Climbing in Skahahaha

Each Halloween the Varsity Outdoor Club has a trip to Penticton to climb at the amazing Skaha Bluffs. As an exec member (Membership Chair) I volunteered to organize the trip this year. With the help of the VOC wiki, nobody got lost finding the campsite, the bluffs, or Christine's house for the potluck dinner.

We got an amazingly cheap deal at the Lost Moose campground, and camp fires were out in full force to warm us at night. Throughout the course of the weekend I had a chance to meet everyone on the trip, except one guy dressed as a priest at the costume party. There were 60+ people from the VOC and 4 from VOCO (our brand new brother club at UBC Okanagan. Interestingly enough, we had more members on this trip than they have total).

I love these large trips because I meet all sorts of interesting people that I may not otherwise, due to the vastness of our membership body (~400 members). The costume party and potluck was fantastic, and so was the Jackson Triggs White Merlot that I consumed. Highlights include Mike & Fiona's "Quickdraw" costume and Jordan's pear costume (and Jordan drinking beer through his costume's eye-hole).

The climbing was excellent as usual - I climbed every route at the Fern Gully, leading about half and seconding the other half. I spent the day with Kristen Beaumont, Scott Webster, and Greg Dennis. On Sunday we didn't climb, due to the sub-zero conditions and snowfall that occurred during the night. The weather caused multiple accidents along one icy stretch of highway on the way home.

Next destination: Smith Rocks, Oregon, for Remembrance Day Weekend.

Back at School

The last two and a half months have seen quite a flurry of activity for my life. It started with 2 weeks in NWT, then nearly 5 weeks in South America, then I returned after school began and had to move, then had 3 weeks in Vancouver where I was fortunate to have little school work but lots of exec duties running the membership drive for the Varsity Outdoor Club and finding funding for Mining Engineering Club activities.



I managed to get a few amazing trips already this year: I had a great day trip to Chekamus Canyon for sport climbing with some VOCers I hadn't met before. Then we went to Glacier School for introduction to glacier travel and crevasse rescue. The next weekend was to Exit 38 near Seattle for some fantastic sport climbing, then last weekend I went to Shannon Falls near Squamish for trad climbing with Alex, Mike and Fiona.

Photos for Exit 38 can be reached by clicking the top thumbnail, and Shannon Falls can be reached by clicking the second thumbnail above.