Rainy Rest Day Photo Dump

The past week has been super busy so I have a lot of pictures and a few stories to share.  

Thursday of last week Mark’s Dad (Tom) and his sister (Venessa) came up to Canada!  We started off their Canadian tour with dinner at a brewery in Vancouver where I got a raspberry wheat beer.  Or as I like to call it- pink beer.  Seeing as how it was National IPA Day (in the US), I had to send my Dad (a devout IPA-ist) a picture of my pink beer. 

Over the following days, Mark and I gave Tom and Venessa the grand tour of Squamish—the Smoke Bluffs, the Grand Wall boulders and the wall itself, Shannon Falls, climbers eating pie made from fresh picked blackberries, and the spit to watch kite boarders.  

Mark shows us what it is really like to kite board

Tom, Mark, and Venessa at the spit, with the Chief in the background

Tom and Venessa looking up at the Grand Wall

A picture Venessa took of me on Lounge Act, a v6 I want to do.  

Picking blackberries

What a haul!

Tacos for dinner, pie for dessert.

The finished product!  The first of three pies that were made on Pie Night.

After carboloading on some pizza while watching Psicocomp (an awesome deep water soloing competetion held at the outdoor retailer trade show in Utah) we got psyched up for a hike up the Chief.  The hike up to the top is no joke!  Venessa and Tom rocked it and we made it to the top not long after the clouds had cleared so we could take it all in.  In addition to the views, there are some pretty cute chipmunks.  The chipmunks up at the top are pretty bold and sneaky, but after Doug and Greg told us about a group of guys on top of third peak the day before yelling “dude get the nuts,” (to feed the chipmunks) it is understandable as to why they are fairly habituated.  I imagine that those chipmunks eat like kings.

On top of Second Peak

Cute and sneaky!

I love how the water  looks from the sound and the river meeting.

We saw our friends Alix and Jim on Freeway (11c).  Here is Jim on one of the crux pitches.

The day before they left we headed up north to Whistler to see what that place was all about.  And as it turns out- it is awesome!  Skate parks, bike parks, crazy downhill biking, and a lot of shopping.  And a gorgeous lake not to far out of town- Cheakamus Lake.  The water was turquoise, tolerably cold, and we had the place to ourselves more or less.  Considering the day before we went to check out Alice Lake and we showed up to what looked like La Jolla Shores on a summer day, we were pretty impressed with how quiet and gorgeous Cheakamus Lake was. 

We stopped to check out Brandywine Falls on our way to Whistler

Mark makes friends in the village

Gorgeous

Cheakamus Lake looked even nicer after walking onto this scene at Alice Lake the day before

Mark and I after taking a dip in Cheakamus Lake

We were able to get some climbing in at Murrin Park before they headed back to Vancouver.  It was so good to see them, and both Mark and I were super happy to have some family around after being on the road for two months.

Due to some last minute work schedule changes, Charlotte was able to head back up north and visit for a few days! I don’t get to see her that often so when she texted me asking if she could come back up, I was already making plans for us before I had texted her back.  I got my fill of some much needed girl time, and Huckleberry (big black dog) time.  Charlotte and I caught up, walked along the river, and cragged, all with Huckleberry by our side.  I think my favorite part was when we couldn’t find Huckleberry after we had been packing up at the crag. Luckily “big black dog” is a pretty recognizable object and after some hikers pointed us in the right direction, we found him a minute down the trail, playing in the lake and making new friends.  I can only imagine the sight of a 120 pound dog running down the trail, by himself, and then splashing into the water. When we found him he looked pretty pleased with himself.  

Huckleberry likes to pick up sticks, or maybe more appropriately, logs.

As far as climbing goes, we have been doing a little bit of everything here and there.  We spent an afternoon at the Pet Wall, climbed St. Vitus’ Dance with Doug, cragged at Octopus Garden, and Mark climbed the Grand Wall again with Greg as part of Greg and Ryan’s grand link up.  And when I say grand, I mean it!  I am talking snowboarding, mountain biking, climbing, skydiving, and surfing.  After some flat tires, some closed airports, and some wallet losing, they managed to hitch hike their way back home and it sounds like it was quite the adventure.  Hopefully in the not to far away future Greg will have the footage together.  I don’t think my second hand account really does their link up any justice.

Mark starting up Memorial Crack off of Memorial Ledge, after climbing St. Vitus' Dance

I can’t believe that it is already August 11^th!  We still have a long to do list in Squamish but we are also starting to think about the next leg of our trip.  The month of September is fairly open for us- we have some definite stops, but other than that our plans are somewhat loose.  I figured this was the perfect place to ask for any suggestions for stops along the way.  We are planning to head to Montana from Seattle, check out Yellowstone, and probably head back towards California by way of Colorado and Utah, and ultimately be in the Valley around the beginning of October.  If there are any places along that general route that you recommend, let us know! 

xoxo

LMo and MK