alone

Southfacing cliffs like Bataan and Echo Canyon on Grotto Mountain, seen below from the way up to Little-Middle Sister col... these shear endless bands of rock walls are partially responsible for my lonely playtime on skis lately. Amongst my slow healing ankle and rather challenging snow conditions with, at times little overnight freeze, most partners are, very understandable, already in the rock climbing mood and entertain themselves with wicked early season pumps predominantly over on the other side. Since April is now officially history, it is now May's responsibility to provide us with a higher Pressure (air that is) than the former month.  

Almost looks like Summer, but this was taken from one of the better ski outings I had this spring. One of the rare opportunities we have in Canmore, skiing touring and being able to look at my house the whole time. The rock face you can see is the south (hidden) side of Canmore's landmark Little Sister. Looking at all the green down there, it's hard to imagine that it was possible to ski all the way to the car parked at Three Sisters Golf Course, where I had to fight my way through a big herd of Elk.

The mighty Middle Sister with a nice sluff roaring down the East Face.

On a different outing 10 days and a terrible warm spell later, this time around Lake Louise. I've spotted the line (in the center of the picture above) already years ago but I had a hard time convincing partners to give it a go. Leading to a dominant peak like this it must have been done tons before, but it felt pretty special to have the necessary 99.9% safe conditions to do it alone. 

perfect quartzite towers give away to grey limestone higher up

Out of the 1450m of ascent the skies stayed on the pack 90% of the time, while on the way down they were on my feet 100%...should have brought some ski crampons to even it out a bit.

upper serac band with the summit poking out behind

Summit Ridge with the north face of Temple

When you travel alone, nobody can make fun of your head gear.

The rather unusual birds eye view of the popular Surprise Pass and Lake Louise below

Looking towards Sentinel Pass and the not so Grand Sentinel below and right, from here it actually looks like there are two Pinnacles.

the price I had to pay for Aberdeen...

the re-swollen skateboard ankle was totally worth it.