Festival of Trees 2014

Every year I check out the Festival of Trees at the Empress Hotel. It’s a Christmas tree display where people/companies decorate a tree to raise funds for the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation. A lot of the trees were really well done!! Soooo less talk, more pictures!

Must… Not… Eat… Gingerbread Houses

First off, I would like to say Merry Christmas to everyone! Hope everyone is having a great time spending time with family and friends!

Every year in Victoria, there’s a gingerbread house display/contest that happens at the Laurel Point Inn. Every time I go there, I’m always surprised at how much detail there are in the gingerbread houses. This year they wrote down how much time was spent on these projects. It’s always a good time here, and it smells wonderful!! I always have to hold myself back from taking a bite out of these things…

Let me know which one is your favourite!

Victoria Lighted Truck Parade 2014

Can’t believe Christmas has snuck up on me this year! Time is sure going by really quickly. Been super busy with work and photography projects. But I guess it’s time to get into the Christmas mood now! At the beginning of December, there was a lighted truck parade. I decided to head down there with my folks. It’s been a while since I’ve checked this out, so it was good time! Here are the pics.

Summer 2014 Epic Road Trip Part 3 – The Long Way Home

Well, looks like I’ve headed as far East as I’ve planned to go. I guess it’s time to slowly make my way back to the Westcoast. But first, there’s going to be some detours! Was driving the Crowsnest Pass and came across Frank Slide. It was pretty crazy. It’s where a rock slide happened in 1903 in the little town of Frank in the middle of night. 90 million tons of rock came down and took out the Eastern edge of Frank, the coal mine, and the railroad. It killed 70 – 90 people. Apparently they’re still buried in the rubble.

Next stop was Nelson! Met up with a few friends and stayed there for the majority of the week. This town is pretty awesome. Good food lots of young people, and surrounded by mountains.

Spent the morning rock climbing at Raven Wall in Castlegar with a few friends. Great climbs! Was able to flash a 5.11a and projecting a 5.11b. Until next time!

Back on the road again! Heading out West.

Made it back to the coast! Met up with a friend and enjoyed a sunset at Crescent Beach. Always a great place to just hang out.

Next day, picked up my friends from the ferry and off to Squamish for the weekend before I had to head back to reality. Haven’t been here in years, so it was amazing checking it out and seeing how much I’ve improved. Great times!

What an amazing trip! Great rock climbing, great friends, great food, lots of nature… Life can’t get any better than that… Well, I guess it’s back to reality. Stoked to see what lies ahead! Definitely more adventures to come!

Summer 2014 Epic Road Trip Part 2 – Dinosaurs!

Second part of my road trip back in July. Met up with a friend in Calgary. Spent some time there and Drumheller. So far so good! It just feels great traveling.

This is the Peace Bridge. It’s a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Bow River. Pretty awesome.

I’m really liking all the art around town. Makes the city look a lot more modern. The next picture is an interesting sculpture in front of the Bow. I’ve seen other work from this artist (Jaume Plensa) in Seattle. So it was kinda cool finding this.  The skyscraper behind it is also really awesome.

Next stop, Drumheller! This is my first time there, and I keep hearing about the famous Royal Tyrrell Museum. It was really cool!

Awesome T-Rex just hanging out

This was at the Fossil Museum. The T-Rex actually moves. It was kind of terrifying. And it was only a young one… Ugh.

Checked out the Badlands Passion Play. We weren’t allowed taking pictures during the performance, but it was really well done! And the venue was awesome! Right before the show started, we were warned about a thunder storm. So we packed up, waited it out (maybe 15- 30 minutes), and back to our seats. The weather was pretty awesome after the quick storm.

Star Mine suspension bridge

Hoodoos!

Next stop… Nelson! Keep an eye out for part 3!

Summer 2014 Epic Road Trip Part 1 – Chasing A Waterfall

First off, I’d want to say I’m really sorry for the lack of updates. Things have been really busy – working, rock climbing, sorting out some photography things, and road tripping. Hopefully I’ll get caught up on all my work soon…

I decided to go on a two week road trip. It was something I had to do because last year I wasn’t able to go on a trip, so I was really itching to get out there. I got the chance to meet up with a bunch of friends along the way. It was definitely great seeing them again It’s been too long! And this was actually the first time I’ve ever done a trip by myself (well… Drove all over the place by myself), so it was something out of my comfort zone because I had long days of driving and I always felt like I needed a partner in crime when doing trips like these. But I was glad I went for it!

