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Get an Afterbite tube or pen. Also, in Thailand when I was eaten alive by sandfleas (hundreds of bites that turned my skin almost purple), I had some hydrocortisone wipes that worked quite well to relieve the pain and itch.
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Sep 6, 2013 03:22
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Defiant Sally posted:Any Alberta goons able to comment on the status of mountains near Canmore? I fear that I may be too late to get one last hike in and wouldnt mind getting Lady Mac or something else relatively easy/not snow covered. I haven't had a chance to get out since the snow started coming down. Kananaskis Public Safety have mostly just been warning people about diminishing daylight hours at this point. I also found this: quote:We have officially transitioned from summer to autumn and the white peaks are a testament to I'm pretty sure things will be fine so long as you're used to a bit of snow. Lady Mac should be safe up until the ridge, but crossing the knife-edge might be sketchy at this point. Depending on wind, there might be slight cornices already on the vertical side (north-facing). Something like Heart, EEOR, Ha Ling, or Grotto might be better options. I'd normally say it would be pretty good since we had a chinook on Saturday and that tends to blast a lot of those routes clear, but the weather today may have dumped a bunch of new snow that I haven't seen reported on yet. Edit: I need to get some photos posted from my official backpacking course I took a couple weeks ago. Totally loving aced it. Easiest credits I've ever received! SulfurMonoxideCute fucked around with this message at 06:15 on Oct 9, 2013 |
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Oct 9, 2013 06:11
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I've been caught backpacking in blizzards a couple of times. Once was actually sort of intentional. It started really coming down as I headed out, but I decided to go ahead with it anyway. The other snowed four days into the trip after constant rain, and I was encountering some white-out conditions while on foot. All I can really say is if you're in an area where there's even the slightest chance of snow, be prepared before you go. Bring your warm and water-proof (cotton-free) layers. Also know how to navigate. Learn how to use your compass and map before you go, in the event the trail is completely buried. As for if it happens, do what you can to stay dry and don't change locations unless you're sure you know you're navigating properly. I had to change plans at the last minute when I was in the white-outs. I wanted to take a steep side-slope traverse through one pass, but chose a more stable, flat-grounded pass instead. Not like I would have seen the views from the original goal anyway. Guess I just have to go back, at a warmer time of year. It's a 25km hike to get there, and I would prefer not to be snowed out again.
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Oct 10, 2013 01:39
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Well, here's a picture of me from today. It was 16C, clear and sunny yesterday afternoon when my class hiked in, then a cold front and snowstorm moved in overnight. Winter is close! Also God bless Alberta weather.
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Oct 28, 2013 06:10
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It was a mixed bag. One guy was in runners but he was hilarious about his misfortune. We had to cris-cross a stream multiple times, so those of us with out good waterproof boots or gaiters (myself included, couldn't find my gaiters) ended up with wet feet. The people who were properly waterproofed helped us avoid soaking our feet as much as possible by building bridges out of boulders to hop across. More than half the group was waterproof from head to toe. We were all well-informed that it would probably snow, so we were as prepared as we could be, considering we're all university students and some people who didn't previously own good trekking boots couldn't afford a new pair so just sucked it up. The class I was in was a university class for outdoor leadership, so we were not only encouraged to help each other out, but expected to. Anytime someone started acting a bit selfish or reckless they got called out as an example of what a good leader should not do. It's an awesome class; no one actually gets in trouble, they're just used as examples of "things to do on your own time vs. how you should behave if you have a group of clients in the backcountry".
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Oct 28, 2013 17:30
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Oh man, you guys, I am so excited. I just got confirmation on my first program expedition and I'm going backpacking, hiking, mountain biking, and canoeing in the Moab area for 14 days in May! This is going to be so badass. My school loving rules.
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Dec 9, 2013 22:41
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Ropes4u posted:May I ask what school? Yeah, Mount Royal University in Calgary. My program is Ecotourism and Outdoor Leadership.  I had a choice of that, sea kayaking off Vancouver Island, or circumnavigating a mountain in British Columbia. I've been dying to go see Arches for a while, have a chance at night photography in a desert, plus it's another stamp in my passport. I couldn't refuse! I've never really had any adventures in the US, so it's going to be fun.
