2008

A snowshoe up to Blueberry hill with the Calgary Outdoor Club

A hike with Jenn through Grotto Canyon, exploring autumn, native rock drawings, rocks and hidden trails

A hike up to the summit of Devil's Thumb with Jenn, Ella and Przemek

Day 2 in Waterton, hiking with Jenn up to Forum Lake, the trail for Akamina Ridge. Made a couple of stops at the waterfalls along the way, ate lunch at the lake and then hiked around it.

A hike to upper and lower Rowe Lakes in Waterton Lakes National Park

A scramble with the Calgary Outdoor Club to the summit of Eiffel Peak. A misty/cloudy day with an early snowfall made for some interesting photos.

A scramble with Lindsay to the first and second summit of Mount Baldy

A stop at Maligne Lake before hiking up to two Geraldine Lakes

A trip to Jasper with Jenn. We stopped at Herbert Lake along the Icefields Parkway for some photos, made our way to Jasper and hiked to Angel Glacier. For sunset we went to get some photos at Medicine Lake.

A hike to Lake Annette in Paradise Valley

Checking out the Millarville Farmers Market with Jenn. The highlight was the giant zucchini.

Woke up early and decided to go get some sunrise photos at Moraine Lake. The sunrise was a little disappointing but I stopped by Herbert and Bow Lake for some nice reflections. The rest of the day I spent scrambling to the summit of Mistaya Mountain. The scramble involved navigating a glacier and a lot of loose rock. Not one I'd do again, but the views from the summit were well worth while. Caldron Lake looked great as always.

A hike/scramble with Renee, Adrian and Collin to Helen Lake and the summit of Cirque Peak. Some pretty wild weather, we even had snow!

A few photos of Marta and Przemyslaw at Lake Minnewanka just before they got married.

A beautiful day spent scrambling to the summit of Dolomite Peak with Renee. A few pesky mosquitoes on the way up. Seeing some bear prints in the sand near the gully made things a little more exciting. Once on the summit we chilled for a while taking in the views and enjoying our lunch. We had this terrific mountain all to ourselves. Which is good considering how back rock fall can be scrambling up through the gully.
GPS Track: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wfb08gmkxpychxz/2008-08-04%20Dolomite%20Peak.GPX

A hike/scramble with the Calgary Outdoor Club. Not to be confused with Wasootch Peak which is a separate mountain. This is mostly a hike until the very end. To reach the summit one can follow the ridge exclusively, coming to a difficult 5m downclimb, perhaps a 5.5, 5.6. The downclimb can be avoided by following a path to the right of the ridge and regaining it through the first gully.

A scramble to Fortress mountain with Kim. Snow on the summit in August!

A scramble up Mount Baldy via Nuagara's route, explained in his book "More Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies"

A scramble with Paulo and Ian to Commonwealth Peak. The marsh crossing was worse than I expected, using sandals. Mosquitoes were pretty bad. Some brutal bush whacking on the way up and near the top we took the wrong route, making it much more difficult. On the way down it was much easier. We built a cairn marking the right gully up and found a much easier route through the trees on the west side of the avalanche gully. The marsh crossing was much easier too just with scrambling boots.
GPS Track: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kwltehzcaqed8m5/2008-07-29%20Commonwealth%20Peak.GPX

A hike to Rawson Lake Ridge with the Calgary Outdoor Club. We made it to the ridge where the group sat down to have a snack and enjoy the view while I went to try and scramble to the ridge summit. A couple of moderate scrambling steps and I was able to get to the top.

A north to south traverse of Mount Indefatigable with the Calgary Outdoor Club. We stayed together as a group, as this is an area that grizzlies often frequent. To my surprise there were a ton of people on the trail making it unlikely to run into a bear.

A scramble with the Calgary Outdoor Club. We originally planned to do Eiffel Peak but changed because of snow. Cirque Peak turned out to be a great choice, as the early morning cloudy period entertained us by sending clouds through the valley. On the way down we stopped at the lake where we watched marmots fighting each other, seemingly oblivious to our presence.

A rainy and cold (for the summer) scramble with the Calgary Outdoor Club to Mount Chester. We made it to the summit fairly quickly, avoiding a giant patch of snow on the way up on the left.

