Scrambles - Tent Ridge

Before we start talking about today's scramble up Tent Ridge, I feel like I have to yell this out: WHAT THE FAAAACK, AMERICA?!! I get it, the Orlando shooter was radicalized and had mass murder on his mind. But WHY IN THE HELL WAS HE ABLE TO LEGALLY PURCHASE AN ASSAULT RIFLE TO COMMIT THESE ACTS IN THE FIRST PLACE?! What reason is there for anyone who is not part of the military or law enforcement to own an ASSAULT RIFLE? And don't even start with the "Well he would have gotten one illegally anyways" argument. That's as stupid as saying "Kids will get access to cigarettes regardless, so why bother to set a legal age for purchase." If the best logic for not restricting access to ASSAULT FUCKING RIFLES that you can come up with is an apathetic "criminals will be criminals", YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.

Okay, end rant. We scrambled up Tent Ridge today in gale force winds. I don't have the words to describe the beautiful views along the entire 10km long horseshoe shaped ridge walk that loops, so you'll have to trust me on this. For fairly limited effort (and a few sections of fun hands on scrambling), you don't get much more bang for your buck than this.

With Spray Lakes in the background, Anita climbs up towards the first major ridge.










At the false summit, everyone huddled up to try and escape the unrelenting wind.


After dropping elevation from the false summit, we were forced to slowly regain a couple hundred meters towards the true summit.




The Fist on the left, and Mt. Smuts on the right.


A long walk along the undulating ridge to one more highpoint, before dropping back into the valley.


Anita surveys the straight drop off down one face of the ridge.

Brand New, Live at MacEwan Hall

Last night Anita and I tried to blend into a crowd of young kids at the Brand New (<-- that's the band name) concert at Mac Hall, and largely failed. While waiting for the doors to open, we scanned the crowd, and could not find anyone remotely close to our age... eventually we spotted two folks that appeared to be at least 30, and we were like, "YES! We just doubled our contingent!" Our age disparity to the rest of the crowd was fairly obvious when all the kidlets would snap photos and videos on their phones and immediately share them on Snapchat/ Instagram/ Twitter/ Text, while I was taking pictures with a device that was NOT also my phone (ie: an actual camera).

Anyways, we enjoyed ourselves, despite the terrible stage lighting that essentially backlit the band as silhouettes the entire night (see the photos below for examples). The only thing I could have used a lot less of was the "All you can eat buffet" of fuzz guitar feedback they insisted on pounding our ears with. We were foolishly standing near the left bank of speakers/ amps, and 24 hours later, my left ear is still ringing. If you have something to say to me, literally, please talk into my good ear.

For fans that are familiar with Brand New, but weren't there last night, they closed their show with a haunting version of the sing along crowd pleaser, "Play Crack The Sky," and it was just so perfect.


Backlit


Backlit


Backlit


Oh look, more backlighting.


What have we here? Lighting... from behind.


And... yes. More backlighting.