I moved back to Calgary to start a new job in February, and I had big plans of getting a lot of climbing in now that I was back in the Rockies. New jobs are a lot of work though... I managed to get out for some late season ice climbing (and managed to get my first ice lead in - video here but it's not great... That's Barry Blanchard in the yellow jacket cheering me on... and yeah my technique isn't great and I made some mistakes, but whatever). Read more about 2012: The Summer That Wasn't

Coming off an incredible weekend at Seneca Rocks, including my first trad lead and technical summit and a good day at Buffalo Crag top-roping some harder routes (for me anyway), I was feeling pretty strong heading into this Dacks trip. I hoped to do a couple more trad leads, and maybe push grades on a sport climb or two. That wasn't to be. 

I found the roadside turnout where Jeremy had told me to park. From there, it was a short hike in to a clearing, and set up camp. The first campsite was occupied by a guy, alone, with no tent - just a cot sitting underneath a canopy, with some military-looking gear on a picnic table. He told me that the other campsite wasn't level, and invited me to share his site & fire. After confirming that the second site sucked, I figure what the heck... If he was going to kill me it wouldn't matter which site I was sleeping at. His car had US Federal Government plates, so he must be trustworthy. I set up my tent while he stoked the fire, then I headed back towards the highway to get a cell signal so I could let Jeremy know where I was. Read more about Ego Check in the Adirondacks

I got awesome news at work... I had to be in Edmonton right after the May long weekend for a conference. I booked my flight out for Sunday afternoon, which left Monday free for some climbing with my good buddy AJ, who now lives in Edmonton. We researched climbs online in the Jasper area and found a few areas with route descriptions, but no guidebook (it's out of print). AJ found this beta on SummitPost, so that's what we used. 

AJ picked me up at the airport Sunday night. We picked up a six pack and headed straight for Jasper. The drive was a real treat for me... It was SO good to spend time with AJ again (I really miss him since he moved), and it was fun being on a drive with someone else instead of my usual solo road trips. It's a good thing AJ was driving, because I saw a sign for the "Scenic Route to Alaska"... I'm not sure I would have been able to resist taking that exit.

We got out to the Pocahontas Campground around 11:30pm, and quickly set up camp in the rain (I've been rained on while camping a lot this year). We killed the six pack and shared a few more laughs while enjoying to fresh Rocky Mountain air.

Monday morning we got up and headed into Jasper for a quick breakfast before trying to find the Rock Gardens. Finding the parking lot was easy. We broke out the makeshift guidebook and started hiking in. About 20 minutes in we realized that we had missed a turn on the trail. While we should have been at the crag already, we were instead following the winding river. So we turned around and started the approach for a second time. This time we found the crag without any problems.  Read more about Reunited at the Jasper Rock Gardens