Edith Cavell

Our plan was to leave Edmonton right after we got off work at 7am, but we decided sleeping a few hours before leaving was prudent. We were looking at the sky on the drive to Jasper, and noticed that there was a full moon, so when we arrived at the Edith Cavell parking lot at 11pm it was so bright that we decided to start climbing right away rather than getting a bit of sleep.

Domhnall stripped down his pack, and carried our extra layers, water and the rack while I carried the rope. Two hours later we were at the top of the ridge. We climbed through the night, and I was thankful for the light from the full moon when my headlamp fell apart.

The sun was just creeping over the horizon shortly before we topped out. The climbing was great and the rock was superb.

It had snowed the night before so we were really careful for the last few hundred meters as it was a bit slippery.

Domhnall on the top

The way down the West Ridge was a bit longer than we had anticipated. I had some difficulty getting down the scree slope, and once we were off the slope we still had a long way to go....about another 10 km to walk around the mountain and back to the road. Domhnall walked the extra 2km to the parking lot to retrieve the truck. I got back to the vehicle at 4pm which made for a 16 hour day.

Ha Ling Peak

July 6 - Domhnall picked me up at the airport at 10pm and we headed off to sleep at the Canmore campground.

July 7 - After about 4 hours sleep we woke up and assessed the weather, it looked OK, so we got up and drove to Canmore to the base of Ha Ling Peak.

The scramble up to the base of the climb took us about 2 hours where we took a bit of a rest, changing into our rock shoes and grabbing a bite of food.

Domhnall lead all of the pitches, and I was trying hard to be quick at the climbing, and also at the turn arounds.

Domhnall's feet were hurting, so the only time he was smiling was while he was sitting with the shoes off!

I was having fun managing the rope, and it looked like we had made a good choice as the sun was shining. The rainbow after the second hail storm. The storm blew over the back, which is why we hadn't noticed the sky getting darker. We were pelted by hail, but worse than that was the river of water flowing down the face making climbing difficult.

Eventually the sun came out, warmed us up and dried off the rock. This is me just topping out.

I decided that I needed to carry a bit more weight on the walk to the truck, so I carried Domhnall's pack on my shoulders.

July 8 - We climbed up Lady MacDonald, turning around just a few meters from the top due to my increasing fear, and some bad weather was coming in.

July 9 - We spent the afternoon at the Wasootch Slabs before going to rescue Renee and eventually making it home.