Niblock!

I can still remember the first time i set eyes on lake louise, i thought it was so beautiful that i snapped a number of pictures in a failed attempt to get the full, panoramic view of the mountains. that day i was talking to a few guys on the bike tour, one of which had climbed Fairview and Temple. He inspired me to want to come back and make it to the top of these two mountains.

Temple and Fairview are the typical mountains that people go for, and after i have summited these two majestic peaks, my sights have turned to two more big and challenging mountains. One of these is Niblock, and i attacked it a few weeks ago.

Alright, So this story actually starts on teh Saturday that Ashley and I went Camping. The original plan was to go up Niblock on Saturday, and then go camping Saturday & Sunday nights. This is the tale of that fate full Saturday.

To Climb Niblock, one must first hike to Lake Agnes. From Lake Agnes the climb begins. first up the valley at the back of the lake (that i didn't know exsisted) and then up a cliff, and then.. well, more climbing.

this saturday, Ashley and I made it to Lake Agnes in record time.... record SLOW time that is. i don't know what we officially clocked in at, but it was a long trip to get what should take 45-50 min. See, About halfway up at mirror lake, Ashley started experienceing dizzy spells and wasn't feeling right, so we pushed ourselves to Lake Agnes before I made the decision that she just wasn't feeling good enough for the push up Niblock. we ended up chilling out on some rocks on teh shores of Lake Agnes.

It was a beautiful day, so it was nice to switch gears and just relax. It was probably a good thing that we didn't go for the peak of Niblock that day as it took us quite a while to get all the camping gear together, and had we gone for the peak we would never have left on time for camping (or maybe that would have been a good thing!)

so, plans had to be changed and we postponned our summit plans to the next week.

This time i made sure we were ready, i was ready to leave Ashley behind if I had to. I had been eyeing this peak for years and it was time for me to stand on top! So. the next Saturday we went for it again. This time we made it to lake agnes without incident and enjoyed the company of a ground squirrel at the back of lake agnes before going for the summit. Here are some pics of the... approach so to speak.

So it started... you can see the scree slope in the middle right above the green trees, with the shadow of Whyte on the left... at the top of this slope was a ridge that we had to navigate, it required some scrambling. But it wasn't too complicated. It was fun as we were climbing up beside a waterfall!

Once we were above this ridge, it was a slog to the next face, just over a whole load of big boulders that didn't require much skill, but a fair bit of determination. once we made it to the back of this i realized that I may have bitten off a bit more than i should be chewing. I was fairly comfortable with the obstacles that we were facing, but was Ashley?

The next obstacle was a steep steep! scree slope... this means that every step we took, we slid back 1/2 a step. Very Annoying, and it really slows down any progress! this is where Ashely started showing signs of being uncomfortable on this mountain. But we pushed on.

The next obstacle was the worst. We lost any sign of a defined trail and had to scramble straight up the side of this mountain. It was beyond steep, and with no trail - Ashley had doubts. It the guide books they said it was clearly marked - but this was NOT the case. I was alright with this section, but uncomfortable with the situation i was forcing ashley into. it's difficult knowing that i was putting her through something so uncomfortable.

eventually we made it to the Col between Whyte and Niblock. This is where things got really scary. See, the col between these two peaks is what they call a Knife edge... See, it's only about 2 metre's wide and it's a cliff on both sides. Somehow we had managed to climb up the cliff on the one side, but the other side looked all the more onimous! yikes.

From here we turned and went up what would have been the back side of Nibock. It was steep, and it was as if we were climbing a up this knife edge to the top. At some points the rock was less than 1 metre wide, and it was sheer cliff on either side. Ashley was not amused... (I was jovial!)

eventually we came to a point that Ashley dared not go farther, Sadly it was less than 25 m from the summit, but i commed her for pushing to this point. It wasn't easy, and she did not enjoy the heights. This really was the hardest climb i have done yet, and for her to push and make it this close to the peak, well, I was impressed.

Now, the worst part of the trip... I forgot to sign the ledger at the top of the mountain! see, there is always a pad of paper for people who summit to right a little something about making it to the peak... and I forgot about it until i was half way down! nuts!!!

so, now the way down.

Little do most people know, but the way down is always the worst! I will sum up this next 3 hours of my life very quickly. we had little water, little light, Ashley cried, but pushed on. I don't know why she still talks to me. We ran out of water - filled up camel back in the waterfall! Tasted great! made it to Lake Agnes as the sun went down! used a Camera LCD display to illumiated the path back to Lake Louise (approx 30 min of complete darkness) and we made it back to the front of the chateau ath 10pm, exhausted!

so ya... Now i can say i was up there! but i'm not sure if I'll ever go again!

crazy, unfortunate, untimely events involving bad camping decisions.

hmmm... So i've been away from the blogging world for a few weeks now... i guess it's been a month and as you can guess, i have a few stories to tell!

I guess i should start with why i haven't been able to blog for you! and possibly why you haven't been able to call me! heheh.. ya

so, lets go back to the weekend after my birthday.

it was a beautiful weekend. well, it started beautiful and i didn't check the forecast... mistake #1. I think i knew bad weather was coming in but may have refused to let it bother me or stop me from going on my first full weekend camping trip. It was all planned, Cheryl, Ashley and I were going to go to the saskatchewan crossing area and find a back country site for the weekend, and then Mark and Deb would join us on sunday.

it was a good plan, until Cheryl couldn't make it. So just ashley and I ventured off to find a campsite, but as it was the long weekend - all the prime sites were gone. but eventually we found one that offered us a nice view. but, we had to set up the tent on a sand bar. which wasn't so bad, camping on a beach sounds like fun right? ya... i think anyone with any camping experience knows where this is going.

the next day as we waited for mark and Deb to arrive (ha - bet you didn't see that one coming), Ashley and I went for a hike. As we were retuning from the hike we were crossing a river when a wind gust almost blew me right off the bridge. Now, I know you all are thinking that i'm pretty light and it isn't surprising that a wind gust might blow me off balance, but i was thinking - the tent!!! what is happening to the tent?

it was about 10 minutes later that we got back to the campsite to find...

yes. This would be the tent, snagged on something under the water, with the rushing water consuming the tent and ripping it to pieces. Inside this tent are 4 sleeping bags, 4 thermorest pads, a significant amount of clothing. and a blackberry.

and you can see my attempt to rescue it all. Actually, i think you can see my sleeping bag starting to get pulled out of the tent on the top of that picture...

anyway. it was an expensive weekend that ended in rain... but isn't it pretty?

now i just need to buy a new tent, blackberry and replace some clothing!

So, i always have more stories to tell than time to tell them, but hopefully i will get online soon to tell you all about climbing niblock, mountain biking and all the other exciting things going on in my life.

oh, and Hockey Starts tomorrow!!!!! yes... i am a little excited!

miss you all, i think matt's home phone line is 403-522-3682... or just call me at work at 403-522-1847, but not tomorrow, i'm going paragliding!