What I Did For My Summer Vacation (Part 1: The Gaming Edition)
I'd originally hoped to do a couple days of riding around Calgary... but that just didn't work out, for various reasons... Rain, car accidents, Netflix... that's all covered in the Gaming Edition above.
This post focuses on the first two full days in Canmore where we went rock climbing with J. Mills of Canadian Rockies Alpine Guides. So, despite this being my Bike Blog... there is no bicycles in this post... I don't really have a climbing blog, so it'd going here anyway! (Maybe I could change the name to Tim's OUTDOOR ADVENTURE Blog!?)
One the first day we headed west into Banff National Park to Sunshine Rock (or Sunshine Crag..?). It was just off the road heading up to Sunshine Village Ski Resort.
Conveniently it was located right next to a parking lot! It also had a lot of shade - which was really nice as it was heading up to 28-29°C that day!
There was also a nice cool creek nearby (Brewsters Creek, I think?)
There was maybe one other group there when we arrived.
Shortly after we got there a couple of guides showed up leading a group of British soldiers. I'm guessing there were from BATUS (British Army Training Unit Suffield) on "Adventure Training". Didn't really chat with them...
That's me looking down at Amanda from the first climbing location.
Finnegan climbing at the second location we set up to climb at.
Me, at the bottom of the picture, belaying Finnegan who is way up at the top of the picture.
The Girl climbing at the same location.
This little critter joined us for a brief moment on the ropes.
The Girl again, waaaaaay up on the rock.
Me having a go at it.
I like climbing on rock. You can put your hands and feel ANYWHERE and (usually) find SOME purchase. Mind you we were climbing on routes that were WAY easier than any you'd find in a gym.
Rock Grrrrlz.
There was a really, really hard route on this bit of rock (I think it might have been rated 5.12 - which is one of the harder ones) but there was also a tree right beside it, so the kids were able to climb it - with the assistance of the tree.
Amanda had a little less success at it.
I didn't even bother trying...
The Girl doing a bit of rappelling.
For Day Two we headed east into Kananaskis Country to Mount Baldy Crag on the west side of Mount Baldy. Jay had planned to come here as the temperature was supposed to be 31°C and the climbs are located in a bit of a canyon (or deep gully?) with climbs on both sides, so we could stay in the shade all day. He figured there would probably be others with the same idea and it could be crowded. It wasn't. There was no one else there when we arrived. Later in the day another couple showed up. We could hear their voices, but didn't see them until the end of the day when we walked out.
There was a bit more of a hike in this morning. But that probably helped warm up our muscles which were very sore and tired from the previous day of climbing. We'd kind of let our membership at Grip It! go last summer. Amanda signed us up for another year membership in May hoping we could get there a couple times a week for "conditioning" before we headed out for our vacation... then we all got sick for almost a month and I think we ended up going once or twice before heading to Canmore...
Climbing in the shade.
Both kids starting things off.
We made jokes about "it's not a race guys" - which was kind of ridiculous as these guys are pretty much the opposite of competitive.
The Girl belaying her brother.
Later Jay showed us how to ascend a rope using the Prusik Knot. The kids had a lot of fun trying this!
Someone had bolted plates at the location of some of the climbs - this was the one near where we were trying to ascend with the Prussik Knot. We didn't actually climb there.
We were climbing here - at the much easier 5.5 route...
Amanda showing us the benefits of all that Yoga training.
More of Amanda.
As the sun came around and our first location was bathing the the blistering head of the afternoon sun, we moved locations - further up the crag.
Where we were back in the shade and there was some overhanging rock.
We didn't really climb the overhanging rock.
Well... later in the day we did climb a little route with a little bit of an overhang...
This was a bit steeper and a bit more challenging, but everyone was getting a bit more comfortable on the rock and rose to the challenge.
The view from the top of the pitch.
The Girl - waaaay up on the rock.
Again with The Girl on rock.
Still more of The Girl.
Finnegan having a go at it.
Amanda and The Girl moving around to a slightly different location.
Amanda showing us all how it's done, again.
In the mid afternoon I'd noticed a bit of a Coronal Rainbow and got this neat shot of it with The Girl silhouetted against the sky.
That's me flailing about on the rock.
Me again, still flailing, a little further up...
Amanda and our guide, J. Mills.
Amanda again.
And at the end of another exhausting (but exhilarating) day, we hiked back out.
Tired, but happy climbers.
Back into Canmore with some late afternoon rain rolling in.
A couple of great days of climbing. Luckily there was a hot tub to soak in at the condo we were staying at.
Next up: in the next day or two I should have three more post about our actual CYCLING adventure in and around Canmore.
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