Why move from Jasper?

A lot of people have been asking why we would decide to move from Jasper. I just thought I'd take the time to let everyone know why we made this decision.

It is true, Jasper is a beautiful place, one of the top nicest I've seen yet. But from the moment we moved here, it became very apparent that we would never be able to live here permanently. Jasper is extremely expensive (half a million for a falling down shack), and even more, not very welcoming. I don't mean to insult Jasper, but I have found that most people here to be very guarded due to the transient nature of people who live here. We have only a few friends that we have known since moving here 6 years ago, that are still here... the rest all moved away. Also, never say you are a local, if you're not born here you have no right to say it (so the real locals say). Most of all, living in Jasper is so expensive, that one must work enormous amounts of hours, especially during the summer, thus one can never truly enjoy the wilds of Jasper National Park. Living in a National Park is difficult, there are numerous double standards; there are many rules that apply to all but park employees... nudge nudge wink wink.
Another reason is the climate. After several failed attempts at a garden, I gave up. Every evening in the summer, the temperature always dips down to single digits... a constant reminder that winter coming soon. When winter does hit, often we receive little to no snow, making winter fun more like aggravation (except ice climbing... you can't beat it here).

Believe me, we contemplated living here for the rest of our lives, we said we would never move anywhere that didn't have all that Jasper has to offer. Well then we found Lillooet... everything Jasper has and more. After six years of living here, Jasper really began to wear us down in all sorts of ways, emotionally, financially, and physcologically. I don't regret a moment of living in Jasper, I accomplished a lot and saw a great chunk of the park (more than most life-long residents), but I couldn't stay any longer... the funny thing is, many people that we know here will also be leaving this year too. I never understood why people thought Jasper was a hard place to live; now in retrospect, I can clearly see that it is true. I no longer see Jasper as the next best thing to heaven; it is more like its historically reality, a place with extreme environments that was never conducive to ongoing human habitation. Natives never lived here full-time, only wandered through from other areas of favourable conditions. I feel I have done much the same... stuck around when conditions were more or less favourable, only to move on to a better place for our needs.

Lillooet Blog

Waterfall coming from Moon Lake - found 5 km from Lillooet, heading East on HWY 99

Two Damsel flies on Pavilion Lake, 45 km East of Lillooet

Check out my other blog - Livin' Life in Lillooet @ http://lillooetbc.blogspot.com/.

I'll keep you posted on my renovations and other Lillooet stuff. I'll keep posting on the mountain world when it pertains to mountain stuff!

July and movin' on

Happy Canada Day!

What the hell is George Doing here?!?

Surprise Lake - Final Visit

Surprise Lake

Surprise Lake

Hey everyone, here's a few photos from July. Most of our time has been devoted to moving and moving out. Over the last month George showed up with Isabelle. We moved all of our stuff during the second week of the month, and I just returned from Lillooet today after a lone 10 days of renovations. Tracey and I move out on the 30th and will be in Lillooet as permanent residents on July 31!

Back at it!

Wow, it's been nearly three months since I've blogged and here's what has happened.

I had a horrendous winter. There wasn't an awful lot of snow, so skiing wasn't the best. Ice climbing was good, but work was a constant problem. I was advised to take most of the winter off, but asked to manage two companies. These two requests do not work well together, and as a result I lived in a perpetual world of stress. Add to that the ongoing mortgage issues and that lead to a lot of trying times. I'm happy to say that is all in the past, and now I have the time and will to blog more. I plan on a pretty full summer on the mountains and working on the new house once we take possession on July 1. Here's what has gone on in the last while

March.

Tracey bought and received our Bowflex home gym. I can now say that this was a great purchase. So far we have been pretty religious with our work outs and this has not only reduced outside stress, but has worked our bodies very nicely.

April.

Dragon Peak seen by moonlight at Big Bend JNP.