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Dec 10, 2013 04:13
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Mercury Ballistic posted:Read Desert Solitaire by Ed Abbey before departing for the full experience. Ooh, thanks. I'll suggest it to everyone else too.
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Dec 11, 2013 00:34
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Save me jeebus posted:You should try to go canyoneering while you're at Arches (if you're into that sort of thing). I know there are guide groups that lead trips. I could probably get some good ones for you if you're interested. I think our entire time has been planned out, since this is for a class. We might be doing that anyway; we were only given a very brief description of activities for two weeks worth of time. I'll learn more in the near future, though, because it's really not very long from now.
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Dec 11, 2013 07:40
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The weirdo forensic dude had heard it, and described it like it gave him a friggin boner or something. He was way too into it. I watched that a couple of days before heading into grizzly country during berry season, and woke up to have one grunting and sniffing our tent at 4 in the morning. Fun times!
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Dec 16, 2013 23:02
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Guns are illegal in nearly any area where you would go backcountry up here. I imagine some people do carry in non-park regions of BC, northern Alberta, and the southern Territories. But most of those regions don't have any trails and are commonly private properties (except for crown land, which is technically owned by the Queen but is open to the public to travel through), so they're not ideal for fun trips anyway. Plus you might get shot by a landowner before you could shoot them. I've been threatened in the past by getting too close to my in-laws neighbour's property in rural Alberta.
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Jan 18, 2014 07:24
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I always end up looking like a doofus in pictures:   
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Feb 2, 2014 05:30
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Heads up to anyone who might be in the Canadian Rockies right now: there have been multiple avalanches all over the place today, and a father and son were killed by one well below the treeline on the shores of Lake Louise, which is a huge front-country destination attracting hundreds of people a day. Conditions are ugly right now, so stay safe!
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Mar 16, 2014 08:07
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It turns out there were four deaths this past week in the same valley due to avalanches. That doesn't include all the live rescues that have occurred. I'd hazard to say that these are not exceptions. Spring in the Rockies is seriously treacherous, especially now that we've been having record-breaking precipitation over the winter months the past few years. Snow up to a foot deep is still falling on some nights when temperatures drop, which then develops wind slabs and surface hoar during the day when it's warm, which then gets covered again with a new layer. This is leading to avalanches everywhere all the time, with human-triggered events happening almost daily. Even my insane backcountry ski friend is sticking to the resort slopes right now, and he jumps off cliffs.
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Mar 17, 2014 18:03
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Personally I love gun chat, because it's not even a thing here. All the nice areas to hike are protected parks where guns are banned, so only legitimate hunters carry at certain times of year in places no one else wants to go. It's illegal to shoot grizzlies right now anyway. They put a ban on hunting permits a few years ago.
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Mar 22, 2014 22:15
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Anybody know the best dayhikes from the Green River in Canyonlands National Park? It's about a month away now and I trust you guys a lot for recommendations.
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Apr 1, 2014 10:35
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I picked up a Powerfilm 10V folding solar charging panel. Hopefully it works well enough for the two weeks I'll be out filming. I will report back sometime in May how it does!
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Apr 2, 2014 03:59
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TouchyMcFeely posted:I've only been to Canyonlands once and didn't get to deep into the park but are you floating into the park on the Green River? I'm doing an ecotourism and outdoor leadership degree up here in Canada, and each year the students take part in an expedition. My group is going to be canoeing and kayaking 53 miles through Canyonlands over 7 days, just camping on the river every night. We have some ideas of where we're going to land each day and where we would want to stop for some short hikes, but was hoping someone here had done one in particular that was a do-not-miss they could recommend. I'm so super excited for this, I've never done anything like it before. I've always traveled by foot and so far maxed at 5 days in the wilderness.
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Apr 4, 2014 02:30
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Just short trips done over a few hours and a certified course so far, same for kayaking. I will look into the gloves however.
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Apr 4, 2014 07:20
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We're driving down in a big van and a trailer. We're also doing it over 7 days so we can get practical experince planning landing sites with a map and acting as a guide. Ir's an actual credit course I'm doing so we have a minimum amount of hours needed to be spent too. Bit yeah, it's all stillwater, no rapids, easy going. It isn't the canoeing itself we're learning, it's the whole planning amd execution of a 10 day expedition (the other days are being spent mountain biking).
