holidays

Canada – Day5 – Rest day aka location scouting

A bit different schedule than usually today – instead packing up early for climbing we decided to take a day off and do some research on the Ghost River area.

It’s  a very remote place- around 2h drive from Canmore. Details here: http://www.summitpost.org/south-ghost-climbs/291125

The Ghost was established in 1967 on the front range of the Canadian Rockies and consists of 15,317ha (60 square miles) of raw wilderness bordering Banff National Park to the east and north. Its mountains include Mounts Aylmer, Apparition, Oliver and Costigan. The Ghost Valley actually refers to a larger area that is more specifically located approximately 30kms north of Canmore along the eastern border of Banff National Park and east of the Palliser Mountain Range. The Ghost’s glacier carved valleys provide for steep water runoff creating some of the best waterfall ice climbing in Canada. Much of this terrain is considered less avalanche prone than most ice routes in Kananaskis and routes deeper into the national parks. Although not all the Ghost climbs are technically in The Ghost (many of the climbs are in Banff National Park), this whole area of provincial wilderness takes on that identity.
 
The Ghost Valley is discussed as the South Ghost and North Ghost relative to climbing. The South Ghost is divided into several different areas when discussing waterfall ice: Orient Point, Devil’s Gap,Planter’s Valley, Constellation Valley, Black Rock Mountain and Johnson Creek. The North Ghost includes all the climbs along both sides of the Ghost River. The “North Ghost” routes entail more of a 4×4 drive approach than the “South Ghost” routes.

We’ve decided to focus on Devil’s Gap area of the South Ghost as it is the most accessible area – it still is around 2h driving – that requires 17km of gravel off-roading, very steep unpaved hill-climbing, as well as crossing dry river bed.

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Our driver and Toyota did a good job getting us there safely. Some manual road cleaning was required though:

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End of road – Banff National Park border. This is where you leave the car and hike couple of km (depending on the climb you choose). This is a seriously remote area with no services and possible bear and cougars encounters.

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Here we see Wicked Wanda – Wi4+ – 2 pitch 50m route we’ll come back to do tomorrow. Zoomed in photo on the link under the picture.

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Generally it was a good day out – and we are coming back tomorrow there to climb so stay tuned for climb reports shortly!

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Canada – Day4 – Lake Louise Falls – WI4

Yet another epic day – completely different than yesterday, when we were pretty much done by lunch time.

Today we got up as usual at 7am, I made my famous eggs and bacon, and by 9.30 we were gearing up at the car park. Lake Louise is based around 1h drive from Canmore.

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The approach is super easy – essentially walk the trail by the lake – you can almost  see the fall from the moment you leave the car park.

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Strava approach and elevation gain link: https://www.strava.com/activities/512209134

Detailed route description can be found here: http://www.summitpost.org/louise-falls-iii-wi-4/181139

In short – it’s an amazing WI4/5 (depending on conditions) multipitch – up to 120m – that can be done in anything between 2 and 4 pitches. Biggest risk involve falling debris – which one party ahead of us seen first hand.

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Big chunk of falling ice cut Kasia’s (that we met climbing with her boyfriend) eyebrow pretty deep. Luckily I had a first aid kit and could fix  her up before she continued her adventure on the last pitch.

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But to get there one has to climb 3 pitches of fantastic ice up to amazing ice cave.

Big shout-out to Del for leading the cave pitch (pitch 3) – absolute amazingballs!

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Leaving the cave:

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I must say though that for me, personally the most physically challenging was overhanging ice of pitch 2 leading to the cave – especially the top part of it  – lead by Paddy: good job on that.

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I should have really lead the 4th pitch – easy WI3 – but by the time I finished fixing up Kasia, it was already claimed. My bad really. I still enjoyed the day – probably the best so far.

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Us at the bottom leaving the climb. We took the right hand side line – with the cave seen 3 quarters up the route.

Ret of the photos from that day are here:

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Canada – Day3 – Grotto Canyon Falls – WI3

Easy ground. Short drive, short walking. Good WI3 2 pitch climbing – I led both, boys followed, and then free solo’ed.

 

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Place is set in amazing canyon – you walk up frozen river for around 2km.

While it’s relatively safe, and a popular destination for tourists and climbers alike even easy walks can have bad consequences if one slips and falls:

As we were finishing up the climb we met a woman with 2 kids. They decided to check out the base of the fall we just climbed, and on a way up there (very easy ground) the woman slipped (she was wearing spikes) and slid down on her ass, breaking her thumb in the process. It was badly dislocated, and they quickly walked back to their car to drive to the hospital. I hope she’s ok.

 

His and Hers (other 2 falls in the area) weren’t climbable – very think and dangerous.

