher, and had a great view across Rainbow Lake to Weart/Wedge, and were able to scope the routes up Rainbow to the north and Sproatt to the South (route up Sproatt looks very straightforward to gain the higher alpine).

However ... we saw numerous snowmobile tracks in the area, and saw a group of about 4 snowmobilers. The whine of their machines seriously interrupted what was otherwise a tranquil area. I was certain that the area was closed to snowmobiles and apparently it is. Here's info on Sproatt Mountain and conflicts with snowmobiles. Of course, it seems virtually impossible to police areas and to keep snowmobiles out. Sigh.

After lunch, we headed back down. The ski down wasn't the worst I'd ever had, but it was close! The snow hadn't softened up nearly as much as we expected, so it was hard skiing on crust, crunchy snow and the occasional soft patch. Truly, the hazard for the day was not avalanche, but skiing in those conditions!

All in all, a great trip - the Olympic Center provides good access to the Sproatt area and is relatively safe from avalanche terrain. The presence of snowmobiles is disappointing, however.

Oh, one last note ... the Olympic Center is a super-fantastic facility for x-country skiing. However, it would be really great if they accepted that backcountry skiers cross the facility to access the backcountry, and would be super if they could provide marked access - that would really help build it into a "winter sports center".

Addendum: here is the document describing the recommendations for management in the Squamish / Whistler corridor, including the Sproatt/Rainbow area.

Backcountry Skiing From Home!

2009-01-04T10:24:00.000-08:00

With all the snow that we've been having in Vancouver, we thought it might be a fun idea to do another zero-carbon trip from home.

So, on January 4th, Killaine & I put our skis on our backs, walked down our street, then hiked up Mountain Highway to the gate at the end of the road.

Killaine hiking up Mountain Highway

From there, we skied up the road in decent snow conditions. After the 3rd switch back, we started breaking trail, then started optimizing our route by cutting the switchbacks.

Up in the forest

Our ultimate destination was the Grouse Mountain Area or Pipeline Pass, or somewhere around there. However, as we got higher, the forecast winds moved in. The heavy snow load in the trees had weakened some of the trees, and we started hearing and seeing big branches falling down. The final straw was when we saw a tree, about 12" in diameter, fall over. Not anticipating "tree fall hazard", we turned around and skied back home

All in all, a short but fun trip close to home - Mt. Fromme ski ascent in the future?

New Years Eve Search

2009-01-02T08:54:00.001-08:00

The Christmas busy period for Search & Rescue continues.

Killaine & I were up in Pemberton for four days - in the meantime, there was a major search for a man missing from the Mt. Seymour ski area for three days. The chap was found alive the afternoon of New Years Eve.

Killaine & I arrived home later that afternoon. A few hours later, I received a page indicating that the aforementioned fellow may have seen other tracks in his descent down Suicide Gully, and that we needed to check them out.

Stan, Jimmy & I headed up the Mt. Seymour roadway and snowshoed into the Suicide Creek area. We hiked up the escape trail a short distance until we met up with the fellow's footprints. We followed his path for about an hour, back down to the road, but did not find any other footprints. We had searched through the area that the subject described as having seen the footprints, so we were quite comfortable that there were none others to be found.

We reached our conclusion at around 10:30, and we all managed to make it home for midnight for new years celebrations!

Nadda to the Bonnington This Year

2009-01-02T08:48:00.000-08:00

Gord, Jenny, Ron, Carole, Killaine & I were planning to do the Bonnington Range traverse, near Nelson, over New Years this year. Unfortunately, we decided not to do it.

The initially low snowfalls for this winter had, by about December 23rd, left very little snow in the Bonnington range area - meaning that travel below treeline would have been very difficult (i.e. not enough snow to cover up the bush and rocks), and above treeline, it would have been equally tricky (same conditions, but more windblown). This low snowpack, coupled with a period of very cold temperatures, also set up a snowpack that was very weak.

Sure enough, about a week before we were to go, it started snowing. The new snow load on the weak base created very high avalanche conditions - boosting the hazard to at least considerable to high for the period that we would have been skiing.

We definitely made the right choice not to head out, although it was a very painful one to make. One of the things I look forward to every winter is meeting up with my friends to do some fun backcountry skiing together. It always pains me when a date draws near, and one has to continually start watching the weather and trying to figure out what the conditions will be like.

Christmas Rescue

2008-12-25T10:19:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, Killaine & I's Christmas tradition of doing a backcountry ski up Seymour was pre-empted by a rescue for two stranded backcountry skiers in the Mt. Seymour backcountry.

In a nutshell, a couple of backcountry skiers who seemed to be inexperienced with the Mt. Seymour terrain went off for a tour on Christmas Eve. They ended up lower down on the east side of Mt. Seymour, between De Poncier Lake and Theta Lake. They had run into very steep terrain and apparently had both been caught in an avalanche, yet were able to extract themselves. They spent the night out and called (via cell phone) for a rescue Christmas morning.

We were paged at around 11am to respond to our SAR station at Bone Creek. At that time, the weather was generally clear, although clouds were starting to form on Mt. Seymour. Our team leader was able to locate the skiers from the helicopter. Originally, the plan was to do a long line rescue, but the clouds closed in before it we were ready to do the rescue.

So, Plan B was quickly formed - knowing the location of the stranded skiers, a ski team was dispatched from the Mt. Seymour ski area. They encountered very deep snow, and called for a backup snowshoe team to help flatten out the trail for the climb back out. Curtis, John, Doug & I were this team. We took the Mystery Peak chairlift up Mt. Seymour, met up with one of the ski area's snowmobiles, and were transferred to the alpine trail near Brockton Point.

From there, we made good progress along the alpine trail and then down into De Poncier Lake. In the meantime, the ski team had made contact with Behnad - another backcountry skier stranded in the deep snow. The ski team advised us of their contact with Behnad, so when we reached him at De Poncier lake, Curtis took him back up to the alpine trail and back to the ski area. In the meantime, Fiona & Keith had skied down to us and proceeded onwards to meet up with the first ski team.

The ski team shortly made contact with the original two backcountry skiers - they were in good condition, though a little tired from their ordeal. They started skiing them out as when kept snowhoeing in - we met up with the team, then the whole 12 person group (10 rescuers & 2 subjects) went back out as a single group.

The group in the darkness at De Poncier Lake

Doug offers me some M&Ms. Note how well-dressed he is in our new Arcteryx team jacket & pants!

During this period, it was looking increasingly likely that I, plus most of the other rescuers, were going to be missing Christmas dinner. That was more than a little disappointing for most of us. Fortunately for myself, however, I was back out at the parking lot by about 7:30pm and managed to get over to Hugh's place (Killaine's brother) just as everyone was finishing up Christmas dinner - they saved some for me, so that was great! Unfortunately for some of the other rescuers, Christmas dinner was fully missed, so that was a shame.

However, it was a beautiful night out in the mountains. Coming down from the peak of Mt. Seymour, low cloud was over Vancouver, so there was this cool orange glow coming through the clouds - the sky was clear, and it looke very beautiful with the snow blanketed over everything.

Snowy!

2008-12-24T09:49:00.000-08:00

In the "be careful what you wish for" category ... Vancouver has been receiving truckloads of snow in the city. Here's our place:

Note sure if you can see the stacks of snow beside Killaine ... I had to shovel the driveway twice yesterday - a day after spending a couple of hours at the NSR embassy shoveling the snow that was collapsing our vehicle canopies! I actually enjoy shoveling snow ... but this is getting to be a little silly ...

Rescue off Hollyburn

2008-12-16T10:01:00.000-08:00

A very successful rescue last night / this morning - a snowshoer fell ~30m down into a steep gully off the west aspect of Hollyburn Mountain - one of his companions was able to climb down to him, but both of them ended up being stuck on a 70 degree slope, hanging on to branches protruding from the snow.

Two members, Al & Jackie, hiked in quickly to the gully, but were unable to access the snowshoers from below. Myself, Bob, Hannes, Paul & Connie made our way to the top of the gully. Bob lowered me down into the gully and I made contact with the very cold and very scared couple. I got harnesses on them, and Bob & team lowered them down the rest of the way to Al & Jackie. Bob lowered me down, and I hiked out with our subjects.

Both subjects were fine - the snowshoer who fell in had a few minor scrapes - but both were very cold, but warmed up quickly on the hike out.

A great rescue, and I was very happy to put my rope rescue skills to work.

Some news reports:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/12/16/bc-northshore-cypress-park-snowshow-rescue.html?ref=rss

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081216/BC_cypress_snoeshoers_081216/20081216?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

http://www.news1130.com/news/topstory/article.jsp?content=20081216_084705_15556

A photo of Paul, with me in the background:

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2008/12/16/bc-081216-snowshoers-saved1.jpg

Quick Toodle up Hollyburn

2008-12-16T09:58:00.000-08:00

Did a quick toodle up Hollyburn on Sunday while Killaine did some laps in the x-country ski area.

Snowshoes were a good choice ... still lots of exposed shrubbery under the unconsolidated snow. Beautiful, clear but cold day.

A photo taken by some folks on their camera-phone.

Winter is Here!

2008-12-14T09:21:00.001-08:00

Finally! Winter arrived on the North Shore!

About 70 or so cm has been dumped on the North Shore mountains - not "tons" by local standards, but enough for Killaine & I to finally get out.

We did the standard short ski up the alpine trail at Mt. Seymour, starting up at around 11:30am or so. At that time, the trail tends to be busy with backcountry skiers and snowshoers, but everyone seemed quite happy to finally be out in the snow!

My pager went off as we were approaching Brockton Point (at the top) for an injury on the Dog Mountain trail. So, we ditched our skins and skied down the runs in the ski area. The ski area wasn't fully opened, so the runs were ungroomed - the skiing was good in the 40cm of new snow, but extreme caution was needed 'cause of the relative shallow depth of the snow, and that the 40cm was pretty much unconsolidated.

Back at the parking lot, I got my radio from my truck, got in touch with my North Shore Rescue colleagues, and quickly jumped into the helicopter for a very short flight into the First Lake on the Dog Mountain trail.

The subject, a 12 year old boy had slipped off a small log bridge with his snowshoes on and had twisted his knee quite badly. I helped package him in the stretcher and get him back to the helicopter, where he was flown out. Bruce & I accompanied out the other members of the party.

By the way - the party was a scout group out for a snowshoe as part of learning how to survive in the winter. They appeared to be very well equipped with extra clothes, thermal blankets, etc. It's good to see people getting out into the backcountry, and being appropriately prepared for emergencies.

Will Winter Ever Come?

2008-12-06T10:33:00.000-08:00

Howdy folks,

Things have been quiet here on the blogging front recently. But, aside from that, the current question is when will it snow? It's December 6th today ... and the snow conditions on the south coast of BC are pretty darn minimal.

I've been trolling lots of weather sites, and have an impressive list of sites to uncover snow depth and weather info. But, the reality is that this is a very late start to winter this year. I skied at Blackcomb on November 27th last year - had a 9000m day, and recorded " blue sky, fresh snow, and cool temperatures - a perfect day!". I recall a great snow pack. In constrast, right now Whistler/Blackcomb has a 40cm base (that's, like, one foot and 3 inches or so). On the local hills, there's no snow covering the lower cut on Grouse Mountain, and only a few centimeters of snow up higher.

Further afield, I've heard that folks have been having some good skiing at Roger's Pass - up above treeline.

I'm supposed to lead an alpine club trip next weekend to explore up the S and W sides of Mt. Sproatt from the new Whistler Olympic Park (that's where the x-country and ski jumping will be for the 2010 Olympics). But, they only have a few centimeters on the ground, so very likely I'll be canning that trip ... unless there's a big dump of snow down to 1000m or so (not looking good right now).

