Life time adventures

Summer 2012 Climbing Trip

2012-09-02T14:48:00.001-07:00

Photo: Sign near Radison Hot-Springs BC

As summer comes to an end and the new school year begins it’s time to look back at the goals we’ve all achieved and all the good times had over the last couple months. This summer has been really great in so many ways meeting new people, traveling, seeing family and being able to adventure gaining so many amazing memories.

This post is about only one month of the summer and what an unbelievable month it has been. August 1^st I met Santiago Espinosa, my buddy and climbing partner in Squamish BC to start a month long road trip through British Columbia and Alberta. Along the way we climbed in and around Squamish, the Bugaboos, Lake Louise, Banff, Canmore and the Valhalla mountain range chasing after a bunch of classic climbs that we’ve been dreaming of doing for the last year. We managed to get 21 climbing days in with a total of approximately 5500 meters of vertical climbing and many kilometers of hiking into the backcountry. Because we went to so many different areas we were able to climb many different types of rock with grades ranging from 5.6 to 5.12a, sport and trad from single pitch to 36 pitches, craging areas to long alpine routes, which gave us a very diverse experience.

Photo: Squamish Chief

Squamish is one of my favorite places to climb in the world because of its amazing crack climbing and classic routes, all close to town. The iconic Squamish Chief is the inspiration for many climbers from around the world to come climb in this area and it never disappoints. Well in Squamish we managed to climb a few classic routes up the Chief like the Ultimate Everything, Rock on, Squamish Buttress, Butt Light, Boomstick Crack, Over The Rainbow and Banana Peel. Also managed to get on Angels Crest earlier in the summer, which is highly recommended.

One afternoon sitting back at camp after a failed day of climbing I came up with a pretty cool plan. It went something like this:

Me- (rum in hand): Man we should try to do two laps up the chief one day...

Santi- (Beer in hand): Yeah, that will be cool..

Me- (sip of rum): We should try it tomorrow.

Santi- Challenge accepeted.

Me- Its gonna be legend... wait for it...

11hours after we started climbing...

Me- Dary.. LEGENDARY!..

The goal of the day was to see how fast and efficiently we could climb and preform the different multi-pitch systems. The routes we took were Over The Rainbow to Boomstick crack to the Ultimate Everything then ran down the hikers trail back to the bottom and did Banana Peel, Boomstick crack and Butt light.

Photo: Some of the climbing gear

Our next stop on the trip was the Bugaboos which we were really excited about as we had heard a lot about it but had never been. Unlike Squamish, the Bugaboos are not easily accessible and require an approach hike of about 5 km horizontal and with a 1000meter elevation gain to reach the base camp. From the base camp all the huge granite spires can be climbed as a day trip. The hike up to the base camp is no joke though; it is a tough painful hike with all your climbing gear, glacier travel gear, 6 days of food and general camping gear on your back.

Photo: my 30kg backpack in front of my car which has chicken wire around it to stop the rodents from eating my break lines.

Photo: Sunrise on the second day.

Photo: Glacier travel

Our first day in the Bugaboos we decided to take it easy in order to warm up to the alpine setting after being spoiled in Squamish with the easily accessible climbing. We decided to solo climb Pigeon Spire which is a classic and must do climb; up a really amazing ridge feature thats about 500meters in length. The summit is 3156 meters high. It is one of the further away spires from the base camp and you have to climb up a large steep icy call and across a glacier to access it.

Photo: Approaching Pigeon Spire via the glacier

Photo: Santago traversing way above the clouds in the early morning.

Photo: Santiago repelling off the summit

Photo: Climbing back down the route

Photo: Standing on the summit taking it all in

The second day out in the Bugaboos was one to remember and for me was the crux of the trip mentally. In every dynamic sport you have to expect and be prepared mentally and physically for the unexpected and alpine climbing is as dynamic as it gets. You have to have the skill set to be able to get yourself out of situations that you might find yourself in and be able to keep calm in order to make good decisions. In the mountains there is no get out of jail free card, your decision-making affects you instantaneously and small mistakes can be fatal.

Our goal was to climb a classic route called Snowpatch on Snowpatch spire, which is 19pitches summiting at 3084 meters. A seemingly simple approach and relatively easy route for our abilities but it is never so simple in the mountains.

