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Bear spray
Jamie wasn't sure it was necessary, but I won't even go to the shops without it! We also had to sign a waiver that we wouldn't use it as a weapon... The last few months have been interesting - the snow melted, the sun came out, it then snowed again...Jamie and I were having serious concerns that winter was coming back! As much of a novelty as snow is for us, we'd had enough, and were definitely ready for the spring!
We have now traded in our snowboards for climbing gear and hiking boots. As soon as the sun came out, Jamie and I were back at Morro slabs and bluffs. The slabs are perfect for beginners - nice progression of climbs on a warm slab that overlooks an aquamarine river and snowy peaks. Jay was hoping for a little bit of multipitch action on the bluffs, but got lost looking for the climbs and only did one instead. Not to worry though, we have a whole summer ahead of us!
Most exciting weekend so far was Jay's birthday. Our first roadtrip! We hired a car and took off after work on Friday for Lake Louise and Banff, with our birthday roadtrip playlist, and a boot full of climbing gear and presents. Unfortunately we were a little optimistic about the climbing conditions in Lake Louise - climbing season doesn't start
Saturday night lake loop hike
One chilly weekend we decided to go for a hike, but halfway through, our water bottles froze! until June/July. So we stayed the night at the hostel and then moved on down to Banff. Jamie's climbing guidebook indicated that there was some good climbing in Canmore, so Saturday morning we fuelled up at Tim Hortons and headed out to Grassi Lakes. It was perfect!
Grassi Lakes are only 20 minutes from Canmore - the first day we parked up by the dam and hiked down to the climbing area. The hike was very cool - not very far, but still lots of snow on the ground (I used my patented 'ass descent' on more than one occasion). While checking out some of the climbs we came across some old pictographs on the rock, which was very cool. The view hiking down was awesome. Two picture-perfect blue-green lakes framed by the cliff walls and frozen waterfalls and then the town of Canmore far below. We were so excited!! We did quite a few climbs on the "Golf Course" which is nice easy grades (5.5 - 5.7), and then Jamie went down and tested himself on a few harder ones (5.10c) before we headed back to Banff and to our hotel.
Saturday night we went for dinner
at one of Jamie's favourite pubs in Banff (Rose & Crown) and then we wandered the streets for a bit. That night Jamie hardly slept - I had brought down all his presents in a big black bag and it was HUGE! He was awake at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep. It's always hard buying presents for people who live in other countries, but this year Jamie had a wishlist on the MEC website - a list of all the stuff that he was dreaming about - carabiners, pitons, helmet, double ropes...all kinds of stuff. Most of our family had bought stuff off the website, so while Jamie didn't know what he was getting, he had some ideas, and he was like a 5 year old at christmas! I think we managed to stay in bed until about 6.30am and then it was just too much and he ripped open all his presents. Then it was time to head off and use them! We went back to Grassi Lakes and what was going to be a short climbing session (as we still had to drive back to Jasper) turned into an all day event. So around 7pm, we
picked up burgers at Wendy's and started the long drive back. Now in the morning I had been sneaky and while Jamie was talking to his family on the phone, I had snuck over to the store and bought a cute little chocolate cake. I then hid it under the car seat (thinking we'd only be climbing for a short while). So around 8.30pm, I got Jamie to pull over on the side of the highway on the pretext of taking a picture and then brought out his melted, gooey birthday cake. Oh well, at least it had candles!
A few weeks ago, Jamie took part in the Spring Run-off (10km run) - he came 4th! He's now training with his friend Darren to do a team triathlon at the start of June.
What else? We are feeling a little more settled in Jasper - our apartment is looking a little more homely now and we've been making friends - just in time for BBQ season! Perfect! Still trying to find all ingredients for my famous thai pork burgers, but we're not going to let that dampen our excitement for summer. Bring on the sunshine!!
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wendy (Mum)
non-member comment
birthday boy
Hey great photo's! Thanks for making his birthday so special Dilly, especially the cake (which I still think looks like pooh!) speak soon xx