The Amazing ACC Clubhouse in Canmore
Bottom Line: The Alpine Club of Canada Clubhouse in Canmore is a hostel like no other we’ve ever seen. We almost don’t want to let the secret out about this place as we want to keep it to ourselves. But that wouldn’t be fair. If you are staying in Canmore for it’s access to adventures and want to immerse yourself in mountain culture then you simply have to book a stay at the ACC Clubhouse. Observations: We’d heard rumours on the grapevine of some well furnished, cozy cabins on the outskirts of Canmore filled with the positive vibes of mountain people featuring spectacular views of the surrounding mountains, for the low price of $36 a night ($25 for ACC members). We had to check it out! We’ve been members of the ACC and we’ve visited a few of the Cabins they maintain in the mountains on the West Coast. Something that always strikes us about them is how comfortable they are considering where they are located and how cheap they are to stay in. We’ve stayed in other Cabins in the mountains that are sometimes nothing more than a wooden garden shed, with shelves to lie on. Hey, when you are moving in the mountains you appreciate any kind of shelter you can get. The ACC Cabins that we’ve stayed in though have always gone above and beyond in providing facilities and comfort in really wild locations like high ridge crests or at isolated alpine lakes. We had a trip to the Rockies planned so we wanted to see what the ACC would offer at their Clubhouse in Canmore, which is near a large town, but still in a pretty wild location, located a few kilometres outside of town, nestled in the trees below Grotto Mountain. More than simply a Hostel. What I found did not dissappoint. I’ve stayed in “Hostels” in Europe and they can tend to have a bad name for being noisy, crowded and not relaxing. They are somewhere you crash after a night of partying. I did that through my 20’s and while affordable, I didn’t get much sleep there. Now in my 30’s I’m motivated to sleep well, get to bed early and get up and out before dawn to make use of the daylight in the mountains. The ACC Clubhouse is a different type of Hostel. It has shared rooms, eating areas and facilities but that’s where the similarities with the City Hostels I’ve stayed in ends. The feel is much more like the mountain cabins that I love to visit now. The views from almost every window are breath taking and inspiring....
Early Season Ice Climbing
Since our week long trip to Canmore last Winter, Ice Climbing has become a passion of ours. This past season has seen us put a lot more effort into Climbing in general. Climbing is not just a full body sport, it’s a full everything sport. It’s physical, mental and emotional. It’s the perfect activity in my opinion. I can understand why people give up everything to live in a van and climb full time as a dirtbag. Climbing gives you almost everything you need to feel a sense of living fully. Ice Climbing, however, tends to not have a huge following. Even within the climbing community only a small subset of climbers will learn to climb ice and stick with it. For most it appears to be a novelty activity to do once, take some photos of and then never do again. Not for myself. Something about the aesthetics of it appeals to me. Swinging sharpened Ice tools and kicking serrated barbs of steel into walls of frozen water. Seeing layers of ice shatter and explode or feeling the ice tool make a satisfying “thunk” as it bites solidly from a perfect flick of the wrist. All ice is not made equal either. Time, weather and location can have a dramatic effect on the properties of the ice you will be climbing. The type of ice you climb in the morning can be completely different to the type of ice you climb that same evening. To rock jocks that have never been on ice I try to use this analogy, “Imagine going to your favorite granite rock climbing area only to discover when you get there that the rock has now changed to limestone with bands of gneiss running through it, and instead of a 5.10b crack you now have a 5.11a face climb. It’s that kind of flux that you have to be prepared for with ice” Or put simply by a friend of mine as we geared up at the base of a climb: “Ice Climbing is just badass, that’s it, everyone knows it” What follows are some accounts of the Ice Climbing trips I’ve been on in the past few months and what I’ve learned from those experiences. Mount Baker Seracs: Spring wrote about our experience at Mount Baker here: “Mount Baker: Ice Climbing“, so I won’t labor the details. I was really psyched to get out on glacier ice. From all my glacier experience the number one rule has always been to avoid going anywhere near crevasses but on this trip our goal was not only to find the deepest, darkest cracks in the glacier...
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...
Arc’teryx Nuclei Hoody Review
Bottom Line: A versatile, packable, CoreLoft jacket. Perfect for belaying or as a midlayer. Face fabric (Arc’teryx Airetica) is water resistant but not waterproof so a hardshell is needed in a downpour, however, the Arc’teryx CoreLoft, unlike down, will insulate when wet as it retains its loft. I’d highly recommend it to others, another quality Arc’teryx product. How I chose it: Full disclosure, we are active members in a number of online communities, from nature conservancy and interest to outdoor equipment for enjoying the wild comfortably and safely. Arc’teryx is one of them. They wanted to say thanks for our continued support of their online communities by giving myself and Spring at Pebbleshoo a jacket. We chose the Nuclei Hoody. We had already been considering it as we already have down jackets, but they aren’t practical to use if the weather is forecast to be wet as down loses its insulation when soaked. The Nuclei uses Arc’teryx’ own Coreloft which retains it’s insulating properties even when wet. Belaying near Squamish Belaying near Leavenworth Returning from climbing Seracs at Mount Baker Observations since receiving and using it: If you’ve watched our video review above you’ll already have heard most of my observations regarding this Hoody. I love the included stuff sack for packing the jacket which also has a loop attached to it so that it can be clipped to a harness with a carabiner when climbing. It insulates really well. It’s warm. It fits well. I wear it everywhere. I have a coat rack at my apartment door and I don’t like clutter so I usually just have one or two jackets there that I put on when heading out. The Nuclei Hoody has replaced my old fleece Hoody as my go-to jacket. Pros: Packable: Compresses down really well Light: I don’t even notice it when I’m wearing it or have it clipped to my harness Fitted: The trim design is awesome, it doesn’t bunch up or crease when I have it on under a hard shell and a heavy backpack Vibrant: Personal choice, but I love Arc’teryx’ use of bright colors. For my photography the color of this jacket really stands out. Simple: There really isn’t anything I’d take away from this jacket. Cons and Areas to improve: Stuff sack could be improved with a couple of compression straps on the side to pack the Hoody down even smaller. I don’t like carrying around air. Zip or Velcro on the Stuff sack pocket: The pocket for the stuff sack does not seal, but the stuff sack can be removed. It would be nice to have the option of using that pocket to...
