B-wagg is here!! Well almost...

Just waiting at the airport for our homefry Bryden... Once B-unit gets here we're off to Smith Rocks - one of the true mecca's of rock climbing in the united states.

As roaming charges apply to using my Crackberry I will not be (gasp) using it till we are back in canada sometime late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.

While we're waiting I wanted to thank Al's cousin Victoria and her husband Matt - you guys rock!! We had dinner with em yesterday at a great all you can eat sushi joint follow by drinking and smoking cuban stoogies at their AMAZING condo overlooking the vancouver harbourfront... Thanks for the rockin hospitality guys!

Next week is going to be bumpin - Bryden will be here, Rob is joining us on Wed and ontop of all that Al and I will be climbing the Grand Wall on Friday - no excuses!!


Well - let's see what crackberry withdrawl looks like... Doubt it will be pretty!

K-man out!

Word to the wise from The B.

Here I am sitting on a smooth rock with an amazing view after my first 7 pitch climb on Snake. The guys were great and we did the climb pretty fast, for my speed of course. It feels great to be here after acomplishing something that for a lot of people seems crazy. For us just feels perfect!

The 7 pitch climb was nice and smooth with only one scary traverse with just hands.
My GOD was I scared!!!








But crack Kevin was there for moral support. Now we have to keep climbing...will post pics later! Love from B
.

waiting.... and waiting...... and waiting........

Sitting here at the base of Rock On (6 pitches, 10a) this climb came higly recommended so we decided to make this Barb's first climb at Squish.

Sadly we didn't get to the base till 11:30 - only to find 4 parties ahead of us. Of course we picked the one climb that doesn't really have any other nearby routes to do.

So we're waiting...

And waiting.

Tonight we're gonna drive around downtown Squamish and try to find a wireless signal so we can post some pics.

Post some comments - we feel alone.

:)

Exasperator

Sitting at the base of exasperator waiting for another party to finish. Oh my sweet baby jesus... What a beautiful climb... The quality of the crack climbing here is mindblowin... Pics to follow fo sure.

To make things better we just got our first sight of the split pillar.... DAMN.

Like calgary and all the amazing places we climbed - squamish sucks!! :)






Its 11 now - we need to be at the airport in 3 hours to pick up Barb - the party train is picking up another car!!

The B. is here!!!!

Hahahaha... Barbara arrived today Yay!!!

Al and I both led exasperator (which was one of the nicest crack climbs I have ever done!

Anyways - here's a little somethin from B.

After a loooong wait at the airport finally I got to see my friends! All tanned and with bleeding hands after all that hard climbing. Sooo nice to see them again, SO HAPPY!!! Now we are sitting at a all you can eat sushi and the waiters don't want to come to this table any more!! This guys are eating EVERYTHING!!!!

Squamish - Day 2

Soooo.......

Al and I stayed up till 2:30am on Friday night hitting the sauce with my boy Bill P. (who is in his early 50's and climbs 5.10trad and grade 5 ice AND can outcrank me in the partyin dept - on top of all that he is my 2nd Blackberry buddy!!). and Keith our gracious host. I awoke Sat am to a feeling similar to that of being hit by a truck.

Unlike the day before where we woke up at 6am and were climbing by 9ish - Sat was a much slower pace, we got to the crag around 11ish. Todays destination was The Smoke Bluffs - a cool single pitch area just down the street from the Chief. People have homes built right next to the cliff in areas - which was strange yet cool.

I did a climb and decided to feed the belly as 2 slices of toast just didn't cut it. So off to downtown Squamish I went (about a 10 second drive). Had me some Mexican, then sat at Starbucks and drank much needed coffee while chatting with my sister Beks about all the world's social injustices.

[As a side note... to all my friends I have unlimited long distance on weekends with my blackberry... so I try calling y'all hopin to hear your voices... and all i get is damn voicemail :( ]

Anyways back to the crag (yet another 10 second drive). I met back up with Al, Bill, Keith and Jenn who all were wiped out so we said our goodbye's and hugs went flying all around... then there were just the two of us.

I look up at the rock face infront of me.

There was a beautiful - finger-ish size crack breaking up a beautiful solid featureless wall.

I had to do it. I didn't care about the grade (for the record it was 11c).

Holy crap... it was hard, fun and fookin HARD.

I hung my ass all over it.

However - I also have a first real trad project... I will send this bastard while here...


Tonight - we're staying with Al's buddy Mike. I'm standing in his livingroom with the laptop hanging out of the window (to get a wireless signal from a neighbor).

Tomorrow - We're climbing with Todd and Nicole which will be great! Also great news is that Barbara has changed her flight and is joining us to party and climb in squamish this week! GOOO B-A-R-B.