After a bit of a blow out with the boss-man, I was asked to take all of my owed vacation time off. I was not too impressed with this considering April is a lousy month for any outdoor activities. We did go camping at 'Bug Bend with friends on the 14th. A beautiful full moon night (but windy!). I also took the time to finally compile my wild flower photographs from over the past four years. This involved a lot of time completing identification. organization by date of bloom, and countless hours on photoshop resizing and bringing out the colours exactly how I wanted them to appear. All in all I have complied 204 species for Jasper alone. I'm happy with the accomplishment which is now available in a CD format. I will continue to add to the collection when I find flowers I have not yet photographed or excellent lighting the desires a new picture.
During the last week of the month I had to recert my advanced wilderness medical training. 40 hours in Calgary. I spent the week at Paul and Angela's. Tracey arrived for the last half of the week. The Jeep's starter died which actually worked out for the best as I was able to see Mikey and Lisa (even for only a few minutes was better than nothing) and spend some time at Ikea, Home Depot and Rona. Upon returning to Jasper, work was back up to busy as the Aussies had started to arrive. Work is back into full swing, and I am refreshed and ready to work like a dog for the next couple of months.

May

Much of this month was devoted to work. Lots to do but we did make it out for two camping trips.

Valemount Hot Springs.

Yes, they appeared again, and to seems we just caught them before the lake level rose enough to cover them. I got a nasty sunburn on the trip, and suffered from heat stroke for the next several days. Wow, was that nasty. Maybe I shouldn't have finished off that bottle of Scotch (ouch).Top... me at the camp with the new Nemo (great tent now!). Middle... Tracey in the Hot Spring. Bottom... Sun burned Tracey.

Owls.

There was a nest of Owls at Jasper Park Lodge. they have all grown up (three of them) and flown away.

Glacier Lake.
Troy joined us for a two night stay at Glacier Lake. Sadly, I developed some nasty blister which I haven't experienced in five years. A blessing in disguise as I can now relate to my clients for have to endure this pain. Due to the blisters, we spent our full day there in camp and all we did was eat. It was nice to sit back and relax with nothing to worry about!

Top... Traey, Trop and Yoho on the way to Glacier Lake. Note the lighting... we never reached camp until 11 pm. Bottom... Glacier Lake.

June.
As you can see below, wildlife is becoming very active. I have been shooting bears, elk, sheep, and looking for Mountain Goats. Below is a picture of a Rufus Humming Bird that is constantly visiting our feeder. I'll keep you posted on what else this month will hold. Come back next week!

We bought a house!

Due to the lack of blogging I'm sure you have been able to tell that something has been up. We have have been very busy driving back and forth, working (and some leisure of course) to prepare for our new big venture.

We have bought a small house in Lillooet BC. We are very excited, it is a fixer-upper but that is fine for us, especially if you knew the price. We were told that location is everything, at in this case it is. Lillooet has everything that Jasper has to offer but more! It is a dry climate, but very warm. It has a growing season two weeks longer than Kelowna so for once we will be able to grow our own garden. It is said to have one of the best climates in Canada. The town is surrounded by mountains and overlooks the Fraser River... in fact the town is located on a terrace above the Fraser Canyon. There is all aspects of mountaineering available there, a large lake five minutes away called Seaton Lake... it even rivals Maligne Lake in beauty (and size). The Pemberton Icefield is nearly the same distance away as the Columbia Icefields are from Jasper. Furthermore we have world class rock climbing in the area, ice climbing, mountain biking, hot springs, hiking, remote backpacking, excellent backcountry ski touring, fishing, canoeing, rafting, and lots of wildlife. The town has a population of 3000 people and has a hospital. To top it all off, we are two hours from Whistler BC and three hours from Vancouver.

So when do we move? Not for the foreseeable future. For the time being we will stay in Jasper and work until we are ready to move. Initially, when we move, I will work where ever, but I will continue to guide, and hope to make a successful business guiding in this area. There is a lot of potential, even more than Jasper. The views are just as nice and the wildlands are even more accessible. There is a heliport in town, so heli-hiking guiding is available. To top it all off the area has a rich native heritage. The local native bands are in great shape and very industrious as well as tolerant toward others. The town is friendly and diverse.

Do I sound excited? I am! Tracey is just as excited as I am. I am not prepared to show any photos yet, it needs a lot of work, but soon.

I'll blog again now that I have time.