My trip started on July 11th (Friday) right after work. Packed up my car and headed for the ferries. Spent the weekend in Squamish doing a trad/multi-pitch rock climbing course (no pictures for that). Then on the Monday, I was off to my next destination – Lake Louise. Met up with a friend and her friend and camped at the Lake Louise campground. The next day we climbed Takakkaw Falls. It was my first big multi-pitch climb, so I was really stoked about it. 12 pitches rated at 5.6.

 

Here’s a picture of our camping spot. Rise and shine! Ready for an epic day!

Here is the beauty we’re going to be climbing.

After climbing up all that scree at the bottom, we were ready to rock! This is Sean leading the first pitch I believe.

Joy leading the second pitch.

4th pitch – just a little bit of traversing.

This next pic was great. This is the view you got after coming out of the rocks on pitch 7.

So much focus…

The next one is the 11th pitch. It’s not really a pitch… It’s more like climbing through a 200ft tunnel near the top of the waterfall. So awesome!

Joy finishing up the last pitch!

We made it to the top!

After hanging out for a little bit, it was time to get back down. This is Joy setting up the first rappel.

Thank you Joy and Sean for bringing me up this amazing climb! You guys rock! What an epic way of starting the road trip. So much beauty.

Next day, it was time to head over to Calgary, so I made a quick stop at Lake Louise to snap a few shots.

Stay tuned for the next part of the trip!

Mt Arrowsmith

Two weeks ago, Roxy, myself, and a few others went up Mt Arrowsmith (located around Port Alberni area). I’ve seen this mountain a lot of time while driving around the area. Today was the day to conquer it! It’s been on my list of mountains I’ve wanted to hike for a while. It is the highest mountain in the Southern Vancouver Island area. We went up Un-judges route and came down on Judges route.

Elevation: 1819m
Elevation gain: ~1000m
Total distance traveled: ~6km

We started hiking for a little bit and then lost the trail because an area of it got clear cut. So we had to hike through this but eventually found the trail markers again.

Loving the exposure.

We’re almost above the treeline!

That’s where we’re going (to the right). Can see the summit.

Walking the ridge.

There’s the summit in sight! Getting there.

We made it to the summit!

Panoramic shot.

All in all, it was a great experience. Everyone survived, and my knees were killing by the time we got to the summit. I guess I’ll have to work them a little more so they get used to it. Stoked for the next adventure!

Mt Horne

My buddy, Mason recently bought a bunch of camping gear, so we had to test it out! A group of us went camping for the weekend at Little Qualicum Falls. It was a great time to get away from the city. It was definitely something I needed. A few of us hiked up Mt Horne.

Elevation: 910m
Elevation gain: 750m
Total distance traveled: 9.78km

The trail was really steep… But we all made it (eventually). I slowed down the whole group because my cardio is garbage. But in the end, it was really rewarding. In my mind, summer has begun already!

This is the beginning. Just finding the trailhead.

After the first steep part, we reached a railroad track which was level (thank goodness!).

After a little bit, we had to head back up the steepness.

We’re on the right track!

The first glimpse of Mt Horne.

Views along the way. Man is it beautiful!

We made it to the top! Signed the registry and hung out for a bit. Victory!

I was pretty exhausted afterwards, but it was so rewarding! I’m pretty stoked for the many trips in the near future!

Mt Wells

Well… I’ve finally decided to hike Mt Wells. I’ve been wanting to do this hike for a while, but never got around to it because I usually end up rock climbing here. This was my first hike of the summer so I’m a little bit out of shape. Luckily this was a fairly easy hike. So I think we’re off to a good start! And of course, had to grab a couple of geocaches on the way up.

This used to be a working 44km concrete aqueduct that went from Sooke Lake to the Humpback Reservoir. Then from the reservoir it would transport the water down to Victoria. But now it’s not needed.

You can see Mt Finalyson in the distance (the really round mountain).

At the summit.

In the next picture, on the right, that’s Mt MacDonald – another place to rock climb!

Unity For The Climate Launch Event

Joseph Boutilier is unicyling from Victoria to Ottawa starting on April 5th for a 5 month ride to raise awareness for the climate. A group of us met on April 5th early morning at Mile 0 to start his adventure. It was a good turnout. He made a few stops before showing up in Sidney at the launch event where MLA’s spoke, a few spoken words, and bands played including the Kennedy family, Hayden Meagan and Brad, Nostic, and Inglewood. It was a little rainy, but spirits were high.

for more info: http://unityfortheclimate.ca/

for more pictures of he event: http://islandtrailphotography.com/2014/unity-for-the-climate-launch-event/

for my photography Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/islandtrailphotography