I arrived last night and I'm staying in Montmartre near the Sacre Coeur cathedral. I've been trying to use my French (what little there is) but everyone at the hostel speaks English...
My room (with a view) at the hostel in Montmartre
I watched the sunset over Paris from the steps below the Sacre Coeur last night.
Then I decided to do a little reinactment of my whirlwind 1998 tour of Paris so... I wandered through the busy streets of Paris, through the plaza of the Hotel de Ville (where we watched the 98 World Cup soccer games on the big screen), walked past Notre Dame, along the Seine, and then I headed past the Louvre over to the Champs d'Elysees...
I didn't walk all the way to the Arc though, instead I headed up to the red light district - yikes!
Back to the hostel and in bed by 2 am... not a bad first night. ;)
I'm catching a train and heading down to the Pyrenees tomorrow!
This was the week of very hot, sunny weather in Southwest BC and that also meant forest fires. Both the Hurley Forest Service Road to the west and the Duffey Lake Road to the east were closed due to fires but fortunately the road to Birkenhead Lake was still open. So after a refreshing afternoon swim in Birkenhead Lake, I headed up Phelix Creek towards the Vale of the Lord of the Rings.
I made it up Phelix Creek Road to where a creek washed it away and a log bridge crossed the creek.
I made it to Long Lake just as the sun was dropping behind Mount Gandalf.
There was a large VOC group up doing some maintenance on the hut so everyone was camped outside. Too bad I didn't bring my tent!
Sunset over Long Lake - the haze from forest fire smoke is quite noticeable
Sunrise from my lakeside sleeping bag
The upper lake on the way up Mount Gandalf
On the summit of Mount Gandalf - and yes I did climb to the very top of that pinnacle in the background!
The view of Long Lake from the summit of Mount Gandalf
On the edge of the ridge between Mount Gandalf and Aragorn
On the summit of Mount Aragorn
Forest fire to the west
Looking back towards the ridge and Mount Gandalf
In the alpine basin below Mount Gandalf - on the shortcut route back down to Long Lake
Check out the video from Long Lake and the summit of Mount Aragorn:
My dad turned 70 earlier this year and said to me, "Brad I want to go hiking with you this summer." So I chose Joffre Lakes - a relatively short hike (5km) for very high reward... and while my dad's leg may have been killing him after the hike, the weather and our hike were spectacular!
Our lake-side camp
After setting up camp and having lunch at Upper Joffre Lake, dad had a nap and I climbed Mount Taylor where there were incredible views of the lake, glacier and surrounding peaks!
Upper Joffre Lake, Joffre Peak and the Matier Glacier viewed from top of Mount Taylor.
We made a gourmet dinner of chicken fajitas and watched the sky turn purple and red as the sun set.
In the morning we ate bacon and eggs, packed up camp and hiked back down to our cars. After a great hike and with some pretty tired legs, we said goodbye and headed our separate ways - dad back to Penticton and me back to Vancouver!
The Line-up: Kings of Leon, Bon Iver, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Decemberists, Animal Collective, Devotchka, Doves, Mos Def, M. Ward, Passion Pit and many more!
Brad and Julie are ready to party like rock stars!
Another hot and sunny day at The Gorge and cold drinks are only $10 each!
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Blowing bubbles over the Gorge
Sunset over the Gorge
Bon Iver
I was looking forward to Bon Iver most of all and it was by far the best performance of the day! Check out the video of Bon Iver performing Skinny Love and The Wolves:
Kings of Leon were also excellent and had the crowd singing along as they ended Day 1 of the festival...
OVERLORD MOUNTAIN & RUSSET LAKE VIA THE MUSICAL BUMPS - SEPTEMBER 27 & 28, 2008
September just kept on providing beautiful weather so with the help of the Whistler gondola, I headed to Russet Lake via the Musical Bumps, planning to climb Overlord Mountain the next day before hiking back down to Whistler Village via the Fitzsimmons Creek trail.
For such a nice day, I was surprised when I didn't encounter a single other person from about 2km beyond the Roundhouse all the way to Russet Lake - solitude on the Musical Bumps is unexpected.
There has been a lot of construction since I was last up here in 2000: a new chair lift up Piccolo summit (Symphony Express), a few new HUGE signs, and a pole "fence" marking the boundary between the ski area and Garibaldi Park.
Himmelsbach Hut at Russet Lake. Sunset on Fissile Peak at Russet Lake campground. The next morning was clear and cold, and I left the warmth of my sleeping bag just before 8am on my way to climb Overlord Mountain. To avoid the glacier between Fissile and Whirlwind peaks you must ascend the long and steep west ridge of Whirlwind Peak. Access to the ridge can be challenging, but at this time of year there were two easy routes up. Assessing the ridge; Cheakamus Glacier in the background. The route up Whirlwind Peak is an easy scramble. Whirlwind summit. The climb from Russet Lake to Whirlwind summit was about 550m elevation gain in 1.25 hours.
The easy-moderate scrambling route from Whirlwind to Overlord was made a little more challenging by several centimetres of new snow (from earlier in the week), making sections of the ridge-route quite slippery. It took another 1.25 hours from Whirlwind to Overlord summit with additional elevation gain of 300m. The summit of Overlord Mountain is surrounded by glaciers in almost every direction so the view is spectacular 360 degrees! Approaching Overlord summit. Self-portrait on Overlord summit (2625m) Pano view from Overlord Mountain: Castle Towers and Cheakamus Glacier (far left), Whirlwind Peak (just left of centre), Black Tusk (distant centre), Overlord Glacier (bottom right), Fissile Peak (right), Musical Bumps (far right).
Check out a short video from Russet Lake and the summit of Overlord Mountain.
