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| Me, sad to see Wild Thing melting out and things falling down it. |
The Canadian Rockies are the greatest alpine climbing range. Simple. No altitude issues, ease of access (even if sometimes you have to wade through deep snow for 20km) and Canmore, Banff and Jasper as drinking holes close by; I am not sure it gets any better. The main reason though, the Rockies win for best alpine climbing destination, is the wilderness. Jon and I saw few people (minus a group of 80 from Spokane) that were chasing steep alpine climbs.
Perhaps the stories of bad rock, bears (there were many out this week) and long approaches keep everyone away. I love the sense of being really out there; even just a couple of hours walk from the car make you feel remote.
We tried hard to find something fun to climb, looking at Mts Chephren, Andromeda, Cromwell, Robson, Temple and Deltaform, but the 10 day high pressure and very high temps kept us from getting anything done. It might seem like a ton of effort ( 2 x 24 hour driving days, 1 x 40 km hiking day to see conditions of the Emperor face, a 2am start to try a route and hundreds of other kilometers driven to look at routes and only 3 rock pitches climbed at Lake Louise) for nothing. But we had fun, we did get a lot of exercise and laughed a bunch.
Sometimes everything lines up minus one key ingredient - conditions. No Problem, we will be back........here are a few more photos from the trip.
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| Jon, testing the snow, yes, snowshoes were helpful. |
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| Me, Asteroid Alley and Shooting Gallery, living up to their names, above. |
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| Moraine Lake, tourist walking on thin ice, shorts and t-shirt weather |
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| Sunrise, taken under Mt Andromeda |
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| Looking up at the sun hitting the upper wall of Andromeda Strain |
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| Reflections on the hike to Mt Robson's Emperor Face. |
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| Beautiful colors in the water on the way to Mt Robson's Emperor Face |
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| Mt Robson, Emperor Face |
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| Emperor Falls |
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| Valley view below Emperor Falls |
