June 18-26

Friday, June 26

Today we had another rest day. After walking around Squamish for a bit we went to Alice lake and hung out for the day.

Hunter and I tried finding a camping spot before heading to Alice lake.

Thursday, June 25

Hunter went bouldering with Steve, I went climbing with Daire
Daire and I did some cragging at the base of the chief. I got to lead a few climbs including Apron Strings, Exasperator and Rainy Dream Away.

Daire and I on Rainy Dream Away

Wednesday, June 24

Wednesday was a rest day. My friend Joy visited from Vancouver! I went with her to Smoke Bluffs. I threw down some top ropes at Crag X. I guess I was just having too much of a good time to take any pictures.

The rest of the day was just spent hanging out.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

The next day we climbed the Buttress and Rock On with Shy and Allie.

Shy just being a bad ass

The view was breath taking.

Hunter and I traded leads while Shy did all the leading for her and Allie in front of us.

We had to put all our small gear together for this pitch, unfortunately we had some problems with passing gear back.

Monday, June 22, 2015

Ryan and Mary left this morning, but before they left Ryan treated Hunter and I at the Howe Sound Pub.

Group Shot!

Hunter and I went to Neat and Cool to do some really cool lines.

This is one of the Top 100 climbs. We both also got to lead the Neat and Cool classic.

After this we went to the Recreation Center to take a shower. They no longer have 2 dollar entries for the shower.

After playing some Foosball in the lobby of the rec centre we me up with Shy, our friend and boss at the Outdoor Centre, and her friend Allie.

View from Allie's House

In the evening we went back to Cheakamus campsite and met up with Steve who was doing some projecting. We joined in briefly.

Night projecting is the coolest looking thing in the world, but hard to photograph

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Today we took a relaxed day. The four of us climbed a multipitch called Sky Walker. It was an easy climb with a gorgeous view up top.

On our way up on SkyWalker. Serious line ups with a group right behind us.

Saturday June 20, 2015

Ryan and Mary got up extra early (still on Ontario time) to find Star Chek. It ended up being right around the corner from where we were before

Hunter lead up a pitch of Star Chek and snapped a photo

After this point the four of us went to the Smoke Bluffs. Hunter and I wanted to practice our trad climbing so we went to Krack Wall and Laughing Crack.

After a bit of cragging Ryan and Mary went to spend some time in the town. Hunter and I did the Smoke bluff connection in this time. It had the prettiest view of any climb on this trip to date.

One of the Pitches Wonderland. Seriously Cool

Hunter celebrating at the top of the smoke bluff connection.

Friday June 19, 2015

The next morning, we met up with Hunter’s friends Ryan and Mary.

Our campsite in Cheakamus

We did a bit of cragging in Cheakamus. While we were there a girl climbed a 5.13d route. It was very impressive.

Mary leading just under the roof where the girl climber did the 13d

Hunter, Ryan, Mary and I tried to do a multipitch called Star Chek today. We ended up getting lost and getting into a bit of a difficult situation. Rappelled down the wrong cliff to start. We ended up finding a set of bolts up a flake and decided to pull the rope down and climb up the flake.

A shot from not quite where we were supposed to be

Thursday June 18, 2015

On Thursday we got up in our campsite after sleeping in the car again. The weather was looking decent so we decided to go for a quick bike ride around the area. The trail we took up ended up being the down track, so we had to push the bikes a bit

A shot from our campsite at Begbie falls

After a ride we packed up the car and headed for Squamish. We arrived to a bit of rain, so we had dinner and set up camp.

Revelstoke!

Last night we drove to Revelstoke. Arrived in our usual campsite in Begbie falls in the evening with enough time to collect wood and cook a couple of patties for evening snack. On the way out we had pretty small sandwiches for dinner so the burgers were a welcome intake.

This was our lunch today, our snack last night was the same thing with one less patty

This morning we got up and cooked our breakfast of oatmeal and protein over a fire as well as our lunch. We headed out to Waterworld, a climb that is right outside Revelstoke. We met up with our friends Rauth and Jordan.

A ridiculous shot of Jordan(center), Rauth(right) and I

We headed over to Voyage wall, the middle wall at the top of Waterworld. The four of us made quick work of the rappel. On this wall there are 4 multi-pitch climbs, Hunter and I had completed Bon Voyage during our trip to Skaha, so we set out to do the other three.

The weather was pretty ideal, with the sun hiding under thing clouds most of the day, with enough making through to keep us at a cool temperature. At lunch we headed back to the cars which were right off the side of the highway. This was less than ideal.

After a day of achieving our goals Jordan and Rauth ate a quick dinner and headed back to Calgary, Hunter and I talked about heading out for Squamish. To get there at a reasonable time we would have to eat on the road. Our plan was to cook spaghetti (our first problem) and eat on the road. Which rushing to get our spaghetti I spilled half of it. To add to my frustration I burned the sauce. What should have taken us ten minutes ended up taking an hour as things just kept going wrong. We ran out of fuel, I ran out of flint for my lighter, dishes were taking longer than expected to clean ect.

Tired and hungry I decided to just eat the meal there. We are going to go back to our campsite tonight and decide when we head out tomorrow. It will be dependent on the weather.

Squamish Again!

I am going on another roadtrip to Squamish. This time with my buddy Hunter. Hunter is a friend of mine who works with my at the University of Calgary's Outdoor Centre as a climbing instructor.

A shot of Hunter and I in Barrier.

