Home again

Coming home at the end of an adventure is always fraught with mixed feelings, and given that I usually struggle to readjust to my weekday life after a weekend's hiking in the mountains, my first full day at home following 6 months of adventure is proving tricky.
I feel sad, lazy, relieved, exhausted, dispirited and selfish. The jetlag is giving me a horrible tiredness behind my eyes.
On my flight back, I was excited to get on with all kinds of things - I even made a big long list! But I can't really be bothered with any of it yet. I know I'm prone to wallowing in self-pity, but I also know that I'll come out the other side of my wallow with an abundance of enthusiasm for whatever it is I decide to do next.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a few things I learned on my trip, in no particular order...

1. I keep waiting to grow up and become an adult. I have decided that my idea of an adult (someone who is in control of their own destiny, content with their choices and knows their purpose in life) is a child's idea of an adult, which is a lie. I have sort of known this for some time - I remember lamenting my failed entry to adulthood when I turned 21 - but now that I'm 26, I think I have to start accepting it. I'm not yet sure about how I feel about the fact that I'm never going to grow up.
Incidentally, my Dad has tried to impart his knowledge on the matter for some years, but I guess there are some things you need to find out the hard way.

2. Going on an adventure is a scary thought. Being on an adventure is not.

3. Whilst you're adventuring, the thought of coming home is scary. Being home is not scary.

4. There are a lot of problems with the world, which means there are too many good causes to fight for! How does one decide whether to be a philanthropist or environmentalist, whether to fight for social justice, human rights or prevention of animal cruelty, whether to join a cause or start one, whether to use your time or your money to do so? Objectively, I think that the choice of cause, the method and scale of impact are all irrelevant, as long as you're doing something to change the world for the better. Having said that, I know I'm probably going to spend a lifetime trying to chose the 'right' path for myself. Who knew that being a good person was such a selfish thing to do? (Probably Dawkins and a bunch of other philosophers.)

5. My experience has been that most people are good, caring, lovely people who will go out of their way to help you if they can. I think the reason that there are so many people in the world who need help but aren't getting it because there are so many of them! If you know that one person needs your help, you can give it; if there's a queue of a thousand on your doorstep, you are more likely to turn a blind eye because the scale of the problem is too overwhelming.

6. Travelling gives you perspective. The world is as big or as small as you make it for yourself and you can think of your own achievements and experiences as important or insignificant because they are both.

7. You don't realise that you've learned anything at all on your travels until your adventure is over. 

8. You can do whatever you want to do if you put your mind to it. And you definitely should!

9. I resisted the urge to stretch this list out to ten items but have yet to figure out the significance of that fact.

Referendum

We spent a fun evening in the lounge of our rental flat with beer and pizza in front of the live Canadian news coverage of the Scottish referendum. Thankfully the UK remains united! A yes vote would have guaranteed a fun shake-up of British politics, but hopefully there will still be some positive changes following the no vote...

Rockies to Calgary

Today we went for a short guided walk in the morning to see the Larch Valley near Moraine Lake. The larch trees are all a gorgeous vivid yellow - they're the only 'evergreen' tree to loose its leaves in winter. It was a bit drizzly but a lovely walk and our last look at the mountains before driving to Calgary for the last few days of the trip!

Waterfall day

On our last full day, we did a hike from Takakka Falls, not far from our cabin. The falls are the second highest in Canada and very impressive - a torrent of water tumbling down a barren rock face, fed from a glacier above.

After a good view of Takakka, we headed up the valley, following Yoho River upstream. It was a gorgeous woodland walk and we stopped at waterfall viewpoints along the way. In such a small valley, there was a lot of variety in the waterfalls! Some were spilling over rock faces, others carving gorges and one making a watery stairway.

Lake Louise

Canoe and hike

We thought we'd have an easy day to rest our legs, so went to Moraine Lake and borrowed canoes. It was 10am and the sun was still behind the mountains so it was freezing! We paddled to the other side of the lake to warm up, then the sun came up and it was gorgeous. There were incredible peaks all around and the lake was so blue! We stayed out for over an hour, looking at the views, enjoying the calm and occasionally arguing about how to steer.

