Chance Meetings in the Mountains

This week, a friend of mine had posted some pictures of a climb up Mt Lady MacDonald.  With the first warm days of the year upon us, I was inspired to go climb it myself the next day.  Starting from Cougar Creek parking lot, I found myself leaving my car at the same time as an older gentleman clearly heading in the same direction.  We exchanged pleasantries but I must admit I was anxious to have a solitary climb so I was hiking fairly quick.  Somehow in the chit-chat, it came out that he learned to climb from legendary mountaineer, Hans Gmoser.  Excited to get some first hand accounts of him, I plied him for more information upon which I realized he must know many of the other mountaineering pioneers.  My interest and smattering of knowledge about these people kept him talking and soon I realised I might be climbing with somebody whose exploits I’ve probably read about.

I introduced myself as we climbed up (at a pretty good pace) and he introduced himself as Don Gardner.  I couldn’t believe it as I had read about many of his epic and groundbreaking climbs and explorations.  His first traverse of the continental divide from Jasper to Louise inspired me to retrace a  portion of that trip in my infamous Wapta traverse.  

We continued climbing as he answered my questions about different areas and the many expeditions I had read about.  Apart from his many first ascents in the Rockies, his 500km ski across Elsmere Island may be the first but I’m not sure.  He guided in Greenland for a while and learned traditional kayak construction.  He now teaches this boatcraft to natives who no longer remember these skills.  He also builds birchbark canoes which led me to give him some locations for giant birch trees I have encountered in my endless traipsing across the forests of western Canada.  He gave me a standing invitation to his shop for a lesson in traditional Bow making (the Bow Valley is so named for the good bow making materials here.)  This led to a discussion of trail building.  He had laid out much of the nordic centre trails as well as many trails in Kananaskis that I was familiar with.

After a few hours of climbing and chatting, we reached the shoulder of Mt Lady MacDonald where a hang-gliding platform appears out of nowhere.  We stopped for a bite to eat and he admitted that he told his wife he wasn’t going all the way to the top but was feeling good and thought he’d continue on with me.  I usually stop just before the nightmarish summit ridge, an 11 inch wide razor blade connecting ridge that leads up to the true summit, a few meters higher.  

Above:  Don and I having a bite on the launching platform on the mountain’s southern shoulder.

We ended up at the top where I made a pencil sketch.  I mentioned that sketching the mountains really makes you look at them hard.  It’s a new pursuit for me which I’m enjoying though none are any good.  He said he’s been doing that for 40 years and encouraged me to keep at it.

 

Above: Borrowing a little courage from a legend, I venture up the ridge.  It looks quite wide in this picture but it really is a trick of light and colour as it is really quite a sharp point about the width of your boot.  Each side is close to a thousand feet down but I managed a photo op with my favorite new chia gel.

Above: A quick phone home at the summit.

It was a wonderful day of spring vistas and stories.  I hope after my summer contracts to look him up and get a bow building lesson.  And to think what I may have missed if I started five minutes earlier!

It is only fitting to post the original picture of Tom on Mt Lady MacDonald from the day before that made me think, “hmmm, yeah, I should climb Lady Mac today!”  By strange coincidence, it turned out he was on  Grotto Mt, across the valley from me at the same time!  Earlier this year when he was on Mt Burgess, he saw me on Mt Field.  Considering how big the Rockies are, that’s pretty weird!

 Above: Tom carefully picks his way across the delicate summit ridge the previous day.  

Banff Temperatures

My daily routine in the morning is to get the daily satellite information, check out interesting pressure distributions and ocean temperatures.  Suzanne jokes that after my first coffee I know what the weather is everywhere but outside our own house!  So after a cool spring, I decided to learn a little more about Banff’s weather history.

To do this I used Environment Canada data.  It isn’t easy to manipulate with their site so I took sunshinehours (a fellow bloggers) advice and transferred the EC data to an Excel spreadsheet which then allows more flexibility.

The first graph then is Banff monthly temperature anomalies for the last 30 years.

Each data point is mean monthly temperature.  Quite a few things jumped out at me.

1) There appears to be rough cyclical variations

2) The large scale La Niña and El Niño events are less pronounced

3) Most variation is constrained within +/- 2 degrees

4) There was more extreme variation in the 80s compared to the  2000′s

5) Total absence of warming trend

6) Away from land use changes and urban heating effects Banff’s isolated station shows none of the warming found in many urban stations.