Ron, Carole, Gord, Jenny, Killaine & I are planning to do the Bonnington Traverse near Nelson over New Years - snow is pretty light out there too (again, 40cm reported at Whitewater).

Ah well ... one thing is (hopefully) certain ... it will snow sometime soon!

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip

2008-10-13T12:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a really good little video on the causes, impacts & solutions of climate change:

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip

My Friends Have an Adventure

2008-08-21T20:58:00.001-07:00

Some "as of yet unnamed" friends of mine had an adventure on a "big route on a sizable peak" somewhere in a Canadian mountain range. This is how it ended up:

They're totally fine, though they have retired from big routes for a while.

Points if you can identify the mountain range, area, peak or the names of these folks!

Good Article on Short Rope Effectiveness

2008-08-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a good article on the effectiveness (or not) of short roping on icy slopes > 25 degrees):

ShortRopeTests

In a nutshell, a short rope will not hold anyone who slips on an icy slope of 30 degrees. Period. Problems can be compounded with multiple people on a rope, when just one slips.

Radio options in the backcountry

2008-08-19T16:42:00.000-07:00

Here's a good article (from Lou Dawson) on radio options in the backcountry.

Trevor's Visit

2008-08-15T13:36:00.001-07:00

Just (finally) finished adding a couple of postings on my friend Trevor's visit to Vancouver in June:

Our day of biking in Squamish; and
Our hike up the South Needle.

Black Diamond Voodoo Ski Reviews

2008-08-12T09:41:00.000-07:00

Lou Dawson's backcountry skiing website has had a thread on Black Diamond Voodoo skis - these are the ones I skied on last winter. Some good comments on these skis:

http://www.wildsnow.com/?p=1176#comment-10608

I added my own comment in there as well:

I skied on the Black Diamond Voodoos last winter as well, with Dynafit bindings.

Prior to the voodoos, I had a pair of Hagan Titanal skis - for me, I found that this skis didn’t have the flotation I was looking for in powder, they didn’t have the stiffness for awkward conditions, nor did they have the sidecut for tight turns in bushy trees (I live in British Columbia). The voodoo addressed every one of these issues for me, and I found it to be a great ski. The stiffness took a bit of getting used to, and I found I had to push the skis into the turn on hardpack.

On the topic of twintips - I don’t like them. The fact that you can’t easily stab a ski into the snow and use it as an anchor is a real inconvenience for ski mountaineering. As Lou pointed out, the twintips do feel different at the end of a turn - they seem to slide out of the turn more than I’d like - I’d prefer if it was a bit more “grabby”. (of course, this is just my personal observation - your mileage will differ!)

Finally, on the topic of quality … I had the exact same experience as freeheel above - the top sheet has been falling apart on the tails where the skins clip on. The skis look pretty beat up after just one year of skiing. I’ll contact BD about that and possibly return ‘em. Also, I found that the boot center mark did not align with the “true’ boot center (which was marked with a separate score). Caused some confusion for me with my ski tech.

All in all, I found the Voodoos to be great skis - if BD would ditch the twintips and improve the quality of the tail skin clips, it would be great.

A Shot of Brandywine

2008-08-11T22:53:00.000-07:00

Killaine & I gave Brandywine mountain a shot today. Brandywine is a pleasant summit south of Whistler, on the same Cheakamus / Squamish divide as Cypress Peak. I'd climbed it once before several years ago. We were hoping we'd have a bit more luck on Brandywine than we had on Cypress Peak a week ago!

The usual "truck at parking area" shot

For some peculiar reason, I chose to drive to the 2WD parking area, rather than the 4WD area (which is about 365m higher, and a couple of kilometres closer). This made the day a bit more challenging than it needed to be!

Killaine hiking up the Brandywine trail

But, soon enough we got to the meadows. Still a bit of cloud lingering, but it cleared off through the day.

Brandywine meadows

The route is reasonably straightforward - through the meadows, then head up easy slopes to the south ridge of Brandywine.

Killaine climbing out of the meadows towards the ridge

The summit beacons

But ... we started running out of time (due to taking the "long start"!). At about 3:00 pm we were still a little ways from the summit ... so we decided to head back.

Great views from the upper ridge of Cypress Peak (center) and Tricouni (to the left).

Killaine takes a "dance break" on the way down

Beautiful flowers!

Finally, back to the truck at about 7pm. Then, all that was left to do was to grab some of the biggest rocks I could lift, and put them in the truck ... for our garden at home!

A small load of rocks

Mount Gardner

2008-08-10T12:24:00.000-07:00

The weather forecast for today was kind of touch & go, so rather than investing the time to travel further afield, Killaine & I decided to head off to one of the islands on Howe Sound for a short hike.

We had originally planned on hiking up Mt. Liddell, on Gambier Island. But, the parking at the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal was full, so we ended up changing our plans to take the car over to Bowen Island and hike up Mt. Gardner.

It's a pleasant hike up through the trees, with nice views across to Vancouver, and up the Sunshine coast. Only about 3 hours return - so left plenty of time for beers back down at Snug Cove.

Killaine hiking up the easy trail

View across to Vancouver from the top

Killaine & I at the top

View up the Sunshine Coast

Giving Cypress Peak a Shot

2008-08-06T22:31:00.001-07:00

Killaine & I went out on "BC Day" (August long weekend - Monday) to try and climb up Cypress Peak. Cypress Peak, not associated with Cypress Bowl, is a rocky peak on the Squamish/Cheakamus divide.

The logging road in was in really, really good shape! We were able to easily drive all the way to the trailhead.

Killaine in the bush

In spite of this picture, the bush, and time in the trees was completely minimal - maybe 15 minutes in trees 'til you break out into the open - then open hiking the entire rest of the way

Killaine past the first snow field

The route up was quite straightforward - boulder hopping along the side of the stream to the first snow field, then up a bit of steeper rubble to the glacier morraine area.

Cypress Peak above the glacier

The route continues under the toe of the glacier (not actually on the glacier). Still lots of snow around.

The peak from the ridge

Finally, some broad snow slopes eventually put you on the upper ridge - the route to the summit is straight ahead!

Bergschrund below the peak

Killaine contemplates her self-arrest skills against the short gully traverse / bravely decides not to cross the gully.

However, there were still some steep-ish snow areas to cross. Killaine didn't have alot of confidence in her self-arrest skills, so we decided it would be better to stop where we were. Probably a good thing, 'cause there were some spots of tricky scrambling up ahead.

Mike, who we met at the start, on the summit (look closely).

"Consolation Peak"

Instead, we walked the opposite direction along the ridge, and summited a small bump along it - easy scrambling up it, and nice views all around.

Looking north to Cayley / Fee / Vulcans thumb area (if I've got the names right)

The area up there is very cool - many interconnected ridges that you could spend a good couple of days exploring. We'll be back to this area shortly to scramble up Brandywine peak (somewhere in the above picture as well).

Climbing back through the trees to the logging road

So, although we didn't get the summit of Cypress, it was still a great hike in a very cool location ... and minimal time in trees!

An End to Finger Tapping ...

2008-07-28T15:17:00.001-07:00

I've wanted to start drumming for a long, long time. I finally managed to snag a set of Roland V-Drums in great condition through Craigslist:

Tucked into a corner of the suite kitchen / laundry room for now!

Finally up Mount Price

2008-07-28T12:58:00.001-07:00

Mount Price is a modest summit that sits up above Garibaldi Lake. Though quite an easy peak (mostly a "hike with altitude"), I'd been thwarted on two prior attempts. The first was back in winter ~1999 - we'd turned back on a ski attempt when a storm hit the area. My friend Mike & I tried it again in January, 2004 on another ski attempt, but ran out of time.

January, 2004 - about to run out of time on Mount Price

The biggest challenge with the peak is just the distance - it's about a 28km round trip, with about 1700m of elevation gain.

So, fast forward to last weekend - my colleague Rod was looking for a good final hike before moving back down to Colorado with his family - so I thought that Mt. Price would be a good objective - plus, great scenery above Garibaldi Lake.

We left the car at around 9am from the standard Garibaldi Lake parking lot - we quickly dispensed with the switchbacks and covered the 9km and 900m up to the lake in 2 1/2 hours.

Rod at Garibaldi Lake - 2 1/2 hours in

The trail from the lake to Mount Price is well marked, though a little tricky to find the start of it from the lake. Thanks to the guidebook, the description was easy to follow.

Mount Price (2nd peak from the right)

The trail to Mount Price was generally gentle and a pretty good trail by coastal standards. However, there were several areas of Talus (from old lava flows - Mount Price is apparently an ancient volcano) to slow things down.

Mount Price above the old lava flows

The final scramble goes up and over the summit of Clinker Peak. Again, straightforward hiking for the most part.

Rod climbing a snow slope, the Black Tusk on the horizon

The weather had started to turn a bit, though - with clouds getting lower and darker skies to the west.

Final slopes - Clinker Peak in the background

We made the summit at around 2:45pm - about 5 3/4 hours after starting.

We started getting a few drops of rain at the summit. Not quite the views I was hoping for ... clouds were coming in and out, and we only got fleeting views of Mount Garibaldi, the Neve, and points beyond. We hung around the summit for around 45 minutes hoping for views to improve. But, they never did - no bother, it was still a great place to be.

Rod at the summit

A final view of Garibaldi Lake

The descent went reasonably quickly, although the final trail down from Garibaldi Lake to the parking lot was it's usual tedious self. Finally got back down to the car at around 8pm - total time up and down of around 11 hours.

It was good to finally knock off Mount Price, and it was great to give Rod one final "send off" hike.

Finished the Haute Route story

2008-07-25T09:00:00.001-07:00

Finally finished writing up the story of the Haute Route - here's a link to the post:

http://guyzblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/haute-route.html

Helm Creek / Gentian Ridge

2008-07-20T19:37:00.000-07:00

I've been getting a little antsy to get out into the mountains for a bit more than a day - and preferably camp somewhere - ideally up in the alpine or something like that!

So, this weekend I laid my plans to get away, but then learned that Killaine's friends Tara & Neil from Ottawa would be visiting. So ... I adjusted slightly, changing to a quick getaway from work on friday and a hike in, then something a bit longer on saturday followed by a hike out - getting back to Vancouver early saturday evening.

I had originally planned on going up to Brandywine Mountain, but discovered that the access was closed (I didn't know that there was a different way in). So, a quick change of plans, and I headed up Helm Creek into Garibaldi Park.

It took about 2 hours to hike up to the campground where I spread out my bivy sack.

... and made a small supper on my small stove. There was just one other tent in the campground, and I never saw those folk. It was nice and quiet - even the mosquitoes eventually went to bed (when it got too cold).

The next day dawned clear - with clouds just down in the valley. I made breakfast (mmm ... instant coffee), and left the campground at around 8am. So, up I went to check out the Gentian Ridge approach to Gentian Pass.

This is Helm Peak, up on the ridge. Scramble-able, but difficult. I gave it a miss for today.

Great view of the Black Tusk. Still snow up there, but getting patchy and melting quickly.

North face of Garibaldi peak.

Some of the terrain along the ridge. It was pleasant hiking with a bit of scrambling, and non-stop views.

The north face of Castle Towers. The south (right) peak is an easy scramble - the main summit is a bit tricky. I'll have to come up on a weekend and give it a shot.

From Gentian Pass, I pondered heading across the Helm Glacier and circling back via Panorama Ridge. But, decided to decline crossing the glacier - perhaps not completely wise to cross it on my own with softening snow.

Pretty flowers back down in the meadows. Back at the campground at around 1pm. A quick lunch, then back to my truck, getting there at a little past 3:30pm.

Great hike to a spectacular area!

Hike up to Paton Lookout

2008-07-18T19:02:00.000-07:00

I did another famous (?) carbon-neutral bike & hikes from home again today - this time to Paton Lookout.

