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!

Softball

The regular season for softball came to a close today it has been a fun and exciting 2 months of ball. I've learned a lot during this time about everything that it takes to put together a winning team. There is soo much strategy! Who would have thought there was any strategy in softball?

So, to end the season we were up against a team that was 13 - 0, and if you looked back over the last few years they were probably 50+ - 0! In other words, they haven't lost in years. -k. Not sure exactly how many years, but it is at least 4, possibly 6.

So, we were expecting a big game! Now keep in mind that we were 13 - 0 as well. This game was the clash of the titans! The winner took sole possesion of 1st, the loser hopes for revenge in the finals.

It was actually a really short game. Most likely because of the stellar defence played by both teams. We started off right by keeping them to no scoring in the first inning, and scoring a few runs ourselves to get ahead.

It stayed close the entire game, noone would get many runs, and we always managed to stay in the lead... I think it irked them as we caysed them to suffer their first defeat in... 4+ years!

It was an exciting moment when I realized the game was over! One girl actually phoned home right after the game to tell her mother about it. It was great to be a part of this team and finally strike back at the #1 team for the last few years!

Now, let's hope we can push through the playoffs and beat them again in the finals! -kve been on a team that has won the league only to go go on to an early exit from the playoffs too many times out here!

Oh, and the best part about the night was that when I was talking to a girl from another team she said that we were the most fun team to play against. It's nice to hear that people still can enjoy playing ball and have fun with it, and still be the #1 team :)

Anyway, it's bedtime!

stories of my adventures.

Hmm, I don't know where I left off on my last blog, so I'll just start in july and talk about a few things that I've done.

1st, I went out and bought a motorcycle last month. Yes, I know. It's a little crazy, but I miss riding and had a good opportunity to pick one up cheap. A friend from church was selling his old bike, so I snapped it up. It is an '87 kawasaki 454ltd. It's a little small for me but runs well and gets me riding. When I picked it up she was running great and appeared to only requiere a few asthetic repairs. I have since realized that Chris didn't do much more than ride the bike. While he got the engine tuned, he didn't realize that the whole drive system needs replacing. Oh bother! It's just worn out a little - it will continue to run fine, but the splines on the drive out of the transmission or worn down and the bearing on the drive pully on the rear wheel is in need of a replacement - all in all, I thin it will be switched over to a chain drive from a belt drive. Other than that issue, I just need to do some painting. I hope to turn around and sell it again this fall - hopefully break even on it and buy something a little nicer next year.

But, I am going to enjoy this while I can, and thus I drove the bike to jasper this past weekend. Mark and I decided to go up for a weekend with some friends and be tourists and get away from banff. It was an enjoyable weekend we pretty much relaxed by the pool and saw a few of the sites. Nothing too exciting about it other than that I got to ride the bike :)

Hmm, I started writing as I waited for a friend to go for a cycling bike ride who has just arrived, so this will have to continue another time.

Cheerio!

camping trips :)

I've been begging to get out camping all year. I've gone out and made a few purchases to get me ready, and this weekend I finally got to put it to use.

Melissa called me up... Or should I say texted me asking if I wanted to camp on the shores of Abraham Lake, to which I hurriedly responded via text saying I was absolutely in.

We discussed possible locations, and I knew of a few un-serviced sites on the shore of the North Saskatchewan River where we could pitch a tent and have a fire. I figured that's all we needed for one night; I could servive with-out a toilet for that long but Mel could not and would not consider it... So alternate arrangements had to be made.

Mel searched high and low for an open campsite. One with all the necessities she demanded and finally found one. It was convienient and easy to get to, had a lake, the site was beside a babling brook, facilities were near-by and we could have a fire on the beach! I case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm speaking of the backyard at the farm!

I'm here now, keeping you all updated that we are attepting to camp in the yard. We managed to use the truck to carry all the equipment to our site... About 100m from the house! And we got all set up for a fire by the pond... Which I must got start.

But I must say that it rained - so we retreated to the house to make cookies! Just as good as smores right?

Anyway, hopefully the next camping trip will take me to a real campsite - but this is as good as any!

Waving at Pretty Girls...

This is a story I must put down, or else I may forget it, and some day I'd like to come back to read of this night, of most amusing occurances.

Mark, Jesse and I decided tonight we would go see the new transformers movie, so we gathered at Jesse's place in Banff before driving to the theatre.

When we left for the movie we debated over who would drive - in a stark contrast from high school, it was an argument over who had to drive instead of who got to drive. Mark lost the battle.

As we pulled into the parking lot, Mark spotted a space by the back. As he was pulling into the space, the vehicle to our right was backing out.

Mark made the mistake of looking over at the driver, who happened to be an attractive young blonde - whom he knew from one of the restaurants in town. She smilled and waved. Of course, Mark being the eternal ladies man, waved back. Totally distracted from the task at hand.

As he waved, his car - recently repaired, drove right up onto the curb!

Way to go Mark! Teach you to wave at girls!

Paget Peak

Mom says I need to blog more. I figured that the much more regular phone calls would be enough, but nay, I must get on my blogging horse!

This past weekend I challenged another peak in the area. One that I had been unable to summit in years past. (Due to time and members of the party I went with)

Saturday morning came early. I didn't enjoy hearing the alarm going off on a saturday at a time earlier than a regular week day. (I dare not say what time as you all would scoff at me! in my defense - I was out in banff bidding another friend farewell friday night which kept me out quite late!)

So, like I said, early to rise. It wasn't long before I was forcing my body to wake from its slumber as I trudged up a steep mountain trail. And not long after before I was really moving. In a short 50 min, Megan and I had caught up to a group of friends of ours at the old fire lookout, they had left 20 min prior to us!

We continued on from the lookout up an unmarked trail to the peak. This involved a little more work than just walking a steep trail. We had to find a route through the hill of loose rocks. It wasn't long before Megan and I had charged up the mountain. After a short section of true scambling we reached the peak.

We sat down on a ledge, let our feet dangle over the edge and enjoyed the view... All of 30 feet of visibility as a storm had rolled in and we were getting snowed on!

During this time our friend Kirby caught up to us. We took some pics, clebrating our triumph over the mountain and were planning to head back down when the clouds cleared for a second...

We weren't at the summit!

We had a few hundered more metres to go still! We pushed ourselves through the cold wind and snow and reached the true summit. Now we were freezing and made short work of the pictures before heading down the mountain as fast as possible.

Back at the fire lookout we were greeted with... You guessed it.

Sunny skies!

Not 20 min after we reached the summit, there wasn't a cloud in the sky! Gotta love the rockies!

On the way down, Megan and I decided to take a detour over to sherbrooke lake. It added a nice 3km to our trip, but it was great scenery and the weather was clear. If only it was a few degrees warmer and we may have decided to go swimming.