 

As far as this April goes, it was cold relative to the last 30 years but not going to break any records.  Here is the last 30 years of mean April temperatures for Banff.

I put a trend line up for entertainment purposes only.  Climate systems do not operate in a linear fashion so trends have no physical meaning in the real world.  But we do see that spring has been getting colder in Banff over the last 30 years.

For curiosity, I plotted January means and August means as well to see if winter and summer means are changing at all.  (note Jan’85 missing data point)  

 

 

So unfortunately, we are just wimps with short memories!  April wasn’t even as cold as it was just 2 years ago!  Perhaps the difference this year was being more anxious to mountain bike than I was in 2011.

May has been wonderful with warm temperatures.  We caught the last day of the year at the Lake Louise resort.  Skiing in a T-shirt is pretty fun when it’s +15 degrees! Last day at the resort has a party atmosphere with lots of outlandish costumes.  I made a token effort  and had a multi-coloured feather boa around my neck.

Oh, Hello Pudders!

One of the big highlights of our California trip earlier this month was our big cat experience at the San Diego Zoo’s safari park.  The world-famous zoo has a huge parcel of land outside Escondito that they use as a free roaming parkland for many of its animals.  In addition, the park is home to 1.7 million species of plants, many of which feed the myriad of zoo animals.  It’s also home to the world’s only “cheetah run.”

The cheetah run is a grass floored alleyway, almost a trench that is bermed, fenced and surrounded by plants.  In case you hadn’t guessed yet, you get to see a cheetah run full tilt down this track.  But let me back up a second.  Suzanne and I got VIP passes for this spectacle that gave us some unbelievable up close cat experiences.  As a warm up, the keeper brought out a caracal to show us.  This amazing animal has huge feather ears that mimic birds, its chief prey.  The flickering ears help it blend in with the birds but its 10 foot vertical leap make it a cold blooded killer!  A very intense animal and a rare treat to experience so closely.  To demonstrate the caracal’s jumping ability, the keeper had a toy on the end of a whipthingy.  I found a youtube clip that shows their jumping much better than my picture.

After the caracal visit came  the main attraction, the cheetah.  We got to stand in a special viewing area right on the track.  At one end was a plush toy attached to a cord attached to a special motor that could pull it up to 120km/hr.  At the end of the track, the cheetah was behind a curtain.  The “bait” was given a brief head start to gather speed and when it passed, the curtain lifted and the cheetah came out like lightning, running 2 feet in front of us at 110km/hr!!

I’ve been lucky to have seen a long list of extraordinary things in the natural world.  This ranks right up there in my list of amazing sights.  What I will always remember is the sound it made as it churned its feet through the ground.  A heavy thunking rumble like distant thunder you could feel in your stomach.  Seeing anything move that fast so close up was really hard to fully take in.  The cheetah ran the 330 foot long track in 6 seconds.

The keeper then had us sit down and she brought the cheetah in with us as it enjoyed a bowl of frozen blood and rested from the run.  It was purring quite loudly as it was led in.  When the bowl of frozen blood was brought in, she furiously licked it, periodically looking up and around.  They are nervous animals generally and it was quite a spectical watching it bolt up and look right past you at something in the distance and strain its neck and widen its eyes to assessing some noise or movement in the distance.  In order to help calm them, cheetahs in this park  grow up with a companion dog from the time they are kittens.  This cheetah’s companion was Hopper, a very relaxed dog seen in the back getting a treat.  The idea is that the cheetah looks for cues from the dog which is always relaxed.  When the cat gets rattled, it sees that Hopper is unphased so it relaxes too.  I found the two of them were a funny couple, the cat so regal and majestic but jittery, while the dog was a commonplace mutt without a shred of self-importance and just a little bit zen.

After enjoying a bowl of frozen blood, (I didn’t try it myself but it looked refreshing) the cheetah was returned to its section of the park and the keeper did some question and answer with us.  An unforgettable experience (even if I didn’t get to give the cheetah a big bearhug like I wanted!)

Above:  The cheetah relaxes in its part of the park

An amusing sight was the lion enclosure which contained a Land Rover 4×4.  In the winter when the air temps are a little cooler (warm by our standards) the sun heats up the roof making it a desirable sleeping pad.  Anyone whose ever watched a house cat lounging in a sunbeam would have found this pose pretty familiar.

A touch of humour for visitors and genuinely enjoyed by the cats as the picture shows!  We initially scanned their huge enclosure and couldn’t find them as we walked past the many viewing areas.  Finally, at the last viewing platform, there they were on their 4×4, a brilliant way to bring the cats up close to their audience.

