Albatross WI3, Valley of The Birds, North Ghost River Valley

The Valley of The Birds lies in the northern Ghost River Valley, about 12 km from the Big Hill. It's a narrow, step-sided little valley accessed via a cleft that forms up as a series of short WI2 steps. On the day that I went there, it was pretty cold (maybe -27C or so) and the river crossings required to get to the valley produced instant armour plating on your boots - I was very glad I was wearing plastics that day.

There are several routes in the valley, pictured here. We did Albatross (WI3) which I found hard, as it was plating horribly and had thin sections and other parts where the ice was skinned so that you were climbing on a thin crust above a deep air pocket. This was certainly not my favourite route of the winter, but the setting is fantastic.

Tim's Winter Visit, 2009

Tim Capon loved the Rockies in summer so much that he returned for a winter visit in January 2009. It was great to see him over here again, and we made the most of some great snow and ice conditions to get out and do some early-season stuff.


Highlights of his trip included climbing Grotto Falls (WI3), and skiing some amazing snow conditions at Sunshine Village. We also took in a half-day of Nordic skiing at the Canmore Olympic Centre. The trails were a bit thin in places but Tim survived the inevitable first-timer's tumbles without any lasting damage.

Chantilly Falls, WI2, Evan Thomas Creek

Chantilly Falls is a lovely WI2 in the Evan Thomas Creek, off Highway 40 in Kananaskis Country. The walk-in is about 45-60 minutes and the climb is 80 m or so, in two pitches, with the crux where it should be. It's a really nice day out - I enjoyed it so much that did it twice in the 2009 season.

Full photo set

On this outing Grant and I were joined by Meaghan and Tim from Calgary. We had great views of the Fortress on the approach (left).

Meaghan climbing the steep little final wall (below).

Cross Country Skiing in Fish Creek, Calgary

The great thing about living in SW Calgary is the availability of local Nordic skiing when we get a good dump. The winter of 2008/9 waited until mid December to bite, then hit us with cold weather (left) and masses of snow. I live close to Fish Creek, and was able to get out a few times on my skinny skis. I'd like to say I'm improving my technique on these treacherous strips of plastic....but I still fall over a lot. No broken bones this year though.


One thing that was almost quite good (in retrospect!) was Christmas Eve, when I caught the bus to Fish Creek LRT station (funny looks) and then skied to my office, 16 km around the rivers. The going was actually really poor, despite all the snow - off-trail I was breaking through 2 feet of drifted snow and snagging on underlying vegetation. Cue falls and a lot of loud swearing.....but at that time of day the park was empty. On trail, I was lucky if the parks dept had left a cm of snow on the edge of the path to skim along. I'm not planning on repeating this journey - it took me 3 hours, with the last 3 km mainly done on foot due to over-zealous trail scraping (read: removal of gravel to 2 cm below previous path elevation) by contractors along the Bow River trails. And then to add insult to injury, Riverbend McDonalds wouldn't cook me a burger because it wasn't 11 AM yet. They had no idea how much the thought of that burger had fuelled my skiing....sometimes a granola bar just doesn't hit the spot.