Mount Temple

I finally got some time off from school, so recently Sam Johnson and I met up in Missoula for a quick trip to the Canadian Rockies. We managed to do one route, the Greenwood/Jones on the north face of Mt. Tempe (V 5.8 A1 ca. 4000'), easily visible from the Lake Louise townsite. I borrowed the photo below from the internet, Parks Canada website I think. It shows our route very well: the sun/shade ridge just left of the pine tree superimposed on the face. We considered the Greenwood/Locke, but 'The Dolphin' was rather melted out (more than in this photo) and subject to copious rockfall in the non-freezing temps. We decided the G/J was the only safe route on the face.
Below is Sam approaching the base of the face, with hundreds of acres of petrified ocean bottom looming above.

Lots of third classing...


Finally roped up, I think we did about 17 belayed pitches.


Still climbing on the bottom of an ancient ocean, Sam traversed to avoid a jellyfish...

Fortunately the rock quality improved as we got higher, the limestone gave way to beautiful quartzite...

We were glad to be on a ridge, safe from rockfall...



You can see the village of Lake Louise carved out of the trees behind Sam

Sam lead the crux pitch just as a thunderstorm was rolling through the valley. Luckily he got through it before the rock was too wet, but not before it got dark. I followed as fast as possible, and we immediately hunkered down on a small ledge until the rain passed. Amazingly, we never got the soaking we expected, despite being surrounded by dark clouds and verga. By that time we were dozing off, so we elected to just spend the night on the ledge and continue at first light. I guess our vacation-style 7am departure from the parking lot caught up with us.

The next day was beautiful and we quickly finished off the 4 remaining pitches. Here we put away the ropes and got out the crampons.
The timing ended up working out well since the snow was nice and firm...
On top...

In other hiking related news, Sam and I also walked in to the N. Face of Mt. Geikie, about a 35 mile round trip, heavy with full alpine climbing equipment. Pouring rain and lightning kept us from getting on the face, but the wildflowers were awesome. The mosquitos, not so much.



A little respite between squalls in the Tonquin valley, but not quite good enough to commit to a 5000' route.

On our way south to Missoula, we decided to check out a rocky ridge I had noticed many years ago in Glacier National Park. Unfortunately it didn't look nearly as good as in my memory, so we ended up carrying all our gear on a single push 25 mile traverse of the park. The highlight was seeing a wolverine, who paused for a photo about 20 feet from us as we were having lunch on Gunsight Pass. I think he wanted a sandwich, but all we had was cheese and crackers so he kept on moving.


This goat showed up and promptly fell asleep in the snow about 30 feet from us as we were taking a break on Lincoln Pass. He's the most friendly goat I've ever met.

December in Alaska

Here are some belated photos from December skiing in AK. Sally and I went up for my Christmas break and had a great time catching up with family and friends. Sally skinning up on a typical day out...

I finally got to go skiing with Charlie Renfro, after more than a year of trying...
Cortney Kitchen and Tobey Carman, landlocked friends from Wyoming...
Sally at dawn...
And at dusk, just a couple hours later...
Jon Cobb and I spent some time exploring around the Mat valley...
Cobb...



Sam Johnson, Ben Chriswell, Cortney Kitchen and Sally stop for a break on the way up...
Sally coming through the alders...
Sam's dog Jennie spent the night of winter solstice near the top of Clive Peak because she was afraid to go down. We had to go back up the next day to get her, and luckily the skiing was just as good the second time. Jennie didn't seem the least bit phased, but she was certainly hungry!


Tobias Schwoerer and Luc Mehl engaged in the decision making process...