Nemesis

I had the opportunity to climb Nemesis with Raphael Slawinski a couple weeks ago. We hiked up the Stanley Valley in the early morning looking for the climb 'Gentlemen's Day Out', but we didn't really know where to find it. Our default for the day was to climb Nemesis, which we have both climbed half a dozen times or so. It turned out to be more difficult then we expected, cold and brittle ice all the way to the top, with a shower of water adding to the excitement. Even though it was cold and wet I managed to pull the camera out to get some cool footage.

Check it out. Joshua



Nemesis from Joshua Lavigne on Vimeo.

CMH Galena

I just returned from 5 days of "guides training" (skiing and drinking) at the CMH Galena and Monashee lodges. Even with a below average snowpack, about 120cm, the skiing was spectacular. I was blown away by what seemed like endless steep tree skiing and beautiful alpine bowls.  I'm looking forward to the 6 weeks of guiding that I will do there.

I put together a short video clip of the Galena ski experience, check it out below. Joshua

 Mike Welch, the manager of CMH Galena took some great photos of Lars Andrews, making the 120cm of snow look a whole lot deeper!

CMH Galena Set-up from alpinesummits on Vimeo.

Soloing 'the experience'

I had the opportunity to present at the Night of Lies last week. The presentations at this event need to be 10 minutes or shorter. I wanted to show a video about soloing in a slightly different format then my previous films. 
Enjoy the footage from Chamonix, France and the Bugaboos, the North Howser Tower, west face.
Peace

Soloing 'the experience' from alpinesummits on Vimeo.

Mt. Cromwell, Elzinga/Miller in a day

Mount Cromwell 3330 m (text by: Raphael Slawinski)
The north face of Mt. Cromwell is readily seen from the Icefields Parkway when traveling south. The most notable features of the face are a serac immediately below the summit and, down and right of it, a large snowfield in the middle of the face. The Elzinga/Miller route works its way through the lower rock bands to attain this snowfield, and exits by the right edge of the prominent serac. To the left of these features is a large buttress, taken by the Robinson/Arbic route. When in condition, both routes offer excellent ice and mixed climbing, and are well worth of a closer look.



Mt. Cromwell Elzinga/Miller in a day from alpinesummits on Vimeo.

Sir Douglas - NW Face Double Direct

Joshua Lavigne & Raphael Slawinski

Sir Douglas - NW Face Double Direct from alpinesummits on Vimeo.

East End Boys

I spent another spectacular fall day climbing. This time I went out with Andrew Wexler to take a look at the route 'East End Boys' on Mt. Yamnuska . The route was uber aesthetic with some great crack climbing up steep roofs and some fun  limestone bolt clipping. It is another awesome Yam route that I will climb again.  

I collected some video footage while climbing and decided to edit it to the soundtrack M.I.A. 'Jimmy'. I'm not too sure how I feel about it, but I like the footage. 

East End Boyz from alpinesummits on Vimeo.

M.I.A.  Kala

Chamonix Alpine Granite

 I arrived in Chamonix, the proverbial alpine climbing promise land, on a rainy day at the beginning of June. I had no climbing partners and no guiding days booked but I had an open mind and a flexible schedule. Initially, the three weeks of biblical rains dampened my alpine mojo but once the skies cleared, my psyche was on. 
I guided the big peaks during the week, acclimatizing and getting fit and then rallied my partners Crosby Johnston or Ross Berg to tick off a couple of the classic alpine rock climbs. 

I brought my GF1 camera and my Go Pro headcam to try and capture some of the essence of the Chamonix alpine experience.

Enjoy!

Peace.  

Chamonix Alpine Granite from alpinesummits on Vimeo.

ACMG Alpine Exam 2010

Well, I am finally finished dealing with the stresses of training, preparing, packing and re-packing. I guided all summer and then trained for another month (all the while trying to climb for myself) to get ready for the full alpine exam. The 10 days lived up to there reputation, by bringing on the fire and brimstone. We climbed and guided in the most assorted of conditions, all the while being scrutinized under the hairy eyeball.

While in the back of the line, I managed to keep things casual by taking pictures and video. I got enough footage to put a short video together. For those interested in taking a peek into the day of an ACMG guide take a look.

Peace, J.


ACMG Alpine Exam 2010 from alpinesummits on Vimeo.

Rockies Road Trip 2010

Delano Lavigne, and Emily McClay made a short visit to the Canadian Rockies before driving to Ottawa and then Washington, D.C. I put together a short video of our trip together, we first went to the Bugaboos but left quickly as the weather crapped out. We recovered from our hike in the rain by climbing at Back of the Lake in Lake Louise and as the weather improved we made a quick hit on Ha Ling Peak (NE 5.6) and then Zig Zag (5.12a+) on Yam.

When Delano left for L.A. on the weekend to go to his gay friends heterosexual wedding, I took Emily up Mt. Little for a training session.

