Direttissima

I'd had plans for a while to do some Yam climbing with a group fo 3 more guys.  Now, I'm not very experienced climbing multi-pitch trad; I've only done a few routes in Jasper and those are pretty soft.  Yam would be my first "full on", big trad climb.

I had originally thought that we would split into two pairs and climb two separate routes, but that was not the case.  It turns out that essentially only Kevin was confident enough to lead up a big route.  That made me pretty nervous, as I knew we would be super slow and possibly dangerously cramped at belays.  Some encouragement kept me on the trip, but just.

Saturday morning we got going rather leisurely and started up the route at about 10:30 in the morning.  It was a truly great climb, the first pitch being quite sustained, and the last pure amazing.  Pulling through a chimney into a superman pose with 1000 feet of air underneath certainly made the climb memorable.  I did learn that Kevin is rather bold with his climbing, doesn't place a whole lot of gear, and is very confident.  I, on the other hand, am rather reliant on beefy belay anchors and well protected climbing.  That, fighting a cold, and being bonky on the route made me spook about 2/3 way up the route.  I got through it though, and I definitely want to log more miles on big climbs like this one.  I want to lead and build proper anchors rather than rely on a few manky old pitons which the leader didn't even test with a hammer.  That had me less than impressed.  A few photos courtesy of JP (I forgot my camera).

Looking up the route

Kevin leading the first pitch.  50m of 8+ on gear!

Following up somewhere on the route

The "sketch traverse", actually not that bad.  It's got 3 pins in it.

Double Rainbow all the way across Yam!

Sunday we spent at WAAAAASSSSOOOOOOOTTTCCCH which was crowded.  We still found a few routes to go up, but I only led up to 5.8.  That's how wrecked I was after 10 hours on the side of Yam.  There are a few OK routes there, but I don't think I'll be back.  It's so damn polished, short, crowded, and just not inspiring.  Next weekend I'll be exploring a couple of new (to me) areas in the Banff/Canmore area, so hopefully I'll find some sweet climbing.

Game On at Moraine Lake

I found out late this week that the overtime shift on Saturday which had been rumored earlier in the week wouldn't happen.  Seeing as I had already shot down all rock climbing plans, I got in touch with Pete and we planned some skiing action.  The Moraine Lake road had just opened up, and we had an itch for Eiffel Peak.

I got into Canmore around 9:30, but didn't get to sleep until 11.  Awake again at 2:30 AM (!) we were at the trailhead and walking by 4:30.  Up to Larch Valley, we ran into Dave Sutherland and partner.  They were getting far radder than us on Mt. Temple.  Serious props to those guys, I'd like to see the line they took sometime.  That's definitely a line for the "hit list".  Anyway, we worked onto the face and switchbacked almost all the way to the top.  We bootpacked the very last session, making it a full on skimo event.  Beautiful views from the top, including the Goodsirs, the Vaux Icefield and of course the Ten Peaks.  Lounged around for a bit, scoped some other rad lines, then ripped the skis off and enjoyed sweet powder down the face.  Awesome conditions, awesome weather, truly a great peak done in good style.

Sunrise on the ridge below Eiffel

Temple

Being a slow-ass deadweight does have photographic benefits.

Valley of the Ten Peaks from Eiffel's summit.

Hungabee

Deltaform with our run in front.  Powder on the last weekend of May!

Waiting for the TGR cameras to get rolling before dropping in.

After swooshing down to the base of the face, we turned towards Wasatch (Wastache?) pass and went around back for some couloir action.  My 3 hours of sleep was starting to show itself, so I only did half the couloir.  It's another nice line that I'd like to try again.  Maybe I should have utilized an energy gel and done it proper?  Everything is 20/20 in hindsight...

Skiing the Eiffel/Pinnacle Couloir

Race ski action

Feeling the vert

Looking back at Eiffel.  Nice line, not steep or overly technical.  Just awesome.

I think that'll be the capstone to my 11/12 ski season.  Overall here are the stats.
Number of Days: 27
Number of Races: 2 (11th overall)
Biggest Vertical: 2000m

Goal is to beat all of those categories next year.  That'll be tough considering that it will be 4th year and crazy, but I'm going to try.  Now onto summer...

Change of the Seasons

May Long Weekend approached rather fast.  With ski partners (well, the one remaining ski partner) out of commission and warm weather, I got together with Yves last minute to do some rock climbing in Jasper.  Frenchie and Yves' girlfriend Jessica came along too, so we had a nice even number.  Three days on rock was sure to kick me into summer, and probably embarrass me after a winter-length hiatus from the rock gym.  Oh well...