Hot Spring Pilgrimage and a new Television spot.

Me proud of my new belt buckle

Last week, we took Paul and Angela to the West Edmonton Mall and stayed at the Fantasyland Hotel. Good times... we were still wandering the halls of the Mall at 2 am... we may or may not have been drinking.

As we returned to Jasper, the temperatures cooled considerably, and with wind chill got uncomfortably close to -50'C. It really hasn't warmed much since. We've had a few days in minus single digits, and yesterday it may have reached plus 1. Today we are back to sub minus 30'C but warmer weather seems to be on the way.

St Leons pool... big enough for 8 people

Tracey and I made a last minute decission to go to Half Way Hotsprings for our yearly winter pilgrimage. We left Tuesday morning and as a result never reached the road to the hot spring until dark. We decicded to forgo Halfway Hotspring (12 km in) and skiied to St Leon in stead (3.5 km). I spent hours in the hot spring but we found little to do. The next day we decided to ski out and head home. We drove (all together) for 17 hours in ski 7 km and soak in a hot spring... yeah it was worth it.

I was sent this link yesterday. It seems that I was on City TV last night... almost everyone in town saw it... or so it seems by the people I see outside (not that there are many due to the cold).

Anyhow, click the link and watch the program:
http://www.citytv.com/edmonton/yourcity_53469.aspx

More Canyon Photos

Here are more pictures taken from the upper Maligne Canyon.

All photos were taken with a tripod and using the stock 18 - 55 mm canon lens. I hate this lens, and hope to replace it in the next comming months. It did an alright job with the canyon walls.

I am now shooting in RAW format. Everything is so much easier to process now, and lighting is a lot more adjustable. Seems I'm going to have to reshoot a lot of things.

The Whole Canyon

Ryan starting the 37 m rappel... check out the two people below.

Climbing the first ice fall

Climbing the frost rime.. well not really... looks good though.

Yesterday, Ryan and I explored the entire Maligne Canyon. For five years, I've looked over the first bridge and ofter thought about rappelling down and walking the entire canyon... so that's what we did.

We started at the top of the canyon and were originally planning to rapp off the first ice fall but found crappy ice that neither of us wanted to trust. Instead we rapped the 37 meter drop off the first bridge and explored from there. We were amazed! The canyon seemed a lot taller from the bottom than from the top and the water formed limestone walls were many times more exciting and interesting than what we show people during the lower Maligne Canyon Ice Walk. the light levels were low so the pictures didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, but I am planning to return soon with a tripod for more photo opportunities.

Interesting Geology


Oh yeah, Jasper experienced a power outage on Wednesday that lasted the entire evening. For those of you who are unaware, Jasper has it's own natural gas power generator, and if anything happens to the natural gas pipeline... we have serious problems. Anyhow, some contractor out side the park border breached the pipe line, and thus we were without heat and power for nearly 8 hours. Here is a photo taken from above the town. The only lights you can see are cars and the railway (they have their own backup generators).

Lose the lights from the railway, and this is a lot like what Jasper looked like during a full moon, 80 years ago

The Last two Weeks

Across the river is how you get to Penny

Last week, we continued our never ending quest for a place to call our own. We drove to Prince George, Quesnel and back. Along the way we stopped to look at a piece of property we thought would be promising: Just under 2 acres of land, house, greenhouse, driving shed, and lots of wilderness. This house is off the grid so seemed very interesting, and at only 89K a good value... or so we thought. This place is found in Penny BC, the only place in North America that receives mail three times a week by train. The population is 8, we met half of them and the easiest way to get there from highway 16 was to ski across the Fraser River... other wise drive to P.G. and turn back onto a little gravel road... all in all 2 extra hours of driving. No being off the grid is a great idea and something I've wanted to experience. However, Penny is at the end of this road... it will NEVER be on the grid... that's right, NEVER. Needless to say the house was a shack, chipboard floors, no running water and immediately beside the rail tracks. I would have considered it at half the price... maybe.