Enjoy the Video! Joshua.


Rockies Road Trip with Delano Lavigne and Emily McClay from alpinesummits on Vimeo.

Best of Chamonix

After spending 2 months in Chamonix, France I am heading back home to Canmore. I'm posting my favorite images and climbs of the trip.

Chamonix, Cemetery

South Face of Midi, Ma Dolten Var. 7B+

Soloing the Gervasutti Piller, TD+ 800m

Ross Berg, Mountain Guide and International Playboy

Crosby Johnston, climbing The Republique, 24p 6c+

The Republique on the Charmoz

Summit of The Republique

Approaching the Grand Capucin

Climbing the Triple Direct on the Grand Cap, 7b+ 400m

Approaching the summit of Mt. Blanc for the 3rd this season

Monte Rosa Traverse, the summit of the Parrotspitze

Grand Paradiso and Mt. Blanc

The Grand Paradiso (the summit to the right)

After taking a couple days off of work, where I managed to solo the Frendo and then climb with Crosby Johnston on the south side of the Midi, I went back to work for Edward Bekker  on a week long mountaineering program. We started the week by climbing the Grand Paradiso in Italy and then climbing Mt. Blanc. A great week with fantastic weather and an awesome group.

Lining up for the summit push

Waiting our turn to hold the summit Madonna 

The wonderful Chabod Refuge with hot showers 

and incredible Italian hospitality

Appraoching to the Tete Rousse Refuge
on the regular route on Mt. Blanc

Heading up Mt. Blanc on a quiet day,
over 250 people reached the summit!

Watching the sun rise at 5:30 am, we summitted at 6:30 am.

European Guiding, Monte Rosa

Italian Guiding Insignia 

After spending 2 weeks floating around the Chamonix valley the skies cleared and the guiding season started in full. My first European guiding trip turned out to be the incredible Monte Rosa Traverse, summiting six, 4000 meter peaks and spending 4 nights in the exceptional Italian Huts including the Margherita Hut at 4556 meters (the highest in Europe).

The guides meeting at the Sella "Hut"

Looking back towards Mt. Castor 

Looking across at my "shadow"

Short roping up towards Col of Mt Liskamm (4527m)

Our fearless Italian Mountain Guides

Filipo and Paulo

Summit Madonna across from Margherita Hut

Looking over to the Matterhorn from the Margahrita Hut at 4556m

Freeing Moonlight Buttress

My yearly pilgrimage to the south has come and gone and once again it was worth all the effort to get away. Simon Meis and I started our trip in Zion Utah where we set our sites on freeing Moonlight buttress. After climbing a couple warm ups (Monkey Finger and Shune's Buttress) we spent a day climbing the crux 4th pitch of Moonlight Buttress with the plan of freeing the climb the next day.  We left at 10am the next morning (waiting for the climb to go into the shade) and climbed the route free in around  8 hours. It was my second time on the route and Simons first and we both agree that it is by far one of the best multi-pitch trad routes anywhere, we would climb it every year if we could. I have posted a short video of our ascent.


Moonlight Buttress from alpinesummits on Vimeo.

Simon Meis sending Big Baby

I watched and filmed Simon grunting, thrutching and stacking up Big Baby for over an hour, a pretty awesome show, albeit a little slow. I convinced him to where a head cam, so now you can watch it up close and personal too.

Big Baby, Indian Creek 5.11+ from alpine summits on Vimeo.

May Road Trip Photos

Simon sending Big Baby

Spring desert flowers

Another day in the Creek

Climbing Riptide on Mt. Patterson

After a long winter of NOT ice climbing (John Freeman spent 10 weeks in the desert and I heli skiing for most of the winter) we managed to get our psyche up to go and climb Riptide. It was a great day with the climb living up to it's reputation of shitty ice and terrifying approach slopes. The big disappointment of the day came at the end while skiing out, John fell and broke his neck at (C7). It took 2 weeks for the doctors to find the break all the while John was biking and climbing.

Riptide from alpine summits on Vimeo.

Yamneering with Andrew Wexler, Climbing Grey Scale

Lately I have been trying to get onto this movie kick, so last weekend I made the effort to collected some footage while climbing with Andrew Wexler on Grey Scale. He put up with my antics as I wore a head cam and played with my new Lumix GF1, (good thing I belay with a GreGre). You can check out the rough clip of the footage I put together.
Joshua


Grey Scale from alpine summits on Vimeo.

Bill and Kathy's Canadian Adventure

During the months of January and February Bill and Kathy spent 2 weeks in Whistler and then another couple weeks in the Canadian Rockies. While they were here they hired an ACMG guide (Joshua Lavigne) to go ice climbing and backcountry skiing. We put together a short clip of the adventures we did together. Enjoy!



Bill and Kathy's Canadian Adventure from alpine summits on Vimeo.