The McBride Traverse Video!

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

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

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

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

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 ...

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 ...