Welcome to Precipiste Pictures
There are some things that pull at you harder than others, commitments, obligations, responsibilities and the alpine, continuously butting heads for first chair in our lives. As the weeks and days leading up to another year of study waned, Ned Gall and I were inspired to make a brief run to the alpine wonderland of the Canadian Rockies. With the great company of a Canmore crew( Special thanks Sharyn and Chris) and a fair weather window, we high tailed it to the Bugaboo provincial park
Chris "Thunder From Down Under" Jones starts out Bugaboo Spire in fine Tassie style
Per normal alpine style, Ned moves light and fast
Ned Gall tops out on the first pitch of the Northeast Ridge of Bugaboo Spire
To the North and a ways below , the Vowell glacier provides an ambient tone for the Northeast Ridge Classic
Ned tops out the South Summit of Bugaboo Spire
Early hiking on day 3 for some much desired August turns, 3,000 vertical feet later , we straddled the West ridge of Pigeon Spire. Winds picked up and we skuttled to our skis on the glacier below.
Two Bro-Bs, one far fetched Idea: To ski where people dream to climb.
C.J. schussing some turns below Pigeon Spire
Ned hails from Iowa, lending him the innate ability to assess the world's finest corn
CJ begins travels home with a rapell to the terminus of the Bugaboo glacier . 1,000m and 5k below, washboard roads, snacks and a university start date beckon the crew homeward.
Sunset falls upon Bugaboo Spire and McTech Arete
While August and our jaunt northward drew to a close, focus shifted to studies, concepts and ideas of what a new year would bring. The Suby drifted southward, each kilometer edging us closer to the the lifestyle shift which studies incur. Reaching the high plains of Bozeman, gear was dissasembled little by little, from our mobile storage locker to a more permanent abode. A day later we were back in the whitewash and florecent tones of the university environ, left with a redux of experiences reminising on the immense granite spires, suncups and bags of bran muffins that had been our life the past week .
Returning home from school that first day, I looked at my skis propped in a sunlit corner of my house, encrusted in the glacial till of the Bugaboo glacier. I thought for a moment about brushing them off, I then stopped. I realized that beyond the activity of skiing, the multitudes of environments that this single activity has exposed me to, has altered and encompassed my life. The till was merely an indicator of the immersive nature and omnipresent elemental interaction of the hills. I went back to unpacking boxes and moving in, leaving the skis untouched .
Christopher J. Carter
August 2009
