Aunt Betty Climbs Idaho Peak

My Aunt Betty and the cousins ( Ann, Elizabeth, Mary and Christine with their husbands and kids ) visited in July and did the usual fun things to do in New Denver. Lots of old stories of relations and as much dirt on my father as possible. Most of the stories related to Aunt Betty feeding Dad mud pies. We hiked up Idaho Peak, went huckleberry picking, out on the boat on Slocan Lake, riding the Galena trail, Dennis Creek Ridge for wildflowers and of course swimming.

Glacier Lake

OK. We liked Glacier Lake so much that we had to return. Somewhere down there is our canoe and the Nahanni River. In a couple of days we are supposed to meet up with Adam and the rest of our Nahanni Party to run the wild rapids.

We had some great company on the beach here and some beer and some fish. Fire. More beer. No more fish. Beaver slapping his tail at 2 in the morning. The rocks on this beach are ALL perfect skipping rocks.

That is the Cirque of the Unclimbables just to the right of the big rock. I think the clouds and mist and rain are the usual weather around here. What an awesome spot!

Cirque of the Unclimbables

So, you can see fancy pictures of the Cirque of the Unclimbables just about anywhere, but here is the picture from near the top of the hike up from Glacier Lake. It is kind of steep and fairly easy to lose the trail. Apparantly this year there were less than a dozen people that did the hike. The climber types mostly fly in by heli with a sackful of gear and beer. We did enjoy the morning down by the lake and set out for the Cirque at our usual time of 2pm. Pitched camp at (hmmm) around 7pm. I think Sara almost had words to me on the hike up as we thrashed through over-the-head slide alder. Everything was OK after the tent was set-up, food was eaten and the 6" air mattress was installed into the tent with the down bags. Nice. The following day we were spoilt by perfect weather - one of the two non-rainy days in a month - according to a pair of climbers who had spent the last 30 days in the neighborhood. Sara took some amazing pictures but even I have not seen them. I think they get catalogued and processed and submitted to win photo competition's first.

Glacier Lake

After two days of paddling it was time to start the hike into the Cirque. Starting at our usual 2pm we left our canoe at Brittnell Creek and made our way through the swamps and moose meadows that is sometimes called a trail. There is an occasional strip of flagging tape and once in awhile the trail becomes obvious. I have the GPS co-ordinates of the trail if anyone wants it. We got to the canoes on the edge of Glacier Lake and paddled across to our campsite below the Cirque. Nice to get to camp before 8pm and prior to a spot of rain. It did seem an awfully long way up to the Cirque. It is one of the reknowned areas known to climbers around the world as location of one of the 50 Classic Climbs of North America - the Lotus Flower Tower. Oh well, if the weather looks promising tomorrow we will check it out. Meanwhile, what an awesome campsite and this is pretty remote. Where are we anyhow? "Up North" is the best answer as it is vague enough for this immense landscape.

Sentinel Pass and the rights and duties of Man.

I have finished working for Greenpeace. Moved out of Calgary and back to Banff. David and I went to Abbots Pass and climbed Lefroy and Victoria. on Friday Shelly and I went walking into Sentinel Pass, we had a long discussion about society and the individual - interspersed with awed exclamations on the incredible horizon looming above us.

Greenpeace had me thinking a lot about the costs that we place on our earth and on our society. My ongoing investigation of my life and what truly I desire; and what other people and society require; led me to thinking about work, it's costs; leisure and its costs; our obligations as individuals and as a society to reduce theses costs and so the result.

Our discussion originated from the question - should we support people who are no/are not able to support themselves. And for the sake of argument I looked at the other extreme - a person who works in a field such as cosmetics, drug, chemical etc industry where their work is for luxury and unnecessary. This work causes serious damage, but the person is highly paid for their work, self-sufficient and 'admired' in society. What I am interested in is who places more costs on our world and society.

We have valued work - at what it pays at the market rate; but the market rate does not reflect a number of factors; costs no included in production - environmental costs. A lot of work we have excluded from the market; volunteer work, housekeeping, raising children etc according to our market theory - this is not valuable. Our society assumes that more money is better. So people work for more money. I dispute that money is what we aspire - partly it is the things that money can buy - cars, houses etc. but many of these factors are environmentally costly and why do we desire them - for status, for ease of getting to work. They are necessity only because of the lifestyle forced upon us. Do less. Work less. Own less, and live more simply. These items are not what we want in life. They are still materials to let us live easier. They are like a cyanide kill that we think is an aspirin. Cars do not help us - they kill us, destroy our environment.

