Palpagradi's Great Canadian Adventure

By Terra Dumont, 17 February 2009

Palpagradi’s Great Canadian Adventure

Nov. 10 2008 – Feb 3^rd 2009

The adventure all started 3am Monday morning when Terra’s wonderful boyfriend Guy brought us to the Wellington Airport (after getting back from Blue Duck Lodge at midnight and sleeping on cushions on Kieran’s floor) . My lovely pet Terra was taking me on a trip to Canada with her to see her dad and other relatives. This was to be my first trip overseas so I was quite excited!!! 

The 19+ hour flight to Calgary via Sidney and Vancouver went relatively smoothly. We slept through most of it. The only hiccup was that our flight from Vancouver to Calgary was cancelled due to bad weather, but we where soon on a different flight. We were met in Calgary by Eric (Terra’s Dad) and stayed at her aunt and uncles.

Western Canada was having an exceptionally beautiful November. It still hadn’t snowed by the time we came so Eric, Terra and I went tramping in the Rockies near Canmore. Terra was unable to persuade her dad into doing anything longer than about 5hrs, so we just did day tramps up small peaks.

The first Peak Terra brought me up was Yumnuska. Eric’s friend Dave also came along. Yumnuska is a nice loop that Eric brought Terra up since she was quite young. The fun scrambly bit now has a fixed line bolted onto it that wasn’t there when Terra last climbed it over 7 years ago. I bounced along happily on Terra’s backpack as we goggled at the vertical cliffs that make up Yumnuskas face. We checked out the routes and day dreamed of the day we will climb them.

On Terra’s 20^th birthday we summated EEOR (East End of Rundle). Again Dave came along. It was a really lovely tramp that included a fun scrambly bit and extra scrambly bits put in for Terra by Dave (Eric walked around them). On the way we gazed at Chinaman's Peak (now called something more PC). It had what used to be the worlds highest sport climb (until another one was bolted) as well as many other beautiful looking routes. And Chinaman’s isn’t the only good looking face – there are beautiful ones everywhere!! 

A few days latter we climbed Heart Mountain. It was Terra's favourite mountain when she was 12. It is a very pretty tramp that makes a loop following the rocky ridge with a few easy scrambly sections in it. Terra and I spied a great looking ridge that follows off Heart Mountains summit up to another peak that may or may not need gear to get up.

We also summated Pigeon Mountain. It is a very straight forward short tramp that gives great views. We met some sheep hunters up there that where very surprised to see Terra coming up in a t-shirt when they where all wrapped up in their down jackets! They decided she was the toughest person on the mountain, though it had more to do with the fact she had just run up a scree slope and they had been sitting around on the top for hours.

Then the serious visiting started!! We travelled around Alberta and Saskatchewan in Eric’s Dodge Truck (btw he hates Dodge dealers, but that is a whole book in itself!). From Canmore to Lethbridge to Sylvan Lake to Edmonton we really got around! Needless to say we where fed incredibly well and got to decorate 3 Christmas trees! 

While in Saskatchewan Terra’s cousin took her to a Sarah Brightman concert, which she told me was incredible! Terra found a CD of her at a Salvation Army and I agree she has a riveting voice. Terra says the special effects and her dresses where almost as amazing!

After Christmas we went back to Canmore to go ice climbing with Terra’s cousin-in-law Ted. We played around in the Junk Yard (Grassi Lakes Falls) with Terra’s new ice tools for 3 days, mostly top-roping. (Jeremy feel secure in the knowledge that you did scare Terra off leading anything remotely difficult.) She did lead an easy pitch which she got her dad to clean, making it his first ever ice climb! The ice was beautiful – thick blue waterfall ice, much different from the air-filled Ruapahue ice was are used to! It was great fun. Latter on in December Terra talked her dad into bringing us back there for a day. A week before we left Dave and his friend Blue took us climbing on Grotto Falls, which was also great fun but easier than the stuff we had been climbing at the Junk Yard.

 On December 30^th we flew to New York City to visit Terra’s Aunt and Uncle, Jack and Yvette whom live in the Bronx. We had a great time! Terra managed to museum-out her dad on one day (8hrs) at the Museum of Natural History (Terra’s and now also my favourite museum!) He was so sore from standing that he didn’t come to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, so Terra and I gazed at Van Gogh, Salvador Dali’s, Monet’s and Raphael’s by ourselves. We saw Phantom of the Opera on Broad way – it was an amazing experience!! The man playing the Phantom was an extraordinary singer! We also spent hours in the Botanical Gardens looking at the intricate miniature replicas of New York buildings made from plant materials for the D-scale train exhibition and admiring all the plants. For New Years Eve we went to Times Square. NEVER EVER GO TO TIMES SQUARE FOR NEW YEARS EVE!!! Nothing happens!!!! We showed up at 9pm thinking that since it was snowing and blowing we would be in time to see some of the festivities, but no such luck. We where corralled in by police to an area 5 blocks from Times Square, with thousands of people in front of us, and by midnight just as many behind us. Found out that to have seen anything going on in Times Square you would have had to get there by at least 2pm. So we waited it out in the wind and the rain hoping at least for some fire works or something. No luck, they went off in Central park with al of the buildings blocking our view of them! We also spent many hours in the cathedrals admiring the architecture. It was a very interesting time to spend with Jack and Yvette as the Isralie-Palistinian war was going on and they had worked in Bethlehem for many years to new the people and area intimately.

