A final salute to Alberta

With my move to Nelson coming ever closer, I thought it fitting to spend one more weekend of adventure in the Rockies. And what better way to do it, than to spend it with an amazing friend climbing one of Southern Alberta's best known rock faces, Mount Yamnuska? Sheri and I packed up and headed out first thing Saturday morning in her sexy new convertible for a girls weekend. We met up with Mark from Cirrus Alpine Guides and did a short multi pitch route on Twilight at Kid Goat. Managed to get a couple more climbs and a lead in the crag there before heading into Canmore for dinner and calling it a night at the Kiska Inn. Deb fed us an early yet hearty breakfast before we headed off into the fog to meet Mark for day two. We made our approach and despite being 100 feet from the base of the rock wall still couldn't see it. That was reason #762 why it was good to have a guide, because never having done the route before, it would have been tough to see where it even began. At one point, about 3 pitches up, when you looked down all you saw was fog and when you looked up, it all disappeared into the clouds. It was a bit surreal. We could hear other parties calling out to each other around us, but couldn't see anyone even though you could tell they were quite close. We did end up meeting up with quite a few people on parts of Kings and Easy Street - and had 5 of us hanging out at one belay station. The crowd and the clouds both thinned out though and by the time we were midway up, the ceiling had lifted enough to provide us with a good view of the Bow Valley. Fortunately too, the weather stayed decent up until the last pitch - which was a welcome relief from the scorching weather we could have had being that exposed. It did get sunny on the way down, enough to even merit having the top down on the car on the way home. Woke up this morning feeling stiff but happy.