Paton Lookout is up the Seymour Valley - approximately above the fish hatchery / dam area. It's appeared on my radar recently - my friend Todd has been up it a couple of times, the last time to use it to do a traverse of the Needle Peaks. Similarly, Doug from NSR has used it to access Colliseum/Burwell - the same route can extend to Cathedral Peak (as a two day trip).

Looking across north the lookout area.

Cathedral mountain from the lookout - if you look closely, you can see the repeaters on top (including one of NSR's).

Looking down the valley from the lookout, across the South Needle and Lynn Peak.

It was a relatively quick trip - from home to the trailhead was about 45 minutes. 1 !/2 hours up the trail, then back home - altogether about 4 hours and a bit.

Blog Updates Starting ...

2008-07-18T12:28:00.000-07:00

Hey,

I'm starting to do a few more blog updates ... I've done a short one on my first day in Switzerland - the ascent of the Kleine Matterhorn!

I've installed Microsoft LiveWriter, which makes it much easier to make longer posts with photos, so hopefully and finally do a bit of a story over the weekend ... let's watch on ....

NSR Presentation at West Vancouver Library

2008-07-18T12:20:00.001-07:00

I did a presentation on North Shore Rescue at the West Vancouver Memorial Library yesterday .. part of their summer reading club. The audience was mostly kids from 8 to 12 years old and a few parents - about 26 in all.

Education on mountain safety is something that NSR does quite frequently - Curtis, Wally, Connie & Russ really spearhead this program - this was my first presentation - and possibly my first presentation to children at any time!

Beforehand, I trimmed up the standard NSR mountain safety presentation to focus more on stories, and to try to engage the children as to what they think they should do when they go into the mountains, and the types of things they should take.

It went quite well! They had a truckload of questions on all facets of rescue & mountain stuff. Certainly, the interactive engagement worked well, but (for next time), need to remove virtually all text from the presentation - children generally go blank on powerpoint text. :-)

Also ... need to trim the message to it's base elements to get the message across. For younger kids, there's the Hug-A-Tree program that other folks inside NSR have presented - too young for this particular audience.

Up the South Needle with Trevor

2008-06-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

On the Sunday of Trevor's visit, we decided to go for a hike ... and decided to take a wander up the South Needle.

We were able to make this a carbon-neutral ascent, cycling from my home in Lynn Valley up to the Hydraulic Creek trailhead along the Seymour Pathways.

Trevor & the stashed bikes

We stashed our bikes in the trees, and headed up ... losing the proper trail almost immediately (no idea how we did that!), necessitating a bit of a traverse back to the trail once we realized our error.

Trevor heading up the trail

The trail was generally very good - steep, of course (this is the north shore), but well marked and easy to follow. There were a few slightly bushy sections higher up, but nothing too bad.

Trevor climbing over a log on the trail

Once we reached the ridge, it was a straightforward wander along the well marked path to the summit of the South Needle - good views all around.

Trevor at the summit

View into the Hanes Valley from the summit.

The descent back down was again very straightforward, and a quick bike ride out, followed by a coffee at the "End of the Line" cafe in Lynn Valley.

Here's a video panorama from the top:

And ... Trevor has some more pictures at his website.

Great visit Trevor! Thanks for coming out!

Squamish Mountain Biking with Trevor

2008-06-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

My good buddy Trevor, from Calgary, was here visiting for a weekend.

On Saturday, we went up to Squamish and did a fairly epic ride - kind of the first half of the test of metal course, followed by a connection over to the crumpit woods area and a good ride around there, before finally cycling back through the smoke bluffs and back to the Squamish Highlands area (where we parked).

Trevor shot some video of our day ... I've youtubed it, and here it is:

Not dead yet!

2008-05-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

Howdy all,

For those of you who may have noticed that I haven't published anything since, like, the beginning of March - well, things have been a little busy!

Some brief highlights that I hope to elaborate on in the future:

Went to Boston to watch Killaine finish the Boston Marathon (and, re qualify for next year!);
Did the Haute Route in Switzerland/France/Italy with Greg, Mike and Simon
Converted my Xbox into a media center;
Had Gord & Jenny from Calgary here last weekend, which we spent mountain biking, kayaking & hiking;
Final preparations for my rope rescue examination - this weekend!

More stories to come in the not-so-distant future!

Guy

The Haute Route

2008-05-05T23:14:00.000-07:00

(longest blog posting ever ... enjoy!)

Back last fall, Greg - a colleague from North Shore Rescue - asked if I'd be interested in going off to Europe to ski the Haute Route. Would I! This was something that I had originally hoped to do with Nick, Ron & Gord, but Nick's inadvertent leap off a cornice a couple of years ago put an end to that plan. So, I gladly accepted - Mike from NSR joined in as well, and brought in his friend Simon, making us a group of 4.

We debated whether to do it on our own, or whether to go with a guide. Ultimately, it came down to the time versus money debate - we had a fairly fixed time that we would be in Europe (plane fares tend to do that), so really wanted to make sure that we maximized our time there - hence, we went for the guide option. We engaged Larry Dolecki of Bugaboo Alpine Guides and owner/operator of the Icefall Lodge for the trip. Larry has been doing his own variation on the Haute Route for many years (and, there are many variations on this famous route!).

I left Vancouver on April 17th with Killaine for a brief stop in Boston on the way to watch Killaine run in the Boston Marathon. After her successful run, I flew onwards to Geneva, and made my way up to Zermatt where I met up with Simon, Mike & Greg.

We spent an "acclimatization day" skiing in the resort of Zermatt, making a dramatic ascent of the Kleine Matterhorn, and having a great meal of cheese fondue later that evening.

Larry, Simon, Mike, myself & Greg in front of the Matterhorn

The next day, we started the Haute Route! In traditional European fashion, we started with the lift back up into the Zermatt ski area, then bid farewell to the ski area and skied down into the valley below the Zmutt glacier.

Skiing towards the Zmutt Glacier

The day was beautiful (as would be most days on this tour), and we made a reasonable pace up towards the Schoenbiel hut, which sits up on a moraine above the glacier.

The Schoenbiel hut

The final slope up to the hut was a steep side hill - although it was reasonably ok going up it, I was a tad concerned as to what it would be like in the morning, after the nightly freeze.

Finishing the last climb up to the Schoenbiel Hut

But, tomorrow was another day! Since we arrived at the hut in about 4 hours after leaving the ski area, we had plenty of time to hang out at the hut and enjoy the sun & views. This was our first alpine hut, and it was quite a place - run by a friendly Dutch woman, the hut is remarkably well organized - beds are reserved and numbered - you know exactly where you'll sleep. You can get tea and beer/wine, and the evening meal was quite delicious. Although quite crowded (I think the hut sleeps about 80 or so people - and it was close to capacity), the hut "works" well.

Simon in front of the Shoenbiel Hut

Day 2

We began the next day quite early - up at 5am, and off by 6am. As expected, the slope from the hut down to the glacier was icy and steep, and took careful skiing to keep the edges into the ice - a slip would have involved a nasty fall onto some rocks below.

Our objective for the day was to reach the town of Arolla, and spend the night there. It was going to be a bigger day, though, crossing over the summit of the Tete Blanche on the way (at about 3500m).

Climbing up the glacier to the Tete Blanche

We had a long, continuous climb up the Tiefmatten and then on to the Stockji glaciers - not too terribly steep and reasonably straightforward. We made good use of our ski crampons on a few icy sections.

There certainly were a staggering number of tracks coming down from the Tete Blanche area - you'd never (or, rather, rarely) see that many tracks in a glaciated backcountry region in Canada (with the exception of maybe the Spearhead glacier near Whistler). There had also recently been a ski mountaineering race between Verbier & Zermatt several days prior, so still some lingering tracks from that. (the day prior, we saw one of these famous ski mountaineering racers at the Schoenbiel hut - tiny narrow skis with the superlightweight Dynafit Titanium bindings - she also had a really cool system so that she could throw her skis across her pack and clip them in with one fluid movement - very cool).

The Tete Blanche

The weather got a bit colder and windier as we reached the top - still had awesome views all around.

Mike, Larry, Simon & I on the summit of the Tete Blanche

The descent down the other side of the Tete Blanche was onto the big, wide Montmine glacier. The ski conditions were tough - breakable crust until we got quite a bit lower - the bouncy turns worked for a while, then we had to resort to the ol' criss-cross scheme to continue our descent.

Descending the Montmine glacier

From the glacier, we had a shorter, and much warmer climb up to the pass leading down into the Arolla valley. The Bertol hut was perched crazily on a spire just above the pass - it would have been a crazy place to spend the night, and has got to be noisy when the wind really blows!

The Bertol Hut

It was a long descent off the other side, down the Bertol glacier and down into the Arolla valley - crusty conditions again at the top, but mellowed into some better corn lower down until eventually getting quite slushy towards the bottom - spectacular views of an icefall coming down into the valley from approximately the Pin D'Arolla to the south.

Mike surveys the Arolla valley

Finally, 10 hours after leaving the Shoenbiel hut, we wandered into town and to our dorm room at the hotel. Showers and a bit of food shopping for the next was followed by a hearty meal at the hotel and an earlier sleep.

Walking into Arolla (our hotel is ahead)

Day 3

Our objective for the day was the Dix Hut. It would end up being about a 4 hour ski to get there, which was fine with us 'cause we were all quite whipped from the prior day's efforts.

Once again, in fine European style, we headed for the lift. The local town lift was an ancient poma-style lift. It was run only between 8am and 8:30am, and exclusively for the benefit of ski tourers heading over towards the Dix Hut and points beyond.

So, a short walk from the hotel brought us to the lift, and up we went.

The lift at Arolla

Above the lift, it was a pleasant ski up the "Montagne d'Arolla" valley - a very steady climb. There were many signs of wet snow avalanches across all of the south facing slopes - a sight that we were growing quite accustomed to over the last few days.

Heading up the valley

Now, at the top of the valley was a col leading across to the Glacier de Cheilon (note I'm starting to use the full vernacular names for the glaciers now!). But, getting down from the col was a bit of an adventure. The other side of the col sported a small fence with a ladder beside it - the ladder led down about 40 or so metres down a quite steep cliff down to a steep snowslope leading down to the glacier proper.

The fence guarding the cliff

Larry belayed each one of us down the ladder - it was good to have a belay while downclimbing the ladder, with ski poles in our hands and our skis strapped to our packs. At the time, it seemed like a long, long climb down - with a break half-way down to change ladders (the new ladder was put in, I believe, as the glacier and snow slopes had retreated further down the cliff).

Mike descending the ladders

Once down the ladders, and down the steep, icy snow slope on the other side, it was time to soak up the views of the Glacier de Cheilon, dominated by Mt. Blanc de Cheilon (which we were planning to climb the next day).

Crossing the Glacier de Cheilon, below Mt. Blanc de Cheilon

A quick ski across the glacier, then a bit of a climb brought us to the Dix Hut.

Approaching the Dix Hut

The Dix Hut was definitely the epitomy of the hut-based, European ski mountaineering world! It sleeps about 125 people - comfortably - and it's again super well organized. The fellow who runs it with his wife is renowned for being quite a strict disciplinarian and runs a tight ship, but as long as you stay on his good side (i.e. don't change clothes in the common areas, like a woman he caught!), then he's a great fellow. Plus, he does a really, really good rosti!

Ice axes hanging up in the Dix Hut

Mmmm ... rosti!

We had a fun time that afternoon & evening - we met up with Chris - an assistant guide that works with Larry - and a couple of Canadian buddies of his (Paul & Andy) that run a bar (La Crevasse) in Champery in Switzerland - they were a pile of laughs.

In spite of the size of the hut, everyone went to bed at vitually the same time, and by 10pm lights were out and everyone was in bed - how's that for Swiss efficiency!

