ascend DESCEND!: A million kick steps!

It was the middle of the week and I was surfing the web looking at the beautiful weather forecast for the weekend. I began pouring over my guide books, trying to decide where the best climbing would be when an MCR (mountain conditions report) email popped up and informed me that the Mt. Stanly head wall had just been skied and conditions were beautiful. There was no need to think twice, I began calling people who I knew would be interested in a non-climbing mission. I originally had plans to go climbing with Brent but after a quick run down of the "revised" plan he was still in. When I first told Dave about the "revised" plan he told me that I was pretty ambitious, he quickly followed with a "fuck ya, lets fucking do it!".

"Revised" Plan- Saturday morning, head into Aemmers couloir and check it out, if it goes then we ski it, rest up and hit 3/4 couloir on sunday morning. This is all based on the fact that conditions should be roughly the same in each couloir. If it doesn't go then we turn around, arrive back at the car before 6am and unfortunately have to go climbing... Win/win!

After a million kick steps and some gnarly/scary turns, the ultimate weekend warrior mission was a success! I lugged two friggin cameras up each of these bad boys so there are alot of photo's. Joel, one of my top followers suggested a slide show set to music, I asked him if he had checked out my "A life of snow" slide show which I posted a few weeks ago? He hadn't, now Davie is my TOP follower and Joel must earn his way back up! haha, Enjoy.

Aemmer Couloir, Mt. Temple. 2,300 ft long.

One of the definitive couloir's in the Canadian Rockies.

The down side of alpine starts; inhumanly early... the plus side: your back at your car before most people wake up and you have the rest of the day to enjoy!