The Distract me from 2020s P&CE Thread Part Deux

They should sleep on this before making a decision.

 

I always turn off the lane assist. My wife makes enough noise when I get out of dead center as it is.

 

@Kazuma will appreciate this post. At the beginning of August, my climbing partner and another friend finally embarked on our Canadian Rockies climbing trip at Bugaboo Provincial Park.

It was a glorious misadventure.

We had been planning this trip for 2 years and were more than prepared IMHO for the climbing part. We meticulously planned for everything, climbing the Bugaboo Spire one day and the Pigeon Spire then next day. What we did not plan on was the weather and sitting on the tarmac at Dulles for 2 hours before leaving.

We had a short window to climb but it felt like it was getting shorter and shorter due to the weather. We needed to leave Calgary airport and get our food and propylene to cook (you cannot get on a plane with a gas canister), but were stopped before our trip was started and we arrived to Calgary hours later than expected. We wanted to be in bed with all our alpine gear by 11pm. We didn't have our food or gas canister when we checked into the hotel at 2 am.

No big deal. We can wake up at 6 am and get our stuff....except Cabela and Bass Pro Shops did not open till 9 am. Something we didn't account for. So we waited until it opened, grabbed essential gear, and left in record time. Our trip was going great, still a few hours behind, but we could make it up on the road.....except we were going through Banff and didn't realize the implications of that. A traffic jam of epic proportions to get to Banff. We also did not realize that we landed on a major Canadian holiday, the Civic Holiday.

Now we were really behind and running low on sleep. We wanted to be at the Bugaboo Parking lot by 11-1 pm. We arrived a bit before 5pm. We then proceeded to alpine hike with 50 lbs on our packs in under 3 hours, over 7 1/2 miles with a 4000 ft elevation in that time. We finally reached the campground around 830 pm ish, low on sleep and food, setting up our tent in the dark. Now we were finally ready to climb....starting at 230 am

The actual climb
We woke up at 230 am and begrudgingly woke up get the climb started. We were looking at a 15 hour trip (tent to tent) with 10 pitches and 7 rappels down. We grabbed our gear low on sleep and immediately got lost. The trailhead started at a water spigot with 4 different trails. 3 to different peaks and one back to the parking lot. We took the wrong trail and ended up with the glacier stream on our right when it was supposed to be on our left. It took almost 2 hours of traversing a scree and boulder (boulder the size of houses) field to get back on track.

Then my climbing partner's shoulder strap broke on his pack. This is a big blow since we could see the weight pull him when he was on class 4 scrambling. This was problematic. We were 2 hours behind, broken equipment, low on sleep, and bad weather coming in.

We regrettable decided to bail on the Bugaboo spire. We thought that we could do the other spire (Pigeon spire) but the park ranger told us there was a thunderstorm on its way. So we made a tough decision to pack up our gear (we were there less than 15 hours) and head out. We put all our gear and headed back down.

On a positive, we did not get caught by the thunderstorm, which was there for a few days, and did the mature thing. I also got a nice few pictures. We were pretty safe and nobody got hurt.

 

After reading that I'm exhausted...I'm gonna take a nap!

 

That’s wild! We’ve hung out in the town just before Banff, Canmore, and it is fantastic. We’ve seriously considered a move to there.

 

Man, such a bummer -- but at least you got there and have a story to tell! Sometimes it's the trips that turn out to be misadventures that the best memories come from -- I hope that's the case with yours.

 

It def was. The day after (Monday) it rained most of the day and hopefully quelled some of the wildfires in the area.

My climbing partner was not to be deterred however. We ended up in Lake Louise on Tuesday and the place was crawling with tourists. Climbing partner decided to sneak in a climb between the rain showers (wet rock on granite is slippery but still climbable). I just admitted defeat and repacked my gear. So he took the 3rd person with him and did 2 pitches of a 5.8/9. He decided to quit since you could see the rainstorm coming. I was nice and dry since I saw what was coming.

Except it wasn't rain. It was marble-sized hail. He and the 3rd friend were pelted for the rap down and the mile walk back.

We spent the next day going to Canadian Tire in Canmore and using a kit to fix the windshield dents. See photos

It really is a beautiful place. There is an overload of Aussies in that general area doing seasonal work. the other picture is of Canmore downtown.

 

True about the Aussies, but they are part of what make the area fun.

 

Aussies are generally the most fun group of people to hang with. "You mean there's not a proppa baar on this whole troin? Thet's an OUT-ROIGE!"

 

There's always something happening, and it's usually quite loud.

Like the sound of a truck crashing into the side of the house...

 

Hey @American Brummie ....I'm just curious...

 

We'll rename french fries as Stephries...

 

I remember hanging out with them at the Shandy Gaff in State College. They were amazed that we didn't go to the beach on Christmas.

 

Aussies are the secret love childs of Texas and California.

 

I forget what they call them, but there is a parallel universe of rural Australians who are pretty much the equivalent of Southern Rednecks. They live in trailers, go hunting and fishing, shoot at beer bottles on a fencepost, have 17 different recipes for possum, etc.

 

And they're not exactly huge fans of the minority population.

 

Union Pacific Steam Club Update No. 35 - August 12, 2024


"Heartland of America" Big Boy No. 4014 Tour Schedule Released

We know you're excited and so are we to announce more details for the upcoming "Heartland of America" Tour.

Big Boy No. 4014's tour will start Wednesday, Aug. 28 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and pass through nine states: Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. The eight-week tour concludes in late October.

Scheduled Display Days:

Sunday, Sept. 8: Rochelle, Illinois (Chicago metro area)
Sunday, Oct. 6: Houston, Texas
Thursday/Friday, Oct. 10-11: Fort Worth, Texas

More than three dozen additional whistle-stops in communities across our network are also scheduled. Due to the length of this tour, there is an extended servicing stop in late September lasting two weeks. You can view the entire steam schedule online at UPsteam.com.

 

neeeeeeeerd

 

Bogans!

 

"I report you decide" does not apply!

 

Brilliant. I love Lewis Black -- even when he is doing totally serious journalism like in this clip, LOL