Description:

http://www.canadianrockiesice.com/ice-climbs/bow-valley/grotto-canyon/

Photos:

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Approach hike and elevation gain as recorded by Strava here: https://www.strava.com/activities/511150763

Canada – Arrival and first climbing- Moonlight Falls WI4

We arrived to Calgary on the 4th of March. It  took over 20 hours, as our flight was delayed and we missed a connection in Toronto.

Luckily I planned ahead and had a hotel booked at Calgary airport. Good night’s sleep, visit at local climbing store (mec.ca) and a short drive (1.5h) to Canmore next day made a very good start to this adventure.

First day was no climbing. We settled in in Canmore Bear Hostel, figured out what’s what and got ready for some good ice the following day.

The walking wasn’t too bad – although we’ve taken a wrong turn and added probably 2km through the woods. Oh well.

The climb was very good. Solid WI4,  Del and Padraig swapped leads, with me carrying “supplies” bag as a second. The 2nd pitch cave belay is worth mentioning – good bolted belay at unusual location.

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Description Below:
http://www.cirrusalpineguides.com/activity/route/moonlight-falls-110m-wi-4

Our photos.

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So it is ON!

Leave Thu 10 Oct 19hr 20min Total time
Depart Dublin airline logo Emirates 162
Economy | Boeing 777
5,925.6 km | 7hr 35min
13:50 Dublin Airport (DUB) | Terminal 2
Stop 1 Dubai
00:25 Dubai Int’l Airport (DXB) | Terminal 3
Change planes. Time between flights: 2hr 35min
Depart Dubai airline logo Emirates 316
Economy | Boeing 777
7,597.7 km | 9hr 10min
03:00 Dubai Int’l Airport (DXB) | Terminal 3
Arrive Osaka
17:10 Kansai Int’l airport (KIX) | Terminal 1

Xmas time

This year (as in 2011) we’ve decided to spend the Xmas time with Monika’s family. That was the best idea EVER.

We’ve spent fantastic time skiing, meeting friends and having a good time in general. Also we became godparents to little Tomasz – Monika’s sister son. :)

 

Skiing was the super awesome idea – we got few friends together and went to Karpacz (20km away from where the family lives). Since I never done it before (skiing) it was something special. Somehow only 1h of lessons with certified instructor got us on our feet (unfortunately there wasn’t more time to go more often) and we had some excellent time.  As usual I had my go-pro action camera with me – hence here it is:

Day1:

Day2:

Wrap up time. Days 13 and 14.

A bit of a delay in uploading these – I’ve been very busy and just didn’t have time.

Anyway – below is the link to the last 2 days of our USA trip. Some Vegas photos (above view from our 55th floor at the Trump Tower), skydiving photos. and footage from a helicopter trip to the west rim of Grand Canyon.

This way or another – I still have loads of video material to edit and upload – so stay tuned!

Day 13&14 – Vegas  <–CLICK!

Los Angeles…

… is a shit hole. Nothing to do there until you are with a local who knows where to go and what to do.

I’m happy we stayed there for 2 days only.  We’ve visited Universal Studios (which was pretty good and can recommend it). Also made it to the Automobile Museum (great collection of some awesome cars), and as probably everyone – climb it to the Hollywood sign – nothing special tbh, but since there was nothing to do…

anyway – photos are here:

Day 11 – 20110919 – LA Universal Studios

Day 12 – 20110920 – LA Car Museum & Hollywood

Anyway, we are all back in Dublin now. Holidays are over and I wish we could have stayed there for one more week to actually rest and relax… Oh well.

Anyway – I still have few more photos from Vegas (to which we returned from LA) – I’ll upload these later. There are some good ones from skydiving (video is below) – Also we’ve taken that helicopter tour to Grand Canyon (west rim this time) that we had to cancelled 2 weeks ago. West rim isn’t as impressive as the south one, but the helicopter compensated. ;]

A bit more about Alcatraz

The highlight of our San Francisco visit was the Alcatraz tour. For sure. No doubt about it.

I’d highly recommend reading up on it as it has some great story behind: Comprehensive info is provided on wikipedia.

The tour was so really well organized, intense (in good meaning of this word) and… felt real and authentic. But lets start from the beginning:

There is only one company that you can book Alcatraz tour through  – The http://www.alcatrazcruises.com/ – all the other ones will take you around the Alcataraz island – but you wont be able to see the actual prison.

I highly recommend taking the earliest possible tour and booking as early as possible to avoid situation when all the slots are sold out – and they sell real quick – and that what almost happened to us – we’ve waited too long and went online to book just 2 days before the day we wanted to go on – and all of regular tours were sold out – the only availble tickets were for Alcatraz+Angel Island combo which was twice as much (over 50$) and took half a day.

