Banff- Lake Louise Climbing

There are some crags at the end of Lake Louise so we spent an afternoon trying out the climbing.

 Rosie, the crag dog, joined us as her owners were somewhere else

 Kyle, currently a flat-lander, feeling the vertical rock again

 the lagoon climb...there was a tiny island 

that you had to wade to in order to get on the rock.

Owen, pulling one of the mantle moves

Banff- Mt. Rundle Scramble

The hike was strenuous and steep but the scramble was terrifying. The guidebook author listed this as an 'easy' scramble with minimal exposure....guess we have different definitions.

 Not too bad at this point...loose gravel on slab rock.

 the boys heading to the summit

(Photo courtesy of J Finnigan)


Just ahead of us (yes, we are crabwalking), 

the rib we were scrambling on was less than 5 feet in width

with fatal drop-offs (200+ feet?) and on either side...

Banff- Sentinel Pass Hike

A hike with beautiful views of mountains, glaciers, wildflowers, meadows, and an alpine lake at the base of a pass.

 Brandon, Owen, Kyle

 Hillary & Jamie, photo of a photo being taken

 Our sweet, slightly demanding friend, the chipmunk

 very cool spires and towers...

 Brandon on his way to Sentinel Spire

 To get to the belay, you had to traverse this ledge with major drop-off below...

we didn't end up climbing the spire.

Banff- Tea House Hike

We recently returned from a fun week-long camping trip with the Strom family in Banff National Park. We really enjoyed ourselves and it was great to see far-away friends.

At Lake Louise, we hiked up to a tea-house located at the 'Plain of Seven Glaciers'. This was a great hike with views the whole way, but the real reward was the chocolate cake and tea after the uphill effort.

 Clara had the best view ride...Uncle Jamie, a.k.a. 'the elevator'

 Kyle & Isaac

 the tea-house

Isaac and Ethne play on the rocks

Mazama

Brandon worked a 72-hour shift and I didn't want to sit around for three days doing nothing sooooo.....I coerced Anne into going to Mazama with me for some climbing & camping.

 Anne, cleaning a route.

 At the newer crags, the rock was more chossy but still fun.

 Me, enjoying a slab route.

Anne, hanging at the belay of a really long 5.9.

It was 90+ degrees so we weren't crazy ambitious. We'd climb until we thought we might melt, then head to the river for a dip in the numbing water, and then go back out for some more climbing in the evening.

Local Pleasure

We've barely been home this summer but have had fun in our own backyard the days we've been around. We've done some local hiking and climbing and enjoyed time with friends and family. We also went to a couple movies b/c the weather was so lame.

 Dawn, Katie, and Heather
on the way down from Snow Lake

on a chilly 'summer' day.

Snow Lake in August...I decided not to swim that day.

Melissa with Nason, Jeremy with Winders,
on our way to Rachel Lake

 Nason & Melissa @ Rachel Lake

Nason getting a diaper change with a view.

 Carly & I enjoyed a 90+ degree day of climbing in Leavenworth.

We've also gotten out a few times to our secret climbing crag, Kacheelus. On this day, we took Doug, his nephews Anton & Eric, and their family friend Ken to share the secret crag...pretty sure they loved it.

 The wildflowers are late to bloom...
the hillside was covered in tigerlilies and beargrass.

 H on a 10c

 Anton onsighting an 11d,

despite the black lichen dust layer.

 Doug, happy after completing a fun 11a.

 B at the top of a super long & fun 5.9.

 Another long one, a really fun 10b that requires some gear.

 We did two routes that required mid-station rappelling cuz they are that long...fun!

Oakridge Boys...and Girls

We drove down to Oakridge, Oregon to meet up with Ed & Julie for some mountain biking. They found us a sweet free camp site right on a warm, refreshing lake.

 the view from camp :)

We rode the Middle Fork Willamette ride (34 miles), which goes along the river at a mellow incline, so mellow that I began to worry that we'd have to do just as much work on the way back, but it turned out to be a coaster downhill.

 Ed & Julie

 Heather

 Much of the ride was creek-side so that was cool...

Ed, a blur as he passes by.

The next day, after a great breakfast at 'The Trailhead' restaurant, we finally hit the Alpine trail right at the heat of the day (1pm-ish). We didn't want to do a shuttle and we also didn't want to ride road, so we chose to do an out-&-back on the trail about 17 miles total.

The downhill was super awesome, one of my favorite downhills ever!

B has some good video footage which we will post once he's had a chance to edit it.