Climb, Climb, Climb

Ouch, where does time go? It’s been an age since I last blogged; the final month of my course was quite full on, and we had a round of visitors which made life quite hectic.  Before starting this blog I wondered how long I would keep it up; I guess I have found the answer: until I get too busy. 

I have now completed my mountain skills semester, as a picture paints a 1000 words, I thought I would write a short blog with lots of pics to help me reminisce and so you can see what fun I have been having – yes I did actually say fun!

As the title suggests I spent much of the last six weeks climbing in one form or another. However before my feet left the ground I completed a wilderness first aid course; passing the exams at the highest grade of advanced adventure medic. This was by far the best first aid course I have ever taken; it went further than other courses and was largely outdoor scenario based.  I actually feel quite confident to tackle whatever medical challenges life may throw at me.

My first climbing foray was regular crag climbing at Skaha bluffs in Pinticton.  For once we were camping on a fully civilized campsite; with showers, drinking water and beer to hand. I even bagged a tent all to myself. All in all, this trip was amazing, my favourite of the course.  The bluffs are a small provincial park and contain over a 1000 named climbing routes; 650 of which are pre-bolted sport climbs.  This blew my mind: England has very little sport climbing.  As well as the awesome climbing, the trip was super chilled and very relaxing – as all good crag trips should be. I didn’t push my climbing boundaries too hard, only leading 5.9 climbs and completing a few 5.11a’s top roped [I did have a little play on a complex 5.12a which the guide humoured me by putting up].  More importantly I learned new climbing systems and honed my rope work; particularly for multipitch climbing. Somewhere towards the end of the trip I was bitten by a ‘thing’ that to everyone’s merriment caused my arm to go bright red, feel like fire and swell to the size of a large marrow. 

Me leading a multipitch climb

Awesome Crag

Cheesey smile - Pinticton in the background

Hanging out in Skaha

Keel Haul on Kid Goat - 8 pitches of sun and rock

 Following Skaha, we moved on to the Alpine climbing phase, which is basically rock climbing in the Alpine region rather than on a small crag. Some of this was done locally to Canmore with the more advanced mountaineering elements being conducted in and around the Columbia Ice Fields. Unfortunately the ice fields part was affected by wet weather leading to a high avalanche risk. During a six day trip we only actually managed to scale one peak [Boundary Peak. 2871m. 900m height gain].  We spent the rest of the time practising glacier travel, crevasse rescue [which involved jumping in to holes in the ice and hoping the guys you are attached to can pull you out], and other mountain skills. On several occasions we only discovered that the avalanche conditions were unfavourable at about 0400 having got up at 0300 and made our way to the start line. Our somewhat ambitious goal was to climb Mt Athabasca [pretty famous by Canadian standards], but alas we never made it. On one of the rain affected days we did manage to squeeze in a 400m via ferrata, which was quite good fun.  I also farted very loudly in the cooking shelter, causing one of the guides to throw his arms up in despair and retire to bed. I was later to be awarded the fart of the trip award at our end of course meal for this accomplishment. 

Occy belaying on pitch 7 with our anchor in view

Cramponing up at 0500.

A true mountaineer?

Roped up on a Glacier

Top of Boundary Peak

North Ridge of Athabasca

Columbia Ice Fields

Having learned a lot of skills, but not managing to put them in to practice on many summits, our final expedition came along. We chose to go to the Bugaboos, which turned out to be an awesome choice. The Bugs were unlike anywhere we had been on our course previously; a collection of granite spires that rise Mordor-esque hundreds of metres out of the ground. Here we bagged two good summits [Hounds tooth 2819m, and East Post Spire 2697m] as well as completing a 12hr circumnavigation of Bugaboo spire itself [we set out to climb Pigeon Spire 3156m, a North American classic, but the conditions were once again against us]. These trips involved a lot of glacier travel, roped and unroped scrambling, some pitched climbing in our mountain boots as well as a lot of snow travel and rappelling. The expedition was amazing, with the 0400 starts being well worth it this time, reminding me why I love to be in the mountains. I also proved to my rope team the benefits of being roped up by slipping when a snow step collapsed on a near vertical descent; the other pair in my trio expertly arrested my fall – saving me from several cuts and bruises as I was hurtling toward a pile of rocks [although this did somewhat squash my left testicle].

 

Inukshuk showing the way

Hounds Tooth in the background

Bugaboo Spire

Resting on the Glacier - Amazing

Avalanche in action

Our trail in the snow

On top in the Bugs

Climbed that

Fun Scrambling

Our Campsite

East Post Spire

View from the outhouse window

Makes it worth while

Climbed this col, sunrise above is from the top.

Throughout this climbing section I learned a lot, becoming pretty efficient with my multi pitch climbing drills, very comfortable with ‘rappelling’ and happy with a range of safety skills and techniques.  Combined with the adventure medicine section this was by far the best part of the mountain skills semester.  I think Skaha will always have a special place in my heart – hopefully somewhere to return to one day.

Now it is all done, I have had a little time to reflect on what has been an amazing three month course.  I’ll share these thoughts with you next time.

For now I’ll leave you with the story of the end of course meal.  Throughout the semester Occy [the other Brit] had been trying to explain British ‘lad culture’ to the Canadians. The team meal seemed the perfect opportunity for a practical demonstration – naturally I had to support this fellow countryman in his quest. A lot of alcohol later I find myself walking home at 2300 [?] discovering on the way that my legs had stopped working, meaning I somehow had to carry them with me. Upon reaching the bridge opposite my house I was struck down by sea sickness causing me to vomit whilst holding on to the bridge for dear life. Eventually I settled down for a nights sleep on the decking outside our front door, only to be disturbed by Becky dragging me in to the house at about 0200 [the pub was only 500m from my house]. I apparently proceeded to do a ministry of funny walks walk around the bedroom, in order to finally collapse in my bed.  Turns out elevation, low alcohol consumption for a long period of time and a bulldog British spirit to outdo ‘Johnny Foreigner’ can do funny things to a person. I’m not quite sure the three day hangover was worth it, but hey we live and learn.