Tag: climbing

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canada climbing general

summer again!

While the snow continued its attempts to sneak down into town, the sun won out today. The cloud was burnt off by mid-morning, and most of the overnight sprinkling of snow on the surrounding mountains had disappeared by afternoon. Perfect climbing weather. In this case, being lazy and going to the nearest crag to town – surely no-one else will have had the same idea.

 

Warm weekend at Grassi Lakes – climbers, blue skies and snow on the backdrop mountains

 

The top section of the Grassi Lakes climbing area has been opened again for a couple of weeks now, so there are a lot of people coming out to climb on the climbs that have been off limits for the last year or two.

 

Weird temperature differentials developing at Grassi Lakes – James belays Doug on Dark Design (5.10b)

 

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canada climbing general

lake lousie

The weather’s taken a turn for the unpredictable recently – weather forecasts keep looking promising, then turning to scattered showers the day beforehand, and the day in question ends up being miserable and rainy. And that’s exactly what happened when I tried to finally climb at Lake Louise.

 

Views of Lake Louise (ski resort), Lake Louise (chateau) and Lake Louise (lake – filling up with people in canoes)

 

There was low cloud lurking through the Bow Valley, and all the way along the drive there.

“It’ll be fine!” we said. “At least it’s not raining!” we said. The rock was horribly cold and uninspiring. The longer you spent on the climb, the more warmth was sapped from your fingers and your toes, so instead of warming up you’d just get colder and colder, until you couldn’t really feel your fingers at all, and your big toes were definitely quite numb (possibly your next toes too, and some of the others). You’d have to place your feet and hands visually and hope the hold was good enough to stick to, as it was just impossible to tell by feel.

 

Walking into the crag

 

By the time we finished the second climb (which was actually quite fun climbing on Arapiles-style horizontals) it was a little warmer. Perhaps we would keep going. But then it started to rain. We retired to town for hot chocolate and brownies.

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canada climbing general

it doesn’t look a bit like a heart

Lovely Summer day climbing at Heart Creek.

 

 

Warm sun, cool creek, gentle breeze, plastic dinosaur. All in monochrome. Not a lot of climbing was done, though we did find the waterfall at the end of the creek – the trail leads all the way to it, but then to actually see the waterfall you have to scramble around some polished rock. From the looks of the bolts, there used to be chains going round, so everyone could get there.

 

 
I guess most people just have to be satisfied with the noise of the waterfall these days.
 

 

Categories
canada climbing general

after-work cragging at grassi lakes

Grassi Lakes – it lurks on the edge of town, with its soft grades and its buckety holds and its tendency to always be ok to climb at even if it’s threatening to rain. The outdoor gym crag of Canmore, with shiny ring bolts on sport climbing routes as easy as 5.5 (and up to 5.12a, but I may have had to check the guidebook for that number), nicely set up stairs and flat areas to stand on, and a lovely view. There’s even the kiddy wall section of Gardener’s Wall, where precocious children can learn to lead climb on bolts 1 metre apart. Realistically this is more commonly used by scared fully-grown lead climbers who have to struggle to avoid Z-clipping at every clip.

 

Wet from the rain shower, Ha Ling Peak glistens in the setting sun (as seen from the Graceland area of Grassi Peaks)
 

And there’s a good view.

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general

the internet is a terrible place

I started off just planning to have a look for any descriptions of the Milford Track, or the Routeburn, or one of those other tracks in New Zealand that are so well known – just to get an idea what they’re each like, how long they are, and how busy they are. Then I turned up a National Geographic list of the Best! Hikes! Ever! And then I started reading about the Kungsladen in the far north of Sweden…

“In the extreme north of Sweden, a hundred miles (160 kilometers) inside the Arctic Circle, hides the last remote wilderness in Western Europe. This is Lapland, and through it runs Kungsleden, the “King of Trails,” a 275-mile (443-kilometer) route through an expansive landscape of birch forests, hidden glaciers, powerful rivers, and the highest mountains in Sweden. The sheer scale of the Kungsleden hits home when, at the end of a 16-mile (26-kilometer) day, you realize you’ve only traversed half of the undulating, glacier-carved valley that you dropped into that morning.”

And started thinking – well, that would be fun to do. And then someone mentioned the Cirque of the Unclimbables, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, with the unforgettable Lotus Flower Tower route, and I spend half an hour staring at photos and route descriptions and trip reports, pondering how I could afford to pay for a share of the charter plane to get there.

And then someone links me to the blog Up In Alaska, and I sit there reading and reading and thinking “Wow, snow biking in Alaska! That sounds like lots of fun! I should start biking in the snow more often. Maybe I can do it when it gets cold and I can’t get distracted by all these other activities there are to do in the Rockies in Summer (hiking, climbing and that sort of thing). And I could get a Pugsley! And have a fat wheel bike! I’ll fit in in somewhere between all the telemarking I want to do, and backcountry touring, and ice climbing…. So many things to do, and places to go (and the luxury to be able to choose to do the things that fascinate you – provided you can actually find the money).