The Highest Height in Alberta: Mt. Columbia 3747m
Thanks again to Mammut for facilitating this fantastic adventure.
Gery Unterasinger organized us: myself and five strong men from Calgary who call themselves the White Clothed Peaks. We set off in a great weather window to summit the highest peak in Alberta. Mt. Columbia at 3747m.
We started by meeting in Lake Louise at 6:30 am, which got us skiing by 10 am. After competing with the Brewster Ice buses at the Athabasca Glacier.
We were happy to connect with Mark Klassen who showed us a ‘safer’ way to traverse through the three icefalls of the glacier- one of the cruxes of the route.
The rest of the trip had a lot of flatish glacier slogging. Where you could watch your dog run away 😉 I was grateful when I pulled up and saw the digging of our campsite — which meant I could unload the beast that was on my back.
We were blessed with some amazing weather, which made for fantastic cooking conditions and lifestyle photos at dawn and dusk.
Unfortunately, there was some suffering. Ground meat surface around the feet, elephantitis around the face and one suspicious case of altitude sickness cause some vomitting:
This is an example of me ‘being comfortable’ winter camping in perfectly reasonable temperatures:
The greatest rewards from this trip include: being with some quality folks who were giving it their ALL! and the amazing vistas to the west and to the north.
I must say that I think the greatest joy of the trip, other than the fragrance of our clothes, was the relief felt when the ‘rental’ boots came off!
I am very proud of these guys for enduring the suffering of rental equipment and naivety, but they survived a very physically challenging adventure and received the rewards of amazing scenery and a job ‘well done’!
Team Lithuania in Patagonia
Today we went for a 5 pitch rock climb. Bolts, around 5.10 or 6a. Very fun outing. A little bit windy– good training for us to get to know each other and get into thinking about alpine climbing.
So after a day of getting to know each other and some rescue review… we are off to the mountains. Tomorrow we will hike into Piedre Negra and hope to climb Guillomet and Aguja Pollone in the next couple days….
Classic Chamonix Climbs with fellow Canucks, Joanna and Tom
OUT OF THE MONT BLANC MASSIF AND ONTO THE AIGUILLE ROUGE SIDE OF THE VALLEY TO APPRECIATE WHERE WE HAVE BEEN….
The Mont Blanc
A photo story of climbing this prolific mountain from the Cosmiques Hut on the traverse of the three summits.
On a recent trip, we summitted the Tacul du Mont Blanc under adverse conditions:
turn the volume down ; )
Chris, the Bugaboos and a Grizzly Bear
Chris and I recently went to the Bugaboos and had a great adventure involving lots of fresh snow and a hungry grizzly bear.
It wasn’t too hot or too buggy on our rainy hike up to the Kain Hut : )
On July 3, we hike up to Eastpost Spire via Appleby campground where there was a meter of snow still! We had about 20cm foot pen in the new fresh snow. Very skiiable.
We decided to make a day of getting back to the car and so we headed over the Brenta-Cobalt Lake Sattelite Spire Col to Cobalt Lake.
Then the Grizzly incident. He was not scared of us. There was no bluff charge. He just wanted what he smelled and it was coming from our direction and that was all.
After Chris scared the bear off we got ourselves up and over Black Forest ridge and onto the donkey trail back to the trailhead. Good times.
Thanks for the trip Chris. A Grand Adventure.
Multi-pitch Skills

Cecile and Corina learning the ropes
By breaking up some classic crack climbs into shorter pitches, we can learn a ton, in a very short time, about transitions on multi-pitch climbs. We had great weather and a super fun time learning these skills late in the summer in Squamish.
Tantalus Range in July 2009

The clouds made for a interesting day, no boring blue sky : )
I recently visited the Tantalus Range and the Jim Haberl Hut. What a fantastic place! We climbed Dione and Serratus. We had near perfect conditions and weather, as well as a working BBQ at the hut for a steak dinner.
Dave Thorburn joined me and we thoroughly enjoyed the views, the climbing and the luxury of the Jim Haberl Hut.
- Sunrise on Serratus

Steep snow Climbing

Tantalus and Dione in the background

Jim Haberl Hut
Chicks on Crack 2009

Back: Lynn, Ilze, MC, Karen, Ella, Shannon & Cecile Front: Jen, Jasmin & Kinley
Challenge and Fun were the two main sentiments from the weekend. Everyone (including me ; ) ) got their butt handed to them by some challenging, but exquisite granite crack. The women of the All Sizes Crack Climbing weekend did not get off easy, but lots of learning was had in a fun and supportive environment.
We learned how to jam fingers, hands, cups, fists, off-widths and chimneys. The Smoke Bluffs and the Chief  had many cracks for us to get schooled on.

Karen chimneying like a demon

Shannon jamming up a storm

Cecile cranking the crack
Our egos and bodies got bruised, but our muscles and awareness got toned and tuned into what it takes to get up these ‘holdless’ cracks.

Showing off the hard work and tenacity
Thanks to the participants for their determination and great attitudes and to the guides for their skill and expertise. Looking forward to many more days of kung fu fighting with talented aspiring crack specialists!
Thanks to Blurr for the hats, headbands and t-shirts that made us look SO good  AND to LaSportiva for the t-shirts, stickers and SHOES that made us climb like lizards.