Cold Weather

Over the last week the weather has been, let's say, less than ideal.  With a tornado warning, below freezing temps, perpetual overcast and full on snow flurries, we decided it would be a good time to take an extended rest and move into a motel for a few days. We headed up to Pigeon Forge again, not because the town itself is very interesting (it's like a family rated version of Las Vegas), but because the motels are cheap.

We also had another errand to run up in Asheville. Last year I was invited to be on one of a series of trading cards featuring various LEGO artists. I was being sent 25 of 'my' card to sign and return, but with us being on the road, I had them sent to a post office in Asheville to pick up.  Here I am signing my cards in a cafe across the street from the post office.

Pigeon Forge wasn't all bad though. In addition to all the run of the mill clothing outlet stores, it also happened to have a Coleman outlet store. We bought this cool collapsible stove-top oven for our camp stove. In the past we have had various degrees of success in trying to bake on the stove or in our small barbeque.  Here is Kristal with some awesome fresh-out-of-the-oven corn bread. Delicious!

We also did manage to get some bouldering in over the last week. Here I am honing my inverted off-width technique on Aunt Fanny's Amazing Ass Crack, V5.

Today we decided to check out another nearby bouldering area called Zahnd.  Due to the snow and cold we decided to leave the climbing gear behind, but still couldn't resist pulling onto a few cool problems.

On the way back into town we stopped by to check out the Blue Hole, a really nice looking natural spring and swimming hole. If only it was about 30 degrees warmer we would have jumped right in.

Rocktown

Our next stop was another classic south east sandstone bouldering destination: Rocktown, Georgia. The last time we were here was almost three years ago, just as we were beginning our first big road trip, and we were excited to get back. We were also excited to move into our brand new big tent!

Our old big tent finally saw the end of its days last fall when we were camping in the Adirondacks, and over the winter we kept putting off buying a new one. We finally ordered one two days before we left, and had it shipped to the REI in Asheville, where we picked it up after our cabin weekend in Pigeon Forge.

We've met a lot of great people as usual, and ran into Marcie again before she reluctantly made her way back to Ottawa. We'll miss you Marcie!

The biggest excitement so far was seeing the aftermath of a brush fire as we made our way back to the parking lot one day.

Had the wind not been blowing away from the boulders it may have made for an interesting climbing day. We still haven't heard anything about what may have started it.

Aside from that the bouldering has been awesome as usual.  Here's Kristal on Jug Surfin', V4.

Me about to embark on the heinous slopers of Tau, V8.

Kristal airing it out on the aptly name El Classico, V0.

Me pulling onto the classic Paint Can, V2.

And again on Alien Writing, V3.

Which gets its name from these really cool iron bands in the rock.

Enough of Winter!

So a couple of weeks ago we decided we’d had enough of winter, and that a climbing trip was in order. We packed up the car and headed south down to Tennessee. We’ve spent the last couple of weeks bouldering in Stone Fort which has been, as always, amazing. And to make things even better we ran into Dave and Julie from Montreal and have been climbing and camping with Marcie.

Marcie on the balancy Fortune, V6.

Jason on Pancake Mantle, V2. This photo was stolen from Marcie, completely without her permission.

Me, warming up in the Back Nine while Marcie spots attentively.

It’s been a bit chilly, but thankfully we found out that Chester Frost State Park is actually open in the winter (despite what the original guidebook says) and has an awesome cook shelter, internet, and heated bathrooms.

Our typical post-dinner routine.

Last weekend, we drove up to Pigeon Forge to meet up with Sharon, an old friend from undergrad. She and her friends had rented a super posh cabin for the weekend. We thoroughly enjoyed the hiking, board games, moonshine, and company. Thanks for your hospitality, Southerners!

Home Again

And so we come to the end of another successful road trip. After the wedding of Kristal's cousin, we made the long drive back across the plains, to spend a few days at my parent's farm before heading home to Ottawa.

