Climbing and Catching Up

Since the Bugaboos, Ian and I were able to meet up with Sally and John, two friends from Australia. Sally has done several around-the-world trips, and Ian met her several years back on one of those adventures. Sally and John are now both fire fighters who were in Vancouver to compete in the world firefighter games – John won gold & bronze, and Sally won both a silver & bronze medal. I was quite impressed! (considering these are the second largest international games, behind the Olympics).

We all climbed at back of the lake in Lake Louise, enjoying the view and the fun sport climbs. Ian onsighted (led without falling) Wicked Gravity, 5.11a sport climb considered one of the best climbs in the Rockies. Sally and John also climbed it, and I made it half way! ☺

Sally climbing at Lake Louise

Meghan climbing at Lake Louise

Ian on Wicked Gravity

Meghan having a go at Wicked Gravity

Apparently they don't have squirrels or chipmunks in Australia, so this guy provided a bit of entertainment.

Piton wasn't sure she approved of someone else getting the attention.

We took a rest day and enjoyed some time playing in the pond. Sally and John have a rubber dinghy we borrowed. With two people and the dog we ended up taking on water, but Ian enjoyed floating around with the dog.

On Friday Sally, John, Ian and I met up with another of Sally’s friends, Kevin, and we all climbed at Grassi in Canmore. We’d had aspirations of climbing True Grit (a 6 pitch 5.10a) but with the heat and lack of shade for the dog opted to do some cragging instead. It was a good time.

Ian on a hard one at Grassi.

Ian showing his moves

Kevin showing us how it's done at Grassi

Kevin’s a great guy, he invited us all back to his place for showers and a movie. We spent the night there and headed on to Calgary on Saturday. We ran some errands in town (mostly shopped at Mountain Equipment Co-op!) and met up with a good friend from University, Greg Powell. Greg had us over for dinner – it was delicious. I haven’t ate so much fresh fruit in a long time. He made us smoothies as well… heaven.

Greg Powell, Rebecca, Meghan and Ian enjoying some fruit.

Playing board games in the yard!

Sunday morning we got up and played board games and headed off after lunch to visit Ian’s cousins Wally and Theresa and their adorable children Marissa and Wally. We enjoyed an afternoon at the park with them, a lovely home-cooked meal and even more fresh fruit for dessert! It was hard to say goodbye, but we had made plans to head downtown and meet up with a friend of Ian’s from first year, Sarah. Sarah is now engaged to Scott, congratulations to them! We enjoyed some beverages at the local pub and caught up on all the latest news. It was good to see them, but time was short, so hopefully we will see them in Ontario in the years to come!

We left Calgary Sunday night to make our big trip cross country – which upon looking at the map seems like a lot less of a trip than going north (and these roads are even paved!). We'll be in Elliot Lake next weekend.