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Apr 4, 2014 22:06
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n8r posted:What time of year are you going? Looks like you can probably get away without sleeping on the ground too FYI. Cots outside rule for multiday river trips. We arrive in Moab May 1!  And we are preparing for below freezing temperatures too, even if the ground were to be completely frozen or snowy or hot, we wouldn't care, because we're  and camp in those conditions all the time anyway. We're not bringing any cots., sadly.
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Apr 5, 2014 02:53
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Defiant Sally posted:Has anyone been out in Kananaskis/Canmore area recently? How are the scrambling routes looking snow wise? I haven't been out at all, too busy with school and preparing to head stateside in just over 2 weeks. But these are my go-to sources for trying to find out conditions this time of year: Club Tread Message Boards (This one is Alberta) http://www.clubtread.com/sforum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=36 Calgary Outdoor Club (people post photos in the calendar of past hikes) http://www.calgaryoutdoorclub.com/ I also recommend checking these guys out, they post a lot of important and interesting things: https://www.facebook.com/KCPublicSafety?fref=ts
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Apr 11, 2014 08:14
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Wingless posted:I'm going backpacking with some friends in the Cascades in September and I'm afraid of getting eaten by a bear like Grizzly Man. We don't have predators where I come from. They have cougars too! Since you're in a group you'll be just fine. I go out in the Canadian Rockies all the time where we have every potentially dangerous North American animal and I've never had a negative encounter. About cougars though: if you do happen to spot one, stand tall, stay facing it, and don't crouch, it makes you look smaller and more appetizing. But if you're in a group, they should just leave you alone unless you encounter a young idiot cat. But they're also easy to fight off because they're idiots.
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Apr 27, 2014 03:01
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Moab and Canyonlands time is here! We finish up preparations tomorrow then head out before dawn Tuesday morning. This is going to be so awesome, I'll be back in two weeks with lots of pics!
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Apr 28, 2014 04:52
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Posting in a laundromat in Moab to say we survived our journey through the desert! It was spectacular. But holy gently caress trying to paddle against gale force headwinds through class 2 rapids was "fun". But we did a hike up above the Colorado River to the Needles area in Canyonlands NP, visited Arches, saw all sorts of amazing petroglyphs, tons more. It'll be a while before I get my photos ready for posting, I took ~1500 the past week and a half.
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May 11, 2014 15:30
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The backoacking course in my program was basically a Leave No Trace course with practical experience. The final exam consisted of answering questions on those ethics. I've been passing it on to anyone I go outside with and fortunately for me they've all understood and changed their habits. Some are even bragging to me of their trash collections, it's awesome.
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May 18, 2014 17:45
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I promised you all pics of my time down in Moab. I'm still sorting out but I got a few good ones on my lazy first few days there. I'll have more from Canyonlands in a bit. Bar M by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr  Bar M and the Colorado River by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr  Balanced Rock by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr  Under the arch by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr  Double Arch by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr  Expedition crew by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr  270° by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr  Dead Horse Point by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr
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May 27, 2014 00:09
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Good news up here in Canada, the Alberta government just announced $10 million to rebuild trails in Kananaskis that were destroyed by the flood last year! I know of at least one of my favourites, Ribbon Falls, was really demolished and still completely closed off. It's a shame because I wanted to take some friends to the backcountry campsite up there. Of course, there's always the chance some could be permanently closed due to a completely changed watercourse etc, but here's hoping. The work is estimated to be completed in 2017. http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/province-commits-10m-to-repair-flood-damaged-hiking-trails-1.1855192
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Jun 6, 2014 17:33
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More stuff. http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/blog/posting.asp?ID=1030&s=hpslider&pos=4 This guy was the first person to hike the entire southern portion of the Trans-Canada Trail, which is 16,000km long, or nearly 10,000 miles. Right now, he's doing the north stretch to the Arctic Ocean, another 4000km/2500 miles. And he's posting it to Facebook. If you have one, check him out for sure. https://www.facebook.com/thegreathike
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Jun 6, 2014 20:50
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A Kpro posted:Awesome! I'm flying out that way in a couple weeks, unfortunately I'm not going to have time for any hiking as the K100 is going to be my priority. I was supposed to run it last year but those floods kinda ruined that plan. That is so cool, you get to run Highway 40 through Highwood Pass down to Nakiska! One of my favourite stretches of highway in Canada, and also the highest elevation paved road in the country! Have you been there before? It's really gorgeous. Who knows, maybe I'll be there myself scoping out trail conditions.