Then we drove to Lake Louise, the most famous of the Rockies' lakes. Of course it was packed. There's a hideous monstrosity of a Fairmont hotel on the lakeshore, where we had a tasty lunch with a view. Then we decided to go for a walk.

We set off around the lake at 2.30pm with the sun beating down on us. The lake and surrounding mountains are amazing and we walked past gigantic fallen rocks and huge cliff faces, on a busy but not over-crowded path.

Then came the uphill section. It was mostly exposed all the way up and it was so hot in the sun! We could see glaciers and rocky mountains and lovely rivers from the trail, which were beautiful, but I was overheating a bit much to fully enjoy it. Eventually we made it to the tea house at the end of the valley and had lemonade and pie in the shade, ahhhh. Then it was after 4.30 and cooler and we had an enjoyable descent but were knackered again at the end! We definitely earned a beer over dinner. 

Rocky Mountain adventure

On our first full day, we drove to Emerald Lake for a walk. The weather was beautiful and the car park at the lake was busy. The start of the walk around the lake was full of fancy-clad bus tourists, but once we got off the paved section and onto the trail, there were only a few others around. At the far end of the lake, we headed up into one of the valleys - Emerald Basin. The trial went uphill alongside a river and ended where the river could be seen pouring down the rock faces of the mountain ahead. 

We were out of the trees in the sun and walked over the rocky moraines and dry river beds to the bottom of the falls. It was a spectacular sight but we were starting to bake in the afternoon heat so headed back down.

By the time we got back to the lake, we were pretty knackered and by the time we got back to the car, we were all staggering a little and Mum was in hobble mode! Back for showers, dinner and bed.

To the Rockies

Mum and Dad returned and we went to collect them from the airport in a colossus of a hire car with all our stuff (including my bike) in the back. Then we drove towards the Rockies hearing tales of the amazing bear watching trip.

We overnighted in Kamloops then drove to the village of Field in Yoho Valley National Park, where we arrived at our cabin in the afternoon and set off for a short walk whilst the sun was still up. The Hidden Lake that we walked to was almost completely dried up, but it was a good climb and we saw some bear prints and moose (or maybe elk) prints in the lake bed.

Vancouver with Faye

Mum and Dad flew off to Bella Coola for some wild bear watching and we were left to the city for four days.

We went to the incredible museum of anthropology, ate a lot of amazing food, drank a lot of delicious cocktails and did some shopping. We had a super time but were ready for the mountains by the end of it!

Vancouver with the family

The day after my mountaineering course, I got the bus back to Vancouver with all my bags to meet my family! It was Christmas last time all four of us were together, so we had a noisy, chatty reunion in a bistro before heading to a flat downtown to unpack.

We spent two days exploring the city together. I introduced them to MEC, Canada's outdoors store mecca, and we spent half a day just in there! We went to see the Capilano dam and fish hatchery, ate a lot of amazing food and did the locally famous Grouse Grind. The Grind is a very steep walk up Grouse Mountain in the north of the city. I was told it takes around an hour for normal people and 45 minutes for fit people. It took the four of us an hour and three quarters!! We were dripping with sweat when we got to the top and panted our way into the cafe for lunch. But we were rewarded at the top, not by the views as it was foggy, but by a long sighting of the two resident grizzly bears in an enclosure (they were orphaned and raised in captivity). Then we saw a falconry show of local birds, which was fascinating. 

Mountaineering: Hike out

On the last day, we woke to yet more sunshine and another cloudless sky and after a relaxed breakfast, I learned to build rock anchors before we packed up all our kit.

Having eaten four days of food and packed more effectively, the bag felt better than it did on the way in! I was more comfortable in my big boots too, so our hike out was much quicker.

We went south over a bouldery moraine then met a hiking trail by a little lake. Oh how blissfully easy it is to hike on a trail! And the heather meadows and small trees were beautiful. We got a great view of the buttress we'd climbed the day before, then we had to start to readjust to life around other people. There were a lot of day hikers out and we even met an 83 year old man on the trail, which was awesome. I hope to be hiking in the sub alpine when I'm 83 too!

Back to the gondola, into Whistler village and to a quiet cafe for a burger and milkshake in the shady garden - ahh, so nice.

See the row of three buttresses, centre photo? We climbed the one on the left.

