Earl the mountain goat

Linda Ice Nine WI4 11/24/07

Very cold day out in the mountains ! It was -27 or so and the ice was very hard and bit brittle on the lower pitches but got much better the higher we got. It was my first day back out in the mountains from a rest period that I needed and I was feeling rested and weak. Mark lead the whole day as I was not feeling up to it.
Frozen Lake Louise, a nice walk across it.

A view from the trail of whats to come...
Almost at the bottom pitch. The first couple pitched were WI2 and ten a couple WI3 and the last couple WI4.

Beautiful day out there !
Hi Mom.
We soloed the first pitch, well mark did I was having problems with my new crampons and very sore, weak calf's. Not to mention some screaming barfies( frozen hands) so about 3/4 of the way up I had mark drop a rope for me.

The start of the WI3 pitches.
Mark broke about an inch of his pick off at the bottom of this pitch. Hard ice and old picks not a good combo.
A look back down....
Waz up....... :+)

Mark hanging out at the belay


This is Earl, the mountain goat. We named him, he just looked like an Earl. He was about 30 feet from me when i came around a corner. He just looked at me, like what are you doing here?, hung out for a bit and off he when up the cliffs. Very cool!

This was the walk back to the car across the lake after our epic decent of down climbing , lost tool, riped jacket and gaiters and a 40 meter rappel into the dark. Do the ropes touch the bottom??? yes they did. A great day out in the mountains with a good friend.

Mt. Baldy 1st scramble 09/07LOL

The answers are out there somewhere...

Maybe up here?

Spent the night in Canmore to

wake up to low cloud cover and high humidity. So Pete and I spent the day climbing at Grassi lakes and then off to Mt. Baldy in Kananaskis Country. Cold damp morning climb but a great hike up Baldy with great views and nice weather for the trip.

Victoria North Attempt 06/07

bad weather foiled Jeff and i's attempt on victoria North. We made it to just below the col but the weather was teling us to retreat from the hill. Another great day in the mountains with a good friend.

Mt.Hector 04/02/07

Summit !

Pete hauling his load. This guy is a sherpa!

And Pete's load laying out in all it's glory.

Mt. Hector still off in the distance, waits for the summit party on route.
This is Little Hector.

Had to stick to the rocks as the snow was super soft due to the really warm, no hot, weather

There was some awesome avalanche action coming off of Little Hector all day. We sat and watched a size 1 come off this face while we had lunch.

A long way still to go...

The slog on and on and on and on and on and on...

Almost there now...

Some how it got turned to B/W but they still made for good pic's.

This me just below the summit pyramid.
This is right below the summit and the last picture my camera made. Dead batteries so no summit picture. Pete got one of me so I will post that later.

Tangle Falls VSI 3, May 06, 2007

Tim B, Andrea and myself slept in on our go for the Skyladder route on Andromeda but I went for a ramble up Athabasca and later we all went to Tangle Falls to climb some vertical slush on May,6, 2007. The next day Tim and Andrea topped out on Skyladder as i was feeling ill and stayed behind.

Yup vertical slush!

Mt. Joffre Solo summer ' 04

I finally got to the summit of my first Rocky Mountain in the summer of ' 04. After the four previous attempts it felt good to bag it and solo at that. I had tried in winter solo, spring solo and with a friend and then got it in summer solo. I learned a lot about the snow pack in the Rockies and that was as good as a summit on every trip.

It's a ways back there.... looks can be and are deceiving. I just kept going and going and going and it never seamed to get closer.
Loved being here by myself, the weather was perfect and I felt great !

Well my first Rocky Mountain summit picture ! I spent about 2 hours up here just eating and hanging out. I really didn't want to leave but did make my way all the way out to the truck the same day. It took me 29 hours car to car with a bivi at Aster Lake.

The Canmore 500

Chris, Steve and I set off for Canmore for the weekend, fun. We started with a summit of Chinamens Hat and then off to the bar. Much fun had by all.

The boys making the way up in less than perfect conditions but still good times.

Steve almost there.

Chris coming up on the summit.

A look over the edge...

Summit with Steve on the right.

The next day we went climbin at Grassi Lakes. I lead a 5.8, slowly, in wet boots. The rock wasn't to warm either and it made for some cold hands.

Finishing up on some top rope fun.

The next morning we got a good look at the summit of the day before last. And were off.

"The King" Mt. Robson New Route to come...

I have been plotting and planning a new route for this side of the mountain. It can and will be climbed by me and a partner making a go of it. We will also hopping to descend the West bowl via The Kinney route, 1st ascent route that was discounted and never repeated. Look for a new line in the guide books.... or here later sometime.

We for all the haters who won't leave a name. I didn't fall at 2 o' clock but I did save his ass from freezing to death. I have been up to try the King 3 times , you? Keep your negative words to yourself and be happy with your lack of ambitions. I will succeed but you wont because you don't try. Off to Nepal in the new year as a guide in training, you? And I also take my climbing partners comfort in his or hers surrounding very serious and will turn back when needed to from ANY climbing objective. I believe Barry B. has turned back from many climbs and he is alive to tell his story. Don't try don't learn, don't turn back don't live.

The Twins Attempt 07/04/07

Mark, Ahnah in the backgound behind and between us and I off to climb The Twins... So we thought.


The North Bowl of Andromeda.
Ahanh pulling sled with ease on the flat tongue of the Athabasca glacier.

Ahnah slept at the foot of the tent, as usual.

She also stole Chris and Lisa's sausage, little thief.
A few parties of ACC'ers passed by in the morning. We were less motivated than these folks.
Morning Chris.

Dude's
Goose.

Avy's started pouring off Little Snow Dome just as we were getting on our way. The camp was far from danger.

Ahanh wanting to get going..?
More Avy's... This is a good sequence of two Avy's.

WoW !
Ahnah did very well on the flats and slight inclines but she had problems with the steeper parts. Many with the switch backs sharp turns.

Snow Dome's Ice Cliff you passed on route to the head wall that leads to the Columbia Ice field proper.

Don't hang out here.





Clear of the Ice Cliff we stopped for a moment. You can see the switch backs that make up the trail up the Head Wall. I turned back at the bottom of the first turn you can see. The dog was over packed, My boots were not very good for skiing, I was in plastic mountaineering boots, and they gave me a large blister for the first time. Never skied in them before. I was frustrated with my lack of fore site, I had not planned the trip as well as I could have. The dog was working to hard for my liking and over all I was just not in a great space to make any contribution to the "team" in my funk. A learning experience for sure.

This is Ahnah passing under the Ice Cliff after me, about 5 minutes before this happened....

You can see her in the fore ground on the path. The little black dot.

It was a large chunk of ice with the avy lasting for a bit and cleared the path we were just on. You can see that Ahnah is almost to where I was standing by the time it started to clear.

The rest was straight forward so no pic's but I had to haul both the sled and my bag up the last hill to the Snow Coach parking lot and it had no snow on it ! Sucked! Over all a learning experience for me.