Sorry for the hiatus, the nice weather we've been having lately seems to keep me fairly busy, which leaves just about no time for blogging. Not a complaint (on my end) though!

So, catching up. Let's see... Yesterday was my birthday! I'm currently on my 30th revolution around the sun, and it's been off to a great start with more sunshine! Nice relaxing morning, drinking coffee on my back deck with my roommate, Michelle, (psyched to be buying a new car), and her Boyfriend, Joel (not so psyched about the paperwork), followed by some intense bouldering in the forest, then an enthralling game of poker, high up in the Garibaldi mountains. I didn't win, but second place get's their money back, so I didn't really lose, either.






Also, in recent news, I just picked up Joseph from the Amtrak station in Vancouver, now we're just hanging out at the house, drinking some midnight coffee, anticipating an amazing day of bouldering in the forest at the base of the Chief. 4 climbing days in a row... this is the Squamish summer I remember! Now, to the climbing shots.






Bedtime... Big day tomorrow!

So, I'm out of the woods and back in society, which means that I'm going to have to start bathing everyday. Shouldn't be to hard, seeing as the bathroom is a mere 14 paces from my bed! Here's my new kitchen and living room in Squamish.

Here's the story of the past week... I've been working everyday at the construction site, earning a fairly healthy paycheck, as well as doing some siding and roofing with Doug, earning a healthier chunk of cash. The construction company wants me exclusively, and they're willing to match the pay I'm making with Doug, but I've decided to turn down their offer and continue the work with Doug, as he has guaranteed me a summer's worth of work, flexible hours for climbing on overly nice days, and will possibly be sponsoring me in the future, making Canadian residency the obvious next step. With the money earned in the past 2 weeks of work, I should be able to make a cash offer on the camper van next Friday... Finally, after a few stressful weeks and a couple bear encounters, everything seems to be coming together, as it always does!

Since the bear completely destroyed my home of the past 7 months, I moved into a room with a climbing buddy of mine, Ernesto. $200 a month didn't seem bad, but the living situation has gotten a bit ridiculous, with 5 adults residing in a 3 bedroom apartment. Just as I started questioning my decision for the next months housing, another option landed in my lap. A buddy of mine, Dan, is leaving Squamish for the summer to go plant trees in Alberta, but seeing as he doesn't want to give up his pristine location, he opted to sub-let his room for the summer, and guess who the first person called was... I move into a house tomorrow, and will live there through May, and might stay through June, depending on how much cash I'm making per week, and wether Paige decides to accept my cash offer for the van, which I'm pretty certain she will.

Yup, it's starting to look like it's going to be yet another fantastic summer in British Columbia! Here's some shots from today's session in the forest.

So, here's my tent after the fact...


Next tent I purchase is going to have 4 wheels, 8 cylinders, and a kitchen...

Yesterday was Sunday, and here in British Columbia, we've started a new ritual for the end of every week, known as 'Sunday Funday'. This consists of anything that's fun and exciting, such as longboarding, bonfiring, slacklining and so on. Yesterday, we celebrated the Funday by taking a small adventure up to Whistler for some end of the season snowboarding. I now know why Whistler is considered one of the worlds best ski destinations. To late in the season for backcountry, but there was still plenty of fun to be had on the slopes!

A lift ticket for the day at Whistler will cost you a whopping $90, but if you have time and an adventurous spirit (as well as an empty wallet), you can trek up through the forest for the first couple thousand feet (about an hours walk), then simply catch the gondola to the top at the midway point, seeing as they only check for lift tickets at the bottom of the mountain. A full day's ride awaits anyone willing to make the journey, and when you're done, simply ride the 6000 feet all the way to the bottom, right into Whistler Village, and find your car for the ride home. Not bad at all! Especially when you get to the Village and there's a free show waiting for you! Yesterday, we boarded till our bums were numb, then rocked out to the sounds of Arrested Development. Sunday Funday, in full effect!

Got back to Squamish just in time to catch the sunset, and while hastily running back to my camp to get my camera, I stumbled in a very large footprint. A very large footprint that was going in the direction of my camp! Low and behold, the bears are out of hibernation. Good for them, but bad for me! You see, Like an idiot, I forgot to bring my garbage bag into town to dispose of, and seeing as garbage is one of the main food groups for black bears, my camp became prime feeding ground in my absence. Huge mess. I even had to replace some of the walls in of my A-frame that the bear so kindly knocked out of the way. Oh well. You live, you learn. NEVER leave your garbage at camp, or bears will make a complete mess of it all! After about 30 minutes, I had all the rubbish picked up, walls nailed back in and base camp back to what it should be, which is a quiet, tidy forest refuge. Only thing to do now was get myself ready for bed, when I noticed that the bear didn't stop with the garbage...

My tent, the canvas that I've called home for the past 6 months, is no more. It would appear, that by no fault other than my own, an empty tube of toothpaste was left in one of my cubbies, and after eating a full meal of garbage and waste, Mr. Bear felt he should clean his teeth. Lucky for him, I was stupid enough to leave a tube hiding behind a thin sheep of canvas. Needless to say, my tent was ravaged beyond repair (pictures to come soon). Kind of a bummer. I'm now, officially, homeless. Moved all my stuff (short of anything that smells tasty) up into the sweat lodge, where I will now continue to camp until I give in and move into a flat in the valley. If only I had that damn van already! Soon though...

No pictures of Whistler simply because I couldn't be bothered lugging my camera equipment up the mountain, but I'm sure I'll get some soon enough. No pictures of the destruction at basecamp because I was to busy cleaning up the mess and trying to get settled in again before the sun went down. I'll have plenty of shots to share once I have a place to live, but right now, I'm leaving the camera alone for a while till I can get this mess sorted out. I will, however, leave you with this fun little shot we got the other night of Tierry spinning his staff. If you look close, you can see Tierry's eye in there.



Cheers all! Back to camp with a full can of Bear Spray!

No time for stories. Here's some shots. Still no climbing one's though. I keep carrying my camera out, but leaving it in my bag. That's how it goes, being back at the Chief boulders, though. Like a kid in a candy store...

For the past 4 days, the sun has been doing a fine job of warming up the air and drying out the forest. Such a good job in fact, that I seem to have a hard time lugging my computer to the library as opposed to lugging my climbing shoes to the base of The Chief! I did however manage to make it up to the top of Ring Creek a few days ago with my camera. Amazing waterfall back there, with a breathtaking old-growth cedar tree that use to stand right at the base of it, but the tree has since blown over, leaving plenty of opportunity to cash in on the 'cedar plank' craze! That, or just make myself a nice one for the next time I catch a salmon...



And then there was this nifty little waterslide which made me wish that I was a gnome with a kayak sooooo badly.


Wether's been great, but the amount of work hasn't. With any luck, I'll be picking up several jobs this week, all in hope of getting that van by the end of the month...

Two days in a row of sunshine... One more, and the forest might actually dry up! Keeping my fingers crossed...

Ok, so I'm in Squamish, my camera is working just as well as it was before, I'm living in a makeshift lodge in the forest, and I'm cutting down drastically on the amount of time I spend on the internet, simply because my computer now lives at Doug's house, until I purchase this camper van I've had my eye on since arriving. Assuming the work (which begins this week) remains steady, I should have myself a new vehicle/home by the end of the month! That's the goal, at least.


Now, I'm just hoping for some sunshine to dry out this forest! It's hard to just walk around the boulders and not actually climb on anything.

The Camera.... Is GOOD! Got to Squamish today, turned on the camera, and proceeded to take several shots! Even got the one's of the 'wave day' off the memory card and onto the computer!






It's going to be a pretty summer up in Squamish this year...