Next week - Bryden joins us.. and the 3 boys go to Smith Rocks in Oregon... birthplace of sport climbing in North America where there are over 3000 routes!

Wow...

what if?

What if Calgary or Vancouver is where I belong?

Everyday I walk through places I could't of dreamed exisited, places with such beauty they overwhelm me.

Life out here is beautiful - people are so kind and warm - everyone is having one of the best days of their lives (everyday).

Why... no... How can I not live in a place that makes me better?

Kev - awake at 2am

Top of the Chief - Baby

Wooohooo!! What up tdot!!

Greetings from the top of the Chief!!!

After 17 pitches all four of us (kieth, bill, al and I summitted the Chief on our 'warm up day'

More from us later - time for bbq and beer at Kieth's

ultimate everything

Sup kiddies... Just chilling on a ledge about 14 pitches up the grand wall here in squamish...

What a different type of climbing here compared to the big alpine stuff we've been doing. Even though we're ws pitches up - there are a wack of big-ass ledges to party on.

Our string of roughing it continues... We were invited to stay with Bill P at his buddy Keith's sweet crib. I don't. Think I can camp after all these nice homes we're staying at!

Shit - time to belay...

Finally - The Grand Sentinel

So after postponing our day on the Grand due to rain – yesterday was finally G-day. We left Mike and Claire’s at the bright and early time of 930…. Yes we’ve been all about the early alpine starts on this trip!

We drove the 45 minutes to Lake Louise in Banff National Park and parked in the super crowded parking lot for Moraine Lake (there are RV’s all over this damn park). Upon getting to the trailhead we had to hang out for a bit to find 4 other people who wanted to hike up to Sentinel Pass. There is a very grumpy grizzly bear who lives in the area and the park is very strict about only allowing parties of 6 or more to go up there – going in a smaller party means a $2000 fine.

5 minutes later Al and I were hiking up to the pass with an Australian couple and a UK couple… The hike up to the pass normally takes 2 hours… however our new friends were the most athletic bunch so it took a bit longer – but the company was enjoyable and the views were spectacular.

Upon arriving to the high-pass we got an amazing view of the Sentinel. WOOOHOOOO! She is a beautiful unattached spire … rising more than 300 feet above the scree field below her.

Al and I said goodbye to our United Nations contingent and made the descent to the Sentinel. Upon reaching the base we could barely contain ourselves… the route followed this beautiful arête (a corner for all those non-climbers reading this). The route goes at 11a and consists of 4 pitches… sticking to our light and fast approach to long routes Al and I ditched the packs and happily tied into our double-ropes… this ain’t no cragging sport climb boyz… this is alpine climbing… doubles are for sure Al and I’s rope of choice for this environment.


With our doubles Al was able to link up pitches 1 and 2 in a beautiful 150 foot lead. I came up and lead pitches 3 and 4… the crux of the climb being this ridiculously exposed roof. At first I had no frickin idea how the hell to pull through.. I ended up sticking a stupidly high heel hook and doing some kind of crouching tiger move to pull through… hahahaha good times for sure!


Upon reaching the summit we were all giggles… the top of the spire was amazing and the normal ‘stand on the summit’ pics followed. We made 2 loooong raps down (thanks again double ropes!) and we were at the bottom.



Back to the pass we went… where we were suppoda find some tourists to hike down with… there were over 30 hikers up there when we got there in the morning… now around 6pm – there wasn’t a soul. So with no other options – we risked a $2k fine and marched down the mountain into grizzly territory. (We had planned for this however – we left wallets in the car and had made up pretend names – I was Lawfondah and Al was to be Miguel).




Anyways we made it back to the car without incident… and back to Canmore. We found out earlier in the day that I had forgotten my camera charger in Calgary – so after a quick bite with the canmore crowd… back we went to visit Tat and Cuba in the Calgary mansion.

Today we leave for the remote mountain range in the interior of BC called the Bugaboos… some crazy stories and pics will follow for sure! We’ll be in Vancouver sometime on sat – so expect some craze pics posted this weekend.

Good times – eh!

strangers

The one thing about this trip that has impressed me the most isn't the climbing - or the beautiful mountains: its the acts of kindness I have experienced from people we have met.

Tat: I met her for a couple hours at Lija's house in Toronto in june. Here it is july and I stayed at her place for 10 days. She seemed so happy to open her home up to Al and I. In the end she has become a good friend.



Rolands: Tat's dad - this guy invited Al and I to his house for 2 wonderful meals. We went to the Stampede together and talked about the mountains.

Rolands is quite the hiker.He goes out almost every weekend to do some very impressive all-day hikes up mountains . As soon as he heard that Al and I were going to hike up pounds of water to camp Ín the bugaboos he insisted we take his water filter, saving us from hiking gallons of water up a 3 hour hike up to the hut.

