Team Harro: March 2008

So following our return from our second trip to Canada, it was 4 nights on, and then Sunday off to Smith. We picked up Rogue, my brother and sister-in-law's Aussie....aka Reuben's cousin and started our drive. I passed out in typical style to open my eyes to central Oregon. It was an awesome trip full of chill easy cragging and great weather (I was definitely in a tanktop for the majority of both days we were there). It felt so foreign to do out first rock climb of the year. Compared to ice climbing, clinging to nubbins feels a whole lot different than swinging with an ice tool. I'll spare you with a ton of pics of "from the ground up butt shots" but here's some of the dogs. They had a great time. Reuben would watch as Daniel and I would climb and cock his head. Also, Reu in his usualy destroyer style took on a dead tree one stob at a time, and Rogue had a good time swimming in the Crooked River. Either Reuben knew that the Crooked River was nasty or it was his fear that prevented him from getting in over his armpits unless he was forced...let's give him the benefit of the doubt and wait until it's warmer!

Reuben's Dead Tree

Reuben's Cave

Gotta have a pillow...even if it is a rock...
Oops, another butt shot slipped in...Daniel on Lion's Jaw, one of my favorite trad rts. at Smith

There’s nothing like 12 hours in the car and then night shift to really make one want to go back to Canmore. But who am I kidding, I wanted to go back to Canmore the second I left. If only it was easier to find work in Canada and I would be there in a heartbeat

The latest adventure started on Thursday the 29th which is when, with the help of my wonderful friend Hannah, I got Daniel’s present installed on the 4runner. He has wanted an ARB bull bar for who knows how long…and I have protested for quite some time. This is the first year that we have even been able to think of it financially, so I decided to give him the ultimate surprise for his birthday. I had actually ordered it in January and continued to vehemently oppose the idea of even thinking of the possibility of owning such a thing. Despite much begging, pleading, and arguments over the money I was spending and the money he wasn’t allowed to spend, he continued to have no idea. So long story short, the day before we left, the wonderful people at Land Cruiser Northwest installed front shocks and the bull bar, spending nearly all day on it. Meanwhile, I was scrambling trying to get some sleep, pack, and drop Reuben off at my friend Michelle’s house (more to come on that). Thankfully, the rig was done by 6pm and back to work I went.

Friday, Daniel arrived home to a fully-loaded 4runner complete with the fabled ARB Bull Bar, and Team Harro along with our friend Marcus Donaldson got on the road en route to the Canadian Rockies. We made it across the border without a hitch and all celebrated Marcus’ first trip to Canada in over ten years(quite the accomplishment!!). We arrived at the Canadian Rocky Chalets around 10ish and met up with Daniel’s twin brother Mark, who had drove up from Bozeman, MT to meet up with us.

Saturday we went to attempt Professor Falls, a climb on Mt. Rundle right outside of Banff .... but an intentional late start and an unintentional under-estimate of the approach length from not combining two sections of the book's description left us with the need to find other options. We all settled on heading over to Field and climbing on Guiness Gully WI4 on Mt. Dennis... Unfortunately we encountered more tests of our determination to climb ice that day as the approach was by far different than that of JoJo's book (unfortunately something that occurs quite often). There is nothing like wandering around aimlessly in the trees and knee deep snow searching for something you can't find and/or see. One redeeming quality of our search was that it seemed others had experienced similar frustration as there were sets of tracks traversing all over the hill. Ultimately visualization from both near and far finally led us to the climb and we realized we only had enough daylight to get up the first pitch with our group of 4, which unfortunately lacked any aesthetic value. However, it ended up being a really fun pitch, and it left us mildly sated, but hungering for more the next day.

The next day we got an early start and did the approach to Professor Falls, which is quite easy mostly on a golf course road and then on a fairly flat trail by the river.

A really short climb brought us to the falls. I'm always amazed at turning the corner on Alberta's climbs, they are so fat and beautiful to look at. Professor Falls WI 4 280 M

Marcus and Daniel climbed together and Mark and I climbed. Great climb, I love love loved it. Mark did a steller job leading the business and I climbed leashless the entire 4-5 pitches. It was an awesome full day, including Italians climbing so close beside us that I could have given one guy a kiss on the cheek midway up the last pitch, unfortunately the Italian accent doesn't do it for me as much as other countries.

Marcus on P1

Mark on P2

Elisif on P3?

The last day (Monday) led us to Haffner Creek, which is known for some pretty amazing mixed climbing (read where mixed climbing was born). The easier (in comparison) climbs we were going to weren't "in" as far the connecting ice necessary to make them easy, so we went back to the main area. Marcus started leading this pitch (the name of it I'm spacing) and ended up peeling off of it (after he had styled through the crux I might add!). I must say it's impressive to see such a tall guy fall 8-10 feet, quite the sight. But all was well and we set up a toprope and spent the day getting ridiculously pumped. We had decided to spend the day here because on the weekday we assumed it would be less crowded (it's a fairly concentrated area and is notoriously popular), however early afternoon a group of 25 students showed up with rental gear. I think we had all began to mentally check out and when we overheard one of the leaders say "ok, we've put up 4 topropes, I think we only need a few more" it was time to go.

Marcus styling up a climb in Haffner

Daniel doing the same

Looks can be deceiving, there was not as much styling on my end

Back to Canmore for the hottub once again and dinner at the Drake before Mark left for Montana and work at 5 in the morning. One last night in our suite and we were on our way home. We picked up Reuben from Michelle's house. He had a blast with their chocolate lab Abigale and their Basset Hound Sophie. Him and Sophie were fast friends and apparently spent the week either playing WWF or laying next to each other cuddling. It is a virtual puppy playland over at their house with neighbor dogs, a dog door, a puppy down the street, and Mt. Tabor dog park blocks away.

I think it may have been a forced reentry for Reuben as well as it definitely took him a few days moping around the house trying to comprehend why we took him away from what he was convinced was heaven. It's not like he didn't miss us....he just wanted us to move in with him ;-)