The Backyard

I'm slightly bummed that I'm in Deep River right now but the view is still pretty good.

Looking North-West

Mt. Martin in the clouds

Pan-American Championships

One day I was paddling on the Ottawa when somebody in the eddy was talking about the upcoming Pan-American championships that will be held on either Garb or Push Button. I figured I’d ask for the time off and give it a shot in the pro men category. I had no hopes of winning but my goal was to be in the top ten after the first round. I wanted to do well so the week leading to the comp was practice sessions with Irish Dave and the Airborn guys every day working on my 45 second rides.

The event was held on Push Button because the river was at -3 on the owl gauge. The wave was completely green for the most part, which made it more difficult to stick moves and score points. I felt that this was a good thing because in order to have a solid ride you had to throw tricks with prefect technique and not be sloppy on the wave. 

For my first freestyle competition I feel I performed decently but could have done better. During my first ride I flushed on my second trick and only scored 35 points. Luckily that seemed to get rid of my jitters because during my second ride I stomped the majority of the tricks I planned to throw and scored 200+ points. This was a huge confidence boost because it showed me that if I keep working at it I am capable of accomplishing my competition goals and being successful.

Photos: Dave Crerar

Dano - Alive Today

I've just finished the cover art for the re-release of Dan Tait's premier album Alive Today. Check it out.










 Check out his site aswell www.myspace.com/thedanoman 

Mission: Montreal

So, Montreal, oh man. Lachine is the bomb, I love that place, except for the haul back to the eddy, that shit is a bitch. It messes with you on a couple different levels; you can be surfing Big Joe or Pyramid wave and be thinking: “wow this is the best wave ever to try new tricks but I don’t want to mess it up, flush, and have to spend the next ten minutes dragging yourself over rock getting yourself above the wave for another try”. Regardless, I was totally privileged to be with the people that I was there with. Blake, John, Foxy, Pat, and Ben were probable the best people I can think of to session with. The group was totally of mixed skill but all on the same level with new things to try as well as the general love of kayaking and partying. After a full day session and much deliberation about what ice cream to buy we found ourselves a hotel room for the night. If you mix five sun-wrecked kayakers with one of the best party city’s in the world, good things happen. Catching me out of nowhere I was all of the sudden pedaling a rental bike at high speed through Montreal launching stair sets, nearly running over homeless people, searching for a party. After some bar hopping and general drunken debauchery and after an XL putin, Johnny’s genius box got us back to our hotel room safe and sound. The second day of paddling was a bit slow er than the fir st due to various reasons but the session was still in full swing. By the time Tuesday evening we were fairly wiped and we departed Montreal on our drive back to Beachburg.

Photos: John O'leary

Lachine, Montreal

My first trip to the Lachine rapids on the St. Lawrence River in Montreal was kick ass, Chris Thompson and I drove down for a day of paddling. It was also my first time kayaking in an urban area; we got some strange looks walking through the parking lot. I love the colour of the water in the St. Lawrence, a heavy contrast to the bog stained Ottawa River. I was not a huge fan of walking/dragging myself back above the wave to drop in every time but that’s because I’m spoiled with eddy access play spots on the Ottawa. The main wave at Lachine is Big Joe and it was in fine form for our session. It a had a cool cycle of foaming up and greening out and was fairly steep making it super fun to throw on.

Buoux, France April 14th-27th

Here are some highlight shots from Buoux

















Photos: Jon Peterson, Omar Sadoon

The Buoux Project

The following a trailer for "The Buoux Project", a film that my classmates and I filmed in Buoux, France. A full trip post will follow shortly.



The Buoux Project
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFI1b25nq_Y

Chic Choc’s 2010

March 17-26, 2010

I left from Deep River at 9:45 on Wednesday in my truck to catch a train in Ottawa; I stopped in Pembroke to pick up Alan, Pete, and Jay. We stopped through Packenham pick up ski boots for Pete. We arrived at the train station with about an hour before our train was leaving so we mossed in the station and played hackey sack outside to kill time. We boarded our train at 14:30 and had some fun with chat roulette and frigged around with Alan’s camera. Our train ride included a stop in Montreal that happened to be at the same time as when the city’s streets flooded with beautiful girls. It gave us all hope after spending the last two years in the girl and style deprived city of Pembroke Ontario. In our trance we happened to walk a little farther than we had thought and we just made it back to the station in time for the next leg of our journey.

Thursday I woke up on the train at around 6:30 and made my way to the dome-top car for a coffee and a look at the new scenery. I was surprised that there was no snow but reassured myself that there would be lots in the mountains. After a lot of tech-deck ripping and talking about shredding mountains with our skis, the train arrived in Gaspe, QC. We hung out at the train station for about an hour before our ride showed up. This wasn’t and issue because the walls of the station were very climbable and session I did. We loaded up our gear in Guillaume’s truck and after a few errands in Gaspe we were on our final leg towards Murdochville. Upon arriving in Murdochville and more specifically the Chic Chac auberge, we unpacked our stuff and acquired our touring gear. I got 178cm, 100mm waist, Rossignol skis with releasable-heel touring bindings as well as Black Diamond climbing skins. I was happy with my set up except for the missing screw used for securing skins.

Friday was our first day skiing. We jumped into Guillaume’s truck and drove 3km down the road and as we unloaded we were met by three 1000cc long-track sleds. These sleds towed us up the east face of Porphyres all day with rope attached to their tunnels. It was great because I skied both up and down the mountain. I could not keep track of the number of runs we did but we skied the shit out of an area the size of a fairly large resort without another track in sight. It was nice to ski some challenging terrain. After a few warm up runs I got the feel back and was rippin' fast GS turns in the open areas as well as some exciting straight lines through trees to boost little gaps. Saturday started inside with the classroom section of the course. We did an overview of the course, our skiing background, and our expectations for the course.