Photo: Snowpatch Spire view from base camp

We woke up at 4am and that’s when the first taste of the days complications would start. Felt sick from the water I was drinking in camp and had my first nosebleed in as long as I can remember. The water in camp was also not working and so cold breakfasts and a hike up to a lake to get water made us leave camp later than planned. Finally left camp at about 5:30am on the approach to Climb Snowpatch spire, which was simple, we could see the ‘right’ gully we were to climb up. What we didn’t realize is that we were on the wrong side of the gully and were headed to a very exposed cliff with no pro or repel options. After climbing up a large ice ramp we got to a point were we had to get onto the rock. I decided to go first, stepped over the large gap between the ice ramp and rock face and started climbing. Pretty soon after I started climbing the realization that there was no turning around set in. I also noticed that for a classic route there was a lot of loose rock and boulders that I was pulling off but I knew going down was impossible at this point. A few meters later I couldn’t go up any further and was stuck. My climbing partner untied from the rope because if I had fallen he would be dragged with me. My heart beating out of my chest, shaking and mentally fried and only 100meters off the glacier below I didn’t know what to do.

A few minutes went by as I thought of my options, which were either fall or keep going up and decided that I just got to commit and keep going. I managed to get my head back into the game and went for the moves I thought were impossible earlier. Found a small foot chip which I got about 5mm of my mountaineering boot on, found some small hand holds and just went for it. The sweat poring down my face I was so relieved I pulled the move and moving over to a safer location to belay my partner up was such a good feeling. 4 more pitches of loose sketchy scary climbing continued after that before reaching the base of the climb. It took us 6 hours to get to the base of the climb which was meant to take 2 hours so we decided that our brains were to fried to continue and turned around repelling off the other side of the gully where the proper approach was.

Photo: Camping and climbing gear for 6 days

After our failed climb the day before we decided we could not leave without a second, more educated attempt on the summit of Snowpatch. We now knew the proper approach and were more prepared. We left camp a bit later and managed to safely get to the base of the climb. By 12pm we were 4 pitches from the top and were feeling smooth and fast. Everything was perfect but maybe too perfect it seemed. As we reached the top of the climb route finding became extremely complicated and we ended up getting off route. It took us 4 hours to do the last section and was getting late. After a struggle to reach the top off route we finally made it and had no time to celebrate the achievement. It was late and we still have about 9 repels to do and a steep ice gully to descend.

Photo: Snowpatch Spire from the proper approach

Photo: Repelling off the summit of Snowpatch Spire

On the descent of Snowpatch Spire about 3 repels down as we reached the next anchor station and began to pull our rope down for the next repel pretty much the most feared thing in repelling happened, our rope got stuck in a crack. At this point there was no time to be wasted and I started leading up the repel route to retrieve the rope. After freeing the rope once again and re-rapping the pitch we were finally on our way again. We finally made it back to camp at 10pm and were exhausted.

We learnt a lot in the Bugaboos about what can go wrong and how to over come the challenges involved when alpine climbing. We were able to use many skills that we had learnt over the years of climbing and felt confident in keeping ourselves safe well out in such an unforgiving environment. I am excited to return to the Bugaboos next year more prepared and educated about the area.

Photo: View from pitch 17 on Snowpatch, base camp is next to the smaller lake

Photo: Santiago leading one of the pitches

Our next stop on the trip was Lake Louis, Banff and Canmore which are all relatively close to one another. We got on some amazing routes and summited some very cool peaks including the Grand Sentinel and Ha Ling.

Photo: Just chilling

Photo: Santiago on the approach to The Grand Sentinel his favourite climb

Photo: The Grand Sentinal, we climbed up the pillar twice that day up two different routes.

Photo: A view of Canmore from Ha Ling

Photo: Santiago being stocked on our climb

Photo: Summit of The Grand Sentinel

Unfortunately we did not get many pictures of our climbs at Lake Louise and around the rockies but we had a great time with many amazing adventures along the way. After the rockies we decided to make one more stop in the Valhalla mountain range in order to climb Mt Gimli.

Photo: Mt Gimli

Over all we had an amazing trip and this climbing season has been really successful. Although the trip is over i will still be climbing for the next couple of weeks and then will prepare for the ice climbing season, stay tuned for more blog posts later in the year, hope you enjoyed reading some of our adventures.