Day 4

The day dawned clear once again and we left the hut early. Our objective for the day was to ski up Mt. Blanc de Cheilon and then continue on to the Cabin de Chanrion that afternoon.

We left the Dix Hut quite early - around 7am - the sun was rising above the mountains and the snow was cold and hard. It was a nice morning.

Leaving the Dix Hut

From the Dix Hut, we climbed up the Glacier de Cheilon to the ... you guessed it ... the Col de Cheilon. From the col, we contoured around across the top of the Glacier du Gietro, gave a wide berth to the icefalls on the west face of Mt. Blanc de Cheilon, and then gained a broad west-facing ramp that led up and around and eventually on to the south facing ridge.

The icefalls on the west side of Mt. Blanc de Cheilon

Simon, on his heels, ski crampons digging into the hard snow

Unfortunately, Greg decided to stop part way up - he'd been having some pretty serious problems with his feet in his boots, so felt it was best to give them a break.

Simon, Mike & I continued up as Larry set a solid pace all the way up. Truly spectacular, and many other folks from the Dix Hut were also making their way up the mountain.

Approaching the summit

The final summit was a short scramble up. A little bit of exposure, so Larry put the rope on us for the short climb up. As to be expected, the view from the top was fantastic - we continued to see Mt. Blanc (the real, big Mt. Blanc) in the distance, Italy to the south, and peaks stretching in every direction. After having spent so many years in the mountains, one would start to think I would tire of views like this - but they continue to awe and inspire me.

Mike, Simon, Larry and an unidentified, possibly European, climber on the summit

Skiers descending

The ski down was, once again, not that great - mixed crust n' stuff. I popped out of one of my skis on the way down - my first (and only) ski release of the trip. We met up with Greg, and continued along the Glacier du Gietro over the the Col du Mt. Rouge. There was a bit of a steep drop down off the col over an old cornice onto the slopes below - Larry dropped off very casually, and I let Mike and Simon (the better skiers in the group) show me how it was done. Then, just to be sure, I let Greg go next "so I could keep an eye on him". My turn - a "short" 4 foot or so drop and onto the slopes below the col - fortunately, the slopes were great corn snow, so it was very pleasant skiing down from there, and then a high traverse across to the Col de Lire Rose.

Looking from the Col du Mt. Rouge across to the Col de Lire Rose

Looking down from the Col de Lire Rose

From the Col de Lire Rose, it was some more pleasant skiing on corn, which eventually turned into heavier mush, which then gave way to grass, and some "skis on / skis off", until the Cabin de Chanrion came in to view.

Cabin de Chanrion

The Cabin de Chanrion was one of the smaller huts that we stayed at - sleeping a mere 50 or so people. The hut wasn't full, and there were just a couple of groups passing through. One of the groups was led by a couple of American guides based in Chamonix - they were interesting to chat with.

Day 5

As you can probably guess by now, the next day once again dawned clear, although there were a few clouds in the sky.

Our objective for the day was to ski up the Glacier de Fenetre, through the Fenetre de Durrand, drop down into the Valpelline valley and eventually emerge at the town of Glacier. From Glacier, we were to do the "taxi traverse" to Courmayeur (all of the Haute Route variations invariably require some sort of taxi/bus/car connection through this part).

On the way up to the Fentre de Durrand, Mike, Simon, Larry & I tried to ski up Mont Avril. It's a pretty straightforward ski ascent, but with the morning freeze, it made it a hard and icy proposition. We eventually pulled the plug about 2/3rds of the way up - I was getting pretty concerned that a slip could have pretty serious consequences (oh, did I mention that we weren't carrying ice axes on this traverse?).

Mont Avril

The four of us going up Mont Avril

So, the client chickened out, and we skied over to the Fenetre du Durrand, and descended into Italy. Skiing into Italy, we encountered our first patch of bad weather - low cloud and whiteout as we began the ski down into the Valpelline valley.

Clouds boiling up from Italy

Fortunately, the whiteout was short lived, and we emerged out of the bottom of the clouds after about 20 minutes or so of skiing by braille. From there, a relatively flat traverse out through the valley, past farm houses waiting for spring, and then down past the snow line and into the trees and spring itself.

Gregg skiing in the valley, below the Fenetre du Durrand

Descending through the trees

Down at the quiet town of glacier, we had a chance to hang out and wait for our taxi.

Waiting for the taxi

Now, Larry has done this particular Haute Route two times prior, so the taxi driver was well acquainted with Larry & his business. We were delighted when the taxi driver pulled up - and pulled out a beer for each of us! A great way to end the day's skiing, and a nice way to start the taxi traverse.

The taxi driver brings beer!

Pre-taxi beer

It took around an hour or so to drive across to Courmayeur and to our hotel - the Hotel Dente del Gigante. A great hotel, comfortable rooms, great sitting area, super friendly innkeeper / barkeeper / waiter (he did everything)! We had our meal in the hotel restaurant - of course I can't remember exactly what we ate, but it was really, really yummy! (When I showed some of these photos to Killaine, she remarked "So, it really was a tough trip, huh?")

Hotel Dente del Gigante in Courmayeur

That afternoon and evening it rained and poured ... the prognosis for tomorrow with rain down here (and inevitably snow up high on Mt. Blanc) started raising flags for a possible change of plans for tomorrow. We went to bed hoping that we'd still be able to make the final push into Chamonix tomorrow on skis - and not under Mt. Blanc on the bus.

Day 6

The final day of the Haute Route! How would it turn out ...

The plan for the day was to take the lifts up to Pointe Helbronner, up at 3407m high on the south side of the Mt. Blanc massif, then ski down the Vallee Blanche to the end of the Mer de Glace, and then from there finish up by taking the train down into Chamonix.

The prior night's storm did deposit a significant amount of snow up in the alpine and held up operations on the lift up to Pointe Helbronner.

Larry checks on conditions at the lift

We ended up drinking alot of coffee, and hanging out ... and waiting to see if the lift would open. We were very patient ...

Waiting for the lift to open ... patiently.

At around noon, the signal was given that the lift was about to start! We loaded up, and started the series of 3 lifts up the mountain. Eventually emerging back into winter in a wonderland of swirling clouds, granite spires and rolling glaciers.

Mike exiting the final lift at Pointe Helbronner

Mountain panorama madness - granite spires and glaciers

Now, we could ski - and what a ski it was! The storm had deposited about a foot of fresh, light powder across the mountain - we began a spectacular, multi-hour descent down into the Mer de Glace - all the while surrounded by the spectacular granite peaks of Mt. Blanc. It really was a cool area - and ranks as possibly the best ski run of my life (I'm having trouble thinking of a better run!)

Making tracks down from Pointe Helbronner onto the Glacier du Geant

Tracks

We were, of course, still on a glacier, and there were big, BIG holes around. Larry led us through and across the main expanse of the Glacier du Geant to ultimately join up with the "standard" ski route coming down from the Aiguille du Midi (where skiers from Chamonix take the lift up the french side of Mt. Blanc and ski down).

Larry gives some sort of guidance to Mike

Crossing the Glacier du Geant

On the main descent route of the Mer de Glace - Larry looks down onto the Glacier du Tacul, Mer de Glace around the corner to the left

The snow quality deteriorated the lower we got - the light powder turned into mashed potatoes and heavy mush the lower we got. But, hey, the views were great, so it really didn't matter that much!

Big icefalls

All around us, we were surrounded by massive icefalls and glaciers merged in from valleys unseen.

The Grand Jorasse emerges through the clouds above the Glacier de Leschaux

The Dru above the Mer de Glace

The Grand Jorasse

Eventually, we reached the toe of the Mer de Glace, and our ski of the Haute Route had come to an end. From here, we had to get up to the train which required hiking up along a series of stairways and platforms bolted onto the rock walls above the Mer de Glace. Once again, this intricate route has been built and expanded as the glacier has shrunk and receded, requiring extensions to be built rather frequently.

The walkway to the lift to the train

Mike on the walkway

Finally, on to the train and half an hour later, we were walking into Chamonix!

Walking into Chamonix

And ... so ends our Haute Route, but not our trip. Two days later, we were back into the mountains for a ski tour on the Argentiere glacier ... but that's a story for another blog posting.

Reflections

I'm actually writing this story about 3 months after returning from Europe. Certainly, it was a great trip, and many thanks to Gregg for being the spark behind our trip along the Haute Route. Many thanks also to Larry for guiding us along the route.

As I mentioned back at the beginning, one of the big decisions was to go guided or not. On reflection, with this group of folks, I'm glad we went guided - it really made it into a holiday and we could just turn off our brains and ski. We started when we wanted, and ended when we were supposed to, so it worked out well.

Of course, having a guide did take a lot of the challenge out of the Haute Route - no tricky descents on questionable ground - no hard route finding decisions. And, staying in huts sure made it easy (and, to boot, our packs were light!)

I'd do it again - although next time I'd like to try the "classic" Haute Route, and extend it out to Saas Fee. I'd certainly go guided again, but I'd also consider going unguided - depending on the group and the usual time constraints.

Oh, it was an expensive trip (when you add in doing the actual route, the flight & associated other costs), but when I think about it, the amount we actually paid Larry to guide us along the route (and for meals, lifts & accomodation), the amount was similar to what you would pay for a week of backcountry skiing at any one of the lodges in B.C..

All-in-all ... a great trip!

Ok, one last note ... it's Europe, so you don't go there for the wilderness - go there for the spectacular scenery, and the opportunity to share the Alps & their unique culture with the local folk.

Resources

The standard book for doing the Haute Route The Haute Route by Peter Cliff.

The best source for maps is the Swiss Federal Office of Topography (swisstopo). The maps needed are the 1:50,000s for:

Arolla (covers most of the route that we took)
Martigny
Mischabel (covers Zermatt and east to Saas Fee - a Haute Route extension)

Rescue insurance is a good idea, and is easy to get in Switzerland. For 30 Swiss Francs (or something like that), you can get helicopter rescue insurance to cover you for a year. (I got insurance from Rega, while the other guys got theirs from Air Zermatt). You can easily pick up insurance at any Swiss post office (really - it's that easy!).

Ascent of the Kleine Matterhorn

2008-04-23T12:43:00.000-07:00

Before we started the Haute Route, the guys & I spent a fun day of skiing at Zermatt. For fun, we made an "ascent" of the Kleine Matterhorn ...

The route to the summit is very challenging ... you first have to take a lift up ...

Then, walk through a tunnel in the mountain ...

The crux of the route is the final pitch to the summit. Here, the team prepares to use extreme aid to get up the hard part:

The final snow slopes mean an easy final ascent:

The summit!

And, a view of the "real" Matterhorn from the summit of the Kleine Matterhorn:

Must Read Article - The True Cost of the Iraq War

2008-03-01T15:52:00.000-08:00

Here is an exceptional article from the Guardian Online:

The True Cost of War

The article is a review of the work of Joseph Stiglitz, a nobel prize winning economist who took a close look at the true cost of the war in Iraq.

Among his points:

The true cost of the Iraq war, to the US economy alone, will be (conservatively) $3 trillion;

$1 trillion dollars could pay for 15 million public school teachers; healthcare for 530 million children for a year; scholarships to university for 43 million students.

The Iraq war has already cost more than 12 years of war in Vietnam;
Constant obfuscation and untraceable accounting in the department of defense make it impossible to truly calculate the cost of the war;
The war has created "self competition" for soliders - private security contractors (contracted to the US government) can make $400k/year in Iraq compared with $40k/year for soliders. Thus, competition for soldiers forces the government to pay signing bonuses to soldiers, increasing total costs;
Sole-source bidding eliminates free market economics from driving down the cost of the war (i.e. Haliburton has received $19B in sole-source contracts);
Since the Bush administration introduced tax cuts during the execution of the war, the government has had no choice but to borrow money to execute the war:

Since the savings rate of the American people is so low, financing for the war has had to come from foreign sources (i.e. China);
Borrowing the money to fund the war will cost another trillion dollars by 2017;
Since so much money was being borrowed by the US government, the Federal Reserve purposefully kept the interest rate low, thus causing the housing market boom and eventual crash.