Wayne relaxing during the descent

This past weekend we had scheduled three days off to go to our favourite hot spring south of Revelstoke. The day before it rained and then snowed 30 cm, the highways were closed. Instead we enjoyed the fresh powder up at Marmot Basin and the next day made our way to Edith Cavel hostel by cross country skis. We spent the night there and returned the next day. A great substitute with a lot less driving. All in all we cross country skied 25 km and gained a maximum of 400m.

Holiday Season is over.... let the fun begin!

Tracey and I worked an amazing amount of hours over the month of December. We are both glad it is over and have lots of plans for the month of January.

Last month all I really did outside of work was swim. Tracey and I were both sick for Christmas and New Years so we stayed in. I was able tro get out cross country skiing once and ice climbing once (until today).

Today, Ryan and I climbed at the 'edge of the world'. The weather was great. Here is a photo of Ryan leading the top icefalls. Tomorrow, Tracey and I hit the ski hill first time this season.

Where do I start?

Tracey and I enjoying a La Bohemia Especial at La Comparticion Camp on Pico Duarte

Damn. So much has happened, but really nothing has happened. here's a breakdown of the last two months.

Early October:
Absolutely tired of work, so I decided to leave for Ontario early. This allowed me to catch Steve's and AK's reception and catch up will all the boys (except Josh) and their girls. It was truly good to see old friends again... really the oldest friends I have. I also caught up with my brother and sister, father and step mother, my mother and step father. Grandpa was still in Stratford hospital and Grandma was and still is standing strong.

Mid October to early November.
Tracey joined me in Ontario and we left shortly after for Dominican Republic. I caught a nasty illness the night before leaving and had a horrid time travelling there. We nearly missed the plane in T.O. ... seriously, they closed the plane doors the moment we entered and started to taxi just as we sat down and put our belts on. (By the way to my American friends... your homeland security seems a little bit overboard but then again I don't have the concerns that your government says you should have).
For the rest of the journey I constantly passed in and out of consciousness and often would wake with a jolt. Tracey said I would look around at everything including her as if I had no idea where I was or even who she was.
We arrived in D.R. in good time. We went straight to our resort... Sun Village and I immediately passed out.
Sun Village is a gorgeous resort. I truly felt it was made just for me. This place had it all, my kind of music, nine pools, five places to eat, gym, spa, juice bar, and a terraced layout. The people who worked at Sun Village were incredible. The only bad thing about the place was that we didn't stay there long enough.
After resting for three days I felt well enough for Tracey, our friend from Jasper Dieter (who had been there for a week earlier), his Dominican squeeze, her daughter, and this random guy named Nido... all in a super compact car called a Hyundai picanto. We met Nido the day before on the beach and he agreed to ride with us to Paradise Island.
Driving in D.R. is a great time. All you have to remember is to relax and move out of other peoples way. Larger vehicles have the right of way. You can pass when there is oncoming traffic... they will move out of the way for you... just like you will move to the shoulder of the road for them. People can pass you on the right or left, or even on the left when you are turning left... the key is to relax and remember that you are no longer driving in Canada.
It turned out to be a terrible idea to drive to Paradise Island. It took much longer than we expected. The main highway was covered in potholes. We lost a part of the vehicle in one of them, but the car still worked so we didn't bother to check it out. I remembered the rough gravel road from the year before that takes us to the small village where we catch a boat to Paradise Island. The area (by the way) is called Punta Rucia. The road was ten times rougher than I remembered, maybe it was because we were in the smallest car I've ever driven in. Tracey and I have driven some extremely rough logging roads in BC and Alberta, but this road should not have been a road... and certainly not a road for our little car. Surprisingly the car made it through and back!
Paradise Island wasn't all that great. The water was rough and there wasn't much sun. Dieter's lady friend wasn't having a great time so we had to leave. Furthermore we needed to get the rental back and time was running short.
Nido drove us back to the resort in our car as he would be able to get us back in time... and in time he did. For a gutless car it did quite well.
We hired another car on the 24th to drive to Jarabacoa to start our trek to the highest summit of the Caribbean - Pico Duarte. We got lost in Santiago, I got directions at a clothing store. The shop keeper closed her store and went with us back to Santiago and pointed us in the right direction.
We then proceeded to our destination with no further difficulties.
Upon reaching Rancho Baguette, Tracey and I left dieter there and checked out one of the local waterfalls. sadly, I forget its name but will post it when I remember it.On the 25th we were awaken at 5 am to prepare for our trip up Pico Duarte. Our goal was to climb to 1850 meters to 275o meters, descend to 2450 meters, and complete the last 700 meters before sunrise the next day. The drive through this region of the country was beautiful. The people here live in small farming villages and are quite poor by Canadian standards.
The local law requires all people entering the National Park to be accompanied by a guide. We had five guides and seven mules. The hike was not particularly difficult, but it would have been a lot tougher if we had to carry our own gear. The trail up the mountain is heavily eroded. Dominican guiding is very different to how we guide in Canada. At the start of the trail, our guide pointed to the trail head and said "Follow that trial. I'll catch up later". We never saw him again for two hours. By that time we were a bit worried as we did not have any food with us and only a litre of water to share.

