Sunny Squamish!

And so the road trip was paused for a few months as we settled into our new home; Squamish, BC. There is too much I to tell you about how beautiful Squamish is in the summer! The way the sun sparkles off of the water of the Sound in the morning light. The pink color of the snow on the surrounding mountains at dusk. The way the chipmunks and squirrels playfully skip in and out of the forest. There are a thousand little things that make the magic that is Squamish. But alas, I must resign myself to only conveying a miniscule part of this magic, as once again I do not possess the words to convey the charm of this place.

V0 slab climbing...not as easy as it sounds!

We have had the opportunity to do heaps of climbing here, and once again the boulders are unlike any I have experienced before. The rock is like a strange combination of Font and Magic Wood. Font's slabs and unfeatured rock unite with Magic Woods classic granite blocks, making Squamish bouldering a tough mix of technical and strong climbing. I have to admit to being disheartened for the first few weeks of climbing here, at first climbing V0s seemed an impossible goal as I struggled to read the rock. Slowly I have learned to move in the unique way that Squamish boulders require, however I am often still being schooled on V0s. The forest is amazingly beautiful and every day that we head out for a climb we enter a magical world. Perhaps all of the great fairytale authors drew the inspiration for their stories from the Squamish forest, as this is exactly the place I imagined as a child when my mother read to me of fairies, unicorns and other magical creatures.

Paradise Valley Bouldering Area

There is so much more to Squamish than climbing, though the climbing is world class! Pretty much any outdoor sport is accessible here. Josh and I have tried to take the time to experience as many of Squamish's offerings as we can; we will, however, certainly leave here having only scratched the surface. The summer has given us some amazing weather to explore the numerous lakes surrounding the town. It didn't take us long to realize how majestic the lakes are and we soon decided we wanted to spend as much time on them as possible and thus we justified the purchase of our inflatable boat, Dora - the Explorer. After a session in the forest we would head to the lake and swim until dinner time in the crystal clear waters. There is a magical vibrancy and life surrounding the lakes here - everything is so brilliantly green!

Josh and Sam taking Dora out for a spin

While we have been in Squamish I have also had the chance to really test out my knee. Up until this point I have looked forward to regaining the abilities that I had prior to hurting my knee, heel hooking, high steps and the like (all of which I am happy to say I have once more), but in the last few weeks I have for the first time done things that I could not have done prior to my injury! It is exciting to know that in some ways my strength and fitness has surpassed that which I possessed before I hurt myself. I cannot express the pride and joy I experienced when I reached the summit of the Chief, it was beyond my wildest expectations that I would be capable of doing such a walk with my bung leg. Suddenly the world has grown and there is so much I look forward to doing. Together my leg and I have managed to hike to some pretty beautiful places!

On the way to the top of the Chief

At the summit of the Chief - thanks Josh for convincing me to give it a try!

In the summer the Sea to Sky corridor comes alive, the festivals are too numerous that one simply cannot attend them all, that is unless that is all you were to do. We managed to get to a few. Hevyfest slacklining fesival was the first; Josh, Tim and I headed down to the Kite Surfing Beach and enjoyed some 30ish lines set up there. We had a blast playing on the lines (I even attempted to hula on one...this wasn't a particularly successful experiment) and when we were knackered there were some super talented peeps pulling all kinds of outrageous tricks to keep us entertained!

Josh and I headed into town to watch the Dyno competition at the Climbing Festival. Our main intention was to check out the expo that was taking place, to perhaps enter a few draws and look around at the gear on show. Somehow during this time I was convinced to try the dyno competition (though I had never tried to dyno before) and although I didn't do too well in the comp, I did manage to learn to dyno. During the comp Josh and I scored loads of free stuff, t-shirts, chalk, snacks and a DVD and we also had the chance to learn from the best as we watched one of the competitors attempt to break the world record, he came painfully close!
 

That's me judging the world champs!

Next it was Squamish Days - the Loggers Sports Festival. This was a mixture of hilarity and talent. On the first day Tim and I headed to the World Championship Chair Carving event; a pretty informal event given the gravity of its title. Here we watched as the competitors showed off the speed, creativity and artistic skill as they wielded chainsaws carving some impressively creative chairs out of their logs. What was the coolest thing that happened this day? I judged the event, yep that's right....I got to pick the winners! Oh and I also got a free t-shirt, though its a bit big haha. The excitement of the Squamish Days festival didn't end their. Later that weekend Josh, Sam and I headed to the Logger's Sports arena (yep there is such a thing) and settled in to watch some ridiculously impressive events at the Junior and Novice Loggers Sport Competition. Here we watched as people climbed 80ft logs, up and down, in under 10seconds. The competitors climbed, sawed, chopped and cut and the short story is the three of us were thoroughly entertained for hours!

Loggers Sports Arena

Free gondola ride up Blackcomb Mtn at Crankworx

 Most recently Josh and I headed up to Whistler to get to Crankworx mountain bike festival. The weather was a bit ordinary but we had a blast. The streets of Whistler Village were packed full of excitement, stalls and bikes. Josh and I enjoyed perusing the expo sampling the free treats. The highlights for me (apart from the free food, which made me pretty happy!) were the pumptrack competition and the Canadian Cheese Rolling Festival. The Cheese rolling festival was the funniest thing, groups of crazy people headed up Blackcomb Mountain, fully decked out in protective gear, and launched themselves down the mountain chasing after a wheel of cheese. The only thing more impressive than the free cheese samples were the tumbles that people had in the wet conditions as they singlemindedly chased the cheese. You think they are crazy don't you? That's because you don't live in Canada, the land of the overpriced cheese! Seriously, cheese is like gold here and if I didn't think I would have died (what with no protective clothing and a predisposition to falling over) then I would have chased that damned cheese with as much gusto as the rest of them!!!