The increase in the price of oil has been mostly caused by the Iraq war.

The increase in oil caused a drop in GDP for the US, which led the US to increase interest rates, and thus cause the housing crash;
The increase in the price of oil has had such an effect on developing African economies such that the increased economic cost has wiped out any gains coming from aid from first world economies.

Finally, there's the cost of "lost opportunity" - the cost of losing the war in Afghanistan, the cost of not being able to engage North Korea (who really did have WMDs), the cost of not being able to address health care issues in the states, etc.

A very interesting article.

Ice Climbing on the Duffey Lake Road

2008-02-17T15:14:00.000-08:00

I finally went ice climbing near Vancouver!

Don, Stan (a couple of North Shore Rescue colleagues) and I headed up saturday morning. We were planning on heading out friday night, but an accident on the Sea to Sky highway had shut it down for most of the night.

So, we headed up saturday morning, did a day of skiing at Blackcomb, then camped that night along the Duffey Lake road.

Next morning, we climbed on "The Rambles" - a great grade 2/3 climb a short distance above the road.

Don leading the first pitch

Stan following the first pitch - he then lead the second pitch.

Me rappelling the first pitch.

It was a great climb in a great location, and a great opportunity to get the tools on the ice again.

Good, Sobering Avalanche Video

2008-01-31T21:28:00.001-08:00

Bruce, a team mate from search and rescue, sent this video to the group. A well done video showing the risks of pushing it "just a little further" on a day in which the avalanche rating was "high".

Sir Edmund Hillary Dies

2008-01-13T11:58:00.000-08:00

Sir Edmund Hillary | Obituaries | Guardian Unlimited

Skiing at Kimberly

2008-01-05T23:04:00.000-08:00

After skiing at Skoki, I was due in Fernie for a week-long Avalanche Level 1 course. Killaine & I drove down from Lake Louise to Cranbrook, and stayed at the St. Eugene's Mission Hotel. It's a converted residential school (i.e. it doesn't have a happy history), but the local band owns it and has converted it into a very nice hotel. It was a nice place to stay.

The next afternoon, we went skiing at Kimberly. Unfortunately, we missed the big dump of snow they had overnight, but there were still a few bits and pieces of powder to hunt down.

... and enough for Killaine to bury herself in ...

A few photos don't do Kimberly justice - it's a nice sized hill with lots of exploration potential - and a pretty laid back atmosphere.

New Years at Skoki

2008-01-04T11:56:00.000-08:00

Killaine's birthday present this year was a trip into Skoki Lodge.

Skoki Lodge is a rustic old lodge-type-large-cabin located back behind the Lake Louise ski area. Killaine & I had hiked past it a few years ago on a backpack trip through the area during the summer, and thought it would be a great place to go back and visit in the winter.

We started in on January 1st (Killaine's birthday) - it was clear, but chilly - around -18 or -20 that day.

Skiing in, just past the ski area. We scrambled a couple of the peaks in the distance when we were last in the area.

Approaching the lake before Deception Pass.

Skoki Lodge. It was built in the mid-1930s as a backcountry ski destination for the early visitors to the Canadian Rockies. The ski in took about 5 or so hours.

The weather was quite blustery the next day, so we did a long, flat but very neat tour around Skoki Mountain. In this photo, Killaine is skiing across one of the Red Deer Lakes - the headwaters of the Red Deer river that ultimately flows through my Mum's town of Red Deer.

The next day, we did an interesting ski up to Merlin Lake. The route up was a little steep and tenuous in places - it was much more fun to ski down. Oh yeah, the snow was a thin crust over a heavily faceted base - ski penetration almost to ground at times (but better higher up).

Merlin Lake is in the upper basin to the top right.

Killaine skiing below Merlin's Castle.

The next day, time to leave. By the way, the staff at the lodge was super friendly, and the food was excellent - definitely a good, historical Rockies place to visit.

A blustery climb back up to Deception Pass.

Looking out across the lake below Deception Pass. The posts are put in to guide folks in/out in whiteouts.

Killaine on the ski out, with Temple and Aberdeen/Haddo in the background.

All in all, a great trip!

NSR Task for Lost Skiers at Grouse Mountain

2007-12-29T18:00:00.000-08:00

The pager went off at around 6:30pm or so saturday night, and the team was paged out to look for a pair of skiers who had skied out of bounds at Grouse Mountain. The Father & Son team had pitched off the north side of Grouse Mountain to enjoy the couple of feet of fresh snow ... and neglected to think how they were going to climb back up into the resort area. They called 911, and our team was dispatched to find them and get them out.

The avalanche hazard was high that night - a team of about 9 of us went in ... Jeff, Curtis & were held back as an advance backup team while the others found and brought the pair out. While we were waiting, we set up a shelter system, and got some warm drinks going - ready for when the rest of the team brought the pair out an hour and a half or so later.

Jeff, along with the son & father in our shelter.

Although it was a straightforward rescue into an area that we've operated in before, suffice to say that the high avalanche hazard added additional risk to the team. The father & son really should have known better than to ski out of bounds in these conditions.

Not All Ski Days Are Fun Days

2007-12-27T11:53:00.000-08:00

Killaine & I had a fun, but not terribly fun, day of skiing at Whistler. The skiing was good and conditions were great, but:

The restaurants were beyond packed out - packed lunches on the side of the ski run from now on!
We had to ride one gondola ride with some sort of wierdo who got overly excited in an angry way about a story he was telling (you had to be there)
We were accosted by some dweeb trying to sell us timeshares in Whistler
Another gondola ride with kids who "just about" pulled out their joints and started smoking them ... and
My truck was broken into while parked at Whistler Creekside (in the underground parking). Fortunately, "only" around $100 was stolen from Killaine's wallet.

Killaine praying for respite from the crowds in the restaurant.

My truck - without a window!

Boxing Day Powder

2007-12-26T18:00:00.000-08:00

Boxing day was a clear, sunny day in Vancouver, albeit cool, and the previous day had dumped a fair amount of snow on the mountains. So, in the spirit of a lazy boxing day, Killaine and I headed up Hollyburn Peak (near Cypress) to ski the back side of it.

The ski up Hollyburn is incredibly popular amongst the snowshoeing crowd.

The recent snow was plastered all over the trees near the summit.

As I mentioned, the summit is very popular ... but (virtually) everyone stops here. Killaine & I dropped over the north side of the peak and skied the foot or so of fresh powder along the ridge that leads NE from the peak of Hollyburn, kind of up and above Tony Baker gully.

The runs were short, but the skiing was great, and it was a beautiful day - all in all, not bad for an afternoon powder run!

Christmas Day

2007-12-25T18:00:00.000-08:00

What better way to celebrate Christmas in our new home by doing a short ski!

Killaine and I went up the Alpine trail on Mount Seymour - just for a single run 'cause we had to get ready to go for Christmas supper at Hugh's.

So, a short climb up, and a good run down in the new snow.

On our way up

Killaine tromping up the Alpine Trail.

A windy, snow blown Christmas afternoon at Brockton Point!

Christmas Eve

2007-12-24T18:00:00.000-08:00

We had Killaine's family over to our new house Christmas eve for a special dinner.

As usual, Baxter & Mille were the focus of popular attention.

Sophie, Baxter, Mille, Lynn & Dag in the kitchen.

Hugh, Killaine & their Dad by the Christmas tree in our living room.

Killaine made an awesome vegetarian meal - very yummy!

NSR Avalanche Practice

2007-12-23T11:41:00.000-08:00

On December 23rd, I got together with a number of other North Shore Rescue members to practice our Avalanche procedures up on Mount Seymour.

A number of us, including myself, are going to be taking the Canadian Avalanche Association's Avalanche Operations Level 1 course, and thus wanted to bone up on our avalanche transceiver search, Rutschblock, and snow profiling.

Analyzing our snow pit, under the guidance of Fiona.

Fiona doing a hardness profile of the snowpack.

Curtis doing a temperature profile.

Digging out a Rutschblock - yes, we've been getting alot of snow!

Mount Seymour Dawn Patrol - December 20th

2007-12-20T11:36:00.000-08:00

The tradition continues ...

For "fun" (and, 'cause it's something you can do in Vancouver), once a week I try to wake up at 5:30am, drive up to Mount Seymour, and do a couple of laps of skiing up the Alpine trail and down the ski runs on Mount Seymour. I get around 560m of vertical in, finish up by about 8:30, and get to work by 9:30.

This morning, I started my first downhill run in the dark - skiing by headlamp. This picture kinda shows how awake I was that morning:

My New Bumper Sticker

2007-12-07T13:44:00.001-08:00

Unfortunately, she isn't the Green Party candidate, but, hey, anyone but Bush in 2008! (Killaine ordered the bumper sticker especially for me!)

Our New House!

2007-12-03T15:09:00.000-08:00

Here's our new house! Killaine & I just removed our conditions on the purchase this morning, and we move in December 14th! We're very excited!

(and, yes, it is asbestos free!)

First Ski Day of the Year

2007-11-28T21:20:00.000-08:00

I (finally) got my first ski day in of the year ... I blew off work yesterday (tuesday) and headed up to spend the day skiing at Blackcomb.

It was a great day - 8" of fresh, cold powder, blue sky and about -8. Very unusual weather for this time of year (really, for November, it should have been misty and raining or snowing!).

I found a nice knoll just below the top of the Crystal Chair to climb up and have lunch in the sun.

Very few people on the hill, at times, I had entire runs to myself. A great day, and great start to the ski year.

Bye Bye Skis

2007-11-22T21:51:00.000-08:00

I sold my old skis (and boots and bindings and skins and ski crampons) tonight! Bionka drove down from Golden with her boyfriend Steve to pick 'em up. Bionka is just getting into backcountry skiing, so it looks like my skis are off to a good home!

Yup, It Was Asbestos

2007-11-22T20:50:00.000-08:00

Killaine & I met with our realtor tonight - we found out that, yes indeed, the house that we had inspected did indeed have 1% asbestos in the vermiculite insulation.

I have no idea if 1% is good or bad - but the key consideration is that there is, indeed, asbestos in there. Man, we were lucky we had a good inspector.

A World of Plastic

2007-11-22T10:30:00.000-08:00

For a particularly disturbing view of the vast amount of plastic circulating in the world's oceans, and the impact that all of this plastic is having on us, read this article:

Best Life Magazine: Travel & Leisure: Our oceans are turning into plastic...are we?

Mike n' Ellen Get Hitched!

2007-11-19T16:14:00.001-08:00

My good friend from Canmore, Mike got married to his beau, Ellen, on November 10th!

They got married down in Texas, where Ellen's family resides. There were a few challenges making the wedding happen - a few "getting into the United States" issues for Mike, but all were happily resolved!

Mike & Ellen are now living back in Canmore - Ellen is going to attending nursing at

Yikes! That was close ...

2007-11-17T17:18:00.001-08:00

Killaine & I are looking for a house. We looked at this house on 8th street in the lower lonsdale area of North Vancouver.
It's a nice house, very quaint, and quite well kept-up inside. It's on a quiet street in Lower Lonsdale, in an area of heritage homes, and close to the old Ridgeway school. The garden at the back is very large. All in all, this house had a lot going for it.

We made an offer on it, contingent on inspection - good thing 'cause the deeper we got into it, the worse it started to look.

Before we did the inspection, we read an old report that indicated the house has an old style of wiring called "Knob and Tube". Read the Wikipedia entry for details, but the short story is that it's an old form of wiring that many insurance companies will no longer insure. This set of the first of the alarm bells. We had electricians check it out - the wiring appeared to be technically safe, and we found that there are insurance companies that will cover houses like this - it meant that we now had "some concern" about the house.