We went past them late in the day on our way out as the sun was going down and I got this very descriptive picture below.

What you can see is the male finally having to move out of the shade and leap frog into the sun.  Meanwhile one of the other girls on the left is just coming to terms with the fact  she has to move as well. Meanwhile, her sister is in the Goldilocks spot and wants for nothing on this earth.  The longer you look at it, this picture describes the human condition as much as any.

San Diego Zoo’s animal park is just as amazing as the zoo itself.  We spent the whole day here and will return again for sure.  Below is a wider look at the park.  As you can see it’s more like a nature preserve than a zoo.  Areas are fenced off where appropriate but the space is so large it feels very natural.  In the picture below there are giraffes, hippos, rhinos, ungulates and many other savannah critters all in one massive area.  

 

It was my intention to keep this post about the cats but I have to include this one bird picture:

There’s something terribly amusing to me about a bird sitting on his own interpretive plaque!

More Trailrunning

I’ve been training in some ultralight shoes lately.  Similar to Mike’s “five fingers” I’ve been using New Balance Minimus T10.  They weigh less than a notion and are completely flat.  They basicaly convert the bottom of your foot from skin to vibram rubber.  So far, I notice that they work the same parts that hurt after a big hill run which I’m taking as a good endorsement.  For now I run just 10% of an average run in them or walk around in them while doing chores.

Went out with the North Face trailrunning group this week.  We ran from the North Face store in Banff up to the top of tunnel Mt in just under 40 minutes (and back down in another 15)  Paul who organizes the group is an ultra marathoner as well as a certified coach so he had lots of great input and encouragement for all of us.  I improved my breathing, gait and arm motions.  Paul has done many marathons as well as the grueling Ring of Fire, a 210km race in Wales (where he’s from)  Certainly there is lots of ambiguous stuff one can learn just watching.

Above:  Making our way up Tunnel Mt.  and a group shot at the top looking down on our starting line.  With the air temperature hovering around zero, it’s a great time for hard work.

Mt Norquay Challenge

The NorthFace in Banff issued a challenge this week to run or bike up the Mt Norquay road and post a time.    It starts on the outskirts of Banff and goes about 5 km in length and rises 230m vertical or 750 feet.

 

Suzanne offered to drive up to the top so I wouldn’t have to walk down so I thought I’d give it a go.  The best time was set by Paul at 22 minutes by running (he’s a machine who oranizes the NFBanff trailrun group.)  A few others were just a couple minutes behind in bike attempts.  I posted a run time of 36 minutes which I hope to beat in a bike attempt soon.  As well, for 2013 I’d like to run a sub 30.

Above: enjoying the view and some coconut water.  Norquay road can be seen below in the valley leaving Banff and winding 6 switchbacks up to Mt Norquay where I’m standing.

Winter Excursions

 

April is “go time” in the mountains.  The warmer temperatures provide brief windows of slope stability and the biggest objectives are attempted.  For me this year, my trusted group of trip partners is unable to all be off at the same time for such a big trip. It’s disappointing but thankfully the mountains can be enjoyed just as much on smaller scale trips.

Golden BC

Suz and I headed out to Golden to meet some friends for various ski outings.  Suz explored some XC terrain while Carrie and I did some hiking up to the powder bowl called the Whitewall seen below.

 

Above: At the top of  Whitewall peak.Above: Traversing up and over to Whitewall with Carrie Tait picking out the line she wants to ski.  Lots of deep new snow was a great reward for the climb and very, very steep terrain was a fun challenge.

Ha Ling winter ascent.

 

It was a wonderful warm, bluebird day so I thought I’d give Ha Ling Peak a try.  I used my YakTrax which are a kind of mini crampon I use for running.  The lower slopes were pretty icy which soon gave way to softer snow in the alpine where the sun had softened it.   From the picture above, you can see my tracks in the deepish snow.  I lingered around the top hoping to see some solar activated avalanches on the Goat range across the Spray Valley.  No luck but a great day.

XC skiing at CNC and Lake O’Hara

Spring also means more daylight and Suz and I have been taking advantage of the extra daylight to go skiing at the Canmore Nordic Centre after work.  The trail network is amazing and the views are great.  It is home to the Canadian team and many locals are tremendous skiers.  The number of people going effortlessly fast is humourous at times.  It’s a pretty common sight to see two friends casually having a friendly conversation while blazing 40 km/hr uphill!  Every age is represented well and it’s a great atmosphere.

