While some folks in the Bow Valley have already been observed in plentiful numbers dry tooling in the shady and dark Playgrounds on Grotto Mountain, others did enjoy the perfect fall conditions lately to soak up the sun on warm rock well above 2000m, on the highest cliff Echo Canyon has to offer.
When our Lord envisioned "Bellavista", the main purpose of his creation was to extend the climbing season for the poor locals who could not effort to go south in October on a regular basis in order to get some rock climbing fix in before the season closes.
As the wise man he was back then (and hopefully still is), he took his hand and sliced a big chunk out of the high south flanks of Grotto Mountain.
Unlike a straight hand of a Kung Fu Master, he did bend his into a half moon shape. With this simple trick he created a satellite dish feature that accommodates two different aspects and provides shelter from the almost constant west winds that seem to annoy most climbers.
And since it is for some reason not a forbidden fruit for a change, we just have to go up there and take advantage of his gift...
without being afraid to be kicked out of paradise.
Sounds like a good deal to me.
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| Simon Meis prior to a 6 o'clock sunset on Halloween day |
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| the only rain drops I saw in October, and they where kinda short lived |
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