We continued to have it inspected today. We had a great fellow do the inspection. During the inspection he found that:

there was some rot on the house near the foundation on the north & east aspects;
that the hot water heating system was using steel pipes (which have a history of eventually corroding through), and that some of the newer copper piping already was showing some very small leaks;
that there was dampness on the basement floor, indicating the possibility of perimeter drainage issues;
and a bunch of other smaller issues.

But, that's not the end of it. As we moved into the upper part of the house, the home inspector gained access into the roof of the house, and was able to inspect the insulation. After prodding around, he told us that there was fibreglass insulation, but underneath, there was an old vermiculite form of insulation. After we looked at him blankly, he told us that this type of insulation is very old, probably original with the house, and often contains asbestos. Although he could not be certain (it needs to be tested in a lab to know for sure), he did say that 90% of the samples submitted for testing do have asbestos in them.

Well, at that point we'd heard enough. The inspection was concluded, we received the report and we'll very shortly be telling the real estate agents that the deal is off - very, very off.

The hunt continues ...

2006 / 2007 Ski Season Summary

2007-11-10T08:31:00.001-08:00

Well, I must have a little spare time at the moment ... so I've decided to summarize my ski stats from last season (winter 2006 / 2007).

A bit of background, for some unknown reason, I started tracking all of my exercise - I guess ostensibly so that I can compare progress (or, lack of) from year to year. Anyway, my ski data from last winter is some interesting data I've been able to pull out.

First ... some summary statistics:

Total ski days: 44

Total backcountry days: 30
Total downhill days: 14

Total vertical:

ascended (i.e. backcountry vertical): 22,505m

descended (backcountry & downhill): 100,498m

Total amount of time spent skiing: 239 hours

Of course, some caveats to these numbers ... for a "ski day", I counted any day where I had skis on my feet and skiiing for more than an hour. So, a "ski day" includes the short trips I did up Mt. Seymour in the morning, getting a couple of backcountry runs in before work. It also includes evening skis at Cypress or Seymour.

Charts galore:

Month-by month breakdown of vertical, downhill (blue) and backcountry (green).

Season breakdown of days spent skiing by month, broken down by backcountry and downhill. Note that in January I spent a week (with Killaine) at Sorcerer Lodge, and then in April spent a week doing a backcountry ski trip in the Spearhead/McBride area. Also note the drop off in skiing in February and March (when it seemed like every weekend had horrid conditions).

Finally, a breakdown of hours of backcountry versus downhill. No surprises here!

A Vancouver Weekend

2007-10-28T17:56:00.000-07:00

Killaine & I had a fun weekend. On Saturday, we headed up to Squamish to do some mountain biking (Killaine was keen to try out her new mountain bike).

We did a somewhat "traditional" loop that I really like - the first 1/3 or so of the Test of Metal Course with the Alice Lake loop added in. Great mix of single track, lots of climbing, some logging roads, and a few steep descents. Much fun.

On Sunday, I took my kayak out for possibly the last paddle of the year.

I paddled over to Stanley Park from Kits Beach, around Siwash Rock and back straight across English Bay.

The wind picked up while I was out there (a little quicker and stronger than I liked!), but I got across and toodled back to Kits beach. A fun paddle on the fringe of the kayaking season.

I never win anything ... until last night

2007-10-26T23:19:00.001-07:00

Killaine & I went to the annual Arcteryx factory sale and slide show last night. Chad Sayers put on a good slideshow of various photos from around the world - very well done.

At the end of the slideshow, there was a draw for an Arcteryx Acrux 65 pack - a very cool (and very, very expensive) waterproof pack. And ... I won it! I was shocked and surprised! It'll make a great rescue pack - pretty tough and "deluge proof"!

Deserts & Mountains

2007-10-24T09:20:00.000-07:00

Killaine and I headed down to south-east California for a week of hiking and wandering through Joshua Tree, Mojave and Death Valley National Parks, and finished up with a 3 day hike into the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Rather than a long, drawn out story, I've uploaded selected photos to Picasa. You can take a look at 'em here!

New Personal Grouse Grind Patrol Record!

2007-10-11T14:36:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited ... I set a new personal record for sweeping the Grouse Grind!

One of the (many) things that we do in North Shore Rescue is to sweep the "Grouse Grind" each night to ensure that there aren't any wayward hikers wandering around in the dark. I sweep it about once a week.

I shot up it in 48 minutes and 35 seconds last night - while still managing to distribute three lightsticks (accompanied with short, but stern lectures on the perils of not carrying a flashlight!), and carrying my (light) 6 1/2 kg pack!

Comment on the Weekend Sea Kayaking Tragedy

2007-10-09T11:11:00.000-07:00

As you might have heard in extensive national coverage, there was a tragic sea kayaking accident on Sunday. Eight"experienced" adventure racers encountered very bad weather conditions, resulting in two kayaks capsizing - resulting in two of them dying, likely from hypothermia.

Here's a good report from the CBC on what transpired:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/10/08/kayak-death.html

Although I wasn't there and thus cannot comment fully on their capabilities, I can glean enough from the extensive news reports to make some recommendations as to what sea kayakers should be doing as a matter of course:

Check the weather forecast beforehand - if the forecast calls (as it did on sunday) for heavy rain and strong winds, reconsider your plans;
Know the area you're paddling through - some areas are particularly well known for channeling and intensifying winds (in particular, the channel between Anvil Island and the mainland);
Dress for the water (i.e. if you ended up in the water, how would you stay warm?). A wetsuit is necessary for most times of the year on the coast - dry suits are needed in the winter;
Carry a waterproof marine radio and, in intense conditions, ensure it is clipped to your life jacket.

In addition, carrying flares is a good idea. Unfortunately, the group does not appear to have followed any of these recommendations.

The trip that these guys attempted is an excellent trip in good conditions. I did it on my own earlier this year.

New Skis! (well, soon ...)

2007-10-08T21:41:00.000-07:00

Yay! I just ordered my new skis!

I've ordered a pair of Black Diamond Voodoos. It took me a while to decide what kind of new ski to get ... I decided on the Voodoos 'cause they seem to optimize light weight & touring performance with width for flotation in powder, while still having some stiffness for busting through the crud.

Anyway, that's all very theoretical until I actually get the skis and get to try 'em out.

The other skis that I considered were the Black Diamond Stigmas, and also the Baron and Reverend from G3. The Stigmas seemed a little too sidecut and seemed to be a little soft (as per reviews from Telemarkski.com), while the Baron seemed a tad narrow, and the Reverend was too wide and heavy. Hence, the Voodoo seemed to fit right in the middle.

I've ordered 'em through North Shore Rescue, so they'll take a little while to get here ...

Winter Is Here

2007-10-06T22:20:00.000-07:00

The Thanksgiving weekend out here was pretty wet and rainy. In advance of the big storm forecast for Sunday, Killaine & I decided to get out for a quick hike up to the first peak on Mt. Seymour to see the new snow ...

The snow started not too far above the parking lot.

It was decidedly wintery up at the peak.

Snow dusting on the summit.

Millie's Birthday

2007-09-30T20:03:00.001-07:00

On Saturday, Owen and Sophie (Killaine's brother and wife) invited us over for a birthday party for Millie, his (now) 2 year old daughter:

Millie and her new bicycle (from Dag!).

Millie helps (?) Killaine open her gift - a Fisher Price castle.

Sophie (left) with Dag's girlfriend Lynne with Owen & Sophie's two month old - baby Baxter.

Owen with Millie & Baxter.

Killaine's brother, Hugh, with Baxter.

Killaine's brother, Dag - as seen on TV.

Lynne & Vince Sharman (Killaine's Dad).

Birthday cupcakes for Millie!

Me and "mini-Me".

A Smashing Good Time (mostly)

2007-09-26T13:15:00.000-07:00

Killaine & I went to see the Smashing Pumpkins Monday evening at the PNE Forum here in Vancouver.

It was an excellent concert - they played many songs from their latest album, Zeitgeist.

The set list:

Superchrist
Doomsday Clock
Rocket
Drown
Bring the Light
Tonight, Tonight
Tarantula
Starz
Zero
Glass and the Ghost Children
To Sheila
1979
United States
That's the way
Hummer
Ava Adore
Bullet With Butterfly Wings
Heavy Metal Machine

Unfortunately, the concert was not without incident. We found out later that night (after the concert) that someone had died at the concert. Initially it was suspected that it could have been from trauma in the mosh pit, but the coroner's report ruled this out.

Regardless - it was a great concert and a really good crowd. My ears stopped hurting later the next day. :-)

Rope Rescue Course in Squamish

2007-09-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I had an opportunity to attend a "Rope Rescue Team Member" course up in Squamish. This course is focused on rope systems to rescue and evacuate injured (or non-injured) subjects from vertical and steep ground. It focuses on accessing the subject from the top (i.e. lowering down to the subject). The rope systems used for this type of rescue are built quite differently from the systems used in rock climbing and mountain rescue - the primary difference is the requirement for a 10:1 safety margin - capable of a vertical raise of a subject & rescuer, or for a slope rescue of up to 6 rescuers carrying a subject in a stretcher.

Along with 5 members of North Shore Rescue (myself, Mike L., John B., Rich & Curtis), there were about 20 other members from other teams (Squamish, Lions Bay, Coquitlam, Ridge Meadows, etc.).

We spent the first day on the individual components of the rescue system. First, anchoring systems. Note the "high strength" anchors - the rope wrapped around the tree, and the "wrap 3, pull 2" webbing anchors - all equalized.

Then, we moved onto stretcher rigging. Here, Bob from North Shore Rescue (and a rope rescue instructor) explains a stretcher rigged for a vertical raise. It's worth noting that everyone tied into one of these systems always has both a belay and load connection.

And, the same stretcher rigged for a slope rescue.

Then, onto belay systems. The picture above shows a standard belay system, using tandem prussiks, and a radium release hitch used to lower the belay under tension if the system locks, or if a knot needs to be passed.

Then, it was on to raise/lower systems - 2:1, 5:1, 7:1, etc. raising systems.

Our instructor for this part - Mark - had a really good way of illustrating the forces created when using a pully to double forces - he used numbered clothes pegs to indicate the amount of force created by each part of the raise system.

The next day, we put the whole thing together in a few scenarios. The first scenario was a slope rescue - bringing a stretcher, subject & rescue team up a steep slope. The intent is that the raise system (and crew) exerts the power to bring the entire team up the slope - the rescuers thus "only" need to hold the stretcher up.

Then, onto a vertical lower/raise system. This picture shows the two edge people assisting the rescuer with the stretcher to get it over the edge.

Large pulleys are frequently used to ensure that the rope goes over the slope above the lip of the cliff, enabling the rescue team to be brought vertically upwards above the lip.

Finally, we also did a "pick-off" scenario, where a rescuer (me, in this case) is lowered down to the subject, clip the subject into the rescue system, and then the subject and rescuer are raised back up.

All in all, a very interesting weekend. Now, to become a full "rope rescue team member" requires another 20 hours of documented practice, followed by a weekend long exam in the spring.

Hike up Strachan

2007-09-16T19:05:00.000-07:00

Continuing in the tradition of easy (ish) hikes for the weekend, Killaine & I hiked up Mt. Strachan in Cypress Provincial Park.

It was a misty day with light rain ... hiking up the gully towards the two peaks was quite beautiful, with the greenery of the ferns and plants with the mist below.

Not suprisingly, there was no view from the summit, so we lingered only for a short while then made our way back to the Cypress Ski Area, and back down to my truck.