On Saturday we headed to Juno Wall.  I had been hearing the praises sung about this crag for ages from my buddy Dan, so I would finally see what all the hype was about.  Overall, it's a real nice crag, super well set up (bomber coldshuts or chains at the top of every route, liberally bolted) and it has great views to the West.  I led and 8 and a 9, but only toproped the 10s we set up 'cause I wasn't exactly feeling in the groove yet.  I spent most of my downtime staring over at Pyramid Mountain's North Face and dreaming about swooshing down on perfect corn.  So much for changing into summer mode!

Pyramid Mountain from Juno Wall.  The real question is whether it will earn a coveted place in my next book, Wiggles in the Canadian Rockies.

Working up a 10a.  Real short crux at the roofy bit.

The Rocky River Valley from Juno

After steaks and lots of other food at the campsite, we crushed some beers and then called it an early night.

Sunday found us at The Lost Boys crag on 93A.  This was the highlight of the weekend.  We pulled up and had the whole place to ourselves until well after lunch.  We forgot the topo, so while Chris ran back to the car for it, Yves led up a 10b/c.  Yeah, that's right, we warm up on b/c's.  Once he got back, we set up an 8 before I took my turn at leading the b/c.  That was pretty sketchy for me, I found the last clip real awkward and skipped it in favor of jugs and the chains above.  Sketchy move but it felt easier and safer than trying to clip from a crimper while pumped.  Yves also led "Iggy Pop and the Three Stooges", a 10c.  He had a good time of it, so when he pressured me into TRing it, I planned to meander up to the crux and then lower off.  It turns out that this one is nice and juggy, and with my long arms I found it real easy.  I'll have to lead it out next time...

Top Roping the 8 (Social Foreplay)

Yves on Iggy Pop and the Three Stooges

Pulling through the roof.  Looks tough but the holds are HUGE

Monday, we headed to Rock Gardens and took it pretty easy.  I didn't get any photos.  It's a nice crag that's close to town.  Overall, we got a good tour of the Jasper crags, and I've got a lengthy list of to-do climbs now.  Can't wait to get out again!

End of Exams Celebration

Well, this semester was a real beut for me.  Honestly the easiest time I've had in school that I can remember.  I got away on average every other weekend, and have been killing most of my courses.  It's what school should be like, but unfortunately for me, has never actually been.  I finished up my last exam on Thursday, and after a quick stop at Hudsons for some beers, I drove Pete down to Canmore for a 3 day rad-fest before work starts.  He's making me very jealous, having no job and living in Canmore!

Friday we decided to try Ptarmigan Peak, behind the LL ski hill.  A couple ACC buds of mine did it the weekend before, and they said it was a good time, so I was excited.  We got to LL early and started up the ski-out, eventually moving across the flat valley to the Halfway Hut.  We were seeing signs of a lousy freeze, and even dug a pit to see how wet things were.  Honestly, I have no idea how wet is dangerous wet, so we really just wasted time squeezing snow, humming and hawing.  Since the snow face on Ptarmigan is pretty tame until the last bit, we decided to keep going and headed up into a small flurry.  Eventually though, we got to a point about 100-200 meters below the ridge where the snow changed and was being loaded by the wind.  That and the whiteout conditions didn't exactly push us up the mountain, so we ripped the skins and survival skied back down to the car.  The snow was so shitty that we actually passed up $25 lift tickets.

Whiteout on Ptarmigan

Saturday we did some skiing around French Creek/Glacier.  I'm not going to say much about this, just remind myself to check my own photos to remember how fun that was.  It does offer great views and some nice skiing.  I wanted to complete the FHR but the rest of the group wasn't so keen so we headed back to the cars and crushed beers in the sun.  Spring skiing rocks!

Touring up below the French Glacier

Somebody's stoked!

The view in K-Country are always great

Sunday was rad-tastic for sure.  Pete "in-a-day" Knight was flip-flopping the night before about trying Joffre in a day, but I fed him dismal weather beta and overused the word "slog" enough to convince him to do Smuts instead.  Since I had to drive back to champ-city, I wouldn't be down for a 12+ hour day on Joffre.  Anyway, we woke up at 3:30, left at 4, were skiing by 5 and I topped out at 8:10 (Pete was of course about 30-40 minutes faster than me and had a picnic on the top while I suffered behind him).  I signed the register, wishing sorry scramblers a fun descent, then grabbed my skis and transitioned while Pete dropped in.  It was pretty icy, tough on the legs, and not super enjoyable but I'll still call it better than scree-bashing down.  Heck, it was awesome!  How often can you ski such a badass looking line that is only a short skip from the road?  We'll have to figure out how to time the descents for ideal snow, but otherwise we had this one dialed.  That's one for the bragging rights list.