Chasing the Cheese!

The chronological order of our experiences here in Squamish is lost on me and as such it shall also be missing from this post haha. I am more interested in telling you what we have been up to, and trying not to forget too much, than I am in telling it in order, so forgive me if you find yourself wondering how the timing works.

Tim, Josh and Sam at the beautiful
Shannon Falls!

Josh and I have enjoyed spending time with some great friends while we have been in BC. We were super excited to see Mel and Rob who moved to Squamish after living in the Grampians for a while. Our good friend Tim also headed out this way from Aus for an extended climbing trip and Josh's best mate Sam came over for a few a couple of weeks. In this way we have been spoiled with familiar faces at just the moment we needed a touch of home! After having been away from home for over 6 months now it was a really welcomed respite to be surrounded by our friends.
While Sam and Tim were here we all headed up to Whistler for a weekend of adventure! Thanks to a generous gift from my Dad, Josh and I had bank (a pleasant change)! On the Thursday we headed up to Whistler, another memorable drive, soo beautiful! We decided to camp in Callaghan Lake Provincial Park, this being the only free camping spot near the town. The park was beautiful, secluded and lush. The only downfalls being the 6km terrible dirt road, fit for 4WDs (which our car is most certainly not) and the march flies which enjoyed irritating us.
The lake was worth it!

Callaghan Lake - not a bad view to wake up to

On the first night I went for a swim. The water was chilly so the others didn't want to join, floating alone in the clear waters of this massive lake, gazing up at the mountains guarding its boarders is not something I am likely to forget anytime soon.
The next day we woke early and headed up to Cougar Mountain where we would enjoy 3 hours of tree top adventure at SuperFly. I cannot recommend this place enough, we had an absolute blast! The tree top adventure included zip lines, flying foxes, balance logs, Tarzan swings, rope challenges and sooo much more. The setting was incredible as we balanced our way across the ropes above the forest and river; the further into the course we got, the higher and more challenging the obstacles became. The guides were amazing, letting us go at our own pace and realizing our level of experience (as climbers) and tailoring the adventure to suit us, even letting us backtrack to repeat the best obstacles multiple times. After our tree top adventure we headed into the Village to have a look around; what a cool town!

Playing around in Whistler Village

The next day the pace changed as we headed to Scandinave Spa. Here we spent 5 hours indulging in hot-cold therapies at the Thermal Baths. Here is how the day went....15minutes in the hot spa, 10seconds in a Nordic Shower, 15minutes chilling by the fire on the deck; 15minutes in the sauna, 10seconds in Nordic waterfall, 15minutes chilling in a hammock in the sun. And so the day went repeating the cycle, 15mins hot, 10seconds cold, 15minuts relaxing for FIVE blissful hours. The spa is a silent zone allowing you to truly immerse yourself in the relaxation of the moment. AMAZING! The next day we headed back to Squamish (the trip out was a little stressful for Josh who managed to get us out of Callaghan Valley in the nick of time as a mountain storm rolled in and the the road conditions worsened, just a bit longer and we would have been stuck for sure!)

Shannon Falls, Squamish

Back in Squamish we were spoiled by Sammy who put us up in his hotel! And so out of our van we moved and into a luxurious world of real beds, long relaxing baths, hot tubs and an immense swimming pool with a surprisingly fast fully enclosed slide (what this slide is doing in a hotel I have no idea, but we certainly enjoyed its presence). Once again the time to say farewell sneaked up on us as Sammy headed back to New Zealand and Tim headed off to the Bugaboos (we will be seeing Tim again soon when he makes his way back to Squamish). But Squamish certainly has been the place where familiar faces are popping up and so continued the trend. Recently Josh and I have enjoyed bouldering with my friend Ed and a great couple of days with my Uncle and friends of my family in Vancouver, heading out to watch a game of box lacrosse and to IHOP for a feast of a breakfast that kept both Josh and I full well past dinner time!

At the lacrosse with Uncle Rob

The summer weather is slowly disappearing, Dora is packed up, deflated in our van, shorts are being replaced by pants and climbing on a particular day is no longer a given as the rain begins to move in. As the remaining days of good weather draw to a close, so to does our time in this beautiful part of the world. In a mere two weeks Josh and I will journeying on down into Washington State for the next stage of our adventure. That said, their is still a lot of adventure left in our remaining time in Squamish. Next week we will be once again joined by Tim and we will hopefully make our way up the five pitch Skywalker at Shannon Falls. Our friend Lukas will also soon arrive and Josh and I are both looking forward to getting out on some boulders with him (Lukas visited us in Magic Wood but was not able to climb with us then due to a finger injury...we shall make up for lost time!). Josh and I are also planning a four day 44km hike next week up to Mamquam Lake (approximately 2500m above sea level).

Josh and I have had the chance to experience so many new things here and all the while we have been surrounded by some of our favorite people. This adventure is life changing; and yes there are moments when it is not all sunshine and lollypops, when the lack of familiarity becomes overwhelming, but all in all I wouldn't change one moment. I am blessed to have this opportunity and I cannot wait to see what else is in stall for us!