January - Alas, there was no annual general meeting this year. It's the first year in many years that we haven't got together in the mountains of Manning Park for our night of laughter.
March - Lake Louise and Banff
Location of Lake Louise
- Chris Cooper, Bob Needham, and I went to Canmore for a couple of nights to ski and hike in the Rockies during my spring break.We hit it lucky with the weather as the Lake Louise area was back into a winter mode. There was even active ice climbing on the north-west corner of the lake.
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| Nice dry snow. |
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| After hiking up to the Sulfur Man. restaurant. |
After a day of skiing and another of hiking, we decided to travel the ice field parkway to Jasper to take pictures. The weather was fabulous. Herds of elk on the highway greeted us in Jasper, and the next day was an ideal day for pictures of Mt. Robson.
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| A rare clear view of Mt. Robson |
May - 'In Search of Wild Places' Ellesmere Island to Coburg Island return.
Location of Coburg Island
- as told by Chris Cooper
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| Lunch Time! |
"John Dunn, Chris Cooper, Sandy Briggs, and Randal Scott undertook a journey of exploration to Canada's High Eastern Arctic in the months of May/ June 2005. The focus of the journey was to ski to Coburg Island which seldom ever seen or photographed.
In the year 2001, John, Sandy and I had seen Coburg from Devon Island's Southeast coast,during a 32 day 375 km ski journey. A moment that brought things to a stand still as Coburg shimmered in the distance, Wild & Remote I had to return.
Our journey to Coburg started from Grise Fiord on the South coast of Ellesmere, it took 13 days and 125km of hard skiing and sled hauling to reach Coburg, sled hauling 230pounds over 3500ft icecaps is truly hard work. We reached Glacier strait in storm force conditions, WILD.
Skied across Glacier Strait, circumnavigated Coburg 100km plus side trips plus climbing 6 peaks, winter conditions.
Polar Bears, Beluga whales, Walrus and many species of birds.........
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| Quite the campsite! |
A Greenland Iceberg frozen in on Glacier Strait
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| A little bit of boating. |
From the North coast of Coburg we skied back to Ellesmere's South east coast crossing Glacier Strait OPEN LEADS very dangerous crossings on occasion. Open lead crossings are very dangerous as the opportunity to fall in is always there. Many people have died doing this type of Adventure Sport!
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| Coburg Island |
Skied over the Manson Icefields and worked our way over to the Jakeman Glacier and onto our final destination Grise Fiord which took us another two weeks of travel 150km here."
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| The summit of Coburg Island. |
It was truly a spectacular place - very cold. I had to wear my parka, blowing ice crystals everywhere. This is the highest summit on Coburg, unnamed, 2800ft above sea level!!
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| L to R - Randal Scott, John Dunn, Chris Cooper, & Sandy Briggs |
" I had the opportunity to speak twice on Global TV, once from Glacier Strait and once in the studio, in addition to this I also had the opportunity to speak on the morning news hour about our last two seasons of paddling the Alaska, BC Coast Canoe journey covering 2000 km " - Chris Cooper
July - A Quest for Islay Single Malt - Scotland
Chuck and Terri McCafferty joined my wife Lynn and I on a trip to Scotland and England. One of our quests on this trip was to visit the distilleries on Islay as our favourite scotches come from there. We had a better time that we could have hoped.
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| Keith and Chuck at Laphroaig |
The Laphroaig Distillery after joining the "Friends of Laphroaig" and getting to be landlords of one square foot of Islay peat! :-)
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| A special time with Jim Mcewan |
We had a wonderful time learning about delicious Bruichladdich scotch with Jim Mcewan the distiller at Bruichladdich. Having the opportunity to have time with him was a very special treat.
August - Diaz Vista
One of the great things about living in the lower mainland is that you are never too far from nature. Chris and Alan Lizee and I went on a hike up the Diaz Vista trail on the west side of Buntzen Lake.
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| Looking at Indian Arm of Howe Sound |
September - Needle Peak - (Coquihalla)
A scramble I had wanted to do for some time was to go up Needle Peak. The trail to it is found on the south side of the Coquihalla summit. One of the wonderful things to this very accessible hike is that in one hour you are hiking in the alpine. I went with Alan Lizee who was wonderfully patient with someone who was not only out of shape as usual but was feeling quite rusty on the class three scrambling.
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| Summit of Needle Peak with Yak Peak in the background. |
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| Summit of Flatiron peak |
A couple of weeks after going up Needle Peak, Keith Akenhead, Alan Lizee, and I went up a flat topped mountain called Flatiron. In the picture above, you can see the summit of Needle Peak to the east.
... oh yea, Lynn and I did some travelling with Chuck and Terri!
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