Camping Food

Quite naturally after a hard day climbing and scrambling, camp participants' thoughts turned to food. There was a fair bit of discussion about what everyone else was eating, where they got their recipies and so on.

One book was mentioned several times - Lip Smackin Backpackin

Two recommendations from that book were "Tahoe Chicken Curry" and "Mountain Quesadillas".

Just because you're in the wilderness doesn't mean your menu has to suffer.

Guide Books

Several participants at the recent Mountaineering Camp were interested to know where they could learn more.

There are two guide books that have been found very useful by many others.

First is Alan Kane's Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies.

Next would be Sean Dougherty's Selected Alpine Climbs.

Find a climbing partner or two, start off easy, and have fun.

Neat Knots

People into climbing and mountaineering need to know a few knots. Animated Knots is a website that shows you step-by-step how to tie all those puzzling things. There are several categories and some knots are featured in more than one place. Highly recommended.

SK Section Mountaineering Camp - Overview

A group of us just finished 4 days in the Little Yoho Valley participating in the Section's Mountaineering Camp. More stories, reports and pictures are forthcoming, but the short story is:

Day 1 - met and hiked in to Stanley Mitchell. Got organized, practiced knots, roped travel principles, discussed camp activities and objectives.

Day 2 - scrambled Mt Kerr, practiced crevasse rescue techniques, self arrest on steep snow slopes, roped travel and enjoyed some bum sliding on our descent.

Day 3 - up even earlier for an excellent climb to Mt President, passing over the narrow and ever-thinning access across the bergschrund and climbing to the summit. Great views from the top.

Day 4 - an "easy day" with only about 2/3 of the elevation gain of the previous day - hiked up to the Whaleback Ridge and traversed to its end, descending by a series of downsloping ledges to the Whaleback trail.

Day 5 - hiked up to Kiwetinok Pass, planned our route up to Mt Pollinger, practiced walking on snow slopes, kicking steps, etc. Checked out the route to McArthur but left it for another day.

Day 6 - up early for the hike back out and travels home.

Additional stories and links to pictures will be posted as they become available.