Guide the Rockies

04/14/2024

Another great winter season up in Jasper, working with on sharing our passion for the mountains with our guests! The shoulder season is for family, wood fires, skiing with many backpacks on the ski hill (?) and portrait sessions. Enjoy the spring! Thanks for making it a great season .lisa .innamillion

11/15/2023

After the front-country logistics are dealt with, finally being in basecamp feels like a relief. After being around lots of people, it was nice to be our own team of 7. In addition to Alik, Ethan and I, we had our liaison officer (Lohe) and our three kitchen staff: Sanjay, Sajaan and Nitesh. They were a great addition to our team, all kind and fun guys. Since we moved up to our 5,300m basecamp rather quickly, we spent the first few days making easy hikes up the valley, and then started to move some equipment closer to the mountain. We had some new snow after arriving in BC, but it quickly melted in the afternoon sun. We then received some disturbing news about a big flood event, very close to our camp. Luckily this was in the next valley over, but our resupply and egress were certainly in question.
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1: Nighttime campfire on our trek to BC
2: Our trekking guide Binod
3: Astro photo from BC, with Kirat Chuli bottom right
4: Decorated (?) gentian
5: Almost there…
6: Sphagnum moss closeup
We’re back in Canada now, after quite a different “climbing” expedition. Sikkim state experienced a major glacial lake flooding event, a direct result of global climate change. This happened in the next valley north of us, only a few days after we arrived in basecamp. We were completely safe, but Sikkim was hit in a major way, with much destruction and deaths downstream. With access and egress completely cut off, we ended the expedition before it really began.
Big thanks to and for being great humans to experience a natural disaster with. We were so fortunate to be safe, while our support crew in Gangtok and elsewhere helped us get evacuated from an India Tibetan Border Police outpost, after walking back from BC.
Thanks to and for supporting me in making these trips a reality, even though the odds are usually not in our favour for alpine climbing in far flung places.

07/10/2023

Great start to the summer. One of the best parts of my private guiding work is the variety it brings. Some glacier hiking on the Athabasca glacier (with ), a great 4 day trip with and his son and a 4 day program with for a great group from the Taiwan Mountaineering Association 🇹🇼. It’s great to share our beautiful Canadian Rockies with visitors and locals alike! Even found some time to go climbing with friends!
📷 3&4 by JC

10/13/2022

Still so much to discover and enjoy about this beautiful country. Excited for the next part of our adventure: going climbing. Had such a great time trekking with .oosterhoff .sanc9 , now we’re off to some less crowded places for our basecamp. We got really lucky to meet the lovely owners of Mt Kailash Lodge in Namche (last photo), who honoured us with all the blessings, and their company and good food.

09/25/2022

Lots of colourful duffels crowding our house probably means adventure times are close! Very excited about setting off on our Nepal adventure with , and Andrea. First we’ll sit through 32hrs of travel to Kathmandu, sleep, then explore KTM city! After that we’ll plan to trek for 2 weeks starting in Namche to acclimatize, then hike to our basecamp for some climbing. For Lin and I it’s our first time in Asia, which we’re really looking forward to!

My main page got hacked, so don’t trust anything getting sent from that account. Trying to get it back, standing by…

09/14/2022

Great to spend a good part of my summer season working in NW British Columbia providing mountain safety for mineral exploration. New challenges accessing hard to reach locations, luckily with some great weather and friends!
This glacier lake was definitely one of my favourite spots to hunt for geological treasure! 🏴‍☠️

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09/10/2022

The first snows are flying in the high mountains, and with that a busy summer is coming to an end.

One of the highlights was an amazing weekend up at the Hind Hut to climb the North ridge of Assiniboine with my wife .oosterhoff. It was great to climb the mountain in good weather with our close friend and his guests along side us.

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07/23/2022

Great to see one of my dear friends Alik Berg on the cover of this year’s Canadian Alpine Journal. A great day trip from our Mount Logan base camp with stunning views!

The 2022 Canadian Alpine Journal is just about ready to be mailed out!

Enjoy a preview of the cover, the first few pages of "In The Spirit of John Lauchlan" and the opening spreads from our features. You can find that all here 👉 bit.ly/ACC-CAJ

Stay tuned for a countdown to our online release!

05/19/2022

While it might be officially spring, the fun in the snow is not over. Some images of two recent trips up the Columbia Icefields with some great teams.
If you’re looking to gain the skills to complete such trips, join our 5 day intro to mountaineering on May 30-June 3. Low ratio (4:1) course with a day for an objective climb at the end! Snow, ice and rock anchors will be covered, as well as crevasse rescue, glacier travel skills and rope ascension.
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02/06/2022

As I’m packing my bags, to fly to Québec again next week, it’s nice to look back on some previous trips there. Contains footage from various areas in Québec, both remote and road side, and even some New England ice. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/XSjNFY8NenQ

Brief edit of some of the earlier trips to Quebec. Golden ice climbing and beautiful remote locations. Good granite and good gear! Featuring f...

