Wedding Pictures

Hello,

First off, thanks to everybody that could make it to our wedding and our thoughts were with those that couldn't make it.

We had remarkable luck with the weather, our ceremony was awesome, even the wind cooperated and made Stacey's dress float in the wind. The rain and thunder waited till we were all sitting for supper and then stopped to allow our few guests to drive home safely that night. A really memorable day.

We have finally looked at the pictures we currently have and picked a dozen that we really liked. Click HERE to see the photos. Once we get our 'official' photos from our photographer we will post our bestest.

Cheers

Mathieu

Mathieu's wild bachelor party

Well the wedding is a week from now and I decided to get a few of my friends and celebrate my upcoming wedding in my style. Myself, Dan (my best man), Jeremy, Ken, Dave and Christian hauled ourselves up to the Neil Colgan hut for a night. The Neil Colgan hut is a mountain hut that is maintained by the Alpine club of Canada and people can sleep there and climb the surrounding mountains and return to the cozy hut. This particular hut is actually the highest permanent habitable structure in Canada and sits high above Morraine Lake (the lake on the back of the old 20$ bills) in Banff National Park. In our case we just got up to the hut, ate our faces off, drank a bottle of fine scotch that Ken hauled up, drank 15 cups of coffee the next morning and made our way back down for a nice cool dip in Morraine lake. A nice weekend in the mountains with my good friends, my kind of party. Photos

Mathieu

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

Lake O'Hara Larches

This past weekend we went to Lake O'Hara, and area just on the BC side of the continental divide with our friends Brian and Christian. This is a restricted-access area that you have to book 3 months in advance, and ride a yellow school bus in along a very bumpy road to get into. Great for overseas vacationers, but a little more difficult to get into for us locals. Mat had the foresite to book it in June. We we went in for 3 days and did a little hiking, a little climbing, and enjoyed some fabulous wealther and golden trees! By the way, yes, that is Mat swimming in the icy waters!

Mat and Stacey's BC Trip Aug 2007

2 glorious weeks off! First we headed to Rogers Pass area in BC, and did some hiking in windy wet weather. This area is famous for glaciers, high snowfall, and giant cedars. THe reason behind the glaciers, high snowfall and giant cedars is apparent in this photo, it rains a LOT!


Squirrels hard at work preparing for winter at Rogers Pass.


Mat and I enjoying another 'one-pot' supper at a cooking shelter on top of Mt Revelstoke in Revelstoke National Park (we got to drive up to this one). Mat was very proud of his new and very expensive dromedary bag!


Finally some warm sun and swimming in Vernon. Stopped at Ellison Park for a bit of climbing and lots of swimming. We spent a good hour lounging on the blue inner tube that you see in the middle of the picture, the owners where gone for a ride so we decided to take over the ship.


After our stop in the Okanagan we make it to Powell River where Ray takes us on a triatlon of sorts, swimming, sailing, and outrigger canoeing, all in one fantastic day. In this picture, Ray is steering (seat 6), I'm on seat four and Stacey is in seat three.


After Powell River we press on to Zeballos where we start our 6 day sea kayak trip. This sea star bed was where we started our journey.


On the second day, we had some rain and we went for a paddle in the Nuchatlitz reef where we spotted a raft of sea otters. Sea otters are the curious little dogs of the ocean. Apparently they can spend their whole lives in the ocean. Another interesting fact is that the Vancouver Island population was at one time wiped out and these little fellas here are transplants from Alaska.


Our kayak trip was organized thru the U of C and we had a group of 12 people including 2 guides, Chad and Jenn. This is our camp 1 beach, at Rosa Point.


Eventually we moved camp to Benson Point on Nootka Island. We spent 2 nights there and the second day we went for a day paddle to explore some river outlets. We took turns riding the waterfall current.


Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to the Lime-o-nator or as we called it the Sub-Lime. Packing and moving camp was Matt's organizational nightmare come true.


Dawn enjoying our third and last camp was on Garden Point.


Enjoying stories with Bob and a nice fire on our last night.

This is our kayaking group with our guides Jen and Chad


After getting off the water, we started back towards Calgary. Melanie and Rick kindly shared their cottage on Okanagan Lake, Ellison park is actually straight across the lake. Full circle i tell you.


The obligatory parting shot. This sunset was from Benson Point on Day 4 of our Kayak trip.

Canada Day Weekend

Time to add text to these photos. Last Canada day long weekend was spent in the mountains (surprise!). On Saturday we went climbing at Kid Goat. This climbing area is in the front range and is quite close to Calgary. We arrived a bit late thinking we had to do a lesser known route but were surprise to find only 4 cars there. We happened to get there at the same time as a fellow ACC/New Brunswicker we met at Rock Review and hiked up together. Me and Stacey did a route called "Keelhaul Wall" which is a 5 pitch climb. The name comes from the 3rd pitch which has this super textured rock that resembles the keel of a ship.