Mike and Claire: Saw Al and I at MEC and recognized us from when they lived in Toronto and climbed at Rock Oasis. We talked at MEC for 5 minutes and they graciously offered to take Al and I climbing and let us stay at their house for 2 nights (I am in their son's room now).



All these amazing people and I've only been gone for 2 weeks...

I'm pretty excited to see what other great people I will meet in the coming weeks.

K-

goodbye Calgary

We left the c-dot today. Especially sad was saying goodbye to our Princess Tat, she was an amazing hostess to us for our 10 day stay...

Al and I were proud to be her entourage - by the end we had a sweet new crib for our strange little family - we'll miss u t-dogg.

I'll be visiting with Tat again on my return to the east in a month.

Al and I met up with Mike (who recognized me in mec a few days ago, he used to live in toronto and climbed at oasis. Mike and his sweet gf Claire offered to take us out climbing and to crash at their place tonight...

There are so many super-sweet people out here.

This trip is rockin.

Kev

drunk at cowboy's

All people in this town do is drink - damn.

Here's Calgary in a nutshell for you: hot girls and cowboys with no game - oh and the sickest mountains you can find. Other than that this place sucks.

Hot girls and sic rock and ice climbing - who am I kidding this place rocks.

"Oh someone died on that last week"

So Mt Smuts..

Al and I met up with Andrew (guy we ran into at Yam... he used to climb at Rock Oasis when he lived in the tdot) on Wed am in Canmore... all 3 of us were moving slow and didn't arrive at the trailhead till 10am.

At the trailhead there are a couple hikers... they asked us what we were doing and we said Smuts...

"OH, someone died on that last week... becareful.." Said the hiker...


Anyways down the trail we went... sadly for us we turned off onto the wrong sidetrail... and what should of been an hour and a half casual walk turned into a 5 hour scramble with some 4th class sections... woohoo.

We finally arrived at smuts after 5 hours of traversing across one scree slope after another.... (scree sucks... its basically a pile of millions of small rocks al staked ontop of each other... one mves and usually 10 more go with it).

So we're sitting there staring at Smuts, I look at my watch - it was after 3pm, our water supply was getting low, Al had some holes in his new pants and i had blisters on the bottom of my feet from walking across contant steep slopes... so I said FUCK it

I wasn't prepareed to get onto a 3 thousand foot scramble high in the rockies at 3 pm...

So we walked to a nearby glacial lake... had lunch, sat around for a bit and began the journey back. We found the trail and got back within an hour and a half... had we done smuts we would of gotten down in the dark and never would of found the trail and would of had a horrible story to tell about our epic scrambling day,

Instead we went to boston pizza and then drank margaritas with Tat (our awesome hostess).

Today is lazy day - Al is still sleeping and i am drinking coffee - trying to figure out how to not sound like a tool from yesterday's ordeal.

Rock out yo...

what happens at 9am

In calgary on tuesday at 9am u drink - tank and I r at a stampede party, starbucks in one hand and my 5th screwdriver in the other - goddamn its fun to be drunk this early

Enjoy cube-world

calgary eh

What up punk rock kids. We be in calgary... We're stay with Tat - who rocks the his-house she got us knackered last night. Al and I are on our way now to Yamnuska - hells yeah oh man I can't wait to get on the wall.

Tonight Tat has big plans for us - some kickin it house party and the start of stampede... This girl can throw down... Well time to climb

Rock out son

Morse, Sask. est 1918

Waited at a closed gas station for about 20 mins - apparantly we are now in mountain time. Tank drove through the night and I'm pounding out the remaining 7 or so hours to calgary now. It's flat a tree-less so I can drive pretty fast. Sleeping in a real bed will rock.

Thank god for Lija's friend Tatiana (who is hot on top of being supersweet)she's opened up her home to us while in calgary.

thunder bay

Went to bed after 3 last night and woke up at 7 just finished driving now. Wiped out, tanks' turn to drive. We are gonna giv'er and try to drive straight through the night and get there by tomorrow afternoon.
Ho's up pimps down

In the sault

What up kidz, we arrived in sault dt marie. Thank goodness.

Al's buddy Steve and his great girlfriend Shannon invited to let us crash at their place.

Tired and buzzed now.


Rock out

K
P.S I just realized how really far calgary is from toronto.....

packed and jacked

PACKED!

Thanks to everyone who came to the al and kevin going-away bbq last night (minus the al). By the time everyone left and i finished cleaning up it was like 11 - drank wine with the parents and finally around midnight decided it was time to put the box on the rack and start packing... 3:3oam and it was time to pass out..

Both Al and I are packed now though.... I'm just about to leave work for the last time... and pick up Al at 2 then hit the road. We're gonna try to push through to Sault St Marie... and then have a big driving day tomorrow.

More to come... rock out

K