02/02/2022

Another great two weeks climbing along the Icefields Parkway and Jasper. Great to see folks progressing through the sport and doing well! Photos are from Balfour Wall, Weeping Wall right side and Maligne Canyon.
One spot left for a March 1-3 ice climbing trip in the Jasper area. A day of cragging to work on technique and then two days of multi pitch climbing. Low ratios, DM for more details!

01/10/2022

A varied work schedule is one of my favourite parts of being an .ca Alpine Guide. Few days of guides training at under the keen eye of Max Darrah, travelling with and our cat Am to Jasper plus many days guiding and recreation with a new friend in Maligne Canyon. With , we’re offering the full ascent, bottom to top, of Maligne canyon this year (as long as conditions hold). One of the most interesting, varied days of ice climbing you could think of! Join us this winter!

Big thanks to for their continued support of my privileged life of working and playing in the Canadian mountains!

11/13/2021

One of the joys of climbing is walking into the mountains with a pack on your back and picking your adventure. On our last trip, we picked well: first day opening a new line and the second day making it mostly up a classic in the Protection Valley. Despite a bit of a lean year in here, still lots of climbing to be had!
Pic 1: ARISE Mountain Guiding putting the rope up on the Dirtbag Dreams start to A***n P’tit Grimlin. Normally a moderate ice route (WI4), this year it is much more interesting with lots of rock protection placed to keep it safe (more like M5 WI5). Great job by Sebastian!
Pic 2: Myself on our second pitch of A***n, more ice climbing with rock gear. Photo by
Pic 3: Seb climbing our final pitch of the day. Unbelievably, the ice ran out halfway up this pitch 🤦🏽
Pic 4: Overview of a short new line, Start off the Difficulties (M6 WI4+, 70m). The name mostly pokes fun at where we stopped our route, right where the big hard roof is! Photo:
Pic 5: M6 corner leading to the belay. Photo:
Pic 6: Snagging the ice via a delicate traverse
Pic 7: cool rock arch photo opp!

11/12/2021

The winter season is here! Nice to review some days from the previous seasons from the comfort of home. We’re booking winter climbing days already, DM to book yours! As the first few ice routes are getting climbed, the snow is also slowly accumulating, so start thinking about avalanche terrain and bringing the kit .
Photo 1: climbing the mixed start to Good Luck Bad Dreams
Photo 2: Nice time lapse by of from a course we taught last year, to demonstrate good A frame technique, essential to safely climbing ice
Photo 3: A day off in Jasper, attempting Curtain Call with
Photo 4: One of the tougher days in Scotland, February 2020, attempting to onsight the Vicar (VII,8), but falling off a lot. Thanks Andy for the most patience at this belay, props!

11/04/2021

Good to swing the ice tools for the first time this season over the last few days. Nice to get used to this ever-changing medium early on in the year. Particularly early season, conditions can change very quickly, so we were happy to have good weather and good climbing. A day of climbing at the Stanley Headwall, getting up most of Nemesis (WI6, 140m) with Sean K. The next day visiting Storm Creek headwall to climb all of Buddha Nature Direct (M6, 120m) with winner Ethan Berman. Great days with good people!
We’re already booking ice climbing days. If you’re looking to try ice climbing, or hoping to climb a famous classic, we do it all. I hear Nemesis is in condition! 😉
First photo is Ethan taking us to the top of Buddha Nature. Thanks for the second photo of myself on Buddha Nature Direct. Last photo of Sean following the first pitch of Nemesis.

10/21/2021

Hard to let go of those nice summer days! Between some Rockies work, a great General Mountaineering Camp, passing my Alpine Guide exam with Jesse M., and (who all passed as well, congrats!) and some backpacking on the West Coast, it was a great season! Thanks to everyone who came out!
P1: hiking up to Wiwaxy gap in Lake O’Hara region to bivy below Mt Huber on the .ca Alpine Guide exam
P2: climbing the NE ridge of Nanga Parbat mountain during the 2021 GMC
P3: dinner time at the GMC is never complete without story time!
P4: Climbing the Kain route on Mt Louis for
P6: Our final AG exam day up Generosity. If your only feedback after the day is “that was awesome!”, you know you’ve had a good day!
P7: spent two trips in the Marriot basin, North of Pemberton, BC working for teaching outdoor and backpacking skills. Hopefully I’ll be back in the area, very beautiful!

07/07/2021

Last weeks heat wave was a great time to be on the glacier! Other good activities include rock climbing in the shade, guides training with your friends and shredding your tent for additional ventilation!
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06/21/2021

Great day guiding this fun crew up Mt. Temple a few days ago with . Early season conditions provided a very different experience from the normal August scramble. These folks really had to put in the mountaineering effort to get to the summit, good job!