Pics

On Blackcomb peak and our campsite in the evening

Mountaineering: Rock climb

The next morning the alarms went off at 4.30am and Andrew's words of advice going around in my head helped me worm myself out of my cosy cocoon. "Nothing guarantees success in the mountains like a pre-dawn start."

The stars were beautiful, the whole milky way on display in the absence of the moon. We forced down some breakfast then set off up the boulders, headlamp lights bobbing along in the darkness.

It was cold but we were warm by the time we'd hiked up to the col and turned to see an orange glow building in the sky to the east as some birds filled the valley with their echoing squalks. Now light enough to see without our torches, we went down the ominously named Body Bag Bowl, over more boulders with rocky slopes to either side and a dim view of the mountains ahead. The glow of sunrise was behind us, so we watched the world be lit up from behind. The sky above the mountains turned pinky red in a long band on the horizon, making it look as though the whole world had a halo. Then the sunlight spilled over onto the mountain tops, bathing rock and ice in pink-golden light. Long shadows appeared and moved over the landscape as the sun rose quickly in the sky. We were in the cool shadow of Blackcomb peak all morning but the views of the sun drenched world were spectacular! 

Once we had hiked down into the valley and around the side of the mountain, we were at the base of Blackcomb peak and started making our way up its talus slopes (that's more boulders) to get to the base of the rock climb, where we stopped for second breakfast. The buttress we were going up looked cool from the bottom and we set off with Andrew in front, stopping on ledges on the way up. The rock was really solid and nice to climb and you could see down on either side to the couloirs below - enough of a view to make your heart flutter but not enough to be terrifying! 

The buttress brought us onto a beautiful sunny ledge near the top and we stopped for a snack and a rest in the sunshine, oggling the incredible views and feeling very lucky indeed for the fabulous weather! Two blokes passed us here on a trail run / rock climb, the only other people we saw in the area the whole time.

Then we had to shimmy up through a little chimney and walk out onto the summit for a full 360 view in the hot sun and not a breath of wind! It was only 10am, so we hung out at the top for a while, reluctant to leave the views behind. 

The walk from the summit back to camp was only an hour over boulders and we had lunch and then napped for a few hours before an afternoon session of rock skills, where I learned how to ascend a rope using two smaller ropes (prussiks) and descend safely by repelling. 

Another sunset dinner and a cup of tea as the moon got brighter, then it was bedtime. 

(See if you can spot the Black Tusk in the panorama - looks pretty gnarly, can't believe Dave and I went up it!)

Mountaineering: Snow skills

The next morning we didn't get up until 8am and after breakfast, we packed our day bags and set off to find some snow and ice to learn some skills. 

We hiked back up over the boulders to the col, then set off along a ridge with awesome views of our valley and the mountains beyond. There were a few clouds on the peaks along the horizon, but the sun was shining and it was a glorious day. It was a fun scramble over the ridge and when we got to the end, we were rewarded with a view of the Spearhead Glacier in all its terrifying glory - a great expanse of ice and snow with incredible crevasses, dips in the surface where there are hidden crevasses,  rockfall zones and overhanging lips of snow.

We scrambled up Spearhead Mountain and had lunch with a view before heading to a small, safe snow patch to practice skills on.

I learned about glacier travel, snow anchors, ice anchors, crevass rescue and how to arrest a fall. The latter was loads of fun - we hiked to the top and slid down, stopping with our ice axes at the bottom (woohoo!).

Then soaking wet, we hiked back to camp, which was starting to feel more like home.

Mountaineering: Hike in

On the first day of my mountaineering course, I went to a coffee shop in Squamish to meet my guide Andrew. It was 8am and I was sitting there in my squeaky new mountaineering boots with my 60 litre rucksack bursting at the seams and a full day pack strapped to the back of it. There was going to be nobody else on the course, so they dropped the classroom section of the course and me and Andrew were going to spend 4 days in the mountains to learn 'hands on'.

He rolled up to the coffee shop, introduced himself, made me unpack all my kit to make sure it was good, then I repacked (tried to squish everything back in) and he handed me an ice axe, a helmet, a bag of ice screws and a 40m rope. And where are these supposed to go?

Once I was vaguely organised, we drove up to Whistler to get the gondola up a mountain - less hiking and more alpine time! We parked quite a way from the gondola and the 15 minute walk nearly did me in, the bag being so heavy and awkward to carry with the small pack strapped to the back.

