Lake Louise and Banff, Alberta, Canada #1

Rich, Miranda, Adam, Mara, Holly and Chris came together from their respective corners of the states for a week of climbing, camping, hiking, laughing, eating and exploring in the gorgeous Canadian Rockies for one week. You all know where Rich and I came from. Adam lives in Seattle, Mara lives close to us but is hiking the Pacific Crest Trail this summer and took a week off. Holly and Chris live in York, Pa, and are friends of ours from medical school days.

Our week began in Lake Louise Nat'l Park. This is a gorgeous mountain lake surrounded by high peaks, glaciers and of course some good rocks for climbing. Each morning we'd hike along a mellow trail to get to the climbing.


Here's us on our first day.
I think this is Rich and me on the second day. We couldn't resist taking pics everyday when we had this view, who could?
The view from the cliffs we were climbing. That's the mountain chateau at Lake Louise, which is a large hotel for those who don't want the camping experience.
We saw this grizzly on the first day of climbing, he started out near to us, but by the time I could get my camera out, turned on a focused he was running (really fast!) away from us. We weren't in any danger, the hiking trail right near us was busy with hikers, so don't worry we weren't all alone in bear country (moms and dads).
So we didn't just climb- we ate a lot, too. Here's Mara putting the finishing touches on the dutch oven enchiladas. Below, happy Mara and Adam with enchiladas in their bellies (and maybe a little on their mouths).
Another day of gorgeous weather and beautiful views. On this day we decided to hike past the climbing and up the the Valley of the Six Glaciers. This hike is not too long, maybe 5 miles, but gives amazing alpine views and we could see those glaciers in the background up close. Along the way Mara ran into her best friend's dad, Jim, from childhood, vacationing all the way from Texas. It really is a small world. He hiked and had tea with us, then him and his wife, Ginny, visited at our camp that night. It really is a small world after all.
At the end of the trail taking in the views.
An Inukshuk. These are found frequently throughout the NW and were used by natives to indicate something- don't remember what.
Mountain Tea House in the Valley of 6 Glaciers. This was a welcome rest stop before our hike back down the trail.

A beer at the end of one of the climbing days on the deck of the chateau.


I couldn't help leaving you with one last shot of Lake Louise.
And this is Morraine Lake, about 15 kilometers away.

South Early Winter Spire, near Washington Pass

We had a day of climbing and ski hunting yesterday. We found Rich's ski From December and the 2nd missing pole. If you don't know how he lost his ski and poles, don't ask, you'll worry. We meant to get on a 5.11 climb, but ended up on a 5.12 by accident, which Rich lead and did great on. How come we never end up on easier climbs when we're lost? The scenery was gorgeous and fun was had by the whole family, Maggie included. The goat was close, but Maggie chased him off before I could snap a good picture, and he ran way up on top of a peak. The flowers, especially the mountain heather, was blooming up high and the mosquitoes, too.

Squamish Climbing

Rich and I went to Squamish, BC for a week, our annual trip to one of our favorite climbing destinations in the world (convenient that it's only a 7 hour drive). For those of you who've been to Vancouver or Whistler, it's right between the two on Howe Sound.

Our first couple days were packed. We did the Grand Wall to Roman Chimneys- 12 pitches of 10+ climbing in 10 hours. This was a long, strenuous day with Rich leading everything and me pulling on bolts, gear and stepping on bolts all over the place! Not my proudest climb, but I did it and didn't slow us down. Rich did an awesome job leading and didn't even seem all that tired at the end, but I was out of commission for the next day.

We then had two days of rain:( We tried to make the best of it- Rich biked in the rain, we went to a yoga class, went to Whistler, saw movies and did a lot of sleeping and reading. I'm not quite sure how mountain biking counts as a rainy day activity for Rich...definitely not for me. The sun finally came out and we did a very wet multipitch 5.9. Scary when wet, but we were just happy to be back on the rock.

We didn't take a whole lot of pictures on this trip, these are the best.



Looking over Howe Sound from the Squaw wall. This was a great 5.10d multipitch.

























Slabmaster Miranda- ha ha. We actually did 7 pitch climb of all slab- 10.c. We even had fun!





Rainy day hike to some waterfall on the way to Whistler.






















Our new friends Beth and Kristen. We met them the first night and had a great time hanging out with them in the evenings and doing a little climbing together. Beth lives in the mid west and Kristen lives in San Fran. We hope to climb with them in the future.

There were a couple slacklines set up in camp, and Rich could not resist them. We had a lot of fun watching him.




This was a super hard and runout 5.11 slab at Shannon Falls (Local Boys Done Good)- 58 meters long. I fell multiple times trying to follow Rich to the first bolt, which was about 35 feet up- I don't know how he kept it together. He did this clean- a tick for any slabmaster.

Exploring Okanogan County

Omak Crack!


Omak lake after work- picnic dinner. This is Kathy, who kindly wore a matching shirt to my nailpolish.


Parker and Kathy coming on shore.




Just a quick paddle across the lake. We definitely spent more time eating and relaxing than paddling.


Kathy- love the hat!

Devil's Tower with Chris in May