Class started at 8:00 on Sunday with AVALuator and route planner cards as well as doing route choice exercises from the Canadian Avalanche Association website. We planned where we would go for the day of skiing with the map provided with the course that rates the avalanche terrain in the Chic Choc’s. We left the Chic Chac at around 10:00 with plans to ski Champs de Mars. When we arrived at the trail head we decided that because of the snow conditions the skiing would be better on Hog’s Back. We geared up at the trail head for Hog’s back and went over essential gear to have at all time in the back country. We preformed a beacon check to make sure that everyone’s beacon was working properly in both the send and receive settings. On the way up we took turns leading the group working on route finding and avalanche risk mitigation techniques. On the South summit ridge we practiced snow pack evaluation techniques like ski cuts and the hand-shear test. We ate lunch at the South summit before heading to the North summit to check out the East face. We saw an old slide on the face and we talked about skiing it or not. After some deliberation we decided that its was not the ideal route because of the low snow pack, a sketchy run in, and no clear flowing line down the face. The group decided to ski down the west face and dig a snow pack analysis pit as well as execute a mock multi burial avalanche rescue scenario. With the snow pack analysis lesson we learned tests such as the burp and column test along with key snow observation points.

Monday morning was once again bluebird so the crew and I skinned laps of the wall situated in the outskirts of town; cornice session, afternoon copper mtn + one more cornice drop. Tuesday We planned to drive to the Chic Chocs and ski La Mine for the day but on the drive there Byron lost control of his car and slid off the road. His car was completely written off so we had to call a tow truck. To get to a phone we piled all the gear from both vehicles into P’s Landcruizer and drove to the a five star lodge in the Chic Choc’s. To kill some time we played hackey sac and looked at the snow study plot beside the parking lot. It was a long drive back to Murdochville with six dudes in a truck going in the opposite direction of the fun skiing. When we arrived back at the Chic Chac, J, Pete, Alan, and I decided to skin up Mt. Copper and build a jump for the next day’s forecasted snow. Wednesday Alan and I planned to skin to the summit hut on Mt. Porphyre and then ski the wind loaded western slopes.

Thursday was my last day skiing for the season so I thought I’d go out with a bang. It had been snowing for two days straight in Murdochville and there were fresh tracks to be had. Alan and I headed up Mt. Porphyre on Pierre’s sled to ski laps while he groomed the sledding trails. We got three runs in before breakfast on some good snow. When we returned to the Chic Chac we found out that the people booked for sled skiing had cancelled because they thought there was no snow! After having a good chuckle about that, Guillaume, Pierre, Mathieu, Charles and I headed for Mt. York. The sled skiing was killer on the 45^o slope. That afternoon we headed back to Gaspe to catch the train home.

The Season Begins

While my classmates are gearing up for their ice climbing course, Drew, Rav, and I took a journey "Down Under" for a bit of early season sport climbing in Luskville, QC. It probably looked silly, three guys hiking through the snow to climb rock in tiny leather shoes with no sock or gloves, but hey its March and we couldn't help ourselves after a not so long but fairly dull winter. The climbing was so different from the limestone in Mexico as this rock was cold, and offered a lot of grip. We had some fun on a climb called "Sausage" that is rated 5.10c and with the wet rock and drips at the top, made for some interesting climbing. I fell at the very top on my first try because I didn't see the opportunity for a no-hands rest. With the pumpy climbing and cold rock, a chance to warm your hands and shake your arms out makes all the difference. I feel after today that I need to work on my overhang technique to improve my climbing for my up coming trip to Buoux, France on April 14th. I am excited with the oncoming spring as the thoughts of graduating college and traveling the world drift through my head.

Bancroft Ice

I’ve made the best of the Monday past by hangin out with Phil and Sherry in Bancroft, ice climbing. We left Pembroke at 8:00am and arrived at 10ish after some exploring and direction asking. At the crag there were two guys from Toronto climbing. One of them works at MEC and the only piece of gear that he owned was his harness. They were taking MEC stuff for a test rip, I was pretty jealous. Our group top roped a WI3 route and Phil had his first lead on ice along with my first second. I really like setting ice screws and just climbing on the stuff for that matter. We’re planning to go back next weekend for some more fun and probably my first lead on ice as well.

The Potrero

This winter I embarked on a trip to El Potrero Chico, outside of Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. I was gone from December 11^th 2009 to January 10^th 2010, for a total of 29 days. Along with me on the trip was my climbing partner Drew Lineham. We headed to Mexico for the warm sun and 600+ sport routes up to 23 pitches long within a ten-minute walk from the campsite. To get there we took the bus from Pembroke to Burlington VT, flew to San Antonio TX, and then bussed to Monterrey NL. I visited Monterrey one day besides traveling through to see a bit of culture. The highlights for me were arriving in Mexico, climbing Snot Girls 5.10d 7 pitches, and climbing Satori 5.10c 7 pitches. For the duration of the trip Drew and I camped at La Posada campground. It had a group kitchen and a restaurant. We were partaking in sport-based tourism as well as cultural tourism. This is because we were rock climbing and having a great time as well as being in a new and interesting culture. The purpose of our travel was to step into the unknown and gain valuable rock climbing experience. All of the younger people at Posadas, Abe Traven, and the Chon’s crew made a positive impact on my experiences and me. Yes I would go back. I would drive down next time so I can easily move to other areas within Mexico. The vehicle would also allow me to self-sustained with full camp gear.

Satori from Thomas Harding on Vimeo.