We showed up on the day at Pier 33 around 8am – grabbed something to eat across the road (there is no food on the island – only on the ferry, but it is seriously overpriced – as one can expect) – and around 9am started queuing to get admitted on the boat.

Everything was nicely organized – no confusion where to queue etc etc. (again – buy your tickets online – the card on tickets booth informed that all tours were sold out for 3 days!).

Anyway. It’s taken maybe 20 min to get to the island – and at the very beginning – a nice surprise: once a month one of the former guards of Alcatraz (actually the youngest one to ever work there) was visiting the prison and was signing his book. He gave a quick greeting speech and invited everyone to ask as many questions as they liked – he was available to talk to in the gift shop at the end of the tour. Today this gentleman is 85 years old, suffered a stroke couple of years ago – but is back to on The Rock to talk to people. A truly amazing personality. I was lucky enough to be able to talk to him for couple of minutes while he was signing the book we purchased. BTW: his name is Frank Heaney and parts of his book are available here.  Oh, and he’s from Berkeley (we actually stayed in the hotel there!) and  is of Irish heritage – both of his parents came to the USA  around 1915 and 1920 from Northern Ireland. Frank immediately smiled when I told him where I lived. He said: “ah, the Old Country… I wish my health allowed me to go back there one more time!” :)

But coming back to the tour – once the orientation speech finished we were asked to go up to the cell house, collect our audio self-tour mp3 players and just follow the instructions. And that was the best thing ever. The audio tour was just amazing. Really well done – not only everyone could explore the walls of the prison at their own pace, but the recording was prepared in such a way that you could really feel the magic of the place. It professionally guided you through all the rooms and parts of this place in a very VERY interesting way. It wasn’t the usual – “go here, go there, this is that, and this is it” but instead it gave you the true experience of how the prison worked, it had not only the insides on the daily routines, but examples on some real life situation that took place during the over 30 years while Alcatraz served as the maximum security penitentiary.

By the way – did you know that no prisoner was ever admitted to Alcatraz directly, nor no prisoner was ever released from Alcatraz – they all had been transferred from or to other prisons.  The used to say there:”“If you break the rules, you go to prison. If you break the prison rules, you go to Alcatraz”.

This way or another – it takes around 2h to complete the tour – if you have just the basic ticket – you can hang out there for as long as you want until the last boat leave the island (I think it was around 6pm) – we had the Angel Island add on and had to board another boat there. I want say much about it as it was rather boring. Basically they put you on bus-type of thing and rode around the island explaining it’s history etc etc. Don’t get me wrong – Angel Island is a beautiful place and has really rich history behind – however after seeing Alcatraz – it was just tough to top it.
Anyway – that’s it I guess – All the Alcatraz photos are HERE. :) ENjoy!

PS. The day after our trip there I’ve watched the “Escape from Alcatraz” a 1979 classic with Clint Eastwood. I remember seeing it as a teenager, but only after being there now I could really enjoy and ‘feel’ the film (with one little remark (it was also mentioned by Frank Heaney: the characters in the movie are shown in positive light, where the truth was – they were in Alcatraz for a reason… –  but oh well, that’s Hollywod…)

San Francisco, Alcatraz and LA.

We didn’t have much time to spare in San Fran – only 2 before heading to Los Angeles (where we are at now).

The day1 photos (main San Francisco attractions – Golden Gate bridge the Coit Tower etc etc) – are HERE.

One thing to note – it was very foggy at the bridge – but absolutely sunny and clear in the city. Weird is that place ;]

Part 2 of San Francisco is mainly the Alcatraz (absolutely the best tour I’ve ever been on) with couple of hours on Angel Island (not that nice). These photos are pending ‘Monika’s stamp of approval’ and will be uploaded shortly.

As I mentioned before – while I type these words we are in LA. In short – Los Angeles IS a shit hole. There is nothing nice about the city. It’s loud, crowded, busy and dirty. The only good thing about the city is… the mexican food (or at least the soup that we got served for dinner in our Hotel).

After arriving here yesterday we went to Universal Studios up in Hollywood. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend nearly $80 for a ticket, but eventually we all did – and was not disappointment. The place is a mixture of a theme park with some educational values (interesting live performance/show on special effects, or even the Studio Tour gave really cool behind the stage point of view).

Overall we spent there whole day – 10am to 5pm and really enjoyed it. Photos are still sitting on the SD card of my camera and I’ll upload them shortly.

Tomorrow the girls are planning to see some LA landmarks, and on Wednesday we are leaving back to Las Vegas (which for the girls will mean shopping – and for me – gambling :>).