My sister Penny has started a blog:
Wanderlust and Words
As you may have gathered, my family has a fairly serious travel addiction :-)
Monday, August 20, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Climbing Weekend
It all started when Shelley heard that the East Ridge of Edith Cavell was in shape. I climbed this long ago, but Shelley hasn't done it and has been wanting to. We checked the weather forecast and it looked good - sunny for four days! But that made us think maybe we should do something that took a longer spell of good weather - like Assiniboine, one that's been on our list for a long time. It takes a few days since you have to hike in and out about 30 km each way. So we planned to go do Assiniboine.
Unfortunately, the weather forecast started to play games, switching from good to bad and back each time we checked. It ended up looking good for Sat. and Sun. but rainy on Thurs. and Fri. When we checked with Assiniboine Lodge we found out that the rain had come down as snow on the mountain and it likely wasn't in good shape for climbing. We figured Edith Cavell would probably be the same.
At this point we were all packed to go climbing so we went anyway. Sat. there were low dark clouds hanging over Canmore so we headed for Yamnuska and climbed another route that was on our list - Grillmair Chimneys. It was nice and sunny at Yam.
On Monday before the drive back we spent the morning at Grassi Lakes doing a little sport climbing. But both of us were tired out from the last two days and we didn't get too ambitious. Despite having to change our plans numerous times, the weekend turned out well.
Unfortunately, the weather forecast started to play games, switching from good to bad and back each time we checked. It ended up looking good for Sat. and Sun. but rainy on Thurs. and Fri. When we checked with Assiniboine Lodge we found out that the rain had come down as snow on the mountain and it likely wasn't in good shape for climbing. We figured Edith Cavell would probably be the same.
At this point we were all packed to go climbing so we went anyway. Sat. there were low dark clouds hanging over Canmore so we headed for Yamnuska and climbed another route that was on our list - Grillmair Chimneys. It was nice and sunny at Yam.
Looking up the route from the base.
Shelley started to lead the second pitch.
Me leading the final pitch.
Shelley emerging from the back of the chimney at the top.
A visitor wanting to share our lunch!
The scrambling trail down.
On Sunday the weather was good in Canmore so we did the trad route on the North East ridge of Ha Ling peak - 12 pitches of 5.6 We weren't quite the first party on the route but the one party ahead of us let us pass after it was obvious on the first few pitches that we were moving faster than them. It was nice to be climbing with no one ahead of us, especially as we looked down and saw numerous parties on the route. We had climbed the route once before but a long time ago. We did the approach in an hour and the climbing in about four hours. We were pretty happy with our speed, especially as we'd been fumbling around a bit on Yam, not having done any long routes since Red Rocks last fall.
On Monday before the drive back we spent the morning at Grassi Lakes doing a little sport climbing. But both of us were tired out from the last two days and we didn't get too ambitious. Despite having to change our plans numerous times, the weekend turned out well.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Climbing Web Site and Blog
I just discovered a web site Canadian Alpinist and blog Alpine Artist by a climbing friend Rob Owens who was originally from Saskatoon (now living in Canmore). Rob was on our Cho Oyu expedition many years ago. That was near the beginning of his climbing career - he's come a long way since then.
If you're looking for a climbing guide I'd highly recommend Rob.
If you're looking for a climbing guide I'd highly recommend Rob.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Canadian Orienteering Championships
The 2007 Canadian Orienteering Championships were hosted by the Saskatchewan Orienteering Association. I helped out with the web site, map printing, and at the event.
Considering it was one of the first events of any kind put on by the fledgling SOA, it went amazingly well. Of course, we could not have done it without the help from experienced people in other provinces who worked on the maps and course planning and helped officiate.
It was a bit of an eye opener for me - these folks are extremely good at what they do. I guess I should have expected that since they're some of the top competitors in Canada. I helped plan the night course. (It wasn't a world ranking event so we didn't have to bring in the big guns to plan it.) I would not have believed anyone could get all the points (it was a score competition) in an hour. Even knowing where they all were, I don't think I could visit them all in an hour, even in the daylight!