Stacey on the 2nd pitch of Keelhaul


Stacey on the third pitch of Keelhaul. You can see the texture on the rock.

After climbing we hiked down back to the car and went to Elk Lake Campground where we met Alexis and Blaine who just got back from there honeymoon in Belize. Good times where had but I kicked everyones a$$ at ATB (all terrain bocce ball). Their friends Trevor and Amy where also there with their friend Ken. Both Trevor and Ken are also from New Brunswick. I'm starting to see a patern in this. So the second day we went biking on Pocatera bike trail with Ken. We were the only ones with a map so it seems we were giving advice to a lot of other cyclists. A few turned around when we told them wrong information on the next turnoff. Lets just say they missed a nice downhill run. After the bike ride everybody else had left so me and Stacey just hung out at the campsite and decided to go take a walk around a little interpretive trail which loons, deer and beavers kindly showed up for a photo shoot, however we forgot our camera.


The ATB club


Stacey doing some nice banked turns on Pocaterra bike trail.


On the third day of the long weekend we had our sights set on Mt Indefatigable which is a mountain on the shores of upper Kananaskis lakes. After much debate of being on the right or wrong trail we finally emerged above the lake. This mountain is prime Grizzly habitat and the hills are covered in bear digs. We didn't see any grizzly on the moutain but on the way back home (in the car) we saw not one but two of them.


Mathieu slogging up Mount Indefatigable


Stacey on the ridge traverse from the South to North Summit

Local chipmunk welcoming us to the south summit, apparently he built that pyramid.

A nice weekend with a bit of everything. Sure beats last year Canada day weekend where Stacey got nearly hit by lightning but that's a story for another time.

Just hiking he said...

On June 15th we celebrated our 2 year anniversary by going at Yoho National Park in BC. We left Thursday night and stayed at a beautiful cabin at Cathedral mountain lodge just East of Field. The weather looked gloomy(rain, showers, rain) all weekend so we set our sights for some chill out time and maybe a bit of hiking. To say we "just hiked" would be an understatement.

Our cabin

Friday was all fine with a short hike into Sherbrooke lake. The trail climbs up from the road for 1.5 hours and the follows a beautifull alpine lake. We walked up in the rain and stopped for lunch under a big pine tree right on the lake shore. The sun actually made short appearance and Stacey took that opportunity to nap and I dipped into the scotch. We resumed our hike and were hoping to get into Niles Meadow which is just pass the lake. The weather had other plans. As soon as we got to the back of the lake a quick moving snow squall sent us running back to the car in full rain gear.

Stacey at Sherbrooke Lake seconds before the snow squall

The next day we (or I) set our sights for the Wapta Highline trail, the hiking guidebooks raved about this hike. The trail starts at Emerald Lake which is a beautiful turquoise alpine lake, then the trail goes up to Yoho Pass then stays high and crosses the base of Mount Wapta and Mount Field then crosses into Burgess Pass and finally goes down back to Emerald Lake. What makes this trail special is that it once you get to the base of Mount Wapta you are crossing into the Burgess Shale strata. Now for all you non geological folks out there, this "layer" of the Rocky mountains contains an incredible concentration of fossils. Most of the fossils are over 500 million years old

Burgess Shale Fossils (not my pictures)

Well we didn't see any fossils, the main reason is that we were waist deep in snow for most of the hike. I think me and Stacey now understand the meaning of "Post holing". The word or verb 'post holing' refers to the action of punching thru the snow and sinking up to your knee or waist. Lets just say, its a very tiresome way of covering 10km.

On the way up to Yoho Pass, before we hit the snow line.

Now you would think that we would of known better and turned around at the first sign of trouble however I don't listen to common sense or Stacey's wisdom. We got up to Yoho pass without any difficulty, we hit snow for the last 300 m and couldn't find the trail. We had lunch and I went wandering around and I found the sign post for the trail just 10 metres from the spot where we were having lunch. I decided to keep going and Stacey didn't like the prospect of walking on snow for 3 hours however she also didn't want me to go on by myself, so she decided to come along. I'll let her tell the rest of the story so stay tuned.....

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!!!!

Climbing in 2005

This in Sept 2005 on the top of Fortress Mountain in Kananaskis Country. My good friend Jesse joined us for some fall scrambling. The valley below was littered with golden larches.

This is heading up Fortress Mountain in typical fall conditions.

Mat enjoying a beautiful lunch spot overlooking Skaha Lake on a fall trip to do some sunny cragging near Penticton, BC.

This is a favourite area for Mat and I to go climbing, it's called STD Wall (that stands for Silver Tounged Devil Wall) and it is a short but bumpy 4WD ride to the Ghost River Area. Here we are in late fall enjoying some warm sunshine. Behind is Black Rock Mountain, which is a hike to the top to an old fire lookout.

Mat is leading a 5.7 trad route in Skaha

I love taking pictures of Mat on toprope looking very macho, mainly because he is rarely on top rope, the purist!