Tracey and I surprised the guides with the mules as we nearly beat then to our camp area. Usually they are able to get to the camp and have supper waiting for us. Instead we sat around the camp for nearly an hour wait for Dieter and another German fellow to arrive. The camp was filthy, garbage all around. There were two buildings: one shelter to sleep in (infested with rats) and a dark and sinister looking cook house. Attached to the sleeping shelter were two telephones. I found this to be incredible, however they did not work. It appears that they had been brought there a few years ago, and never hooked up.

Our guide set up our tent outside, as we didn't want to sleep with the rats and there was 'no chance of rain'. After we were able to organize our sleeping stuff, we had dinner. Dinner consisted of chicken legs, rice and beans. The food was good, but you didn't want to see it prepared. Just as it was getting dark we started a fire inside the cook house on the cement floor. This was a smokey event that I could have done without. Very quickly, we turned in for a good night sleep and an early wake up call of 4 am to reach the summit.

At midnight Tracey and I were awoken by a fierce wind storm. Our tent was lifting off the ground and the walls were beating us in the face. The wind was so rough that we couldn't sleep. By 1 am the wind subsided a bit and it started to rain. At this time I was relieved as I the wind was not as rough and I could sleep... a bit. Within an hour it was very apparent that the tent was not water proof at all. Rain was dripping on our sleeping bags and pooling all along the floor or the tent. By 4 am we put on our rain gear as we were fully soaked. At this time we did not hear a wake up call and assumed that there would be no push for a sunrise summit attempt. I was able to sleep for the next two hours in my rain gear. Our guide finally came to get us around 7:30 am. Although not the worst sleep I've ever had, this was definitely within the top three worst sleeps ever.

It was still raining when we got out of the tent. The guide said he was going to cook us breakfast (pork chops and potatoes) and take us to the summit if we wanted to. The wind was howling like crazy and it was poring. Unanimously we decided that there was no point to head to the summit. Furthermore, Dieter's health was failing, and our other German companion was still suffering from dehydration from the day before.

Tracey and I elected to walk down the mountain and left Dieter and the German to ride the mules as they had for the last quarter of the ascent the day before. I've never witnessed rain so horizontal in my life. It was mixed with sleet and stung the bare skin (not that we had that much exposed). The plant life was being knocked to the ground under the force of the wind and there were many more downed trees than the day before. The trail was reduced to a mess on rocks, slick red mud and running water that was flowing like a spring stream. Areas that we stood around the day before had become large ponds, within seconds everything we had was soaked... boots, rain gear, everything!

At around 1900m we encountered a group of Norwegian students who were attempting the mountain. They were wearing running shoes, shorts and light jackets. They looked miserable, cold, and exhausted. A few looked like they were in a bit of trouble and on their way to becoming hypothermic! Upon speaking to their teachers I inquired why they were pushing on they said they hoped that it would clear up and they would still make it... I had my doubts about it clearing but didn't say anything. The on teacher asked why I looked so content and excited over this foul weather. I told him that I am a professional guide in Canada, and that I've never experienced a tropical storm before so this was a new experience for me. Really, now that I look back at the mountain climb, I'm glad that it worked out the way it did. I've climbed a lot of mountains, but I've never experienced a real tropical storm before... especially on a mountain.