After the sprint event was finished I ran one of the courses with another volunteer (Tony Nadon). We got the fastest time on the course we ran, but it was the second easiest course (aimed at kids and grannies) and we had the advantage of knowing the university campus where it was located. And I still managed to mis-punch one control so technically I didn't finish :-(
I also helped check some of the courses the morning before the events (just to make sure the flags were still there - they had already been checked by experts for location). The first day I checked the third easiest course (out of 10). I assumed it would be quite "easy" and, overconfident, proceeded to thrash around quite embarrassingly. I took an hour and a half to get through a course that had a winning time of about 30 minutes by a 15 or 16 year old. I thought I did better the next day, only taking an hour to check the two easiest courses. The first was won by a 12 year old girl in 25 minutes, the second by a 13 year old boy in 23 minutes. My ego was only saved by telling myself that I had to check two courses (albeit mostly overlapping) plus a several extra points from harder courses. My last experience out on the courses was picking up a bunch of points after the events were over. This time felt a little better. I was more careful and paid more attention to the map and route selection and managed not to get lost at all :-) But I also didn't set any speed records!
I think part of my problem is I'm not used to the quality of maps. That sounds funny - shouldn't a higher quality map make it easier? But when you're used to working with out of date, inaccurate 1:50,000 topo maps, you don't get in the habit of relying on the map too much. Just to give you an idea how different the maps are - the 1:50,000 topo has two contour lines in the whole Ebs Trails area, as opposed to literally thousands of contours and other features on the orienteering map, down to the level of individual trees (just distinct ones - not every tree!). Once I learned to a) trust the map more and b) really use the information on the map, then it started to go better.
On the positive side, one of our local people (Jeff Dmytrowich) entered the middle and long events and got the fastest times on his course on both. That was on an easy to moderate course, but still impressive, considering it was his first actual orienteering event (as far as I know), and everyone said it was some of the most technical, challenging orienteering around (due to the nature of the forest and terrain).
It's too bad Jeff was the only local person to enter. This was partly due to most of the keen people volunteering instead of entering and partly due to people being scared of entering a national event with little or no experience. Although, orienteering seems to be one of the few sports where a national competition isn't limited to the elite.
Now that the event is over, I can get back to finishing the planning for this year's Prairie Pitch!
Considering it was one of the first events of any kind put on by the fledgling SOA, it went amazingly well. Of course, we could not have done it without the help from experienced people in other provinces who worked on the maps and course planning and helped officiate.
It was a bit of an eye opener for me - these folks are extremely good at what they do. I guess I should have expected that since they're some of the top competitors in Canada. I helped plan the night course. (It wasn't a world ranking event so we didn't have to bring in the big guns to plan it.) I would not have believed anyone could get all the points (it was a score competition) in an hour. Even knowing where they all were, I don't think I could visit them all in an hour, even in the daylight!
After the sprint event was finished I ran one of the courses with another volunteer (Tony Nadon). We got the fastest time on the course we ran, but it was the second easiest course (aimed at kids and grannies) and we had the advantage of knowing the university campus where it was located. And I still managed to mis-punch one control so technically I didn't finish :-(
I also helped check some of the courses the morning before the events (just to make sure the flags were still there - they had already been checked by experts for location). The first day I checked the third easiest course (out of 10). I assumed it would be quite "easy" and, overconfident, proceeded to thrash around quite embarrassingly. I took an hour and a half to get through a course that had a winning time of about 30 minutes by a 15 or 16 year old. I thought I did better the next day, only taking an hour to check the two easiest courses. The first was won by a 12 year old girl in 25 minutes, the second by a 13 year old boy in 23 minutes. My ego was only saved by telling myself that I had to check two courses (albeit mostly overlapping) plus a several extra points from harder courses. My last experience out on the courses was picking up a bunch of points after the events were over. This time felt a little better. I was more careful and paid more attention to the map and route selection and managed not to get lost at all :-) But I also didn't set any speed records!
I think part of my problem is I'm not used to the quality of maps. That sounds funny - shouldn't a higher quality map make it easier? But when you're used to working with out of date, inaccurate 1:50,000 topo maps, you don't get in the habit of relying on the map too much. Just to give you an idea how different the maps are - the 1:50,000 topo has two contour lines in the whole Ebs Trails area, as opposed to literally thousands of contours and other features on the orienteering map, down to the level of individual trees (just distinct ones - not every tree!). Once I learned to a) trust the map more and b) really use the information on the map, then it started to go better.
On the positive side, one of our local people (Jeff Dmytrowich) entered the middle and long events and got the fastest times on his course on both. That was on an easy to moderate course, but still impressive, considering it was his first actual orienteering event (as far as I know), and everyone said it was some of the most technical, challenging orienteering around (due to the nature of the forest and terrain).
It's too bad Jeff was the only local person to enter. This was partly due to most of the keen people volunteering instead of entering and partly due to people being scared of entering a national event with little or no experience. Although, orienteering seems to be one of the few sports where a national competition isn't limited to the elite.
Now that the event is over, I can get back to finishing the planning for this year's Prairie Pitch!
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