Scrambles - Heart Mountain - Sixth Summit of the Season

Our sixth summit of the season today almost didn't happen. The alarm went off at 7:00am, and both of us groaned in obvious despondency at the ungodly hour... I really wanted to just stay in bed, but didn't want to be the one to admit that I was too bagged to scramble a mountain today. So I left it up to Anita, and it seemed she wasn't open to admitting defeat either. And so it was, that despite both of us wishing to just take it easy, our egos led to a stalemate of wills and off we went to reluctantly scramble Heart Mountain.

We lucked out as the weather forecast called for rain, but the rains didn't come until we were midway on our descent. For those that haven't done Heart before, the first bit is a straight up steep slope, but once you gain the initial summit, the ridge towards the true summit and the ensuing loop around to the other summit peaks is breathtaking.








Anita shows off some of her mad scrambling skills.














Mango-stache!

28 Days Later... YYC Instameets tour of Tool Shed Brewing

I put myself on a 30 day no beer diet, but after 28 long days of abstention, I finally caved as I couldn't turn down an opportunity to tour Tool Shed Brewing in NE Calgary as part of a yycinstameets group meetup. Graham, one of the brewery founders, shared with us entertaining stories behind this operation, while serving up samples of their cream ale, red ale, IPA, and newly added stout, before giving us space to set up a little impromptu portrait shoot. There's no way for me to do justice to the stories he shared, but I can tell you that they so perfectly complemented the craft brews served. Beer geeks definitely need to take a tour of this place.








Graham explains some of the flavour notes to their Red Rage red ale.


Where the magic happens: the brew tanks.


Graham explains the history of the canning line, built by a local company.


The other half of this brewing company, Jeff.












Morgan, the person behind yycinstameets, and the organizer of this great little meetup.

A weekend of Pseudo Altitude Sickness

After three straight weekends of beautiful weather in the mountains, the only hiking we could do this rainy May long weekend was to summit Mt. Market Mall. Despite its complete lack of elevation gain, it still somehow induced altitude sickness-like symptoms of confusion and irrational behaviour in Anita, leading to sudden and extreme spending on frivolous cosmetics at Sephora.

Fortunately, to salvage an otherwise adventure-less 3 days off, we took in the 2nd annual Ginapalooza festival in Calgary, which essentially is just an excuse to consume unbridled amounts of gin, while pretending to be a sophisticated socialite. Coincidentally, Ginapalooza also induced altitude sickness-like symptoms of headaches, nausea, and irrational behaviour. Weird.


Cocktail: Bartender's Supper - Sipsmith Dry Gin, Cocchi Americano white wine, asparagus puree, cucumber and soda. Delicious.

Scrambles - Nihahi Ridge

Apparently dragging your petite Asian wife up a mountain a day after she donated blood is detrimental to your marital health. Anita looked like a zombie the entire way up, ashen faced and blank expressioned. I was starting to worry about her when I noticed she was responding to my queries of "Are you feeling okay?" with incomprehensible grunts, before collapsing in exhaustion. Only after we stopped for a break and I heard her say "I wish I packed an ice cream sandwich," did I know that my little piglet was still alive inside the otherwise unrecognizable catatonic shell.

Even with the physical setbacks of not having enough blood to oxygenate her entire body, she soldiered up Nihahi Ridge today for our fifth summit of the season (and it's only mid-May!), making decent time on the roughly 730m+ elevation gain. The initial hike was pleasant enough, but the recent snowfall of this past week made for a sketchy scramble up top at the narrow summit ridge.












This is that zombie-like expression I'm talking about.








A minor traffic jam along the narrow ridge up to the summit.

Scrambles - East End of Rundle

Happy Mom's Day, mother! Too bad you live so far away, or else I could hear you lecture me about, "Why you climb mountain? So danger. Who those fools use selfie stick, not ask you take picture?"

LOL. I love you mom! #lifelessonsfromGeorgesmom

Anyways, yesterday, we joined our pals on a short grunt up the East End of Rundle. Anita wanted an easier day, so this short but steep scramble was a perfect choice for the blazing heat of a cloudless blue sky.


I love this photo. They insisted on using the selfie stick, even though I was right there, willing to snap it for them.


A little steep.


Okay, a lot steep.










I think THIS is what my mom would refer to as "So danger."






Improvised tripod (set up camera on backpack on ground, point slightly upwards).














Bombs on trail. So danger.