Making it count - Joffre in a day and fun on Mt. Hector

What does a true weekend warrior do when faced with an elusive long weekend? Maximize the time spent getting rad in the mountains.

We started the weekend off at Heroes Knob to check out the snow and planned to ski a few different aspects. We headed up the south side of the valley and topped out at a col with a great view. After descending, we decided to head a little farther west up the valley and check out the snow. On a North Facing slope at around 2100m we remote triggered a size 1 wet slab which moved slow enough for us to back up, pull out the cameras and film it going by. The snow softened up way more quickly than I was expecting despite the lack of direct sun so we called it a day. After that, we knew extra early starts were going to be needed for the rest of the weekend

Peter and Bill putting in the track

To top off the day, on the drive back to Canmore, I managed to get stuck in a rut in the slush, spin out and end up in the ditch. After 1:30 of digging and pushing, we got back on the road to realize that a bush I had creamed left us a present in the tire. We threw on the spare tire and limped back into town. An avalanche, a car accident and a flat tire all in a day must mean I had used up all my bad luck for the weekend, so it was time to get after it for the next two days.

The bush that fought back

Peter and I had spent the last two weeks checking the weather forecast in the hopes that it would cooperate for an attempt for a fast time on the Wapta in a day. We watched as it slowly deteriorated forcing us to change our plans.

Mentally prepared for a long day, we decided to give Joffre a go. Peter had tried skiing it before, and I have been up there in the summer to run Northover, but neither of us had made it to the summit before. Based on the conditions the previous day, we left the parking lot at 6:00 to make sure we got across the lake when it was still frozen. A good freeze and no wind the night before meant we could skate across the lake and make great time to the creek by Hidden Lake. From there we began the climb up the North side of the valley through the trees towards Fossil Falls. At this point I realized that I had left my camera in the car. So all the photos from the day are from Peter. Check out his blog here

Skating across Upper Kananaskis Lake on the crust

The Rockies Project

By the end of last summer, I was stuck in a rut, and running the same trails over and over, while slowly losing motivation to make the trip out to the mountains. In an effort to explore the infinite playground in my backyard, I am going to try and complete every trail listed in Mountain Running in the Canadian Rockies by Bob Walker, all in one season.

This works out to: 

77 runs

1544km

63,993m of elevation gain

Skimo Season

In need of a way of staying fit without beating up my body too much this winter, I thought I would give the sport of Ski Mountaneering or Skimo racing a go. It closely mimics the biomechanics of running with no impact, and lets me get out and have fun in the mountains while training. Plus, who doesn't love skiing...
If you don't know what Skimo is, for a great interview from a couple days ago that Alberta Primetime did click here

I ended up racing 6 times (2 were canceled due to the stupidly cold winter we had) here are some brief details from each:

It's been awhile...

I started this blog with good intentions to keep constantly updating it, then life got busy and I haven't touched it in months. But I'm back! For now...

I'm going to try and put up a few posts over the next week about what I've been up to for the last few months. Then hopefully I'll be able to keep it up a little better than in the past, get millions of followers and amass huge amounts of internet ego points