13 Adventures from 2013
We’ve been on way more adventures and micro-adventures in 2013 than we can count. Some we’ve written about here, some we still plan to write about and others we haven’t decided about yet. We decided to pick our top 13 Adventures from 2013, so here they are in chronological order. Let us know in the comments about your own favorite adventure from 2013. 1. Winter Camping on the summit of Iago Peak: Quite a few of our most memorable adventures have been the result of some serendipity. We ended up on Iago Peak after our original plan had backfired due to another area we wished to visit being used by a cacophony of sledders. Iago Peak overlooks the Coquihalla Highway. On this night it was shrouded in fog and the lights from the various rest stops along it illuminated the fog from below creating the scene above. 2. Ice Climbing near Canmore, Alberta: In February we went Ice Climbing in Canmore for a week. In this picture Spring is pictured climbing one of the daunting ice pitches in Guinness Gully. By far our most memorable moment from this trip was ice climbing in the bottom of Kings Creek Canyon. On that day snow was dumping from the skies and as we climbed the ice walls at the bottom of the canyon we would intermittently get hit with avalanches of loose snow that had built up on the bluffs above before reaching critical mass and releasing down on us. It was like being shaken up inside a snow globe and made the ice climbing that much more adventurous. 3. Our first experience with AT Skiing, a Baptism of Fire: We chose a rather large objective as our first time out on our new Alpine Touring ski setup. We planned to ski up to the base of Atwell Peak and then climb to its summit before skiing out. Poor conditions stopped us from reaching the summit of Atwell though. The return trip covered over 34km’s with ~2000m’s of elevation gain. We’d definitely broken in our brand new ski boots by the end of that adventure. 4. Sport Climbing at Skaha: Over the Easter long weekend we joined some friends on a road trip to visit Skaha, a sport climbing area near Penticton. The weather was perfect and it was our first experience with sport climbing and clipping bolts rather than placing traditional climbing protection like nuts and cams. The area is amazing and we only scratched the surface of the climbing there over our 3 days. We plan to visit Skaha now at least once a year. 5. Camping on the...
Skins, Skis and Aching Knees
“I’m concentrating on Ice Climbing this Winter, not Skiing” I foolishly uttered those words to myself last Fall believing I would hold fast in my convictions. I truly believe that if you want to get good at something, not just passably capable, you need to pick one pursuit per season. I’ve consistently broken my own rule in this regard. I’m like that dog in the film “UP” that has all the intentions in the world of doing one thing only, until SQUIRREL! I see a SQUIRREL! Coming into Winter last year I wanted to work solely on my Ice Climbing. It was all going well for a while, we took a 5 day ice climbing course in Canmore, Alberta and we tried to go Ice Climbing near Lillooet, BC for a few weekends but the shiny new skis of my friends kept glinting in the corner of my eyes. You see, when I’d chosen to focus on Ice Climbing, my circle of friends had not received the memo. They’d all chosen to focus on learning to backcountry ski. I staved off looking at that Squirrel for a few trips, whilst I wallowed through the powder in my démodé snowshoes. But eventually I couldn’t take it any more. I caved. MEC, our outdoor gear mecca, was clearing out of all their Ski gear for their Spring stock and had slashed their prices. Myself and my other half went in and bought everything we needed; skis, skins, boots and bindings. We already had ski poles and avalanche gear but still, it was a big chunk of change to get going. After the dust settled and we had our newly acquired Alpine Touring Ski setup laid out in our spare bedroom cum walk-in-gear-closet we wondered “now what?” Our friends, who had been touring on their skis all winter, invited us on an overnight trip to attempt a couloir on the East face of Atwell Peak. We wouldn’t be skiing this gully, only skinning up to it and then boot packing our way up to the summit. Nevertheless, just getting to the campsite below the base of Atwell, ~32 kms return with ~2000m’s of elevation gain, would be a big undertaking, seeing as this would be our first time in the backcountry on touring skis. We were apprehensive but I knew that the first half of the route is a common trail for beginner backcountry skiers, leading to the Elfin Lakes Hut. If we felt like we were way out of our depth by the hut we could always temper our plans, stay at the Hut for the night and spend the next day practicing our backcountry...
