September 2002 and I had signed up for an all inclusive, 3 month long Mountain Skills Semester with Yamnuska Mountain School. I can’t remember the price of the course but with the strong pound and the weak Can$I can honestly say this was some of the best money I have ever spent! All accommodation, food, technical equipment, instruction and transport was included. For me it was 3 months of sponging: sucking the instructors and my fellow course mates dry of information. Most of the people on the course had some basic idea on the technicalities of mountain sports or at least enough to talk a good game but I was clueless. Hiking, rock climbing, mountaineering, canoeing, ski touring, ski mountaineering, ice climbing, avalanche awareness, wilderness first aid and enough back country trickery to fill a 50litre pack for 6months in the backcountry? For a full list of the routes done, trips undertaken, rivers run and qualifications gained whilst on Yam see my logs and resume.

I feel I must give passing mention to the mountaineering segments as they were for me particularly memorable. Glacial travel in the Ice Fields and the eventual summiting of Mnt. Athabasca, followed by hardship in the Little Yoho Valley struck a real cord with me and although I wouldn’t truly understand the concept of Alpine climbing for a while to come, I did enjoy the ethic of these mountaineering trips and was dumbstruck by the beauty of these high mountain peaks and the potential challenges they afforded.

My fellow Yamers were outstanding. We lived out of each others pockets for 3 months; endured some trying times together; drank our faces off together; laughed hard together and had a lot of fun. I learnt so much it wasn’t funny and left the course feeling semi confident in the mountains.

Ken Wylie mountain God!

Alan, Mike, Shunnae, Jon, Kristen, Damien, Francois, Ty, Craig stay in touch!

On finishing the course I was at a loose end but two thing were for sure, I needed to cement the mountain foundations of Yam and I needed some cash. The cash came from selling my soul to the devil bartending at the Grizzly Paw Pub (slight exaggeration, it was ok) and the cementing came from 538b 3^rd street. Myself, Fin, Jimmy V, Pete and Jer were all left in Canmore after the rest had departed. 5 more handsome eligible young men you have not met and we used are extensive charm repertoire to acquire the lease of the 538b mansion. It was big (good for gear), sparsely furnished (less for us to break) and had an awesome garden/deck/fire pit. Perfect. I worked 3 days a week and was by far the biggest income provider of the 5. The heating was set to just above freezing to save money, fleece inside was mandatory. Jimmy, Fin and Jer moved from coffee to cigarette and kept themselves amused by seeing who could drink the most water over a given afternoon. That was in between Jer dehydrating every food product known to man and Jimmy trying to duct tape front points onto 2^nd hand trainers in his quest to become a professional mixed climber.

That winter was a quest of 5 amateurs playing with and pretending to be big boys. But shit, did we learn a lot. There is no where to hide when your half way up a big scary ice wall. Mistakes were made on an hourly basis but our understanding grew and no one got seriously hurt. We kept ourselves to ourselves over the winter. Whiskey flowed and there was some quality work put in at the Paw and the Ho (see Bars) but the focus was on the ice and snow. Gear was bought, tweaked, discussed for hours, tweaked some more: Jimmy sharpened his tools at least 6 hours a day. Amongst numerous day trips I also undertook 3 mini expeditions each encompassing a couple of great climbing days normally on quality, fat, blue, plastic, featured, perfect ice for which the Rockies is so renowned. Of course these were full of excitement both on and off the ice. Most were tent based but the sauna at crazy Ramparts Creek is a unique experience. Great times indeed. It was a cold hard winter but by the start of spring we all had a good resume of routes under our belts.

Whilst the other 538bers played on rock across the western ranges of Canada for the summer I took a break from the rock and concentrated on the river. Come September and end of river work I was keen to get into the mountains again and experienced more of this ‘alpine climbing’. Me, Jer and Carena left Canmore on the most speculative mountaineering trip ever. We were going into the Tonquin Valley near Jasper and looking back had absolutely no idea what we were doing. That was a tough trip! We walked huge distances with brutal packs and got thwarted on the first two peaks we attempted through mainly a lack of understanding of what we were up against. WE summated our final peak which was great for moral and came out of the mountains 6 days later as broken people but it had been a real eye opener to the commitment and expertise required to successfully mount an expedition on genuinely technical mountain peaks. On leaving Canmore in Sept 03 I traveled to Squamish BC where I got a short but well needed chance to climb some tough but more conventional the rock.