Hike up Cheam

2007-09-15T18:53:00.000-07:00

Killaine was feeling a little off this weekend, so we did a couple of easy hikes. On Saturday, Killaine & I toodled out to Chihlliwack and did the 14km grinding climb up the logging roads (in the truck!) up to the trailhead, and then hiked up Mt. Cheam.

The weather was a little misty going up, but the higher clouds dissipated, and then we just had the clouds filling the valley beneath us.

It's a very easy hike up Mt. Cheam - it took around an hour and a bit or something from the parking lot. Trevor & I did try it late one season, and were turned back by blowing snow and wintery conditions.

Update on Tukker

2007-09-05T09:16:00.000-07:00

You might remember the dog rescue that we did on Golden Ears a while back ... here's an update (and picture) from Kierstie on Tukker's progress:

I thought I'd send you an update on Tukker, since it's been quite some time since we've been in contact. He had his surgery August 22nd which involved a bone graft from his shoulder and a surgical steel plate inserted in his 'wrist' joint! The surgery took just over 2 hours. The reason we had to wait so long for the surgery was because he has an insane pain tolerance and gave no indication that the splint was wearing on his forearm, turns out it rubbed right down to the tendons so they had to repair that first!!! At the peak, he had about 30 stitches in his arm. He only spend a night at the vets and then he was able to come home, which has made the recovery period very interesting!! He has taken a real hate to the cone and when its put on his head he seems to think its a good idea to squeal it along the walls!! He should be completely healed and out of his cast by Thanksgiving!!! Poor guy!!

Sail Trip to Jervis Inlet

2007-09-03T12:59:00.000-07:00

Killaine & I were invited by my colleague Andrew to sail up the Sunshine Coast on his sailboat over the long weekend.

Andrew's sailboat is the "Trident IV", a 42 foot sailboat made by Bavaria Yachts. Very comfortably outfitted, with a very cool control system, incorporating GPS, wind/air/water speed indicators in an integrated console by the helm.

To catch the tide currents, we left the marina at Granville Island in the early afternoon. We had a trailing wind out across English Bay - as we progressed up the coast, the winds were light, so we did a fair amount of motoring. Around 7pm that evening, we made anchorage in Smuggler's Cove and had an enjoyable evening of ship-made pizza, wine & many beers.

The next morning, we decided to head up the coast a bit further, then do a circumnavigation of Nelson Island - starting up through Argememnon Channel and hooking up in Jervis Inlet. Winds were once again light as we motored up the channel. But, as we passed the ferry terminal at Egmont, the winds picked up. Before we knew it, we were keeled over in Jervis Inlet, pulling 7 knots in a 10 or 12 knot wind - it was very, very cool being in a sailboat in the big, wide inlet - with the coast mountains reaching up out of the inlet. And, of course, keeled over was very exciting!

After a few tacks, we pulled into Blind Bay and made anchorage for the night in another quiet little cove. Pasta and (much) more beer was the order of the evening!

The next morning, we awoke up a little earlier, and headed back out into the channel east of Texada Island and headed back for Vancouver. The winds were initially very light, and we needed frequent use of the engine. However, the small craft warnings eventually came to fruition, and the winds slowly but steadily picked up as we passed Sechelt.

As we approached the opening into Howe Sound, the winds really came up - 20 knots and up to 25 knots! It was raining, and the waves built - all making for a very exciting ride. We fully reefed the jib and partially reefed the mainsail, and sped on a beam/close reach back into English Bay - where the winds finally lightened up, and we gently motored the last few miles into Granville Island.

... and, here's the video!

All-in-all, a very solid sailing experience! Many thanks to Andrew for taking Killaine & I out on his boat!

The McBride Traverse Video!

2007-08-28T10:12:00.000-07:00

Finally! I've put together all of the video clips from our Spring Ski Traverse attempt of the McBride Range Traverse.

It took some time to create the video and edit it up - the whole video ended up being a shade over 30 minutes long.

Now, YouTube only allows videos up to a maximum of 10 minutes, so I had to split it up into 4 parts - if you'd like the complete video, let me know, and I can zip it up or something and try to send it to you.

So, without further ado, here is the video!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

The British Experience in Afghanistan

2007-08-19T07:07:00.000-07:00

Quite frequently I wrestle with the question as to whether Canadian troops should be in Afghanistan.

What is becoming quite clear, however, is that - I think - Canadian media is possibly providing a distorted view of the reality on the ground in Afghanistan. As a great contrast to the view from Canadian news sources, here's a great article from The Guardian that paints a grim picture of the British role in Afghanistan.

'It's bleak and ferocious, but is it still winnable?'

Critical Mass

2007-08-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

I had a bit of extra time while here in Red Deer, so I've finished compiling & editing the short videos that I shot on the Critical Mass bike ride. Below is the video, and you can read the original story here. If the video doesn't play below, you can view it on the YouTube website .

Long Weekend With Gord

2007-08-07T18:37:00.000-07:00

In advance of spending a couple of weeks in Red Deer to help my Mum recuperate from her (upcoming) hip surgery, I flew in early to Calgary and spent the long weekend with Gord.

We had a busy weekend - I caught up with Jenny & Gord Friday night. Saturday morning, Gord took Jenny off to the airport (off to Ontario to spend a week with her Mum). Gord and I then drove out into the Kananaskis area and cycled the Elbow Loop. It was a great ride, about 45km long with ~900m of climbing, along mostly old fire access roads - up along the Elbow River, then over a pass of about 2200m, then back along the Little Elbow River. Great ride, great scenery, and only one flat tire.

That night, we ate T-bone steaks and watched the movie "300" (suitably violent).

Sunday morning, we woke up at 5:00am, and drove out to Banff. Our objective was a mountaineering hike from Morraine Lake (near Lake Louise) and over a couple of high passes to the Lake O'Hara area. It was a fantastic hike - definitely a top one-day hike in the Rockies.

We started up the Larch Valley trail from Morraine Lake, hooking up (briefly) with a group of 6 senior citizens 'cause we were supposed to be in a party of no fewer than 4 (a regulation for the area requiring, I guess, large groups that make lots of noise to scare off the resident grizzly(s)). Of course, the seniors were too slow for us, so we took off, and made enough noise by ourselves. The hike up to Wenkchemna Pass was a spectacular, easy trail up through the alpine. From the pass, a tedious scramble down on loose scree brought us into the "Eagle Eyrie" - a wonderful high alpine valley. We headed north up the valley and up to the glacier below Opabin Pass - a very small glacier which we nonetheless roped up for and put on our crampons for the (somewhat steeper) climb up to the pass. On the climb up to the pass, Gord noticed footprints from a Grizzly heading straight up the pass (then down the other side)!

From the pass, we headed down some steeper snow, then onto the (rapidly shrinking) Opabin Glacier. We crossed it easily (a rope definitely being necessary). On the glacier, and just below it, we found some glaciology recording equipment, placed there by Shawn Marshall of the University of Calgary. Once off the glacier, we unroped, then hiked across the scree to Opabin Lake. From there, we hooked onto the great trails surrounding Lake O'Hara, and decided to finish off with the spectacular Yukness Ledges Alpine Route to Lake Oesa - great views along a really cool trail. We had a good view up to the north/east face of Mount Lefroy - there was no snow on the face - usually, there should be solid snow/ice on the face - another sign of warming temperatures. Finally, down to Lake O'Hara, and from there, the bus ride out to the parking lot (where we had left one of the cars). Supper at Boston Pizza, finally getting back to Calgary at around 11:00pm.

We were pretty tired the next day, but nonetheless got up, had a big breakfast of Eggs Benedict at Ricky's, then rented a canoe from the Calgary Campus Outdoor Center, and paddled down the Bow River from the Ghost Dam down to Cochrane. That was alot of fun - I was totally new to the river paddling experience, so had a bit of trepidation. But, got used to it quickly, and we managed to stay upright the entire paddle, with one "near flip" as we incorrectly negotiated an entry into an eddy. We took a break at that point - Gord breaking out his fly fishing rod to (unsuccessfully) hunt for trout.

We finished up, and Gord grabbed a ride back to the Ghost Dam (after I had inadvertently left the keys for Jenny's car in Gord's car!). Back to Calgary, drop off the canoe, then a supper of barbecued pork loin, beer, followed by "Thunderball" (an old James Bond movie from 1965!).

Great weekend!

Marg & The Tour of the Himalayas

2007-08-02T16:43:00.000-07:00

My friend Marg, from Calgary, is off to race in the Tour of the Himalayas in Pakistan in early September!

Marg is being officially sponsored to go and do the race, so that's very cool for her. She asked if I had been to Pakistan - I did in 1998 when I cycled the Karakoram Highway with my friend Deb - so I sent her all of my old stories from that trip.

From The "Weird" Pages ...

2007-08-01T10:36:00.000-07:00

We (North Shore Rescue) did a strange helicopter / long-line rescue of a chap who had apparently decided to kill himself by chaining himself to a tree .... then later had second thoughts.

Here's the story extract from the Vancouver Sun:

Hikers thwart bizarre suicide bid

Vancouver Sun

Published: Wednesday, August 01, 2007

A party of hikers searching for a lost dog on the North Shore thwarted a bizarre suicide attempt when they came across a man who tried to kill himself by chaining himself to a tree.

In a written release, the West Vancouver Police Department said the hiking party heard the man calling for help yesterday from his location in a remote forested area of Cypress Bowl Road.

They couldn't reach him but were able to understand his story, the release states.
He told them he had gone to the area six days ago to commit suicide by chaining himself to a tree.

Police and fire department with the help of a helicopter rescued the man who was taken to hospital and is expected to survive.

Yup, that's a curious one alright ...

Why Chihuahuas Are The Most Appropriate Backcountry Dog ...

2007-07-29T12:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I learned why a micro-dog like a Chihuahua is a more appropriate dog for the backcountry ... especially when you have to carry one out from the mountains.

This is a picture of me carrying Tukker, a 85 pound Border Collie / Labrador cross with a broken front right leg:

The story ... on Saturday (the 28th), Killaine & I went to hike up the Golden Ears (in Golden Ears Provincial Park). The hike is quite strenuous, with about 1500+ metres of climbing over a 23 or so kilometre round trip. Killaine & I made it to Panorama Ridge and decided to stop there - a combination of poor visibility, Killaine's lingering tiredness from the Queen Charlotte Marathon last weekend, and that I'd been to the summit before.

So, we hung out for a little bit along the ridge, then headed back down.

At around the 8 1/2 km mark, we ran into a couple (Adam & Kierstie ) whose dog (Tukker) had slipped and broken his front right paw - they already had Tukker in the back of Adam's pack, and Kierstie was carrying the bulk of their overnight gear.

Considering that Killaine is virtually a card-carrying member of PETA, and that it was a long, long way back down the trail to carry Tukker, we both pitched in to help Adam & Kierstie .

We split up the gear from Kierstie's pack, and proceeded down the trail, with Adam carrying Tukker in his pack (the trail down, by the way, is steep, rocky & rooted). We lost the trail at one point, necessitating a quick reconnaisance and hike back up to the main trail. I took over carrying Tukker for a couple of kilometres, traded him back to Adam for another couple of kilometres, then a final carry for me down the last bit of steep trail and thankfully onto the long, flat 3 km stretch back to the parking lot - Adam taking over for the last 1 1/2 km.

Tukker was remarkably patient to being carried in a pack for around 6 or 7 hours - although he did squirm a few times, he was generally pleasant (albeit very heavy) to carry. All in all, it was a very long day - about 20km, 1400m of elevation gain & loss and about 11 hours of hiking.

A short YouTube video of me carrying Tukker can be found here.

Hopefully Tukker gets better soon!

(Update: Tukker did have a complicated fracture of his wrist, so he might need some surgery on it)

Rush in Seattle

2007-07-27T16:28:00.001-07:00

Sadly, I didn't go to Seattle to see Rush (my all-time favorite rock group), but my friend Todd went, and sent this photo:

Suffice to say, I was sad that I didn't go. They don't have a Vancouver date planned yet, but hopefully and God willing, they shall schedule one for later this year.