Above:  Fantastic ice halos and cirrus clouds at sunset at the nordic centre.

Lake OHara is one of the more accessible jewels in the Canadian Rockies.  To protect it though, Parks Canada limits visits by busing people from the highway up to the lake.  You have to book this months in advance to be one of the lucky ones to visit this area.  In winter though, there’s nothing stopping you from skiing up the 12km road which is not used or plowed in winter.  It’s a long, continuous uphill but worth the reward.

 

Above: Suz is all smiles after reaching the lake.  It was a bit cloudy so we couldn’t see all of the 11,000ers here.  It has made us determined to come back in summer to hike around here.

Mt Galatea

Hugo and I climbed up to the Chester Lake area in Kananaskis looking for a day of backcountry skiing.  As I left the house I drove past this heard of elk in the schoolyard!

Above: After a 1200 foot vertical climb, we emerge at a snowy meadow for a breather and some picture taking.  From here there are many possible mountain faces to climb and ski so we spent the next half hour doing some snow stability analysis on different slopes and discussing our safest options.  We decided to go up a shoulder of Mt Galatea.

 

Above: Hugo and I climbing up Galatea.  The slope was pretty mellow and it was a pleasant ski down.  It was Hugo’s first climb of the season so mellow was the order of the day.  Total elevation gain of 1800 vertical feet but at a very conversational pace.

While these shorter trips lack the feeling of accomplishment that some of the bigger trips provide, they are hard to beat and always an opportunity to enjoy some amazing parts of the world.

 

 

My Forray into Ski Mountaineering Racing

If I have mangled fingers and a bottle of Freixenet, it can only mean one thing: Success in the mountains!  I completed the Ken Jones Classic, a ski mountaineering race.  I climbed up and skied down 3 mountains in 3 hours and 16 minutes.

My day started at 4:15 am rolling out of bed and packing the car up and at 4:55am heading over to the pre-race meeting in Lake Louise.  Before the pre race, the route still hadn’t been finalized.  Conditions dictate the course which can’t be predicted in advance, so the course was determined at the last-minute and shown to us on big maps at the morning meeting.  Also important was to know where the many check-ins were located.

It was a perfect day for high altitude climbing and skiing as the sky was blue and clear allowing great visibility.  In clouds or diffuse light we would have had a tough time.

Above: leaving the Bow Valley en route to the first mountain, Whitehorn II.

It was pretty intimidating as this race was mostly professionals and dedicated athletes.  Only two other people besides me had real touring gear that you would take out on a multiday expedition.  Everyone else had ultralightweight specialized racing gear (and outfits!)  It was a mass start so I placed myself in the back of the pack to keep out of the way.  After the “get set, go…” the elite racers exploded uphill faster than many people can run on flat ground!  The guy in front of me, a fellow first timer I met that morning started laughing to himself in awe I think.  I tried not to go too fast which is hard when the whole field bolts uphill so fast.  I knew I’d have to keep some reserves but peer pressure got the best of me and I found myself going at a totally unsustainable pace and feeling pretty awful.

Normally when I tour, I go slow enough to take in as much information as possible.  By going slow, you don’t have to stop to figure out where and how to navigate safely.  This was ingrained into me by one of Canada’s most experienced mountain guides, Cyril Shokoples.  He calls it “guide pace” and it allows you to absorb information about snowpack, and calculate your moves by going slow enough to look carefully and process every bit of information.   In a race like this, much of these decisions have already been made and the guide pace is out the window!  

Above: left panel shows our first ascent route up the south face of Whitehorn II. Right panel shows the back of Whitehorn II and our descent line as seen from the third and final peak.  At the top is a small transition area where you remove your climbing skins and pack them, set your bindings up for descending, and adjusting your boots into a more solid fit.  It’s like a pit stop.  I was too far behind to see just how fast the pros did their transitions but mine takes about 3 minutes including a quick bite to eat.  Clothing changes happen here too as the heart pounding heat generated from climbing is now replaced with a lightning fast descent creating big windchills.

