British Columbia
We set out from Squamish as the rainy
weather arrived. Vancouver was hit as well, and we spent hours wrestling our
way through the windstorm that pummeled the Metro area on August 29th.
It seems the rains followed us across BC, giving us a rainy journey for the entire
drive to Canmore...
Alberta
We were anticipating warmer, drier weather
in Canmore, but were greeted with a week of sporadic rain whipped by strong
winds and crisp temps around 5 degrees celcius… dang.
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| The sun begins to peak through the clouds to illuminate the mountains |
Still, we had a fun and chilly week of
attempted climbing in the Bow Valley. We spent two days freezing our butts off
up at the Acephale – where the climbing temps were great but the
in-between-temps were almost unbearable. Kim was successful with a send of her
wishlist item, “Icebox of Broken Dreams” (5.12d), and although Graham was getting
closer on “Endless Summer” (5.13d), we were forced to forego another day up
there due to rapidly plummeting temperatures in the forecast. We climbed our
last two days in the Bow Valley at Grassi Lakes and Grotto Canyon, two places
we hadn’t been before. Grassi was great fun – we got a high mileage day on
steep pocketed routes. Grotto Canyon would
have been great, but after just one climb we were rained out. Alas, it was just
not meant to be.
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| Graham on his onsight of "Dance me Outside" (5.12a) at Grassi Lakes |
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| Graham on his send of "Try This" (5.12d) at Grassi Lakes |
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| Hiding under a cliff drinking tea instead of climbing |
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| The rain hammering down in Grotto Canyon |
We eventually gave up on the climbing
conditions in Canmore and headed to Calgary at the start of the long weekend.
We felt so lucky to have a chance to see some great friends who were
exceptionally generous to us during our visits. We stayed Friday night with
Carley and Cory and had a wonderful time playing Shanghai Rummy and Pandemic. Saturday
evening we headed over to see family friends Joce and Duane. We had a fantastic
time visiting and catching up with them for the night. Thank you all for your
awesome company and hospitality!
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| Pandemic: A ridiculously fun cooperative board game where you save the world from disease! |
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan was the start of unchartered
territory for both of us, and despite being rock climbers with a love of the
mountains, we were very excited to make the most of the prairies. We stopped at
a few places throughout the drive to admire the prairie fields and sky, and we
made the detour south to Grasslands National Park for a visit. Grasslands NP is
a unique park that preserves unconverted prairie habitat and is home to several
rare and endangered species in Canada. We were thrilled to see bison, pronghorn
antelope, black-tailed prairie dogs, and mule deer among other exciting
creatures in the park.
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| A lone gull in a big prairie sky |
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| Prairie grasses in Grasslands National Park |
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| Grasslands National Park |
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| Birdie! |
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| Bison dust baths |
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| Black-tailed Prairie Dog |
Manitoba
Manitoba turned out to be much more
exciting than we expected! We crossed the border into this prairie province in
the evening, and shortly afterwards the sky began to light up with an
incredible showing of the northern lights. The aurora borealis of the prairies
far exceeded what we ever expected – the dancing lights formed vibrant ribbons
of greens and pinks that danced vertically across the entire sky from east to
west and directly above us. We had some fun trying to take photos, chuckling at
our inability to even begin to capture the wonder we were witnessing.
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| Aurora Borealis |
Manitoba just feels very Canadian as well.
We decided to drive in to Winnipeg to see the old buildings, visit Portage Ave
and Main St (well it was 40 below in the winter...), and stop at the Red River.
After leaving the city we were excited to watch the landscape exhibit more of
the boreal forest – and we also stopped for some geocaching fun!
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| The Red River! |
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| We were successful geocachers :) |
Ontario
Ontario is SO HUGE. We drove over 2000
kilometres to get to Ottawa, but the drive and destination were totally worth
it. On the way we stopped in Thunder Bay for a day of climbing and it was so
fun! We were super lucky to meet Aric Fishman (owner and guide at OutdoorSkills and Thrills) and friends Mitch and Joe, and climb with them for the day.
While we only visited one crag, Silver Harbour, we are excited to add T Bay to
the list of places we are stoked to return to.
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| Lake Superior... it looks like an ocean! |
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| Kim climbs one of the warm-ups at Silver Harbour |
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| Working the moves on "Sterling" (5.13a) |
We arrived in Ottawa Friday evening and had
a weekend full of great visiting with family. Graham’s Auntie Jan, Uncle John
and cousins all live in town – Graham hadn’t seen them in nearly ten years and
Kim had never met the gang in person, so it was super super great. We had
family dinners and games nights (and days), toured downtown Ottawa (and went to
Quebec!) and did a lot of wonderful catching up.
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| Auntie Jan and Graham in front of the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa |
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| Rideau Falls |
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| Russ, Annie and David carefully considering their hands during hours of board games at The Loft |
We are now on our way to Southern Ontario
for the rest of the month, where we will visit more friends and family and
continue our sampling of the climbing that Ontario has to offer.
