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russell

my grand canadian expedition

The trip began… I whiled my time away in the departure lounges dreaming of all the other mooses I would meet in Canada

moose in departure lounge

Once we arrived in Vancouver, we picked up the rental car.

moose and rental car

I spent some time frolicking in a daisy field, unsuccessfully hunting for lady mooses.

moose in squamish

After my unsuccessful hunt for other mooses in the daisy field, I consoled myself with some slab climbing, at Shannon Falls, Squamish.

moose slab climbing

Followed up with some crack climbing – I’d never tried it before, but this jamming business seems to really suit my physique – maybe I’ll become a crack climber? Anyway, this is me on Klahanie Crack (5.7).

moose on klahanie crack

On our way back down again, we stopped at Shannon Falls.

moose at shannon falls

Well, as the Squamish area seemed to have no mooses at all, we tried heading over to the other side of BC. We got as far as Lake Skaha anyway. Here I’m scanning the horizon – it doesn’t look like moose country, but you never know.

moose at lake skaha

Having failed to find mooses at Lake Skaha, we’re running out of time. I’m becoming desperate about my hopes of ever meeting another moose. We drive back through BC to Squamish, taking a scenic route, incorporating many picturesque rivers. Still no other mooses.

moose at river

Our last evening in Canada, I sit on top of the Chief and contemplate life. Will I ever meet any other mooses? Am I the only one?

moose on the chief, squamish
Categories
general

sweet and interesting

One of the best things about living in another country is care packages.

care package

Darren, Vashti, you guys are legends :)

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general

but if we didn’t have ears, we’d look like weasels

Happy dandelion for a hot and muggy day.

squamish

After a chance meeting with one of the other people living in my apartment block (well, it’s not really a block, just a converted townhouse, but anyway) I discovered there were air conditioning units living in the basement. Last night was stinking hot and muggy (I understand this trend is to continue for the next couple of months, and probably get worse – am unimpressed). I eyed off the ac unit lurking on my kitchen floor. After some awkward manouvering, there was then an ac unit in my kitchen window. I poked it. It wobbled. Hmm, it didn’t seem to stabilise in any position. So I closed the window on it, and hoped I wasn’t going to come home to the prostrate corpse of a passerby who had been crushed by my air conditioner. My kitchen’s nice and cool now though. I might have to start sleeping there.

Categories
climbing general trip reports

the heartbreak of a moose-less canada trip

My trip to Canada was notable for its complete lack of mooses. I thought British Columbia would be a hotbed of roadside and campsite moose activity, but it wasn’t to be. I feel cheated. There were quite a few chipmunks however. (The more interaction I have with chipmunks, the more I’m convinced that they’re vaguely evil. They have a tendency to try and stalk you, which is more unnerving than it should be.)

On arriving in Vancouver, we received a rather alarming grilling from the immigration official – it went on from the fairly reasonable ‘So how do you know each other?’ (we met in the training camp) and ‘What are you planning to do while you’re here?’ (capture all of your mooses and train them to do my bidding, so that they may be my minions in my quest for global domination) to ‘So… what sort of knives are you using?! {insert ferocious glare}’ (someone’s been watching Vertical Limit).

I came to the conclusion that Canada was relatively civilised though. They have $1 and $2 coins, their money isn’t all the same colour, it has the queen on it, they can actually spell ‘cheque’, they use metric measurements, and they have Mars bars. Although they still drive on the wrong side of the road.

Squamish is the most fantastic climbing destination. I’m developing an unhealthy enjoyment of crack climbing. And slab climbing (despite the protestations of my climbing partner, Mr. Boer ‘Did I mention I don’t like slab climbing… I can’t do the move even if I use the bolt’ Zhao). The only unfortunate part is that it seems to like raining there. Rather a lot.

Skaha on the other hand, is a less salubrious destination. No snow capped mountains in the background there, although there are lakes and rolling hills. Unfortunately the warmth and lakes brings hoards of tourists in RVs, who fill up the town. The climbing is crimpy, which could be fun if your finger tendons are in full health – but an alarming number of holds sound hollow.

Boer climbing against the backdrop of the Squamish logging

squamish

Sweet sweet granite cracks

squamish

On top of Stawamus Chief

squamish

Views from Stawamus Chief

squamish

Conclusion – I must go back to Squamish. More photos are up in the gallery here (ok, fine, they’re not all up at the moment, they might be by the end of today).

Categories
general

nice day, eh

Dear site – I’m in Canada – Squamish, in British Columbia. It’s raining. Haven’t met any mooses yet.