Climbing in Thailand

2012-04-09T02:22:00.002-07:00

After I completed my Search and Rescue Management course, Legal Liability and Instructional Skills certification a few friends and I decided to escape the Canadian winter for a while. From the 25th of February until the 6th of April we chose to go on a climbing trip to Thailand where we toured the country for 2 weeks and climbed for 3 weeks. We started in Bangkok and from there went down to Railay Beach which is on the coast off of Krabi where there is world class sport climbing.

The pictures below are of a few of the sites around Bangkok.

Photo credit to Santiago Espinosa and Martin Bustamante for some of the pictures taken of me climbing. The next pictures are of the climbing on Railay and Ton Sai beach South Thailand.

The picture above is of a very cool 5.10d climb on Ton Sai Beach

The next 3 pictures below are of my favourite 5.11c and is amazing with a very cool crux to the anchor.

This section of the climb is interesting as it has no foot holds as you traverse the hand rail.

Martin on the same 5.11c

The picture below is a view out to West and East Railay Beach on the top of the second pitch of a really cool 5.10d

Santiago repelling off the second pitch of the multi pitch.

Me having some fun on the beach after a day of climbing by soloing a pillar.

The pictures below are of us deep water soloing which is really popular in this area and is known to be the purest way of climbing. The picture below is of me on an amazing climb which goes through this cool roof. I find more adrenaline in the huge falls you take deepwater soloing rather than from the climbing its self.

If you look closely you'll see Martin way up there. And yes the only way down is to jump.

After climbing one day we decided to set the rope up and take a few jumps and swings off the cliff.

Sometimes the climbing ended a bit late and we ended up having to repel and walk home in the dark.

One thing about climbing in this area is no matter where you are climbing there is always a beautiful view. The water below was so clear that we could see big turtles swimming below.

Santiago on a very tiring 5.10d

Below are some views of the area and my rope burn.

The trip was a success as I'm back in Canada in one piece. Between the 3 of us we managed to take over 3000 pictures but of course i could only select a few for the blog. Besides the climbing, we also spent time in Phi Phi island, Phuket and Chang Mai up North. We met lots of cool people along the way and were able to pet tigers, ride elephants, go bungy jumping, spend time at the shooting range, go snorkelling, see amazing places and eat good food. Thailand is recommended to all travellers no matter what your interests are as there is so much to see and do. Now that I'm back in Canada i teach a rock climbing course in Skaha for a week and then do 2 rope rescue courses and hopefully climb all summer long.

Ice Climbing Jan - Feb 2012

2012-02-19T23:31:00.004-08:00

The last month and a half has been unbelievably busy with my legal liability risk management and Search & Rescue Management classes and adventure has been calling my name! In January I managed to ice climb for a week and in February I got another week of climbing in. My friends and I explored a huge area in the Rockies including Jasper, the Ice Fields Parkway, Nordegg, Lake Louise, Banff and Canmore some of the most beautiful places on earth. The temperatures were really nice with clear blue sky's and we were surrounded by world class ice climbs.

The picture above is of a fully loaded Nissan Pathfinder with 4 peoples gear and food for a week ice climbing.

There is something about ice climbing that just makes one feel so many emotions at once! You are excited, scared, happy, nervous yet you are absolutely loving the adrenaline rushing through your veins as you make your way up these amazing unstable formations! You are lead climbing, placing minimal screws in the ice with about 40 sharp flesh piercing objects attached to you which means a fall is most defiantly the last thing you want happening. You are swinging your ice tools into this very unstable frozen waterfall ice that is breaking at almost every swing yet your mind set is "I'm not going to fall". And to make things worse as you're always gripping the ice tools and your hands are above your head with the cold temperatures the blood runs right out which gets extremely painful! There are defiantly not many elements of ice climbing that work for you so it is really important that every move you make your mind is not wandering, you're focused and concentrated on what you are doing. NO FEELING LIKE IT :-)

This climbing area is 5 minutes outside of Jasper and there is a very popular ice walk through the gorge that we were climbing in so we created quite an audience when they spotted us climbing. As I was climbing I could hear the guide telling his group how if I fell I would almost hit the ground, he was not helping my focus!

The picture below is to show you a close up of how the ice looks that we climb, yes it is brittle.

