The Sugar Cube
The Sugar Cube is an awesome day tour located near Helen Lake. A short Couloir, and a number of relatively long slopes offer lots of opportunities for ski touring.
OXO Puzzle Peak Ski Tour
Puzzle Peak (or OXO peak) is usually a great, classic ski tour to a prominent mountain summit that is relatively easily accessible along the Icefields Parkway. The day I met up with Brandon, however, it was a little more of a “scramble in ski boots” than it typically would be. But I think, that’s part…
Tryst Chutes & Super Slope
Tryst Chutes are a very popular ski touring and backcountry skiing destination in Kananaskis Country, along the Spray Lakes / Smith Dorrien road. This area features a number of short chutes and lines facing north and a larger south-facing slope known as the Super Slope. The short roadside approach, steep terrain, and easy access make…
Squamish Climbing… Failing Not so Gracefully on Granite
Squamish Climbing. Where to begin with how it feels to take one’s ego, throw it in the dirt, and trample it with golf cleats for 213 days straight? If you want to be a bonafide alpine climber, you need to be rock solid on big granite walls. So many of the world’s greatest alpine climbing…
Gmoser Route, Mt. Louis, (16 pitches, 5.9)
Before I ever got into climbing, Mt. Louis was always one of the top mountains I wanted to someday stand on the summit of. It is a pretty famous mountain in both climbing and non-climbing circles due partially to its prominence above the valley floor, and also due to the fact that all routes require…
The Tall Storey (8 pitches, 5.11c)
It has always been a dream of mine to climb a massive, unbroken, slightly overhanging wall. It was one of the main motivations for me to improve as a climber, so that one day I could access these routes. Back in 2015, I climbed The Tall Storey, a route that offered all that I was…
Better Late than Never, Climbing Takakkaw Falls
After a long season of climbing in the Rockies, Bugaboos, and Skaha, the weather gods aligned for a weekend in early September and we made the trek out to Yoho National Park to tick off the super classic long moderate climb – the Takakaw Falls Route. Takakaw Falls route features somewhat crappy rock, and only…
River Run (9 Pitches, 5.10d), on Tunnel Mountain
With spring in the air, and a perfect May forecast, it was time to start hitting the bigger multipitch climbs. We had heard about a new 9 pitch route on Tunnel mountain in Banff that clocked in around 5.10+. A labour of love by the renowned route builder Chris Perry, we knew it would be…
Climbing Mt. Tupper
We have a habit of hitting the snooze button. This works great for Saturday mornings when all you really want to accomplish is making coffee, but it doesn’t work quite as well for alpine starts. 5:00am came quickly … after a few snooze delays, I finally rolled out of our incredibly warm double sleeping bag…
Climbing the Bugaboos, 2016
I’m no stranger to the Bugaboos. I first visited in 2014 with my friend Tyler. It had been a dream to visit the Bugaboos since I first learned of their existence sometime in the early 2000’s. As I entered the rock climbing world, it was immediately clear that the Bugaboos were more than just another…