“As a rock climber I spend a lot of time dangling on ropes and enjoying scenery from up high so I have to admit I didn’t think the new Kokanee Mountain Zipline near Nelson, BC, was going to be that exciting. I was wrong. No matter what thrilling endeavour you’ve done in the Kootenays, nothing […]
The Lion’s Head Smoke and Brew Pub in Robson, near Castlegar is a special place. Not only does it have an amazing selection of good beer on tap, it’s also Canada’s only rock climbing pub. Forty feet away from the back patio is the Pub Wall natural rock climbing cliff that boasts 11 quality routes. […]
“Leonardo da Vinci sketched the first helicopter design in the late 1400s. Three hundred years later Comte Mede de Sivrac of France invented the celerifere, the precursor to the modern-day bicycle. Then, in July 2015, a Revelstoke-based company threw the two vehicles together and brought heli-biking to the masses. Selkirk-Tangiers has spent almost 40 years […]
“Big fish do weird things to people. And by big fish I mean really big fish. They affect some part of our limbic brain and account for the bordering on manic popularity of Shark Week, River Monsters and Jaws(not so sure about this one, how about how people google giant catfish wrangling (magazines or movies?). […]
I had never even seen a glacier when I first donned a pair of Julbos in the 1980s. Sunglasses have come a long way since then but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that, for its 125th anniversary, the France-based company relaunched its classic Vermont mountaineering glasses. Founded by Jules Baud, who originally made goggles […]
Polished Wall is located at Kinnaird Bluffs in Castlegar, British Columbia. Follow the trail up and to the left (North) from Open Book Wall (page 29 of the West Kootenay Rock Guide). It’s an excellent wall for beginner sport and trad climbers although it’s important to note that the anchors are not easily accessible from […]
Utah-based Black Diamond has no shortage of backpack offerings. In fact, the company makes about 70 different kinds of packs and that doesn’t include the Gregory line of backpacks, which parent company Black Diamond Inc. owns. The new Nitro line (which comes in a 22L and 26L versions) is one of the smallest they make […]
RFW Wall is located just past Scottie’s Marina on Broadwater Road. It features five of the best moderate trad/mixed routes in the area. However, please note there is poison ivy in this area. Steps have been taken to eradicate it but it’s wise to be wary of any plant with “leaves of three.” For route […]
Recently I was asked to review the Big Agnes Lost Ranger sleeping bag and Q-Core insulated pad – a sleep system that subscribes to the theory that down is useless crushed under your body weight and instead you should utilize the sleeping pad’s insulating qualities. The Lost Ranger bag only has down in two-thirds of […]
A few years ago, while on a trip to the climbing paradise of Kalymnos, Greece, I was loaned a copy of Arno Ilgner’s The Rock Warrior’s Way. It immediately made an impression because, unlike other training manuals I had read with their “do finger pull-ups until you weep” advice, Arno’s book dealt with the mental aspect […]