The climbing this summer has been nothing short of amazing, highlighted by the many long multi-pitch routes we climbed in some truly spectacular settings, and culminating with our epic trip to the Bugaboos.

We have definitely done a lot more trad climbing in the last 4 months than we did in any of our previous road trips. The final stats come out to 12 days of sport climbing, 15 days of bouldering, and 43 days of trad climbing; for a total of 70 days on the rock in 26 different destinations.

Of course the climbing was only surpassed by all the great people, both old friends and new, who we met on the way. The trip was made much more enjoyable because of you. And as usual, a big thanks to all our friends and family who opened up their homes to us, allowing us to enjoy all the comforts of the inside for a few days.

Once again the blog will most likely go into limbo until we hit the road again, which will hopefully happen again next summer.

Thanks again for joining us on our adventure!

"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open."
- Jawaharlal Nehru

Nearing the End

As the summer started to wind down, so did our climbing. Our last climbing stop was in Waterton Lakes National Park in southern Alberta.

We climbed to the top of the Bear's Hump, which is also the end of a popular hiking trail. If only all our climbs ended in such comfortable benches!

We also did some hiking in Glacier National Park in Montana, heading up to Avalanche Lake.

We even found a reasonable boulder to climb on the way.

The scenery of the park is breathtaking. We didn't even mind the 20 minute wait for road construction while driving through.

Before heading to Medicine Hat for the wedding of one of Kristal's cousins we had one more stop to make. Ever since we came out west a couple of years ago I have been bugging Kristal to take me to the small town of Drumheller, home of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology. The museum boasts the largest collection of dinosaur fossils in Canada and it was pretty awesome to go check it out.

We also spent some time seeing the sights around town, including the nearby badlands.

And the Little Church, which seats a whopping 6 people.

Short Approaches

Between the Bugaboos and Mount Gimli, our knees needed a break from all the long approaches. After a welcome trip to the Lussier Hot Springs, we spent the next week doing some single pitch climbing in BC and Montana. It doesn't get much more convenient than being able to belay out of your car, which could be done quite easily at Stone Hill, Montana.

It seems 99% of people that climb there don't venture very far from the road, and if you hike for more than 5 minutes you can enjoy some excellent climbing without seeing another soul.

As well as enjoy some excellent views of Lake Koocanusa.

Unfortunately on our first night camping in the area, we were treated to the sounds of something rummaging under the hood of our car. In the morning, this was what we found.

Eventually we spied the guilty party hiding out in front of the radiator.

The next 2 days were filled with fun games of 'how to get a pack rat out of your car'. No amount of poking, prodding, driving around or makeshift traps seemed to do the trick. I finally just waited him out, and when he left in the middle of the night to do whatever it is that pack rats do, I moved the car to a wide open field down the road. Our vehicle was once again rodent free!

We also spent a couple of days at Lakit Lake in British Columbia, enjoying some fun climbing with excellent free camping beside the lake.

We even found some cool pictographs along the base of the cliffs.

Mount Gimli

When we first started making our way through Alberta and British Columbia, we made a list of all the big routes we wanted to climb before the end of the summer. Coming out of the Bugaboos, we only had one more left to go - the impressive looking south ridge of Mount Gimli, located in Valhalla Provincial Park in BC.

On paper it looked like it would be a cruise, with a nice 2 hour approach to comfortable camping at the base of the climb, about 1000 feet of mostly easy climbing on route, and an easy scramble down from the summit. Unfortunately our car had other ideas, when our otherwise trustworthy Rav4 decided it wouldn't make it up a steep section on the drive in! It was a bit demoralizing to spend an extra hour and half hiking up a steep gravel road just to get to the parking lot that we should have been able to drive to. But despite the extended approach it turned out to be an awesome climb in a beautiful setting, well worth the extra effort.

Complete with opportunistic mountain goats.

Here's Kristal making her way up the 5th pitch,

Following up the sixth,

And bringing me up to the top.

Great views from the summit.

Here I am, all smiles before the long, long descent back to the car.

I definitely needed a break in the parking lot for some much needed nourishment!