Back At Er

The hellish semester finally ended.  I'd worked straight through every weekend since the end of September, and pulled off a good academic performance despite being so busy.  There are a lot of students out there who will complain six ways to Sunday about how hard their life is, but this semester was probably the hardest thing I've ever done.  There were three straight weeks where, between two of six courses, I logged 50 hours.  I've worked plenty of hard jobs with long hours and those were all a cake-walk compared to the 460/403 semester.

On Thursday, I wrote my last two exams, crushed a beer halfway through the last one, then went home and packed up.  Friday morning I got my braces off, and after picking up my gag-inducing retainer, hit the road for Calgary.  After it got dark, I puzzled over why everybody kept almost rear-ending me on the highway, before realizing that all my tail lights were out.  Oops!  After some searching, I managed to find the right bulb in Red Deer and enjoyed a slightly safer drive the rest of the way.

Saturday morning, Steve and I ripped into Canmore and met up with Justin.  We carpooled over to the Sulfur Mountain parking lot, and proceeded to take the wrong trail in search of Spray River Falls.  At about 10, we abandoned bushwacking and ran over to Cascade Falls to salvage the day.  There were three groups already on it, but we figured that they'd move through the harder bit by the time we got there.  Relaxed hiking and chatty soloing brought us to the start of the harder climbing before the first leader was even halfway up the first pitch.  Boy these guys were slow!  1.5 hours later, Steve was able to lead up.  Justin and I followed, wearing all our layers and mostly frozen.  Some ugly suffer-faces ensued at the next belay while our extremities thawed out.  Some more waiting, and then we headed up the second pitch at the same time as another group.  Seeing the last pitch still full of these slow-polks, we rapped the route and were back at the car before the group that we were climbing beside even finished the pitch.  I must be spoilt by climbing in Jasper and Nordegg, cause putting up with that sort of stupidity on a climb just ruins it.  Despite the long waits and cluster-facks, it was a real good day and my first multi-pitch ice climb.

Cascade was a good second choice, mainly because it's impossible to get lost on the approach.

On the lower "pitches"

A Chinook was in-bound, leaving these wild lenticulars across the front ranges

On Sunday, Erich replaced Justin while Kendra joined us as well.  We originally headed for Borgeau Left, but Steve ended up getting sick so we bailed again (this seems like a trend) and Kendra took Erich and I up Louise Falls.  Well, we climbed the first two pitches before backing off the third.  The pillar was pretty thin and seemed to be mostly made of air.  1 60m rap to the ground, and a short walk brought us to drinks at the Chateau.  Back in Canmore, I got to my car, then headed over to Chateau Knight and made a surprise appearance.

Erich starts Louise Falls

Kendra starts the thin pillar

Kendra turned around from this point, the ice seemed pretty sketchy

Based out of Pete's place, I skied the next three days.  Monday was pretty brutal, with my lackluster fitness and horrid skiing technique (first turns of the year).  Tuesday was a bit better at Tryst Lake, but things really came together on Wednesday.  Armed with a full day and a "giver" avy forecast, we did the Black Prince Traverse.

Dug a pit, found one of the most stable snowpacks I've ever seen at this time of year

Approaching the Purple Col, with a pretty good sized cornice in it

Found an old skintrack in there, looks like we weren't the first to get this idea

It was pretty facking cold on the other side

Bill comes up towards the bowl between Hero and Purple Nobs

On the ridge to Hero Nob, taking a short snack break behind some trees

The last turns down Hero Nob were heavenly.  I finally felt planted on the boards, and even felt the technique working well.  We rolled back to Peter's place, had a quick dinner, and then I drove back home.  It was finally time to spend some time with the family.  Although it would have been nice to get a few more skiing days in, it feels real nice to spend some quality time with the family.  Time to pack for California though!