Hallowen!!!!

This is the new rug I bought, it's a cream colored wool that is very textured. Nice and warm for winter!
Stacey

Halloween pumpkin fun, Stacey's is on the Left, mine is on the right.

Also see http://picasaweb.google.ca/Bourgeois.Mathieu/October for some photos from our Jasper trip.

Later

Mathieu

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.

ACC rock review

Last weekend we went to the Alpine Club of Canada Rock Review. Its basically just a social gathering of club members where we camp out in the Ghost and go climbing. We drove up on Friday night and were welcomed by 2 fellow members
[Us still sitting in truck] - Are the bugs bad?
[Them swinging their arms wildly in the arm]- They are awful don't even think of getting out of your truck without long sleave shirts, pants and a good shower of DEET.
So we set up our tent in a cloud of musquito.
The next day we headed up to STD wall. This climbing wall across the North Ghost River (The photos are in the post from June7).

This river crossing is at the center of an access issues for climbers at the moment. The government of Alberta has found a few bull trouts (a non native fish species) in the river and has basically banned any mothorizied vehicle crossing. I could talk about this for a while so lets just say we parked the truck and crossed the cold raging river by foot. We climbed a few routes and hung out with friends we haven't seen in a while. We forgot our rope in the truck and had to borrow a friends (See "Short Roping Technique" discussion below).
That evening we had a huge feast of burgers and veggies. A few kegs where also on hand to quench our thirst. Prizes where donated to the club and a draw was made to hand out every thing from ice screws, back packs and clothes. Me and Stacey cleaned up the place and made out with a new belay device, locking beaner and the grand prize a patagonia down vest.
The next day we went hiking up Black Rock mountain which is a nice hike to an old fire look out. (Summit in the background of the photo below). We hanged around the summit for 1/2 hour and then made a quick run for the trees since a thunderstorm was brewing overhead. We made it to the trees just in time and had a nice walk in the rain.

Overall a great weekend, with great people and the ghost held all sorts of surprises for us.

Short roping techniques

Mathieu - Hey can I borrow your Rope?
Ken - Sure, go right ahead but its not a 60m
Mathieu - What did he say?

.......... a few minutes later

Mathieu - Errr Brian, this isn't the 5.9
Brian - Oh it will be alright
Mathieu - Hmmmm.
Brian - it looks fine I think the anchor is just over that lip
Mathieu - OK then,
Brian - Excellent, your lead..
Mathieu - ......

......... 4 bolts later

Brian - I've found the topo
Mathieu - Just keep belaying, k, and don't tell me how hard/easy it is.
Brian - (Starts whistling)

.

....... 12 bolts later at the lip

Mathieu - (muttering to himself) shisty I'm out of draw. BRIAN, I've got one bolt left and the anchor is another 5 metre.

Brian - wow that's a long route

Mathieu - secure!! (build anchor) READY TO LOWER, Errr Brian can you tie in...

Brian - sure, you don't think you'll make it down??

Mathieu - We'll see

....... 3 bolts to the ground (10 m off the ground)

Brian - Well I guess this is it. How are you getting down?

Mathieu - Just start climbing and i'll 'assist' you.

Brian - Yes but I need to clean and rappel, I'll never have enough rope,

Mathieu - your turn to clean.

[We all made it back to camp that night, The End]

ACC Rock Review Photos

Traditional Ghost Bonfire

Stacey on STD wall, Ghost River in the background

Stacey half wayup STD wall, Black Rock Mountain in the background

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!

Las Vegas March 2005

AHHH, the city of lights, loud slot machines, and roller coasters on the outside of hotels (Stacey's first roller coaster ride ever!). Yes, everything is big in Vegas, we found out. We took a trip down in March of last year, spent some time on the strip before we escaped to Red Rocks.

Beautiful and sunny Red Rocks, no I am not gardening! Belay gloves and a sun hat are a must.

We climbed a trad route with many parallel chimneys one day and learned two very important lessons.... Always buy the newest and updated version of the guidebook (where do you think that shiny line of bolts goes?), and don't promise to have the rental care back by 5PM!