Category: general

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climbing general

Blast from the climbing past

Seeing as I’ve been sitting around at home with a sick little one – and not feeling so crash hot myself – I’ve been going through a lot of old photos and videos. I’m mostly trying to get a little film/slideshow cut together from our Moab trip earlier this year, but got sidetracked with our climbing trip to Tonsai Bay, Thailand, way back in February 2004. So here’s a mix of photos and footage from that trip! Jack Johnson playing in the background because that was the only CD that the bars along the beach ever seemed to play, and I’m pretty sure we heard it hundreds of times over the month we were there.


A month long climbing trip at Tonsai Bay, Thailand (including Megan's epic ascent of Cafe Andaman 7b/5.12b – I'll never climb that hard again!)

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canada general snow trail running

This is what it looks like when you go running when it’s -26oC outside

The sky is gorgeous, clear and blue, and everything sparkles, even the air (sadly not captured at all well by a slightly foggy phone camera, but you’ll have to take my word for it).

Your lens fogs up, so you can’t properly capture the misty river, steaming in the cold air, and flowing sludgily with ice.

And your breath freezes on everything it touches.

During this cold spell we also tried the famous “throw a container full of freshly boiled water into the air and watch it vaporise”. And it really does work!

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canada general moosling

Before it got cold – where we find a Christmas tree, and go for a walk

The Christmas Tree gang

The enthusiasm when the walk begins – keen to carry the backpack

Out along the Bow River, it’s snowy, but not too cold. The sun never gets very high in the sky this time of year, spending most of the time skirting the mountains and peeping out at us.

Possibly the longest set of stairs in the world

Through the forest and over the hill, and up the mountain we go

Carrying the boy through the dogpark, because the dogpark is a bit scary

A Christmas tree on the Highline trail

And a Merry Chrismukkah to you all

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bikes canada general moosling snow trip reports

Skogan Pass

After a little Moosling skiing near the Ribbon Creek carpark, we took off towards Skogan Pass on Saturday morning. Lincoln and I on classic skis, and Alex riding the fatter of his fat bikes (the Moonlander) towing the Moosling in the Chariot with ski runners mounted. Moosling skis stashed in the back of the Chariot. Moosling stashed in the Chariot.

Bee lining up to Nakiska can be tricky. Particularly when you’re towing an extra 30-35kg. Once we reached Nakiska, and then the groomed trails beyond, things got a little more civilized.

The Moosling did some skiing on the way up. And walking. And hurling himself into the snow at the side of the trail and proclaiming “Help! I stuck!”

Conditions were great though, especially for November. Not perfect, but if a few rocks were the worst the day had to throw at us, we thought we did pretty well.

Once we reached the groomed trails, there were only a couple of short uphill sections where Alex had to hop off and push for a bit. There were definitely other climbs that required rest breaks though – it’s good training I tell him.

I had some fun messy around with waxes. Usually I skate ski. The few times I’ve headed out on classics, it was invariably patterned bases. In Australia the conditions are so frequently spring-like that only the genuinely mad get into waxes. Because it invariably involves klister. So I have almost no experience, and the witchcraft behind it all drives me batty, reminding me why I love the simplicity of a well-behaved, predictable skate ski. But I shall learn!

The Moosling has even started taking on downhills. No mean feat when you consider he’s wearing Nordic ski boots strapped into his old toddler skis (his first proper set of Nordic skis should be here for Christmas).

It doesn’t usually end well, but at least he’s trying.

Then sometimes a boy needs a break from all this learning, and he’s back to what he knows best.

Then finally, the pass! And time for lunch.

Toddlers: ruining family photos since 1876.

Then it was time to learn the Charleston, layer up, and commence the descent. Unlike Moraine Lake Road, Skogan Pass has a wonderfully long and fast descent to pay you back for all that climbing.

Distance: 21.5km
Elevation gain: 766m

Categories
canada general snow trail running

Ha Ling peak again

A dusk ascent.

Directly up via the Grassi Lakes trail, and on along the climbers trail to the pass. Past people wearing inappropriate shoes, who warned me it would be slippery coming back down. I had Yaktrax on though, and was invincible!

It’s always a little bit intimidating running up Ha Ling from town – it looms over you so, and seems so high and imposing and improbable

Up above Grassi Lakes, in black and white because the light was so low my phone couldn’t actually capture colour properly anyway.

A couple of people on their way down over the first kilometre or so, not too long after sunset. And then I was on my own. The mountain got darker, but between the snow and the light of the half moon, I didn’t bother with my headlamp. The trail was well packed all the way, thankfully no treeline post-holing and snow-wading this time around.

I turned my headlamp on at the summit, and Alex messaged that he could see me. A quick glance down to the warm orange glow of Canmore, nestled between the mountains, then back down again, looking out west to the last glow of pink on the clouds, up to the warm orange glow behind me, to the half moon casting my shadow onto the snowy slope, and to the trail, always keeping an eye on that slippery snowy trail.

Summit

I made good time on the descent, and convinced my legs into a tired jog trot to get home for dinner. Around 3.5 hours door to door, with 3 hours of moving time. Not bad for winter conditions.