Euphorbia Leuconeura

2007-07-21T23:34:00.000-07:00

On a totally different track ... a few details on plants in my office!

Here is my office:

As you can see, I've got alot of plants ... a number of different types - around 11 or 12 plants.

My favorite plant is this one:

This plant is a "Euphorbia Leuconeura". I was particularly interested to find out what kind of plant this is so that I could get it to propogate properly. It took a bit of detective work - my Mum indicated it was a Euphorbia - which is a rather large genus of different plant types - about 2160 different species. They are generally distinguished by having a caustic, poisonous latex sap (i.e. they bleed a white latex fluid when their skin is pricked).

It took a bit of work to figure out which of the 2160 different species this particular plant actually is ... but, thanks to Google Image Search, I went through pages of images until I found one that matched my plant. I discovered that the common name is "Madagascar Jewel".

In terms of propagation, the plant propogates by creating little husky seed casings with little petals. These eventually dry and fall off the plant, where they (eventually, and with luck) generate into tiny little plants.

I haven't had much luck getting them to propogate, but I discovered that they like the early morning sun - this seems to get the plant to create the seed casings. I discovered - just yesterday - one of these plants growing in a different pot!

Busy 7 Days

2007-07-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy 7 days of exercise. Starting last Wednesday:

Wednesday: hiked up the first and second peaks of Mt. Seymour
Thursday: did a great mountain bike ride around the lower trails on Mt. Seymour
Friday: Went paddling for 3 1/2 hours in Burrard Inlet with Killaine
Saturday: Helped out at the KneeKnacker with North Shore Rescue (providing emergency evacuation & first aid). I "swept" (i.e. ran) the last quarter of the race looking for straggling runners (Killaine swept the second quarter)
Sunday: Hiked up the Squamish Chief with my friend Martin
Monday: Sweep on the Grouse Grind
Tuesday: Team familiarization hike on the two peaks of Strachan, behind the Cypress ski area.

Phew. Altogether, over 3600m of climbing. Time for a rest day ...

Pumpkins!

2007-07-13T10:26:00.001-07:00

I just got tickets to see the Smashing Pumpkins, September 24th here in Vancouver! They're one of my favorites - I've seen them once before in Berlin.

Short Hike on Seymour

2007-07-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

I did a short "after work" hike on Mt. Seymour on Wednesday, up to the first and second peaks. There is still an astounding amount of snow up there (~2 to 3 feet on flat or south facing slopes above ~1200m).

The blackflys were absolutely horrid - I was completely swarmed by them for the majority of the hike.

New York Times Calls for Immediate Withdrawl From Iraq

2007-07-08T19:07:00.000-07:00

The New York Times (finally?) prints an editorial calling for the US to withdraw from Iraq immediately:

The Road Home - New York Times

Leading Peak on Anvil Island

2007-07-08T18:15:00.001-07:00

I did something today I've wanted to do for some time - paddle out to Anvil Island in Howe Sound and hike up Leading Peak.

Here's a google map showing the location.

I was in the water at a little past 8:00am, and did the 7km or so crossing from Porteau Cove over to Anvil Island:

The view of Leading Peak from the cove on the south-east side of the island:

I landed at Pebble Beach, stowed the kayak, put on my hiking boots, and headed up the peak. The trail was in excellent condition making for pretty quick progress.

The peak, as it draws closer:

Finally, the view from the summit - it was a fantastic panoramic view of all of Howe Sound:

A token picture of me at the summit:

Then, after a quick lunch, quickly back down the trail to get back to the kayak. I wanted to get down and back in the water before the afternoon winds came up.

It was a little choppier going back, but conditions were still fine. I was back at Porteau Cove by a little past 2pm.

Now, I need to put in a few words here to help with others that might want to repeat this trip. All the trip reports that I've read (there aren't many out there) specify landing at the Bible Camp on the south tip of the island. However, during the summer months, they don't all people to land and cross their property - at other times, hikers are assessed a $25 fee for crossing. A much better alternative is to land at Pebble Beach - a small (75m or so wide) beach in the cove east of the southern point. UTM coordinates for this are 785851. From the middle of the beach, a trail leads a short distance onto a broad path (you'll know you're going the right way 'cause there's a sign pointing to "camp"). Going west along the broad path, take the right (uphill) fork at 783850. As you walk along this path, you'll cross a small creek with a small concrete dam, and a few water structures. Eventually, you'll pass a couple of concrete water structures 5 or 6 feet high - the trail to Leading Peak starts just on the other side of them - there is a sign pointing towards the Peak. From there, the trail is easy to follow!

An Exploration in Mosquito Creek

2007-07-06T09:02:00.000-07:00

During the summer months, North Shore Rescue trades training for familiarization hikes on the North Shore. Last Tuesday night, under the guidance of our mapping and trails expert Doug, we explored the trails up in Mosquito Creek.

I've been into Mosquito Creek a couple of times on different search & rescue tasks - once, Bob and I descended the length of the creek over 9 hours in a search for a missing American, David Koch. In a separate task last year, Mike & I went in to find and bring out 3 wayward Japanese english students:

The Mosquito Creek area can best be characterized as having horrendous bush, criss-crossed in the lower area with a confusing array of very old logging and skid roads - certainly a very easy area to get lost.

In Memory of Caroline

2007-07-06T08:53:00.000-07:00

An acquaintance of mine, Caroline, died in a rapelling accident last weekend at Skaha Bluffs, near Penticton.

A couple of articles from the Penticton Herald can be found here and here.

I first met Caroline several years ago, on a BCMC trip up Sproatt Mountain. I later took a lead climbing course with her, again through the BCMC, and also climbed Mt. Shuksan in Washington with her.

I ran into her one day at the outpatient clinic at the Vancouver General Hospital, during one of my post-surgery checkups for my broken leg. Caroline was also there for a checkup, having sustained a number of bone injuries in an earlier climbing fall.

Although it has been a few years since I last saw her, I will remember her as an enthusiastic outdoors person who embraced the challenges of climbing.

Paddle out in Burrard Inlet

2007-07-02T20:07:00.001-07:00

Killaine & I went for a paddle today out in Burrard Inlet. Killaine rented a kayak from Ecomarine at Jericho Beach, and I paddled over from Kits Beach:

Gear Recovery at Singing Pass

2007-07-02T19:44:00.001-07:00

On Sunday (Canada Day), I headed back up to the Singing Pass area to pick up some gear that Gord & I had left behind on the final, long day of our spring ski traverse with Diana and Ron.

I rode up the access road to the parking lot - it probably saved a little time on the way in, but it was very fast on the way out:

The challenge of the day was getting across a couple of streams. The first one was a bit of a heinous crossing of the stream coming down the big washout early on the trail. It was worse coming back (as the flow increased from snow melting during the day):
There was still quite a bit of snow up near Singing Pass. This picture is at about 1432m, a couple of hundred metres above where we left the gear:

The snow quickly disappeared, and it was back down the slopes we had climbed earlier, with big packs and skis on our backs:

The GPS led me pretty much straight to the gear. However, mice had eaten into the plastic bag we left the gear in, and the rope and other stuff had "leaked out", exposing it to the elements.

Curiously, only Gord's overbooties showed any visible bite marks. Suffice to say, however, after my harness and rope sitting out for 2 months, rotting in the rain, I'll be throwing them away.

One of the nice waterfalls on the way out:

And, finally back across the stream at the washout. I crossed on the logs visible in this picture:

It was slightly intense.

All in all, a fun day out - my own "geocaching" challenge. Although some of the gear is kinda ruined, we can still recover the climbing hardware and fuel bottles. I finished up the day with a Splitz Burger in Whistler, and watched the Red Bull Elevation BMX Contest.

Gear Recovery

2007-07-01T13:25:00.001-07:00

I'm writing this from close to the Singing Pass trail - close to where we left some gear on the last day of our spring ski traverse.

I found the gear quite easily! However, it looks like some mice have been into it and feasted on Gord's overbooties. Plus, the bag was ripped open, and looks like the stuff in there got exposed to the elements. I think the climbing hardware is ok, but not the harnesses or rope! Fortunately, my harness and rope are older, so that's ok. Nice hike anyway!

Hiking up to Singing Pass now, then out to whistler for a splitz burger!

Quick Search & Rescue on Grouse

2007-06-30T01:53:00.000-07:00

Got back a little while ago from a quick search for two missing hikers on Grouse. Left here at about 10:30, drove to Grouse, up the tram with Doug, Connie & Peter, jumped in a truck, and drove partway down the ski runs to where we thought the hikers might be. Sure enough, a few hollars through the loud hailer and we heard their shouts in response. It took another 10 minutes to reach them - they were on a trail paralleling the ski runs - the man and woman (Glen & Maria) were a little cold, but were otherwise fine. A short 15 minute hike took us back up to the top of Grouse, and then a quick ride down and we were done! A record short rescue.

Critical Mass!

2007-06-30T01:19:00.001-07:00

As planned, Killaine & I went in the ¨Critical Mass¨ ride last night. It was a really cool experience in ¨randomly organized¨ group culture and a ton of fun.

The evening started off with cyclists gathering in front of the Art Gallery in downtown Vancouver:

At a little after 6:00pm, the group slowly coalesced and started moving out ... the crowd was pretty huge - I can´t estimate how many cyclists there were (I´ll have to read the paper tomorrow - but 2,000ish would be a good estimate) - if you take a look at this picture, you can see the huge line of cyclists going off down Howe Street:
From Howe, it was up onto the Granville Bridge - for the first of several ¨bridge celebrations¨. Note that the entire route is completely dictated by the group - no pre-planned route, and no planning with any authorities. Complete randomness! Certainly, this caused huge traffic tie ups throughout downtown - all to celebrate the bicycle, and to experience the freedom of cycling without worrying about traffic.
These folks are ¨corkers¨ - meaning, folks that block vehicles to let the other cyclists past safely. Note that the lead vehicle being ¨corked¨ here is a hummer!
Then ... over the Georgia Viaduct - note the big crowd behind ...
... and ahead:

Then, along and over to the Lions Gate Bridge for another Bridge Party. There were lots of eclectic folk there, and lots of neat bikes - from beaters to the latest full suspension jobs, and even some penny farthings (!) and unicycles!

Finally, we headed back into downtown around Stanley Park (by this time, the police had caught up with the group, and diverted us into the park). Still, another bridge celebration on Burrard - we eventually left the ride at around 8:30pm to cycle home.

All in all, it was a ton of fun - lots of happy cycling people, lots of community, and just a real fun feeling that we were demonstrating how cyclists are an integral part of the transportation options within Vancouver.

Yes, I Suck

2007-06-28T22:05:00.000-07:00

For fun tonight, Killaine & I entered one of the "Big Chop" paddle races. It's a fun, thursday night race for paddle boats of all types - surf skis, double kayaks, single kayaks, fast kayaks, slow kayaks and single and double outriggers. I took my kayak in the "long course" - about a 9 or so km course from False Creek through English Bay to Siwash Rock off of Stanley Park - and back.

Here's the rough route:

http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/canada/bc/north-vancouver/539557312

It was pretty hard paddling, though the water was pretty flat tonight.

At the very end of the race, I found that I had finished ... last.

Yup, there's always someone at the back of the pack, and I got to experience that tonight! In my defense, I'll definitely say that I had one of the bigger kayaks there. But, hey, I covered alot of kilometers by boat in a short amount of time (about an hour and a bit), so it was still fun.

Oh, and for the $8 entry fee, I got the race, followed by a sausage barbeque, and I won a draw prize - a waterproof case for my camera!

Perhaps Killaine will write something about her first paddle race too!