As we continued down we met their Dominican guides who were not very pleased with the persistence of their clients to continue... especially due to the state some of them were in.

When we reached the bottom of the mountain, it was poring hard. We got into the truck and started back to Jarabacoa. The rain stopped and we drove back with the canvass top off the safari style truck. When we reach Ranco Baguette it began to pour again. Upon speaking to the staff at the ranch we learned that the D.R. had been hit by Tropical Storm Noel, and that it was expected to be around for a while (in fact it remained for five more days).

Our drive back to Puerto Plata was interesting. Streets and highways were flooded... amazing what the Picanto can go through... and it was tough to see through the wind screen.

We dropped off Dieter at Sun Village as he was leaving D.R. the next day. We were booked at Sosua Bay Hotel for the next eight nights. We ate at Sun Village one last time and knew we would miss this place.

When we reached Sosua Bay Hotel, we were impressed, until the power cut out several times, could only locate one bar, and found that our television did not work. This was the beginning of a very disappointing stay. Advertised on Expedia was what this resort is supposed to look like when it is finished... this is a long way off. We found one pool (supposed to be five) one bar (supposed to be 5), one restaurants (with others that opened at random times (supposed to be six), a free shuttle to Cabarette (conveniently broken our entire stay). Our reason for staying in Sosua was so that we could snorkel. With a tropical storm beating down on us, snorkeling was not an easy venture. We made the best of it and snorkeled nearly everyday at least once. We found the staff at Sosua Bay Hotel to be very unfriendly... we did not feel very welcome. On rainy days there were no activities, the bar was outside so not conducive for frequent visits. The drinks were not very good either so we did not drink much. The food was extremely greasy and something did not agree with me one night... I spent a lot of time hugging the porcelain throne. We did not complain, we lived with it, as we knew that some poor folks were losing their homes during this awful tropical depression. To make the best of it we took the public taxi into Puerto Plata and saw a lot of things we missed last year. We made two trips to an awesome clothing store (bought $200 in clothes that would have cost about $1000 in Canada), a local supermarcado, the Amber museum, and the Brugal Rum factory.

On our third last day the sun appeared. We snorkeled a lot but the water was cloudy. Still we spent a couple of hours in the ocean. Our second last day we took a boat out snorkeling and spent another two hours on our own. The water was becoming a lot clearer and the fish were amazing. The fish will eat bananas out of your hand. On our last day we were ready to go. We snorkeled for an hour. We spoke to other guests who felt the same was about the resort. They all complained and got much better service and amenities.. oh well.

Our flight back was uneventful. We were picked up by my mother and step-father and went back to Listowel.

Early November:

Tracey and I went to a Robinson family Christmas. I saw a lot of family I hadn't seen in ages. Many of my cousins now have there own kids. Tracey flew back to Alberta the next day. The rest of my stay was devoted to taking care of my grandfather. I spent time with Dad after he had his Gall Bladder removed, and took Ian to the orthodontist. strangely it does not sound like I did much, but time was always filled.

Mid November:

After receiving a call from work, I had to return for the weekend of the 17th. Apparently they don't want me taking this much time off. I still have a month of overtime accumulated so I don't know how I'm going to get rid of it all. Since returning, I am writing this on one of the only days off I've had since November 24. Since returning to Jasper I've been swimming a lot. I am presently up to a km a day and hope that I can keep up five days a week.

December:

Well here we are now. It has snowed a lot recently and been very cold. Before all the snow fell we had been skating a lot. Now I have a new computer, and got some ice axes in the mail. The canyon is frozen and I nearly have the ski shop operating. Our friends Kat and Joe got married so we had a reception to go to. Everything has been a blur since returning so I am once again looking forward to some time off. My boss said he only wants me to work 20-30 hours a week for the winter... I can't see this happening but I will do my best to oblige.

Today:

I don't know if we are downhill or cross country skiing today, but we will do something. Yesterday we went ice climbing, it was nice to get back on the ice again.

Sorry this blog is so unorganized, but I needed to get it done. My next blogs will be coherent and more frequent.