In June 06 I left Cayman for a 3 month trip to Canada. I was met in Vancouver by Pete and Emily and we immediately went east to Penticton and the Skaha Bluffs. I was weak, but I enjoyed the climbing and hanging out with Pete whom I hadn’t seen in ages. From Skaha we went to Squamish, where we stayed for a couple of weeks, slowly building strength and enjoying the Squam scene.

After saying goodbye to Emily me and Pete went east again this time to make acquaintance with a The Yak Dome on the Coquahalla. What a mountain! Big vast sheets of granite drip down this thing and provide a couple of options of ascent. The weather was favorable and the climbing sweet. I think it was about 10 pitches, the hardest going at about 10b. Great day on the hill.

From the Yak we undertook a crazy driving mission to Canmore where we decanted into an empty ‘little people’ apartment. Next day we were down in Calgary to pick up Fin for the start of our summer proper. Affectionately known as the ‘Lotus/Nahanni’ it was hosted by Canada’s Northwest Territories and is blurbed in my film of the expedition as:

“30 days, 700km of river, 3000 feet of vertical rock, a hell of a suffering but an unforgettable experience.”

Even if I do say so myself the movie is ok and its internet viewing location will be announced soon.

Post Lotus/Nahanni we hit the Canmore bar scene hard and caught up with some old friends. A much needed release after a stressful month.

From Canmore we took the J man with and headed into the Ghost for an awesome 3 day mini rock trip. The Ghost is a cool location to rock climb and camp and I can’t believe it is such an underused area when the Bow corridor can be so suffocating busy. We saw a handful of people over the course of a beautiful August long weekend, meanwhile the queues were 4 deep in Cougar Creek. Great routes, great spot.

We dropped Fin back at the airport and hooked up with Aussie Ian in Canmore. Next stop Bugaboo. The Bugaboos are a collection of spikey granite peaks permeating a maze of glacial sheets. Found in southern BC they are fames around the world as an alpine climbing and heli ski destination. Pete was a Bugaboo veteran but me and Ian had never been before. Yet again the pack was loaded to a ridiculous weight and the agony of mountain approach was endured. Once there camp was made on the stunning slabs in the Bugaboo/Snowpatch valley. Having not got up the Lotus I was desperate to at least top out on some routes but I can never have imagined the success we would enjoy on this trip. Day 1 was spent on paddle flake, an awesome 5 pitch 5.10 which overlooks camp. Day 2 I hooked up with Jeff, an American who was camped beside us and we made an early start with the plan of making a link up with routes on different peaks. First up we soloed the stunning Pigeon Spire and then we took on the 8 pitch 5.9 Kraus/McCarthey route on Snowpatch. Two great routes and we made it back to camp exhausted just as it got dark. Stoked! Next day was rest and the next it was back to Snowpatch with Joshua for the 5.10 Pink Furry Arete. Hard.

Meanwhile Pete and Ian had headed into the South Creek Basin to have a shot at the much sought Becky/Chouinard. They returned late day 3 also having succeeded.

Sitting around camp I came across this Amerian guy who seemed somehow familiar. I later had a revelation that it was a guy I had climbed with some 4 years previous on an ice route called Murchison Falls on the Ice Fields Parkway, Alberta, Canada. The route is a massive curtain of stunning ice at WI IV. We climbed it on a sunny day with fat perfect ice. Minite had still somehow managed to fall off! Oh, did I mention you DON’T fall on ice! Anyhow, I somehow found myself hooked up with Minite for our second route, this time the world famous south ridge of Bugaboo Spire. Some 15 pitches of 5.8 it is a big day. I won’t say me and Minite crushed but we were back into camp as dark fell and neither of us fell off. Result. Bugaboo had provided us with 6 days of splitter weather and we had summated every objective. We left with massive smiles on our faces.

Back in Squamish I had a couple of weeks before I returned to Cayman and was keen to make the most of it. I dragged Pete out of the campsite and forced him to belay me most days and I got a decent resume of routes done as well as a fair amount of booze consumed. I left Canada in September 06 stoked with an awesome summer of fun and climbing.