Holiday fun

We both spent some time with our families during the holiday. Here are some photos http://picasaweb.google.ca/Bourgeois.Mathieu/HolidayFiesta?feat=directlink



And this weekend we went ice climbing in Banff.

http://picasaweb.google.ca/Bourgeois.Mathieu/SkySFirstDayIceClimbing?feat=directlink




Hope everyone had fun holidays and a happy new year.



Mathieu and Stacey

Ice Review

In early 2008, we went to the Alpine Club annual Ice Review weekend. Basically very similar to the rock review (See http://mathieuandstacey.blogspot.com/2007/06/acc-rock-review_17.html) but you guessed it, Ice climbing. On Saturday we took a walk and did a very fun climb called "This House Of Skye". Probably done it five times but still a pleasant day. It was Nick's second or first time out ever so we lent him a helping hand and showed him the ropes. We got slowed down by a party of 4 people but they kindly let us pass them and we zipped up the rest of the climb.











Typical pitches on THOS










More typical short pitches.




And more short pitches.





Mathieu getting tired of all that climbing.

On day 2 we lazily woke up after a night of chile, beer, bonfire and general mischief. We set our sights for a climb with a short approach. We settled for Wicked Wanda which is way too hard for us but the bottom would offer a nice afternoon of climbing.



Approaching our climb, Wicked Wanda



Stacey enjoying a warm day in Big Blue. Interesting fact #4322: Big Blue creates its own micro climate where its always warm and balmy despite the cold.




Shannon cleaning Mat's mess of Ice screws.

Again Good times had by all,
Mathieu

Jasper New Years

Skiing Near Athabasca Falls


Self Portrait at Athabasca Falls


Exploring the bottom of Maligne Canyon


Going back down the Canyon after encountering some scary open pools of water.


Maligne Canyon is a spectacular place in winter.


Yeah!! Ice climbing. Amazing fact #4321 Mathieu likes to Ice climb.


So for New Years we decided to spend a few days in Jasper, we haven't been there in winter so we figured we could find fun stuff to do. I guess we were right cause we had non stop fun. We drove down on Saturday and stopped by Tangle Falls which is an ice climb that is literally 5 steps from the parking lot. We met a nice dog there. Then we went up to Jasper and checking in our hotel room where we sneaked in a third guest, George Foreman. We cooked 2 nice suppers on George. The following day we went cross country skiing at Athabasca falls which was fun despite the 2 km of walking due to insufficient snow. The day after that we went to explore the small and narrow Maligne Canyon and spent the afternoon climbing . We had dinner reservcation for the 31st and had a wonderfull meal as we watched people put on a firework display on the top of Signal Mtn. On the last day Mat did some reminising of days gone by when we X-country skied in the Whistler campground, he found his old home where he had spent a few weeks back in the summer of '97 living in a van down by the river.

Good times
Mathieu

Sweet Sixteen

For Stacey's neice's 16th birthday in October, Mat and I brought her a ticket to Calgary for the weekend. She came in early January, and tried her hand at ice climbing. She did very well with climbing, and we tried to convince her to stay in Calgary with us for good! But she decided to return to her home in Saskatoon instead :(, oh well!!! We really enjoyed her visit!

What the heck is a shoulder season anyway?

Much debate ensues this time of year in this wonderful part of the world that we call home. Is it really shoulder season, and does that term even exist? Stacey, after having lived in Calgary for a few years, started hearing all these spring and fall rumblings about this magical term. Basically, it's when us mountain-folk are grounded into city lifestyle, waiting either for the ice to freeze (fall), or the rock to dry out (spring) so we can go CLIMBING! Among these folk will spring the odd foul-mood, resulting in too much visiting or house-related chores. Then, there are the eternal optimists... enter Mathieu. "Who cares if it is zero degrees, lets go rock climbing" they enthusiastically cheer. While us shoulder-season believers don our "painting clothes"and head down to the bowels of our basements to get lost in home improvements.

Who is right? Who knows? I for one am patiently waiting for those damed crocuses I planted last fall to poke their lovely little heads out of the clay soil in my front yard before I can without a doubt proclaim... it's summer! Better get out there, cause in this part of the world summer lasts only 2 months! Hope you are all are enjoying spring, be it shoulder season or not. Cause it's the best time of the year!!!!

Num Ti Jah Weekend 2007

Well I just deleted the post I made last night. I'll try again, here goes....


We just got back from a 3 day trip to the icefield parkway. We travelled to Num Ti Jah Lodge http://www.num-ti-jah.com/map.html which is located 40 km north of Lake Louise. We had spent a few days there last year and found the place quite nice and quiet so we decided to return this year (thanks to a Christmas gift from memere et pepere, les Pellerin, les Leger and les Bourgeois). The first day we got there, we took a snowshoe trip up towards Bow Falls http://www.flickr.com/photos/mathieuandstacey/428869591/. It is quite wintery up there with lots of snow and wind. We turned around at mid afternoon and returned to the lodge to enjoy a nice sauna and a good meal. The next day, we woke up to 10 cm of new snow and some more still falling. We wanted to do a nice ice climb but we had little choice since most of the climbs have disapeared due to lots of sun and rain in the last month. We drove north towards Jasper and found a nice climb called "Shades of Beauty". The name comes from the fact that its in the shade and its found along a creek called Beauty Creek. The hike in was nice, lots of deep pools of water with frozen waterfalls.

Once we got to the climb, we geared up and started making our way up. The climb is 3 pitches long with a nice ledge between each pitch. You can see the climb in the picture below, it followes the 3 successive curtains of ice.

The climbing was nice, quiet, and snowy. The snow kept falling all day which made the place even more quiet, all we heard all day was the hooting of an owl. Unfortunatly the owl couldn't understand or speak any English so he was useless in relaying climbing commands between climber and belayer. The snow muffled our voices and we had a hard time hearing each other between each pitch. Stacey now refuses to climb with me if we don't have two way radios. We had brought them but unfortunatly we forgot to check the batteries.

At the end of the last pitch, the wet snow had gotten us soaked to the bones. Stacey was wearing full goretex rain gear and she still was wet. She went thru 3 pairs of gloves to try to keep her hands dry. The picture below is Stacey coming up the last bit of climbing. The creek is way below in the valley.

We got back to the car 8 hours after leaving and made our way back to the lodge. The drive took almost twice as long on the way back due to 30+cm of snow that had fallen during the day. We even got in a complete whiteout when we reached the Columbia icefield. Its still winter up there. The next morning we left the lodge with a total of 40 cm of snow on the car and by the time we got to Calgary it was +9 and sunny.

Merci encore pour le beau cadeau de noel.

Mathieu and Stacey.

Forgot the camera weekend

February 24th 2007, we got out ice climbing with my friend Dave Lister from back home (New Brunswick). Got into a bit of a wet spot in the South Ghost and required some fancy glacier techniques to get us moving. However even with a clever T-slot anchor and a come-along whinch we only got the truck moving 4 feet in one hour. Thankfully Stacey had walked to the bottom of the big hill and recruited some help. Photo by Dave Lister.

Valley of the Sun

March 3rd 2007. Spent a beautiful day climbing in the valley of the sun in the North ghost. Here is our friend Brian Martz climbing one of the many steps in the Valley of the Sun. Mathieu and Shannon are on standby below.

We pinballed our way into the ghost today. The drive in was very drifted in. We only had to dig ourselves out once and it was in snow, no ice or water involved (as opposed to last weekend). Pictures by Stacey.