Being a Wimp

Well, this could be seen as a failure of a weekend.  Early on, a Erich and I got some grand plans going for exploring some remote areas near McBride, mostly along the Jasper NP north boundary.  The weather forecast slowly crapped on those plans, and since we were just a pair, I wasn't stoked on doing extensive glacier travel.  So we bailed to Nordegg.

Pulling in on Friday afternoon, the weather looked pretty splitter.  Along the parkway, however, we could see lightning flashing and the storm looked pretty socked in.  We awoke the next morning to rainy/windy weather, slept in, and then did the unexpected; we sat in camp.  Well, we mapped out the camping area for future reference, napped, then made dinner and set the alarms for the next day hoping for a passable day for Elliot NE Ridge.

I got up at 6 and saw nothing but dark cloud up above.  We slept in again, but this time got our act together and walked into Hidden Quartzite.  It's a great crag with lots of room to explore.  I'm excited to try and get back out there!

Camping near Wildhorse Creek

Once in a blue moon, I have a lazy weekend of camping.

Prepared for a day of camp mapping, with a bag 'o beers.

The "trail" to Hidden Quartzite

The trail is flagged by tying tiny bits of tape onto the mankiest twigs in existence.  That's why half the flagging is now gone, even though it was done last fall.  Seriously, it's like they were trying to keep the trail non-existent.

Erich forgot his water bottle so we used an old trick learned from many an outdoors club member.

At the top of the cliff with Triangle Peak and Mt. Murchison behind.  There was a lot of snow up high, another reason why we didn't go alpine.

Erich starting his figure-4 training early.

He is a very capable and dependable belayer.

"Chainsaws and Battery Acid", and easy 8

We climbed a 7, 8+, TR'ed the 8R (seriously runout, would be properly scary), and did Chainsaws as well.  A good short day, we got back to the car at 5:30.  BUT we had no car keys so back up the trail we went again, enjoying it's high quality bushwacking and log-hopping.  Found the keys at the crag, then went back to the car and made dinner back at camp.  Of all places to lose the keys...

On Monday, we packed up and drove out to The Dark Side, where we quickly onsighted "Wet Slut" and "RJ" (both 10b) before hurrying back home.  They're both nice climbs, and I'd really like to work at some more stuff on The Dark Side.  There's loads of room there and an 11a as well that I'd like to try my hand at, but  I was quickly realizing that I had a lot of stuff to take care of before school starts...

David Thompson Country, home sweet home.