Rocky Mountain Road Trip III

For one week every February colleges and universities accross the country close their doors for "Reading Week". While this week is desgined to give students a break from the daily grind and perhaps a chance to catch up on reading, little reading is actually done. For the past three years, we've used Reading Week as an opportunity to head out on a winter road trip of the Canadian Rockies. And while the people participating in the Rocky Mountain Road Trip varies slightly each year, I'm proud to say I'm the only person who's gone on all three trips.

This year, Kelly, Jarred, Brad, and I had plans to head Yoho National Park. This park is a winter mecca that none of us had really spent a significant amount of time in. Our initial plan was to head west to Fernie for a night, then up the Radium highway to Yoho for several days. We hoped to get in a number of solid days ice climbing, and maybe a ski tour or two. Here's the summary of how the trip went .....

Saturday, February 17
Travel and Eating

I was tied up all day with a Cadet shooting competition, so we couldn't leave until that evening. When I got home, we got busy loading up vehicles and doing last minute checks to make sure we had everything we needed. There was no way we were going to fit all four of us (plus gear) in one vehicle, so Kelly and Jarred paired up in Jarred's vehicle, and Brad and I loaded up into mine (equipped with Brad's satellite radio, oh yeah!). After running some last minute checks and errands, we hit the road. We got to Fernie around 9PM, and Lezlie and Adam were there waiting for us. I work with Lezlie at the store, and this was the first chance I had to make it out to their Fernie "ski apartment". After Lezlie had stuffed us all with rounds of chili, buns, and desert we headed over to her friend's "cabin" to spend the night. The "cabin" was an incredible log home with multiple bedrooms and a hot tub. After some more cookies and conversation, we finally went to bed at 1:00 AM. It was such a treat to stay there.....

Sunday, February 18
Fernie and the Yoho trek

After sleeping in, we woke up to snow in Fernie. The snow was REALLY coming down in heavy blobs, and it was a really beautiful sight. We went back over to Lezlie and Adam's and Lezlie cooked a feast of a breakfast for us. Our original plan for Sunday was to leave early and climb some ice near a hot springs on the way up to Yoho. However, due to our late start and Lezlie's great cooking we were moving a bit slower than planned. Also, Kelly and Jarred were more than happy to spend week eating cookies on Lezlie's couch, so convincing them to leave took a couple of hours. We finally got out the door at around 2 PM, and were on our way up to Yoho! The first 30 minutes of the drive were stormy, but we had clear skies and roads the rest of the way.

When we finally got to Yoho National Park, we had difficulties finding the campground we were supposed to stay at. This resulted in us several illegal U-turns on Hwy 1 and navigating some snow filled pullouts. Jarred's car got stuck in one of those pullouts, and now we had the "fun" task of trying to push him out onto the #1 while avoiding traffic. After a bit of digging, a stranger stopping to help us, and a ghost car pulling over to turn his emergency lights on for us we got Jarred un-stuck. After another couple of "shithooks" and squeezing in behind a semi blocking the road we arrived at the campground.

We set to work setting up our tents. Jarred and Kelly decided to set their tent up inside the picnic shelter on a bed of snow, while Brad and I dug a snow pit out beside the cookshelter to set our tent up in. After a bit of work, everyone settled into bed for our first night of camping on the trip.

Monday, February 19
Ice Climbing - Hamilton Falls WI3 III

This was our first day of ice climbing, and we were anxious to get going after 2 days of lethargy. After consulting the guide book at breakfast, we decided to climb Hamilton Falls near Emerald Lake. Apparently it is a popular tourist spot in the summer and was an short but interesting place to climb in the winter. After driving to the parking lot and gearing up, we headed out on what we thought was the trail to the falls. After travelling a couple hundred metres, we were corrected by a skiier we ran into. From there we followed an old trail through the trees to try and meet up with the area we were supposed to be in. While we used up lots of engery and time doing this, it was pretty scenic and snowy. After meeting up with the correct trail and skiing up, we were at the base of the falls in about 30 minutes.

This was a cool spot to climb, and I was very excited to lead it. After gearing up, I headed up the climb which was short but enjoyable. There was a tense moment though, as at one point I accidentally kicked a hole through the ice to expose a 2 foot gap and rushing water underneath. This is generally not good in ice climbing, and made me a little nervous. However, it was good for a laugh when I got to look at it again on the way down. After I had built an anchor in solid ice up top, Brad climbed up to join me. From here we rappelled down, and let Kelly and Jarred have a turn at climbing it.

We all climbed the route a couple of times in a couple of different ways and had some fun. We had the most fun laughing at Jarred as he groaned and complained about the "leg cramps" he was experiencing a mere 5 feet off the ground. After packing up, we descended the trail we came in on, which was a little tricky on telemark skis with a heavy pack. I fell lots, and was tripped up a few times by sharp switchbacks and trees over the trail. When we got back to the car, we took a walk near the lake and Emerald Lake lodge. It was really beautiful there, and it definately looked like a nice place to stay. After a short time, we headed back to camp and made supper. Everything takes longer in the outdoors, and even longer yet in the winter. Once we were done our "housekeeping" we crawled back in to our our crowded tents and warm sleeping bags.