What we really want in life is changes through time - sometimes it is challenges, sometimes peace and tranquility. These do not depend on material possessions, they are states of mind. We desire to be happy and contented. However, when dissatisfied we are tempted to buy our way out.

A Hike in the Mountains

The drive from Banff to the Columbia Icefields is a tourists dream trip. In summer the highway is lined with R.V.'s, Japanese, and camera's. In winter... it is pretty quiet, strangely no-one is here. The mountains in January are beautiful, scattered snow and rock fill the sky. The sky was quiet, the snow was actually pretty good at Parker's ridge, and we all glowed in the aura. I have never understood this, but I have always liked it, why are there never any people in the mountains when winter arrives? We relaxed in the Hilda Creek Youth Hostel at the base of our ski slope. We stoked the fire in the sauna and prepared our simple meal. Fueled as always by carbohydrates, we digested in the sauna. Too tired to try to put a day into words. Just relax and know.

I had planned to take the Sunday and go climbing. I was getting slightly pissed off with people, why couldn't they get out of bed, and go for a walk in the beautiful moonlight at 2 am. I was tired of expending energy convincing people. I stopped, and gathered myself, and my energy was within me.

The next morning I awoke and quietly gathered my equipment. I was excited and positive. Today was going to be incredible. I quickly slipped out the door of the hut, and started walking. The sky was impossibly clear, and cold. The only sound was the scrunch, scrunch of my boots on the firm snow as I walked along the road to the Columbia Icefields.

I was getting sleepy now, and just so relaxed. My body was speaking, and I laid down on the glacier in my cocoon of clothing. The balance was there, the temperature was perfect. I was neither sweating nor cold. I could lie down to sleep on the glacier, and then get up and hike still perfectly comfortable. This sounds like an advertisement for Gore-tex. I awoke after a half hour, and felt incredibly refreshed, the sunlight was just beginning to affect the night's sky. I had remembered a crevasse free approach from the summer before and kept a straight line up the Andromeda glacier. The snow was surprisingly deep, considering the lack of snow we had in the Rockies that winter. As I neared the top of the bowl, I was wading waist deep in the fluffy stuff that had avalanched from the rocks high in the bowl. I looked around, and tried to feel what the world around me was doing. There was no maliciousness in the air, the world merely was, and I was there. I continued over the bergschrund and onto the face just as a reasonably large spindrift avalanche quietly appeared two meters to my left.

I started to move up quickly, always trying to keep a tool or crampon on solid ice. There was a few inches of snow on the face, and it obviously was not sticking very well. It did however make for very easy front-pointing. I had been on this face three months earlier, and I remember racing ahead so that I could be with myself. I went at my own pace today, pleasantly hiking in the hills. Early in the morning I reached the summit, and continued down to the Andromeda - Athabasca col. Traversing the gendarmes on the col I then continued up the other side toward the summit of Athabasca. The route is very simple and I had lots of time to enjoy the views. The wind uncharacteristically still had not picked up, and I was wishing that I had my paraglider with me, and that the National Parks would lighten up with their regulations prohibiting flights. It was one of those days. Our adventure up here in September was slightly more epic and I marvelled how serene it could be here. How harsh the winter is, I was certainly catching the season at a rare moment.

I looked up the summit register, and finding our names while I remembered one of my first alpine ice climbs, up the north face. I sat and looked. The world stretched away, the summits of Columbia, Bryce, The Twins, and Castlegaurd teasing me with more summits, less time. I wandered down, returning to the col, and bum sliding down the glacier and peacefully doing the trudge. This is a far more pleasant hike upon fresh snow than it is upon the rocks of summer.

There is something magical about the winter.

I trudged down the road, and returned quietly to Hilda Creek Hostel. No words. My friends had a beautiful day skiing around Parker's ridge. I had promised to look after the Hostel this evening whilst the usual managers had a holiday. I lit the stove, and settled in a comfy chair with a book.

In the morning I gathered my stuff, made myself a cup of tea, enjoying the serenity of the situation. This might be OK to live in this cabin. Hmmmm, no not forever, just right now. When I was mentally prepared I stepped out the door, walked down to the road, and waited. The traffic is pretty quiet out here at this time of year, but unlike the summer the first car that drove along stopped and picked me up. It would have been another good day for a hike in the mountains.