mountains Archives - WHOA lansi

August in Instagram

On August 31, 2013

It’s vacation time! Woohoo! I feel like I’ve been waiting for this all summer and it’s finally here. I don’t usually do scheduled posts, but I didn’t want to miss out on an August Recap! When this posts we will hopefully be having a glorious time at a Wedding in Vancouver. Here’s what we got up to this month:

1. I’m always cooking (or at least it feels that way!) This recipe was fantastic! Paleo pork burgers topped with yam noodles. You can NEVER go wrong with yam noodles. I also made yam chips by deep frying yams in bacon fat. Yum!
2. I already posted about Color Me Rad, but it was seriously fun!
3. I went out to Columbia Lake and hung out with my folks. I love that spot.
4. N was away for a few weeks. I hated it, so we went for brunch at one of my favourite restaurants, Ox and Angela, to celebrate his return.
5. We went backpacking along Lake Minnewanka with some friends. We ran into bears and it was terrifying, but we made it out alive. It was a fun trip overall!
6. We experimented with a new paleo crust from one of my new cookbooks, Gather. It was delicious.
7. Fitness Friday is still happening every Friday. It makes me incredibly happy to see how much stronger all these people are getting. Our little group is growing and it’s amazing!
8. We hiked Grizzly Peak with T. It was a wonderful way to spend a sunny Saturday.
9. Mom treated me to a manicure and my first pedicure. I could definitely get addicted to having pretty nails!

Enjoy the long weekend! Excuse me while I dance the night away! We’ll be on the road tomorrow exploring the Pacific Coast Highway on our way to Portland. I can’t wait!

This Land is my Land

By whoalansi

On August 27, 2013

In Uncategorized

We went hiking this weekend in Kananaskis Country. There are so many hikes I want to do that chosing one can be really tough sometimes, but we eventually settled on Grizzly Peak. I’d seen some photos from a friend of a friend and it looked like a great hike. You can’t beat the view you get from the mountains in Kananaskis and you get the added bonus of not needing a park pass.

The very beginning of the trail

N and I hoped in the car and picked up a friend early Saturday morning. After unsuccessfully trying to get coffee at three independent coffee places, we gave in to Starbucks and headed West for the Rockies.

Grizzly Peak is an unmarked trail between Grizzly Creek and Hood Creek. It was relatively easy to find using the landmarks described in online guides. We parked in the ditch on the side of the highway, changed into our hiking boots, and started up the trail. You could distinctly see it running beside the creek from the beginning, despite it being an unmarked trail.

It started climbing pretty quickly right from the start. We weren’t going to get much of a break on this hike, it seemed.It was so steep that it took us over an hour to cover the first kilometre. I’m sure the boys could have climbed faster, but they had to wait for me and I’m just a little bit slower.

T being….T

Right from the beginning, there were some great views and fun obstacles. There was a little point where we had to scramble and carefully hug the side of the mountain. It looks a lot more difficult than what it is.

Obstacles!

The trail as pretty distinct until we got about three quarters of the way up, when we hit a bunch of scree. You could tell people had made different decisions as to which route to take and there wasn’t a clear trail. We continued to scramble up and then decided to take the steep grassy route up to the saddle instead of scrambling up some interesting rock and creek. It was steep and tough, but definitely better than the alternative.

Let’s take the grassy route…

The saddle itself was pretty amazing. I wasn’t expecting to find a beautiful clearing up there, surrounded my mountains. It was so peaceful and seemed like a great spot to take a lunch break. We found a nice little spot and hunkered down for some food. It was gorgeous.

Finding a lunch spot

From the saddle, it was an easy 15 minutes to the summit. We really lucked out with the weather and it was gorgeous when we reached the top. Most summits are pretty windy so we took advantage of the stillness and hung out for a while, enjoying the view and chatting. It was breathtaking.