Tuesday, February 20
Ice Climbing - Johnston Canyon

We slept in a little bit later than we'd hoped, and by the time we got the stove going and Kelly and Jarred shook out of their tent it was already mid morning. After breakfast and a stop in Lake Louise to fill up water bottles, we were on the road to Johnston's Canyon, a popular tourist trap in both winter and summer. We hit the parking lot at 12:30 and were informed by a tour guide that there were already 12 ice climbiers on the falls at the end of the canyon. Because it was so late and we were too lazy to go anywhere else we decided to press on.

After hiking in and discovering a throng of other climbers, we geared up and waited for some ice to open up. I led the pitch and set up an anchor beside some Brits who'd come over for an ice climbing holiday. We played around on that stretch of ice for a while, and when the more difficult ice to our left opened up we jumped on it for some easy WI4. Brad even attempted a traverse onto a hanging icicle near the top.
At around 4:30 we decided to pack up and head for home. The hike out went by quickly, and before we knew it we were back at camp and tucked into our sleeping bags for the evening.

Wednesday, February 21
Waterworks - near Field

After a few days of sleeping in, Brad and I decided we would get an early start on the day and let Kelly and Jarred catch up. Brad's cousin Danny was coming out from Calgary to try ice climbing for the first time, and he was leaving early to accomodate our start time. Unfortunately for him, the rental agency didn't open until 7:30, so he was a bit later getting out to Field. To kill time while waiting for him we did a driving tour of Field. A very small town, but pretty nice.

When Danny arrived we headed out to the Waterworks, a small seep of ice that would be our playground for the day. We would have liked to have tried something longer or harder, but with the avalanche hazard and the size of our party we opted for a simpler choice. Trailbreaking into the route was difficult as there was often snow past our hips. Brad broke trail most of the way, which was no small feat with a pack on. After about 45 minutes we reached the base of the route and got set up. In no time, Jarred and Kelly joined us, as it was quicker for them to follow our trail. I led the short WI3 pitch and established an anchor up top. Brad seconded up after me, and we traversed right to set up a second anchor. This second rope (Danny's) would hang over a small rock band....making for some fun top-roped mixed climbing. We rapped soon after, and spent the day playing around on both rock and ice. Brad also did his first lead on ice, yay!

Because the climbing was limited and pretty easy, we packed up early. Kelly and Jarred were headed home that night, so they wanted to get an earlier start on the driving. After they packed up and Danny left it was pretty quiet around the campsite with just Brad and I. That meant an 8:00 bedtime was possible, which was awesome for recovery!

Thursday, February 22
Paradise Valley Ski Tour - Lake Louise

We woke up early and went about making breakfast and striking camp. Today we'd be leaving Field and heading to Lake Louise to do a ski tour in the Paradise Valley area. We made good time in the morning, and were in Lake Louise by 8. After fueling up and a few phone calls, we headed to the trailhead to gear up.

The trail started out following the Moraine Lake road, which was groomed for the first few kilometres. After that, we turned off into the trees, and made several turns before ending up on the trail into Paradise Valley. This is a popular summer trail that takes visitors past Mt. Temple and into the Grand Sentinel. The views were supposed to be fantastic, but after we broke out of the trees we noticed that clouds had started to roll in. The views were still beautiful, but clouds obscured the peaks in the distance. We continued to follow the trail for some distance, until coming to a fork in the ski trails. The guidebook was incredibley vague, as per usual (one paragrpah of description for 20kms), so we weren't really sure of which way to go. We ended up going right, and picking the wrong trail. The trail we followed was someone's descent route, and we ended up climbing a very steep hillside up into an alpine meadow. We were a little unnerved at this point, as the avalanche conditions weren't great and we could feel the snowpack squeaking underneath us so we made the decision to retreat. After taking our skins off, we ripped some turns through the fresh powder in the trees. Naturally, Brad fared much better than I, but I still managed to make it down with both eyes and all four appendages. From there, we skiied back out to the car and called it a day.

Soon enough, we loaded the car and headed east on the #1. We were extremely excited at the prospect of a shower that night at Scott and Jodi's house!

Friday, February 23
Ice Climbing - The Junkyards

We got off to a bit of a late start, as it was nice to enjoy the comforts of hard shelter. We'd been living out of a tent for the past four days, so sleeping in and laundry were high on the priority list. After we had a make-up session with civilization, we headed to the Junkyards for some easy Ice Climbing.

Brad and I set up a top-rope and played around for a bit before we were joined by Scott and Jodi. They'd finished their morning training, and had come up to try ice climbing for the first time. After gearing them up in our equipment and some delicated footewear switches they both gave it a go and had a great time. Scott particularly enjoyed it, as evidenced by his comment to me a few weeks later: "Things are going okay for me, but there hasn't been nearly enough ice climbing in my schedule". It was a relaxed day of fun.

Saturday, February 24

Cross Country Skiing

Travel Home

Once again, it took us a little while to get going in the morning - I was beginning to think that we'd caught Jarred and Kelly's affliction. However, we were soon at the Nordic centre for some cross country skiing. It was a beautiful day, and the trails were all in perfect condition as they had recently been track-set. This was Brad's first real experience at skate skiing, so for once I got to show him the ropes instead of the other way around. We had a great time exploring the trails of the centre, but definately felt the fatigue of the previous week in our legs. So after a few laps and some shooting with Scott we called it quits.

We were tired and ready to head home to our own beds. So we packed my car full of our gear, and headed home to Lethbridge. All in all, it was a fantastic trip. After all, it's not very often that you get to go ice climbing, ski touring, and cross country skiing in the perfect setting with some of your best friends. No complaints from me :)