It was a pretty intense drop down into the next valley that was just a little unnerving (past racers said the course last year wasn’t steep enough so the route was modified this year ensuring that all the descents were rated a minimum of double black diamond) At the bottom was a check-in and another transition back to climbing set up.  The route steeply ascended what is labeled in the picture as “2nd Peak”  This peak is unnamed but has a couple of unofficial local names.  By this point I was starting to become pretty tired and found myself already activating some of my coping mechanisms for physical misery learned from countless years in the wilds.  As far as physical techniques go, I was already starting to use the “rest step” which is a very subtle pause in the gate that allows a micro second of rest in alternating legs.  It sounds simple but takes practice to use fluidly and efficiently.  Once at the top of Peak 2, I again did the switchover to descent gear and gave myself an extra minute of rest at the top to let my legs reset.  It can take a ton of leg strength on steep descents in heavy snow so I wanted to make sure I was ready for it.  I skied the gully very cautiously.

At the bottom of the valley, yet another check-in and transition back to climbing set up.

Above:  The third and final peak some call Brownshirt. Hairshirt Peak would have been a better name for it. This final test had a real sting in its tail.  You ski up the lateral moraine but then as the mountain steepens, you have to take your skis off, fix them to your pack and climb the final pitch.  There was a flattened square about 2 metres square  dug into the slope to accomplish this transition more easily.  You really have to affix the skis solidly to the pack and have the pack bolted tightly to you person so that there’s no “swing back” pulling you backwards and cartwheeling you down the steep slope.  As it was, I had to mind my balance pretty well. My poles are adjustable so that they can be shortened to just a couple of feet to act as a good snow tool for maintaining balance in super steep climbs.  A grueling climb not just because of the high altitude, not just because of the steepness but because we’d already climbed two peaks!  At the finish line, this “boot-pack” section as it’s called was monopolizing most of the conversation.  But it’s what  makes it a true ski mountaineering route.

I found it impossible to go more than 10 or 15 steps up the “boot pack” without a quick 2 or 3 second pause.  At the top was a check-in with one of the ski patrollers from Lake Louise who offered plenty of encouragement for the last few dozen vertical meters.  I was amazed when I had to pause about 2m from the top!  I just couldn’t climb up that last 2m without a micro rest.  The lone patroller sensed a little frustration in that moment and said that just this single climb nearly killed him and that he couldn’t imagine doing all three.  We had a pleasant chat while I did my gear transition and he gave me some beta on the steep gully I was about to drop into.  My last hair-raising descent of the day would take me into the Skoki Valley. After a checkpoint in the valley, it was a 7km ski down the gentle valley  with just a couple easy and mercifully short uphills to overcome before arriving back in the Bow Valley at the base of the Lake Louise Ski Area.

One of the interesting side stories for me throughout the day deserves mention.  Suz had to be in Calgary at 3pm for her good friend’s stagette party she organized.  So she was going to drive up to Louise around when we thought I’d cross the finish line but would have to leave by 12:30pm.  Not knowing the course in advance made it tricky to guess how long it would take me.  But as I passed through the checkpoints I started to worry that I wasn’t going to finish in time to have Suzanne there.  It was an extra incentive when I was gasping for limited air at altitude!  I casually mentioned this at one of the checkpoints and word seemed to spread back to the finish line (they’re all on handheld radios)  At one of the middle checkpoints the guy checked off my number and said “she’s still there!”   After that I got updates at each checkpoint that she was still at the finish line!

Above:  The finish line!  I crossed  just in time to get a big hug from Suz before she had to leave.  It’s hard to call the race an enjoyable experience when it was such a grueling grind but it was interesting to push hard to see just how much I could give.  The other competitors were all very friendly even the elite athletes were all very supportive. I met a couple of them at the previous stop on the ski mountaineering race “tour” in Golden, BC last week and they were very supportive for my first try. But as with most of these things organized or otherwise, it was satisfying to set out a new challenge and attack it square on.

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rough race elevation profile and distances

Mandatory gear you must carry for the race includes avalanche transceiver, emergency bivouac shelter, probe and rescue shovel, helmet and extra clothing.  Food and water adds even more weight.  Transceiver checks were done at race start and gear checks were done at finish line.

 

As a humourous aside, by the time I got home I was pretty much all in so you can imagine my horror to discover I had lost my keys and Suzanne was out of town!  I collapsed in a heap at the front door and went through every pocket and came up empty.  I went back to the car to see if I had stashed them someplace stupid when I found them half buried in the snow in the driveway where they fell out of my pocket at 4:55 am.

I may not have won the race but I’ll take that bit of luck for a prize most days!

pps my finger got caught in my binding while I was converting it into free heel climbing mode.  Finger manglement seems to be my constant price of admission!