Up the Whistler gondola, then on the Peak2Peak to get to Blackcomb Mountain, where we walked out onto barren ski runs and made our way slowly uphill, away from the ski area. Hiking uphill with that bag was a challenge! And my new boots felt so strange to walk in! Mountaineering boots have stiff soles and high tops, so it feels a bit like walking in ski boots.

Eventually I staggered behind Andrew to make it to the base of the Blackcomb Glacier. We dropped the bags, put on our glacier gear (sunnies, crampons, gloves, ice axes) and went for a little practice walk. It felt pretty weird walking in crampons but I got used to it enough for us to drag our packs back on and head up the ice.

It was a steep gradient and there aren't too many good resting spots on a glacier, so I tried not to moan and made it to the ice-free col for a rest. Ahead, another glacier. But this one isn't just bare ice, it is snow-topped (a 'wet' glacier), that can hide crevasses. We put on our harnesses and helmets and Andrew attached the rope to us both. Then we put on our slightly lighter bags and set off across the glacier. I went first (because if I fell into a crevasse, Andrew could rescue me, but I wouldn't know how to rescue him) and I had to go around a scary deep hole and step across a narrow crevasse! Then we walked quickly across a rock-fall zone and uphill to the next col.

The col gave a great view of glacier-topped mountains, talus slopes and boulder fields with a blue lake below. It was an incredible scene but it didn't feel particularly inviting... the world above the tree line looks a bit desolate. 

The glacier gear went back in the bags (damn) and we had to go downhill to our camping spot by the lake, across boulders and boulders and more boulders. There are no paths up here and if you're not on snow or ice, you're on boulders. I was struggling with the bag and my stiff boots on the loose rocks and it seemed to take me for ever to get down to the lake! Andrew found a sweet camping place and I happily ditched my bag, put on my trainers (ahhh) and we set up camp by a stream and some patches of alpine fireweed.

Once set up, I realised I didn't have my jacket... where did I leave it? It was getting cool as the sun dipped behind the mountains and Andrew started cooking dinner as I headed back up the boulders to look for my jacket. Thankfully I was a lot quicker across the rocks in my trainers with no bag, because I'd left it almost all the way back at the col! But when I got back to camp, tasty pasta was ready and we ate, sorted gear and went to bed early. 

Whitewater river run

On the second day of the course, we went out to the Cheakamus river and left one car at the pull-out, one in the middle and one at the put-in. Then we got our kit on, dragged the boats down to a gravel bar and got in.

The river was the lovely creamy green colour that's common in the area and it was bigger and faster than the one we'd practiced on the day before. We went across to the other side and back a few times, practicing the all important skills. If you don't tilt the boat when you cross the river, it pushes you under.

After going back and forth a bit, we headed downstream a bit and stopped in another eddy then went back and forth a bit more. Every time I went out into the flow of the river, my heart starts pumping faster, I'm concentrating on the angle of the boat, the tilt, my paddle strokes, and trying to look at where I'm going. There's so much to remember! But with every crossing, it feels more natural. 

Once we start making more progress, the river run starts getting to be fun. We leave an eddy, get into the flow, steer ourselves with the flow until we catch the next eddy to come to a stop again. The ripples are turning into small waves in places and there are rocks to avoid (or bump over - keep those hips loose!) and you have to aim for a safe part of the river all the time. Don't get trapped under deadwood or stuck up against a rock!

It's such a good feeling going down river over the rapids, sloshing through waves that splash over the hull and in your face, woohoo! And getting good at coming into an eddy lets you slide in like a skier coming to a stop.

We stopped for lunch, hungrily gobbled down our food and got back in. We were feeling a bit tired and a few people flipped over on the first set of rapids. I got stuck on a rock and pulled the safety maneuver that we'd just been taught to get myself off without tipping, phew! 

By the time we got to the end, we'd done 10km of the river, my arms and shoulders were tired and I felt exhausted! But I was relatively dry, having not capsized all day! We changed into dry clothes, packed up the kit and I got a ride home with Emily again.

That evening, Sally and I had dinner and her friend Nick came over and I managed to stay mostly awake until bedtime.