The last pieces of the 2019 pie

Haines, Alaska

It’s now been a little over three months here in Whitehorse and I’m happy to let you all know that I’ve been really enjoying it.  After settling in, I started working as a substitute teacher, picked up some work as an assistant guide for overnight outdoor ed trips, and even taught a few trumpet lessons.  While I concede that these past few weeks of -30c to -40c haven’t been all that fun, it hasn’t dampened my growing attachment to this awesome city.

I have to admit, my camera hasn’t been getting much use these days.  It’s too cold to take outside, and I haven’t been all that inspired to shoot lots.  However, I did get some nice pictures in the past 3 months.  Here are some of the highlights.

Classic Autumn Walbran

One of my all time favourite Red Cedars - Tree Beard

In October, I was lucky enough to have a few days between my last guiding contract and the big move north.  As is tradition, I called up Will for a few days of trailbuilding in the Walbran.  Will brought his friend Greener along and he ended up being a great addition to the team.  We only had a day and a half and so we decided to focus on material prepping for an upcoming boardwalk project.  We drove in at night during a torrential downpour, but luck was on our side and the weather cleared the following morning.  We spent a glorious day organizing slats and stringers and got everything ready for the new project.

Will and Greener

Fresh Slats

A Northerly Road Trip

After stuffing Janet (my ol' trusty 1998 Rav4) to the absolute brim, my buddy Steve and I spent three days road tripping north. We hit up the hot-springs in Liard, drove through some beautiful mountains, froze our butts camping, and had a few roadside bison and caribou sightings.

Sleepy Bison

Janet did really well on the drive up, proving once again that the banged up, rusted, and dirty old girl still has the power and strength to take me anywhere the road goes.  Unfortunately, no one could have foreseen the trials and tribulations of the January cold…..

The doors no longer close properly, the engine sounds very sad, the tires have frozen into a square’ish oval shape, and oil is leaking from a bunch of places :-/.  Thoughts and prayers during these trying times….

Steve cooking up a feast!

Haines Alaska

While I’ve been almost exclusively in Whitehorse since getting here, I did get a few weekend trips away.  For the November long weekend I headed to Haines, Alaska with some friends for the annual eagle festival.

We were able to enjoy watching hundreds of eagles feasting on decaying fish along the river.  It was great to spend a bit of time on the coast and hike among the massive mountains that guard the little coastal town of Haines.

Mega Eagles

Big Changes…. Big Winter….

Kluane National Park

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?)

Rock climbing in Powell River on a rare day off (can you spot me?)

Splitter Granite in the Golden Canyon - Whitehorse

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 ;-).

Concert Announcement May 30th

I’m playing a show!!!!!

For the first time in months, I’m leaving the forest and coming back to the city to play a show! On Thursday, May 30th, I’m going to be playing with my dad at Hermann’s Jazz Club in Victoria.

The band’s going to feature Rob Cheramy on guitar, Dave Emery on drums, Louis Rudner on bass, and my dad, Gord Clements on bass clarinet and saxophone. We just finished our first rehearsal and I can’t tell you how excited I am for this to go down. We’re going to be performing all new original compositions written by my dad as well as a few of my own. It’s going to be a special night because we’re also going to do a live recording of the concert to preserve these tunes for all eternity!!!!!!!!

The music is amazing, the band is fantastic, and it’s going to be a great night! Book/reserve your table asap because tickets are going fast!!!

Tickets 20$/15$ (students)

Doors @ 730pm

Oregon and the Final Tally

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We finished our great big USA roadtrip a few weeks ago and are back in Squamish starting up the summer routine.  We wanted to post our final blog update a while ago but I’ve been out guiding little teenagers out in the wild for the past three weeks and haven’t had time or reception to do the necessary computer internet things.

Well, without further ado, here’s our final roadtrip blog post along with some of our top picks of the trip.  Take it away Emma!