Thanks for an amazing day as always, Kananaskis Country! I highly recommend Grizzly Peak if you’re looking for a new day hike to try. The views are incredible right from the start, the saddle is beautiful and peaceful, and it makes for a great day!

Summer To-Do List

By whoalansi

On June 21, 2013

In Uncategorized

Columbia Lake

Considering yesterday Calgary and its surrounding communities and cities declared a state of emergency due to flooding from heavy rainfall, it’s hard to believe summer has arrived today. Inspired by a couple other bloggers and the first day of one of my favourite seasons (who am I kidding, I love them all!), I put together a little summer to-do list of some of the things I’d like to do.

1. Enjoy cocktails with friends. I want to host a cocktail party but I envision this being outside and that’s not an option for us due to our lack of outdoor space. Elsie of A Beautiful Mess has been posting a ton of amazing sounding cocktail recipes that I am dying to try!

2. Take advantage of the mountains. Go hiking and backpacking. The rockies are too close not to take advantage of!

3. Experience more Calgary events. Street Festivals, Food Truck Events, Fun Runs…Take advantage of some of the fun local things happening around Calgary. Play tourist at home a little bit.

4. Take a road trip. I can’t wait for our trip to Vancouver, Portland, Seattle, and Kelowna. I love a good road trip and I love visiting new cities.

5. Attend an outdoor concert. I bought tickets for Folk Fest. I’ve heard great things about it so it’s about time I did a full day at Prince’s Island.

6. Nail a handstand. I’ve been practicing and I’m determined to nail a decent handstand. The summer I was nine, I had a similar goal, but with cartwheels. What I’m saying is that I’m an nine-year-old at heart.

7. Get away with the girls. Boys will be boys, so let’s leave them at home and have our own fun. I’m thinking some lake time is in order. Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone and make up some cocktails too!

8. Rock a flip flop tan and some freckles. Nothing says summer to me better than sunkissed skin and tan lines from my havaianas. Come on Calgary, bring on the sunshine!

9. Bike to work as much as possible! We live in the perfect neighbourhood to take advantage of biking to work. It’s such a great way to start the day.

10. Spend time outside daily. Summer always flies by. I’ll save my hermitting for winter, when darkness sets in before I leave work and the ground is frozen for months.

Enjoy the first day of summer! What do you plan to do this season?

Nashville North

Wedding Shower

Wakeboarding

Ha Ling Peak

By whoalansi

On June 19, 2013

In Uncategorized

We kicked off our hiking season by conquering Ha Ling Peak a couple weeks ago. The rain finally let up for a day so we took advantage of the sun and pilled into my car to head out to Canmore for a day in the mountains.

Ha Ling is a great beginning of season hike. It’s not too long and even with snow, it’s hike-able. They used to list it as a beginner scramble, but the word beginner throws people off. It can be daunting for an actual beginner, so they’ve since changed it to a moderate hike.

You don’t really get any breaks on Ha Ling. It’s starts out pretty steep and never really lets up the whole way. The nice thing is that it’s relatively short and the views are pretty awesome. You can see all of Canmore just before the final push to the summit. It really reminds you of how lucky we are here in Alberta.

We started out in the late morning and took our time, pausing for lunch before the summit and taking water breaks whenever we wanted. It probably took us about 3 hours round trip. It was a great first hike of the season. Since it’s still quite early in the year, there’s lots of snow once you get past the treeline, but we managed to find a way up relatively unscathed.

The next day I wasn’t too sore but I could feel my muscles. For me, this is always a sign of a hike that I was well prepared for. It was definitely nothing like our beginning of season attempt at Middle Sister several years ago She left me waddling for days afterwards. (And yet, I still want to hike her again sometime soon. Masochist?)

I’d definitely recommend Ha Ling, even if you are a bit of beginner. Take your time and enjoy the awesome view at the top. It’s well worth the burning calf muscles!

WHOA lansi

francophile, oenophile, logophile, turophile

Tag: mountains

August in Instagram

This Land is my Land

Ha Ling Peak

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