CANADREAM CLIMB-TRIP from Calgary Alberta to Vancouver British Columbia fall, 2017.
Some travel notes by Renato Bernard, written at the end of an expedition in Canada, just before going back to Italy.
Canada Trip
Ar. Renato Bernard
Ar. Renato Bernard
Just few hours on flight back from Calgary to Munich, which will take me home after a month in Canada for tourism/climbing with the most prestigious places in the Rockiesmountain and the west coast of Canada.
As usual, at the end of the trip, I find myself to make a report for events and draw some conclusions; but the most interesting thing is we have just finished this adventure but we are already to planning another trip!
Canada Trip
Ar. Renato Bernard
Ar. Renato Bernard
Thinking about it later, I will never cease to amaze myself that people in North American countries are ever friendly and hospitable: particularly warm are local climbers ever ready to greeting cordially at the base of the wall.
The do not be hurry in climbing ambitions, they are willing to give us information or answer our questions.
They do not ask you what grade you had the way just went up or if you went free, but they like to know “Did you have fun?” – “How was your climb today?” or “Where do you come from?” looking particularly happy to discovering you're Italian, “How long do you stay here?” demonstrating an attitude to socialization to exchange opinions between cultures so different.
Now entering bit more specific about the trip, the Canadian climbing-trip started in September (at half of the month) in Calgary Alberta, just over an hour’s drive is CANMORE and BANFF, inside the National park of the same name, and ended on the west coast of Vancouver, more precisely at SQUAMISH and WHISTLER one month later.
Canada Trip
Ar. Renato Bernard
Ar. Renato Bernard
We had not considerate two things;
First: immediately we realized that we chose a bit limit period from the climatic point of view …. A month before would be better…
„The weather is changing to winter...“ I was impressed by this phrase: „In Banff there are 8 months where you can ski and 4 that you cannot ski...", being still in September!
Second: moving in the Canadian wilderness means accepting the possibility of meeting bears or even grizzlies.
Technical information on climbing:
- In CANMORE visited EAST END of RUNDLE for the multipitches, GRASSI LAKES an incredibly rich in pockets limestone.
- Near BANFF, still multipitches at GUIDES ROCK and limestone slabs at BOURGEAU.
- To conclude the part in the Rockies at LAKE LOUISE in the spectacular crag of Back of the lake, on a very solid and particular quartzite, overlooking the lake.
- Moving on West on Golden BC,crossing the Horsekiking Pass with the intention to go in adventure to Bugaboos, but considering the climate and the temperature we archived the project for the next trip.
- Continue through the impressive Rogers Pass to the south on the US border to Penticton making a stop in the Canada’s largest climbing sport area, SKAHA; no more attention to brown bears but to rattlesnakes being the almost desert area; more than 700 trad and sport pitches, scattered on a wonderful hill overlooking the lake, blocks of various sizes, a very compact gneiss, slabs, cracks and overhangs for all tastes and difficulties, in a absolutely typically American social atmosphere.
- Last spot visited, „ At last but not least!“, really unmissable SQUAMISH, with its 700-meter high monolith the Squamish CHIEF and hundreds of possibilities around the town at the end of a fjord in the Pacific Ocean. City also known as „Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada“, so much granite, cracks of all sizes, Val di Mello-style slabs, all imaginable slope, all nearest from the center, excellent alternative for a holiday Yosemite style or Utah-Moab.
. - The trip ended beauty in Vancouver with visit to the homonymous Island for bears and whale watching ritual from the porto of Tofino.
An unforgettable experience, that, like all, will mark myself.
Thank you Iris good partener and good friend of this adventure, without her all this not be happened.......
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