Our last week was mostly spent in Oregon, starting off with three excellent days of climbing at Smith Rock State Park. After experiencing the limited hardware on routes at other climbing destinations, Smith Rock was a welcomed change with bolted routes, and anchors at the top of every route. It felt like a beautiful outdoor climbing gym! Smith rock provided us with some top-quality climbs in a beautiful setting. We were also lucky enough to find badass babes Robyn and Claire who let us climb and hang with them! Stopping in at Redpoint, the local climbing store, we discovered $1 pints on tap! They were trying to get rid of the keg and we were thrilled to hand over our dollar bills two nights in a row. Our Smith Rock experience was capped off with a five-pitch climb, Wherever I May Roam. (Olivier here.  Emma killed it, leading all the hard and scary as hell traverse pitches!!!)

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After a quick stop in Portland to check out Powell’s Books (the world’s largest independent bookstore) and sample all the food, we made our way back west. The next few days were spent cruising up the coast in search of cool beaches, noisy sea lions, and easy strolls. We’re now home in Canada, and back to the grind. Before we finish this blog series, we’ve got some top 3’s for you!

 

Top three climbs:

·   Black Magic (Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area): 580ft, 5.8

·   Double Cross (Joshua Tree National Park): 95ft, 5.7+++

·   Phoenix (Smith Rock): 90ft, 5.10a

Top three campsites:

·   Sequoia National Forest, California (free hot spring campsite)

·   Beaver Dam Wash National Conservation Area, Utah (Woodbury Road Crags)

·   Willow Springs Road, Utah (near Moab)

 *75% of Utah land is public, so there was no shortage of amazing free campsites. In the end, we only paid for two nights of camping during our seven weeks on the road.

Top three hikes:

·   Fiery Furnace, Arches National Park, Utah

·   Syncline Loop, Canyonlands National Park, Utah

·   Island in the Sky Traverse, Snow Canyon State Park, Utah

 *Honorable mention to the Snow Creek Trail in Yosemite National Park. Beautiful views of Half Dome, but a real slog and we did it in the pouring rain/hail/snow.

 Top three meals out:

·   Burritos in the Mission district of San Francisco

·   NOLA Doughnuts, Portland

·   Lou’s Diner, Las Vegas

Yosemite and the Rugged Coast

This week’s post is brought to you by Emma :-)

Cold wintery Yosemite

A lot has happened in the last week as we’ve cruised through California and into Oregon. We arrived in the incredible Yosemite National Park, full of waterfalls and amazing rock formations. Wanting to avoid the big crowds and expensive campsites, we opted for a backcountry hike up the snow creek trail. The beautiful views of half dome and incredible waterfalls were slightly dampened by the downpour and thunderstorm we experienced a couple kilometres into the hike. After a few hours of hiking and 1km of elevation gain later, the rain turned to snow and we arrived in a winter wonderland, shivering our way through dinner and making our way into sleeping bags by 7pm. The next day cleared up and we saw and heard incredible avalanches on the other side of the valley the whole hike down. 


Soggy and tired, we made our way to San Francisco and had a great time wandering around the city experiencing some of the best Mexican food we’d ever had. Shoutout to Rachel and James who let us refresh at their place and partake in a few spicy games of “Bonanza” (look up this great card game!). 

Just north of San Fran, we stumbled upon the secretive community of Bolinas, a place where the locals have taken down all signs pointing to the town to keep this beauty gem on the down low. I pulled out the surfboard for the first time and that evening caught some live music at the local bar filled with people and free roaming dogs. 

Power

We continued up the coast and enjoyed windy roads through incredible forests, and beautiful rugged coastline. Northern California is home to the Redwoods, some of the tallest trees in the world. We spent two days exploring various parks dedicated to preserving these incredible giants. Although it wall still raining, we went on some incredible hikes, one ending at the ocean with some of biggest waves we’d ever seen. Continuing north, I had a morning surf in Port Orford, then stopped for the world famous hotdogs of Langlois.


We’re already in Smith Rock, but we’re going to save those sweet details for the next post… Stay tuned!