Kluane National Park
What a season! April came around didn’t let me off the hook ‘till a few weeks ago. It all started with a great recording project in Nova Scotia with musician and producer Colin Nealis. We recorded trumpet for a film score he was working on and after a week, I headed back to the west coast to get my ass kicked with guiding work. I kicked off my season with three weeks of outdoor ed work with St George’s School in Vancouver, then cranked out 530kms of hike guiding on the West Coast and North Coast Trail (let’s be honest, mostly the WCT). Before I could rest my feet, I led a gang of grade 10’s for 4 days in the mountains of Strathcona Provincial Park, and then finally wrapped it up like I started with two weeks of canoe tripping with St George’s School. Ooof! Close to 80 nights in a tent later, my body might never smell the same again ;-).
Rock climbing in Powell River on a rare day off (can you spot me?)
Splitter Granite in the Golden Canyon - Whitehorse
But by far the biggest news of the summer was my move to the great north! Back in August, my partner Emma took up a teaching position in Whitehorse. Having only ever experienced winters in places that stayed above zero degrees, I can’t say that I was all that stoked. With less than 4 hours of sunlight in winter and no climbing gym within hundreds of kilometres, I was feeling pretty reluctant about moving up.
I had a week off in early September and figured I should probably go up and visit to see what it was all about. Before I had gotten off the plane, my phone was already buzzing with a request to guide for a few weeks. It must of been a good omen because the good vibes just kept on coming! Five days later, I had climbed 30m splitter granite, hiked in some EPIC wilderness in Kluane National Park, and met up with a francophone outdoor education school (my dream job).
I’m now fully setup in Whitehorse, back in the routine of practicing trumpet, working out, and job working as little as possible ;-).