Me on top 

The view towards Mt. Birdwood and Mt. Sir Douglas

Looking down the run, looks a bit tough with the icy/crusty conditions

Pete shows that it can't be that bad... on his race skis 

Smuts (and the Fist on the right) as seen from the road.

The Trooper Tour

I just got back from a pretty epic weekend of pre-finals slaying.  Spring conditions are starting to show themselves, so we managed to take advantage of stable snow and make some pretty ambitious descents.  The main goal of the weekend was what Pete dubbed "The Trooper Tour", skiing Observation Sub-Peak's north glacier to the top of "The Cooloir", skiing down it, booting back up, skiing over to Cirque Peak and skiing the couloir spilling onto Cirque's north glacier.  It was an ambitious plan, especially for me, as it would involve roughly 2000 m elevation gain and loss.

Saturday we warmed up the legs in Kananskis with a scot and a scandi.  We skied the Commonwealth Lakes Circuit and then headed over to Smuts Pass.  It was alot of skipping around with not a bunch of elevation gain, but I think I clocked ~1200 m on my watch.  It was a cool area, and I'd definitely like to do some more day-traverses in that area.  The potential for those is huge!

Pete skins up to a small col behind Smuts Col

The chugach is just out of sight from the Spray Lakes Road

Thilde and Ralph enjoy a minute of sun

Sunday was the big day.  We got up at 5, left Canmore at around 6, and we were skinning up by 8.  We made great time on the frozen crust and were soon on the ridge up to Observation Sub-Peak.  A bit of skinning over rocks, a little step of scrambling, and we were at the col between the two peaks.  In light of our intention to ski Cirque as well, Pete ruled out going for the actual summit.  Shucks, now I have to go back.  Anyway, we dropped onto our glacier run and it was pretty awesome.

Pete scrambles up on Observation Sub-Peak with Cirque Peak behind.

The Siffleur River Valley hiding below the clouds

Pete gets ready to drop into The Cooloir

Boot-top powder turns led to the entrance to The Cooloir, which we skied to the top of the fan.  Here we turned around and booted back to the top.  In the deep snow, Pete charged ahead but I soon bonked and was really in a world of hurt by the top.  I tried to get some calories in but it didn't help much and Pete broke trail all the way back up the glacier and over to the Cirque glacier.  At this point I started to actually feel OK again and broke trail for a wee bit before we roped up.  A few more switchbacks and we were below the Cirque couloir.  We booted this short pitch to the top, then dropped back down and skied the glacier back to the col between Obs-Sub and Cirque.

Pete skiing up the Cirque Peak Glacier

Pete approaches the Cirque Peak Couloir

And boots up it... still breaking trail.  I'm such a bad partner...

Oh yeah!  I dropped my poles so Pete had to lend me one.  Again what an awesome partner I am!

We skied down a ways with the skins on, then ripped them and swished quickly back to the car.  Pretty stoked, Pete's altimeter read close to 2000 m (I can't remember the exact number).  There are, however, a couple lessons that I need to learn.  My nutrition is clearly crap, I bonked hardcore twice (in both couloirs) and Pete did all the trailbreaking.  I was just there to slow him down.  I need to eat better breakfasts and fuel with more complex energy throughout the day.  I also need to work the legs more so that I can be stronger and actually contribute on these big days.  I'd really like to go back, maybe next year at this time, and try to speed lap this link-up.  I think a good goal would be to cut two hours off our time of 8 hours, and/or hit the peak of Observation Sub-Peak.

Monday, Graham joined us for a quick jaunt up Mt. Whymper.  This was an especially fun trip, with easy trailbreaking for 2/3 of the ascent followed by a bit of a sketchy shot up to the col.  Luckily, I was feeling better today and actually broke trail for a good bit of the ascent.  We didn't climb straight to the col, but rather climbed a previously wet-snow avalanched slope up to the summit ridge of Whymper, bootpacked up and across some scree, and then sideslipped back to the col.  This seemed safer than going straight up the slope below the col, and was also more comfortable with the nil visibility we were blessed with.  A break in the weather let us see down our line into Chickadee valley which we then skied in great conditions.  The top pitch is pretty steep, and the rest is pure fun.  The only downside to this tour is the fact that you have to coast out the Chickadee Valley trail, and then hike along the road back to the parking lot.  Otherwise, it was a great day!  I forgot my camera though, so no pics of our white-out experience.