The picture below shows a bunch of different sized ice screws which we place in the ice as we are climbing. We tend to leave big gaps between ice screw placements as they take time to place in the ice and could pump you out. But the rule is don't fall right so screws or no screws you should be fine right? Joke

This climbing area was very close to Banff and it also had an ice walk below. As we were climbing we had guys come in with some serious camera equipment and they started filming us which was cool. We figured they were from the Banff tourism information centre or something similar.

You're not a master until you've become a good teacher. And I'm teaching the world to fucking ice climb at the moment." — Steve Haston, 1998.

The picture above is of Santiago and I at the top of a really fun super easy multi pitch ice climb called Two o'clock falls. Ready to repeal with our V thread backed up by our anchor in order to test it.

The picture above is of another climbing partner Kat Wood looking solid with a nice runout below.

These picture are of Martin Fipp with pretty awesome looking ice tool placements.

So whats next? Unfortunately my ice climbing is over for the season and the gear is being put away for the summer but not all is unfortunate! In 6 days I leave for Thailand for about 40 days with some climbing partners to get some early season climbing in and some deserved heat.

Fall in the mountains

2012-01-14T13:19:00.000-08:00

To warm up for the winter season I spent a week in Alberta, in the Rockies were i climbed in the Banff area and then in the Columbia ice fields.

My climbing partners and I were practicing short roping techniques up Castle mountain, in the back ground is highway 1.

The picture above is taken at the foot of the Columbia ice fields glacier

One of our climbs was Mt Athabasca which is a 11,453 foot peak the 18th highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. The picture above shows the large ice ramp which was part of the ascent.

The picture above and below is the alpine sunrise, we started the approach at 4am so were in the perfect spot for the sunrise.

Climbing Expedition to Smith Rocks and Red Rocks

2011-09-09T00:02:00.000-07:00

On May 1st 2011 we set off from Kamloops BC on a road trip we would never forget. From Kamloops we drove 15 hours to Smith Rock State National Park Oregon USA. Arriving at the camp ground at 11pm we quickly set up camp in the dark excited for our first day of climbing.

Smith Rocks is more famous for its amazing sport climbing rather than traditional climbing so armed with our quickdraws we had 5 days of climbing some 5 star hard sport routes.

A view across the main sport climbing areas.

One of my favourite 5.10d sport climbs, a beautiful consistent lead with crimps as pockets and smooth face features, its called the headless horsemen. Just out of the picture is another amazing climb 5.11b called popism, very sustained with powerful bolder moves. Very over hung for the first 3 bolts.

The picture above is a climb called Monkey face and this is the west face variation. It is one of the classics of the area and is 4 pitches 5.8 so finally we could pull the trad gear out. Its said that the 3rd pitch is the most exposed 5.7 in America as you step out of a cave onto a sheer face with 100meters of nothing below you.

A picture of me a few pitches up the Monkey Face.

One of the many beautiful views from the national park.

After 5 days of an unbelievable amount of sport climbing it was time to move on. Next stop was Red rocks Nevada approximately 20min outside Las Vegas. The above picture is of our campsite, the van and trailer are parked to try block out the howling wind that seems to be constantly blowing day and night.

First pitch of Cookie Monster.

A view looking down and my belayer as I lead the next pitch.

Leading the crux pitch of Cat in the hat, a nice mellow trad multi pitch.

A view with Las Vegas in the top left corner of the picture, i could see the strip from here.

A hanging belay station on Crimson Chrysalis 5.9, 9 pitches an area classic although very uncomfortable stations for a party of 4

My two strange but awesome climbing buddies

Summit of Tunnel Vision 6 pitch trad 5.7 runout and a runout it was!

Credit to Santiago Espinosa for the photo above. Im racking up to lead the first pitch of Cookie Monster.

Avalanche Operations and Weekend Fun

2011-03-29T22:58:00.000-07:00

As I have been on the road for a good part of the last 2 months, ice climbing, skiing and mountain biking I have been neglecting my blog. So to my followers and viewers my apologies for the delay. In the following blog post ill be showing you some pictures from my very busy 10 days on avalanche operations where I was able to find weak layers in the snow pack and do snow science in the Revel Stoke area BC. We were also able to set off controlled avalanches by ski cutting and cutting large cornices of snow.

