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Red Rocks

In February of 2003, I met my parents and sister in Las Vegas so that we could climb at Red Rocks.  My sister didn't climb at all, but had a lot of fun shopping.

My parents and I had planned on doing some multipitch routes, but the airline left my luggage in Vancouver and effectively shot down that plan.

On Saturday we went to Cannibal Crag, which is one of the only places in Red Rocks where you can walk up to set a top rope anchor.  This is me on Mac and Ronnie in Cheese (10a).  Yes, I'm tied in, you just can't see the rope.

On Saturday evening we bought some draws at the climbing shop so that I could lead some routes and set top ropes on sunday.  The airline was nice enough to pay us back for the climbing harness and seven draws that we bought.  It would have been nicer to just have my bag though.
We spent Sunday at the Panty Wall in the First Pullout. This is my dad on Brief Encounter (5.8) on Panty Wall.

This is my mom climbing  Panty Loon (5.7).

Ice Climbing
Curtain Above Roller Coaster

My New Year's resolution this year is to get out of Toronto more often than I did last year. One of the things that resulted from my resolution is that I started ice climbing. Here are a few pictures from the Eagle's Nest at Bancroft.

The ice pictured to the left is the curtain on top of Roller Coaster. The climbs on the curtain increase in difficulty from around WI3 to WI4 as you go from left to right
My first real ice lead was on Roller Coaster (WI2), the relatively low angle ice on the right leading up to the curtain.
The climb on the left is the first pitch of Hidden Gully and was my friend Greg's first WI3 ice lead. The ice on this pitch was pretty thin, but Greg had to get the WI3 monkey off of his back, so he hopped on. The whole climb is shown below.
This is a complete picture of Hidden Gully. The picture above is the thin ice smear in the bottom right of this picture. Greg lead the first pitch to the trees that are in between the power lines. I lead the next pitch which was my first ice-like lead, but it was really more like a dirty 5.0 with crappy ice, so it wasn't really a normal ice lead. Don't worry Mom and Dad, I slung a tree and had a bomber nut in, so I wasn't relying on the crappy ice for protection.
This is a pic of me on my first ice climb ever. I was on a trip to Skeleton Lake Rd. #5 with the Toronto section of the ACC. I had a blast and hope to get out more in the future.
This is a pic of my second ice climb ever. A little harder than the first one, and way more fun.
 

Hiking Near Bancroft
Chris' brother has a cabin near Bancroft, so we've headed up there a couple of times. The two pictures below were taken on the river that runs past his cabin.
The next two pictures were taken while snowshoeing at Silent Lake Provincial Park. That's Chris on the left and me on the right.
 

Ski Touring Near Mt. Assiniboine
Bryant Creek

My girlfriend, Chris, and I tried to ski into Lake Magog and Mt. Assiniboine over new year's, but didn't quite make it. Here are some pictures from the trip.

This picture is of Bryant Creek from the our lunch site on the way out. Chris kept saying "I can't believe the creek is steaming!"

The mountain on the bottom left is Cone Mountain, which you pass on the way up to the Bryant Creek Shelter.

The mountain on the bottom right is the Rock of Gibraltar, which is past the Bryant Creek Shelter on the way to Assiniboine Pass.
Cone Mountain Rock of Gibraltar
 

Climbing in Squamish

I've spent a lot of time climbing in Squamish over the past couple years, and fell in love with Squamish granite. You may be wondering why I moved to Ontario. So am I. Hopefully more pics coming soon.

This picture is taken from the "classic bivy" on Uncle Ben's (A2+). Uncle Ben's climbs the left side of the Grand Wall and finishes about two thirds of the way up the Chief on Dance Platform. In the background you can see the Dihedrals, the Bulletheads, Highway 99, the Papoose and a bit of the Howe Sound. For those who care, the tree in the foreground is the upper of two trees that, from the highway, look like a pair of climbers on the Grand Wall. I did Uncle Ben's with Justin Vance in the summer of 2001 and, oops, skipped a day of work to do it.

"Isn't Brock supposed to be working today? Where is he?"

"Probably about half way up the Chief right now."
 

Pacific Crest Trail

My friend Karl and I hiked parts of the Pacific Crest Trail over 9 weeks in the summer of 2000 after I graduated from UBC. We hiked through most of Washington, climbing Glacier Peak, Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams along the way. After Washington, we hitched through most of Oregon, with a 1 week stop at Smith Rock for some climbing. We finished the trip off by hiking most of the John Muir Trail. I'll hopefully have more pics up from the PCT soon.

Karl and I climbed Glacier Peak via the Sitkum Glacier route. The photo on the left is the Sitkum Spire. On the day that we climbed Glacier Peak we started off socked in by clouds with doubts that we'd be seeing anything other than clouds all day. As we got to around 7000 ft. the clouds gave way to beautiful clear skies and we had a great day with surreal views.
Another view of the Sitkum Spire from a little lower.
Me on top of Glacier Peak, enjoying the sunshine. Notice Mt. Rainier in the background to my right.

The picture on the right is of a crevasse on the Ingraham glacier on Mt. Rainier. The ladder was put in place by RMI, I know, not great mounaineering style, but we weren't really on a mounaineering trip at the time. Karl and I went up the Ingraham Direct route, which was the standard route for the conditions that the mountain was in at the time.