Scrambling Mount Crandell with Renee and Kyle in Waterton Lakes National Park. A great scramble! Many routes that could get an eager scrambler in trouble. We followed the ledges to the left eventually scrambling up to a jagged ridge which had a lot of good route finding and scrambling. We ended the day at the lake where Kyle showed off his slacklining skills.
GPS Track: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bicwh4i6puyeapp/2008-06-30%20Crandell%20Mountain.GPX

I woke up at 3:00am and drove out to Moraine Lake for the sunrise. After I climbed up the nearby Tower of Babel and slept on the summit until 9:00am. Then it was off to Lake Louise to join the Calgary Outdoor Club for a scramble up Mount St. Piran and Devil's Thumb. A long day.

A photography hike to Boom Lake and Marble Canyon with the Calgary Outdoor Club

A scramble with Kheang and Karen to the first, second and third summits of Mount Rundle's east end.

A hike with Jenn on a rainy day around Upper Kananaskis Lake

A nice hike with Jenn to Troll Falls and around Marmot Creek

A hike with the Calgary Outdoor Club to the top of King Creek Ridge

A hike through Johnston Canyon to the Ink pots on a rainy day. We were lucky and had almost no rain for the entire hike.

A scamble up to the south summit of Opal Ridge with Jenn and Kim

Riding from Tofino to Revelstoke. I stayed at Three Valley Chateau and took some photos at the lake as the sun went down.

Riding through Vancouver Island to Tofino with a stop at Goldstream Provincial Park to take some photos of the "Niagara Falls"

Photos of Columbia River and Anacortes, day two of my motorcycle trip.

A late snowshoe up to Blueberry HIll on a beautiful day.

A scramble with the Calgary Outdoor Club to Mary Barclay

A scramble with the Calgary Outdoor Club to the north and south Wasootch Peaks.

A huge snowfall took Calgarians by surprise. These photos are taken at Prince's Island Park in downtown Calgary

A hike up to Lake Agnes with the Calgary Outdoor Club

A hike up Prairie Mountain with the Calgary Outdoor Club

This was to be a scramble up Mary Barclay but because of bad weather it turned into a hike up Sulphur Mountain

A hike up to Barrier Lake Lookout with the Calgary Outdoor Club

A scramble up to the peak at GR338442 and a traverse to Kananaskis Peak. The weather was really amazing considering the forecast called for 5-10 cm of snow. The bushwhacking was horrible and the often waist deep crusty snow made for a very slow trip up.

A scramble up Heart Mountain and the Twin Towers with the Calgary Outdoor Club. We went at a pretty good pace and tackled the downclimb without much of a problem. To find the downclimb, once you hit the drop off skirt around to your right (west) to find the easiest spot.

A hike with Andrea up the Centennial Trail to Olympic Summit and Mount Allan. It started off as a beautiful day but got a little gloomy and windy towards the end

An easy scramble up Wasootch Peak on a beautiful day with the Calgary Outdoor Club.

A scramble up to the south peak of Opal Ridge with the Calgary Outdoor Club

A winter hike up to the summit of King Creek Ridge with Joanna and Steven

My first scramble of the year with the Calgary Outdoor Club. A beautiful day in February! We encountered a bit of snow going up and a few snow banks near the top, but no problems really.

Hiking with Tisha, Paulo and Chinook

Joanna's Birthday

Mike and I decided to head out and climb something. Mostly I just wanted to get out of the tree line. The weather was pretty good but there was a ton of snow. Bushwhacking with snow on average up to the knees was not that fun and we gave up 200 meters below the summit.

Prairie Mountain with Blanka, Joanna, Mark and Mike. Photos taken with a cell phone camera.

Photos from the Hardcore Championship Fighting Destiny event.

Hardcore Championship Fighting, Destiny weigh-ins. Photos at the weigh ins of the fighters and the HCF belt.

An outing to get some exercise, Mike and I were aiming for the summit of Cox Hill but got a little lost

A snowshoe up Blueberry Hill on a beautiful day with Andrea, Blanka, Joanna, Marta, Przemek, Orion and Cezary

Ben (a friend from work) just bought a digital SLR and wanted to go take photos. We decided to try and get some sunrise shots at Vermillion Lakes near Banff but with overcast winter skies and frozen water we thought our chances were slim. We got lucky!

A snowshoe outing with the Calgary Outdoor Club to Kananaskis Country's Penstock Loop