When we are not ski touring or flying into the backcountry by helicopter our third option is taking the snow cat into the backcountry.

A picture of my skis just before I managed to break them.

Full snow profile work, yes this is the office.

Snow density tests on each layer of snow.

And after the work is done on the slopes the weekend fun starts. We climbed a 245 meter waterfall near Fields BC.

Mistaya ski touring.. In the middle of nowhere!

2011-02-03T19:50:00.000-08:00

Jan 8th 2011 after arriving back from a trip from Saudi Arabia on the 6th the bags were packed in a hurry as my helicopter ride was leaving Golden, BC the next morning. Destination was near Mistaya lodge on the other side of Mount Baker from the bow hut glacier fields. We were going ski touring for 9 days in order to get some great skiing in and to concentrate a lot on snow science.

This is our landing spot up in the mountains

The first 3 days of our trip we were experiencing temperatures of -30 degrees Celsius which is on the verge of uncomfortable skiing. As the helicopter had weight restrictions i took only a small camera which froze at every great photo opportunity.

This is one of many full snow profiles we had done through out the week due to the persistent weak layers that have formed early this season.

We spent an afternoon burying transverse and practiced our avalanche rescue procedures.

As this was early season the snow pack was low at only about 70 cm but by day 4 a huge storm came in snowing 110 cm in 3 days which was record snow fall for the Rockies. This caused high avalanche danger in alpine, tree line and below tree line forcing us to ski low angled slopes.

Most afternoon mid week we had whiteout navigation so decided to stay out of the alpine.

This was our home, we built a number of snow caves and shelters. This one housed 3 friends and I and was quite warm.

Departure day, this is one of three helicopter pickups to get us out of the back country.

Priorities and Procrastinations

2010-12-07T13:04:00.000-08:00

As University takes priority over my adventures for now, I have not taken many trips lately. This next post of pictures was a hike we went on to blow off some of that university stress that builds up. Procrastination at its best is how I would describe it.

Although the time for trips has decreased as the year is ending, a new year will begin. As a heads up to keep checking out the blog every once in a while I can ensure some great trips to follow me on. Next year a number of trips are already planed including a week of Ice Climbing, Ski touring with helicopter access, a 17-day rock climbing expedition in California and we are aiming for at least 20 major mountaineering summits in 2011. Stay tuned, for an adventurous year ahead.

Mt Temple 11,624 feet 14/10/2010

2010-11-09T21:13:00.000-08:00

The location and elevation make Mount Temple the most visible of all the 11,000 foot mountains in the canadian Rockies. It is the second highest peak in the Banff National Park and the 11th highest in the Canadian Rockies.

This is the view from lake Louise

Due to off season conditions our approach to the base of the mountain was an extra 13 km making our summit day 17 hours long.

Mountaineering trip, 3 summits 9/27/10

2010-10-27T00:15:00.000-07:00

Elfin Lakes 8/15/10

2010-10-26T22:32:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for an easy over night or day trip in the Garibaldi Park area, the Elfin Lakes hike is for you. It has easy access with good parking although you do have to drive up a 17

km logging road. To the Elfin Lake camp ground from the parking lot it is 11 km and is easy hiking.

As you pass the Elfin Lake camp ground, you can see two peaks connected by a ridge called the Gargoyles. To the summit it is an additional 1.5 km and is quite a steep ridge feature. The picture below is one of the beautiful views of the surrounding peaks and valleys of the coastal mountain range.

2010-10-26T14:38:00.000-07:00

The Black Tusk is situated in Squamish, BC Canada in the Garibaldi Park. It stands at 2319m above sea level and is a very distinct feature seen from great distances. The Black Tusk is a small part of a huge volcano which over time has eroded away.

Due to the loose rock and steep walls the Black Tusk is not a recommended climb but can be done. There is a steep shoot close to vertical which you can scramble up, that said it is good to summit when there are no other groups. We were exposed to falling rock from other parties above and therefore had to wait to summit.

The Black Tusk can be climbed as a day trip although we camped at Taylor Meadows which is a beautiful spot. Try avoiding going on weekends or public holidays as the camp grounds get very busy.

A view from the summit down into our route up the valley

6 day backpacking trip

2010-10-24T22:12:00.000-07:00

View of The Black Tusk

One of the many beautiful locations in the Garibaldi Park BC