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LifeStraw Review
Adventuring in the mountains, running on the trails or travelling to new...
The Wonderland Valley Resort and Campground
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This year made my 3rd year in a row running a distance in the Squamish 50...
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Athelney Pass: The Park that never was
“Why isn’t this place a park?” I uttered those words as myself and Spring had just found a large rock that would be comfortable to sit on as we unpacked our lunches. We where sitting atop “The Elephant”, an unofficially named volcanic plug of rotten rock. A few kilometers away we could just about hear the whoops! of elation as 4 of our friends were reaching the summit of Ochre Mountain. We shouted out to them, not sure if they could hear us, and settled in to spend a few minutes soaking in the views before heading on to our next peak of the day. “Athelney Pass” I said to myself “… what a place!” The previous day myself, Spring and 5 other friends had spent 8 hours with heavy packs on our backs hauling our camping gear 15km’s up Salal Creek. For the most part you can walk on river rocks to follow the course of the creek, at other times you need to deke into the forest to avoid where the creek abuts the shore. It had been a hard approach hike. On paper it looks relatively easy by our standards with only 800m’s of elevation being...
The slippery slope to becoming “those kind of people”
We’re those kind of people now aren’t we? Spring said this as we sat down to watch a nature documentary and drink a liter of some kale, ginger, beet and other various fruits and vegetables concoction she had made with our extremely expensive masticating juicer. We’d just spent the weekend Skiing, Rock Climbing, Mountain Biking, Trail Running and felt a little anxious that we hadn’t crammed in more to do. Our spare bedroom has never seen a bed since we moved in, we have racks of our gear strewn about the place in various states of being dried out, aired out, packed or unpacked. We haven’t bought a piece of non-technical clothing in years. It doesn’t matter what garish color it comes in, if it wicks sweat and is quick drying, or has a high heat retention to weight ratio I’m sold. In fact, the more obnoxiously colored the better. I buy my clothes now based primarily on the assumption that I want a search and rescue helicopter to be able to see me better if I have an accident deep in the wilderness. Yup, we’ve become “Outdoorsy!” I used to hate people like me. They made me feel...
A Winter Storm
*WHUMPF* “Did you hear that?” “I felt it” “Wait what? I didn’t feel it!” “What do we do?” “We don’t go any higher. We turn back.” “… ok” Last Winter myself and Spring started getting into backcountry ski touring. Learning to ski follows naturally if you live near mountains and wish to continue to visit them through the Winter. There is of course snowshoeing, but it is laborious. Skiing makes the uphill climbing more energy efficient and the downhill is fast. You can’t beat skiing for the ground that can be covered during the short hours of daylight through the Winter months. While the mountains in Winter are staggeringly beautiful they are also extremely dangerous. More so than in Summer when the temperatures are more hospitable and the hazards, though still present, are largely visible and known. As Humans we tend to anthropomorphize many things and I feel that when we see something beautiful that makes us feel happiness we imagine that the source of that beauty cares for us, otherwise why would it make us happy? We imbue these places with intent towards us. When the winds howl the mountain doesn’t want us there, but when the sun...
Sky Pilot: Why I Climb
Back in August 2011 I reached the summit of a little peak that sits only a handful of kilometers away from where I live. In a lot of ways this peak, outside of the scrambling and mountaineering community in and around the Southern Coast Mountains of BC, is largely unknown by most individuals. It was unknown to me also until one day I was flicking through the pages of my recently bought copy of Matt Gunns “Scrambles in Southwest British Columbia” in mid 2010. The name “Sky Pilot” instantly stood out. It’s a great name for a Mountain in my opinion and instantly gave the peak a mystique that drew me to want to climb it some day. In many ways climbing Mountains for me is an endeavour to get further away from the comfort and ennui of postmodernity at sea level. The closer I get to the sky above me, the less the trappings of modern life apply, the greater the viscerality of experience. To stand atop this Sky Pilot became a singular focus for me. At the time of discovering this Mountain I could barely hike for 3 sustained hours at sea level. I’d never carried an...
14 Adventures in 2014
So last year we did a recap of our Top 13 adventures in 2013. It only seems fitting to follow suit this year with a look back on our Top 14 Adventures in 2014. It’s always interesting looking back over the photo albums. In hindsight an entire year can seem pretty short, it’s only when we actually sit down and remember what we did and where we went that we begin to realize just how much we packed into those 12 short months. It was a tough process cutting down our list of adventures to only 14. In the end we decided to cut out anything we didn’t do together, which was actually quite a lot. Spring did a ton of running in 2014, mostly solo or with some running friends. She also ran 80km of technical trails in the Squamish50 race. I was there, at the Aid Stations and the Finish line, but not beside her in the fray. Myself I got out a few times either with other friends or solo to visit some mountains I was interested in. Excellent experiences, especially the solo trips, but getting out with Spring and sharing the adventure always makes it...