Upon returning to Calgary we went back to Lethbridge to visit Terra’s Grandparents before we headed off to Canmore again to do a ski touring trip with Dave. We where planning on going up the Bow glacier but because of the severe avalanche danger we decide on the Tonquin Valley (near Jasper) instead as it is a very wide valley. The first day we skied 13km up the road to Mt. Edith Cavel Hosted (the road is open in the summer). For once Terra had the lightest pack! That only lasted for the first day. She had to carry some of her dads stuff after that because he was carrying too much and got a sore back! Part of the way up Terra stopped and pointed out that there where some dogs ahead, thinking there where some bodies Huskies. Minutes latter when the woods around us began vibrating with wolf calls the silly girl realised they where not just any dogs! Other than the wolves we saw very little other wildlife during the trip, though we saw tracks for red squirrel, fox, hare, ptarmigan, wolverine, caribou and others.

The next day we skied up the valley following the stream for 18km to the Wate-Gibson ACC Hut (yes Canada should re-think its Alpine Club of Canada initials!) It was a beautiful ski, following week old tracks (yah not breaking trail!) through pine forest with views of Mt. Temple and Mt. Edith Cavell among others. The hut is an incredibly cute, large log cabin. Terra’s still not sure it was worth $40 a night to stay in it though! She will now complain less about NZAC hut fees! It is a popular summer tramp, but not so much so in the winter – other than the group a week before us the last entry in the hut book was October. The hut would have been extremely difficult to find without having a track to follow.

Terra spent the evening pouring over route descriptions for all of the surrounding peaks. They are supposedly composed of some of the best rock in the Rockies. Words like “solid” and “excellent” come before “rock” and “protection”! There are heaps of faces and routes from scrambles to pitches above grade 20. Definitely requiring a summer trip!

Terra and Dave broke trail to Amethyst Lake the next morning while Eric stayed home to rest. We knew the day out would be a hard one, 30km back to the other car (we did a partial loop). Thus we decided to speed things up by having the first part of the trail broken (the other party went no further than the hut). We didn’t find the tramping trail on the way to the lakes and bush bashed through the pines. There we got our first real view of the peaks Terra had been studying. The Ramparts jut almost vertically out of the lake, making a spectacular wall just asking to be climbed! After enjoying lunch under their beautiful faces we headed back, this time finding the trail. Terra then talked her dad into coming to the head of the Fraser Glacier with her. It was well worth the 10min ski – the views of Outpost Peak and Mt. Paragon where incredible in the setting sun. We even found some avalanche-safe slopes to practice telemark turns on. I wasn’t too happy about this as Terra kept falling on me!

We woke up before dawn to be out on the trail early. We crossed Amethyst lakes then followed Maccarib Stream, over Maccarib pass then down Portal Creek. We hit bottomless powder just after leaving the lakes; luckily it became harder higher up where it had been wind blown. The pass itself is not very high and completely unspectacular, but we got some good views on the way up. The way down was OK until we hit the creek where the snow became knee to thigh high with no base. So back to breaking trail again! We did 20min shifts and where making very slow time. Dave also fell in the creek twice getting his touring bindings covered in ice, rendering them unworkable, so we had to build a fire and dry off his boots and bindings. We luckily hit a trail just after dark which sped things up dramatically. Terra and I had great fun gliding along the creek trying to dodge boulders and sparks flying off her bindings when she hit one, but Eric found it not so much fun! We made it back to the car after 12 hours. Terra’s dad wasn’t so impressed when she asked him to go snow shoeing the next day!

From Jasper we drove to Eric’s farm near Mc Bride (British Columbia). It is a beautiful piece of property with one edge bordering the Fraser River and the other the base of the Caribou Mountain Range. There was heaps of snow and we had to snow-shoe into the cabin Eric had built. Once we got the fire going it was nice and warm though!

We snow-shoed up the Cotton Wood logging road looking for a climbable waterfall but didn’t luck out. The next day we decided to snow shoe up Eddy Creek (which the bottom section of runs through the farm). It was a beautiful snow-shoe, climbing over boulders and fallen trees covered in a thick blanket of snow as we followed the steep stream through mature hemlock and cedar. We even came across a poor old Mrs. Moose who appeared to be stuck on a patch of ice unable to escape. We couldn’t even see any tracks of where she came in, so she may have been there a while L. Sadly there was nothing we could do, so hopefully she becomes a good meal for a hungry cougar or wolf. We turned around soon after as Eric was getting tired. If we had kept following it we would have ended up at the glacier that feeds it. After the two hours we where probably about half way. We also found what might be some good rock climbing cliffs just off the property! 

That was really the last great adventure of the trip. Terra spent the next few days packing, making last minute MEC purchases and visiting her grandparents for the last time. She even got to see her babies – Misty has become and excellent barrel racer and Xena is all grown up. They are as cute as ever. Sadly she only got to give them hugs and a brushing and didn’t get to ride them. She also spent a day in Canada Olympic Park having her dad teach her how to tele again. Sadly she did better when she was 12!

Now we are in the Sydney airport, to be boarding soon, on our way to a horizontal bed and all of our friends which we have missed dearly.

Palpagradi :)