Canadian Rockies - 2014-2022

PanShiBo · 发表于 2021-11-2 05:49:55

2021.09.06 Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, Alberta. Our 362nd peak, Gap Mountain.

PanShiBo · 发表于 2021-11-3 05:09:56

2021.09.07 Our 363rd peak. Mount Lawrence Grassi, Alberta.

PanShiBo · 发表于 2021-11-4 05:24:27

2021.09.16 Turtle Mountain, AB was our 365th peak

PanShiBo · 发表于 2021-11-4 07:26:25

2021-SEP-08 Canmore RCMP, AB

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

- The Gospel according to Luke 11:9

I looked at Vera, her face with stubborn determination. It was similar to that of hers when we once had our car broken into in Alaska and our passports, driver's licences, money and expedition gear all gone. What will it be this time I thought? We were in the Canmore RCMP parking lot trying to report a missing person to the police. The door to the police station was shut with the sign saying due to the pandemic, the station was closed and all inquiries were by phone only. We had an Inreach satellite messenger but no local voice phone. I saw no other choice but to send an Inreach text to some people in Vancouver asking them to call the RCMP for us. Yet Vera was sure there was something that could be done here right away. But what? Looking around empty lot, I was quite certain there was no other way. That moment a Canada Post truck pulled over just in front of our car. A postwoman came out to deliver regular daily correspondence to the police station, we saw she was heading to the back door. Like a hungry animal getting prey on its final track, Vera immediately jumped to action - when the postwoman was about to be knocking on the back door, she asked her if it was OK to talk to an officer. Of course! - the woman said. The back door opened and an officer came out to pick up the mail. Impressive, these guys sitting inside, were fully dressed wearing bullet proof vests and guns as if ready to leave for assignment at any moment. The officer patiently listened to Vera's plea. Then he asked to wait for another cop to take the case over and left in his cruiser. After the second officer wrote all the information about the missing person, he asked us - What's your contact? - Inreach. -What is Inreach? Unlike the nurses and even a doctor in Golden-BC hospital who knew all about rock climbing, this young fellow was not that familiar with the modern outdoors technologies. The police later located the "missing person" OK. Impressed again by Vera's talent for finding solutions in hard moments. I can easily recall at least a dozen of rather hilarious illustrations to that, but that's some other time.

PanShiBo · 发表于 2021-11-5 04:46:01

2021-Sep-17 Our 366th peak, Crowsnest Mountain, Alberta,

As two of us were driving along Hwy3, I heard on the car radio that the weather next day was going to be 100kmh winds on the ground and which I immediately ignored. Why bother, I thought, it was going to be "just a hike", besides we had seen "high winds" before. On our record was 100kmh wind gusts on Mt Hood (recorded by weather station), and storms on Denali. My ignorance was thus justified.

The next day we leisurely left the car at a small parking near trailhead. I could hear the winds overhead. The trail was dry, wide and steep, without much switchbacks. We reduced our regular travel speed in order to avoid perspiration, as the temps were already at freezing level.

After the chains, we were on the open summit slope, and the wind was already pretty hard. The gusts threw us out of balance and we started avoiding edges to be safe. At a distance I saw some weather system fast approaching.

The going became harder near the top, and when it was only 300m left, I became sceptical that we had enough time to reach the top and be back below treeline before the clouds move in. I suggested Weiwei "I think we should cut it for today". She said nothing. From her face, my proposition obviously didn't meet much enthusiasm, "when the summit was only 300m away". I internally cursed at the stubborness of my climbing partner, but decided to give it a shot.

Now, the wind was pretty hard and knocked us down almost every other step. The remaining 50 meters we had to crawl.

At the top we quickly took selfie, sent InReach message "On The Summit" and went down. The wind was now crazy, throwing little stones at us and my hiking poles would go almost horizontal under wind gusts.

Once we reached the treeline it started light snowing. I saw a satisfactory smirk on Weiwei's face, as if saying "see, we made it!". OK alright - no more trips under conditions like this, I promised myself.

Once at the car, I saw my barometer-based altimeter clocked extra 1,000m elevation gain due to the pressure fluctuations that the wind gusts created, although min and max altitudes matched the real numbers.

Following my (bad) habit of reading trip reports only after the trip, I realized that despite the wind we still had good luck - the route was reported to be often under a waist-deep snow this time of year and the chains being icy and thus problematic to climb without extra climbing gear.

The last note, after such a windy day, I had to downgrade the percieved severity of Alaskan storms that we had back in 2019 - obviously we had not seen "real" winds yet until now.