The road trip will be two weeks long, leaving tomorrow on June 16 and returning June 30. Currently the plan is to stop in Revelstoke for 4 days to climb or bike or raft, then on Saturday the 20th in the afternoon, head to Squamish.

A shot from the top of WaterWorld in Revelstoke

We will stay in Squamish until the 30th giving us about 8 days of climbing in Squamish. I plan to stop at Geoff's (my friend I met in Hope on my last roadtrip out west) for a visit on the way back! We might swap some time from Revelstoke to visit in Vancouver(I haven't discussed this with Hunter).

11hr straight shot to Squamish if you were wondering.

Good times in Revy

I don't remember the chronology of the rest of the trip and I can't find my journal entries. I stayed in Revelstoke until Friday. For the rest of the trip I stayed with Tommy. Climbed with lots of people including Tommy, Jay and his partner, Rachelle and Joe. Revelstoke was my first real exposure to the sport climbing culture. All the people I met considered themselves Revelstoke locals. I had dinner and partied with mostly the same group but there were others. I remember hanging out with a Rupert. I met one of Rachelle's friend I believe her name was Natalie. I believe I met her on the Friday before I left. It was raining and I ate a Nanaimo bar, I can't remember much but I remember this girl because she wanted to work for an NGO. She had aspirations and wanted to make a difference which is normal in Church circles but she stood out in the sport climbing community. I remember the Big Eddie Pub right by the one way bridge, it was pretty awesome to hang out there and there is a volleyball court.

Revelstoke

I don't actually have a journal entries from Revelstoke, but I'll tell the stories as best I can from memory.

I arrived in the evening and the first thing I did was to find a campground. I visited the information centre and the girl there told me of a camp-site that she normally didn't share. It's tucked away on a logging road and is public use(therefore free).

This crappy screenshot doesn't tell how beautiful this camp-site by Beggbie falls is.

Right by the Creek.

I stayed here one night. In the morning I visited the Valhalla Pure, which had a list of people looking for partners to climb with. I met up with a girl named Corina to climb. I also met up with Tommy, who let me crash in his basement in Revy.

Last Hope

Today was delightful. After breakfast with the Goulds I got ready was invited to see the camp by Geoff. After camp he said we would go bouldering with his interns. I got a tour of the camp from Geoff, who is the intern director. The interns are there to learn about running camp programming. After the tour Geoff had a meeting and I just hung around the camp for a bit, then we headed out for bouldering. 
After bouldering one of the staff members at Squeah, Matt, invited me to the camp after bouldering to have dinner with the staff. Before dinner I stopped at the Gould's one last time; I'm going to miss them. Then I went to dinner with the Squeah staff. After dinner I hit the roads and headed to Revelstoke. I really wanted to stay in Hope. Everybody there really wanted me to stay, but I feel God wants me to move on. The drive was gorgeous but I didn't end up making it to Revelstoke. I stopped at a Lutheran Church in Salmon Arms.

The Camp has a really nice campus. The out trips also sound amazing. I wish I went to this camp.

http://www.seevirtual360.com/themes/52/VirtualTour.aspx?listingID=2356#.VX_Hk_lVhBc

A shot of us bouldering

Serenity

Another day in Hope. Today I got lost in Hope. I started the day with the Gould family then went out for a bike ride. I went to Hope Mountain. It was a nice ride, a bit more intimidating than I thought it would be. The ride was not as well developed and it scared me a lot more than the rides at Squamish. After this I found another downhill route by the Othello Tunnels. The approach was very difficult to hike with a bike and was often too narrow for a bike. The downhill was good at points but for the most part was even less developed than the last trail. It even led me to a construction site that was not on the map. I was very lost. After asking some of the operators I eventually found the parking lot. 

A couple shots from the Othello Tunnels walking path

I then took some time off to do some reading. The first park I visited, was in the center of town(Memorial), I decided to bike to one that apparently had a view of the water(Central). It was not much of a park. The town map that I had showed one more at the other end of town so I biked there. It was also not what I expected that I didn't realize I had biked through it(Thacker Regional). On one side was a residential area under construction. On the same side there was a rusted old car from the fifties with vegetation growing out of it. It was kind of cool, but it did not fit the feel of the park and just made it look trashy. I biked back to the Memorial Park and sat down for some reading.

Here is the map from the visitor's centre I used to get around

In hindsight I wish I had taken more pictures. Hope is a beautiful place, that thanks to deforestation, is dissappearing. I may not get another chance to see the trails that I did.

After reading at the park I headed back to the Gould residence. They were getting ready for dinner. At Geoff’s house I met Grayden Baker. He is currently biking across Canada. After dinner Grayden gave at talk about his mission. Grayden's wife Sarah and his son Lukumay were travelling with him in a chase car. Lukumay means lion killer. Grayden and I talked about when he passes through Calgary and we talked about meeting up. I hope to see Grayden when he arrives in Calgary.

Again I'm not very good with taking pictures so a picture off of Grayden's twitter will have to do.

Meeting the staying with Geoff Gould and his family is amazing. Geoff grew up in South Africa as did Joy’s mom, Gwen Roodnick. Geoff and his wife Sara were missionaries there. Sarah is from Halliburton, Ontario, and knows Sawyers Lake, where the Wrights own a cottage, very well.

http://ride4rufiji.com/who-are-the-rufiji/

http://www.graydonbaker.com/

http://vimeo.com/64935261