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Jun 7, 2014 07:03
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I'm kind of insane, I almost always pack my Nikon D7000 with two lenses and three filters, my GoPro, and my cell phone. I went caving as a portion of a class, and everyone said I looked like I worked for Nat Geo because I had all that poo poo plus a tripod. But I couldn't imagine not going without it all, just in case. The other photo junkie didn't even bring his camera inside with him at all, because he was afraid it would be too dangerous and he'd wreck it. We have differing opinions about adventure photography, I guess. He was with me in Moab too, and same thing. So many missed opportunities.
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Jun 10, 2014 01:57
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Yay, I had a little bit of fun up here today! I managed to get out for about an hour before a BBQ, in Banff at the base of the west end of Mt. Rundle. I just followed random animal trails around and up in the forest by myself while some friends did a trail run. After a while, I encountered some very fresh grizzly bear scat nearing my turn around time, so I decided to head back to the car. When my friends returned, they had found the trail closed due to grizzly activity, and some wardens preparing a bear trap to relocate the animal. Interesting. Another day in the life in Banff.
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Jun 11, 2014 08:31
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Some shots from a dayhike we did at the end of our expedition. We went up from Spanish Bottom on the Colorado River to The Dollhouse in the Needles District of Canyonlands NP. Hiking to the Dollhouse by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr  Moab Crew 2014 by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr I'm the chick in the rainbow top in the middle.  Feeling small by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr  The Dollhouse by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr  The Great Valley? by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr  The crack by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr
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Jun 15, 2014 04:21
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Wow. What settings for the Milky Way shot?
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Jun 17, 2014 22:05
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I prefer my alcohol stove by far unless I'm in a blizzard or something. It's so simple to use, far less parts, and if you happen to spill fuel (which I seem to do frequently) your stuff won't stink like gas.
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Jun 26, 2014 18:54
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I finally got out on Sunday. I don't drive right now, and I always work weekends when my husband is free, but my boss screwed up a time off request so I had Sunday free! I did a short jaunt up to a place called C-Level Cirque, near Banff on the east slope of Cascade Mountain. Cascade is one of our iconic peaks and if you've seen pictures of Banff, you've seen pictures of it because the town is built at it's base. We chose a little hike instead of a summit because a lot of peaks aren't in condition yet, and I had just spent the last three days going to a bachelorette/drunk BBQ/spent 16 hours shooting a wedding then getting drunk again so I was not fit for anything big. The cirque is only 450m/1500' vertical from the parking lot, really easy to get to. If anyone's in Banff and looking for a hangover hike I suggest it. There's also some neat coal mining history on the way.  Old mining building by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr  Modern art by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr  Ventilation shaft by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr  C-Level Cirque by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr  On the snow by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr  Approaching the waterfall by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr  The Bow Valley from C-Level Cirque by Geographic Ecotourist, on Flickr It was also very overcast, drizzling, and only about 10C/50F. Laying down on the snow in a tanktop for SnapChat purposes with my friends was a little chilly.
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Jul 2, 2014 05:50
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So I work in a zoo, and I was going through some of our product in the gift shop when I found this in a Bear Smart playing card deck that was on display. Since we're still afraid of bears, I figured this was super useful information for those of us living and travelling in bear country:
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Jul 4, 2014 06:16
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It at least exists, I researched it after I got home from work. There's a couple of companies here in Canada that market fences specifically for back country camping. It's completely ridiculous to me. I just can't even imagine wanting to go out into the wilderness so bad to be legit 'remote' yet being so paranoid of nature to need a loving electric fence. When I saw this card at work I nearly fell on the floor laughing.
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Jul 4, 2014 09:56
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BaseballPCHiker posted:Some crazy South Koreans had WALKED across the frozen Bering Straits. Adding this to the list of things I have to do before I die
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Jul 4, 2014 19:28
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 12:43 |
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Well, stinging nettle sure is fun. I got a ton of it in my legs yesterday while out helping on a farm. Avoid this poo poo, friends, I wouldn't want to be on trail with these nasty rashes.
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Jul 7, 2014 03:06
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