Packed up from work early on Friday (Aug 3) and headed out to Jasper for a long weekend of backpacking to celebrate the single life of Derek and wait with anticipation for the beginning of his new life with Jackie. More pictures are available in the Backpacking 2007 Gallery
We headed out starting on the Marmot basin trailhead and made our way to Maccarib Pass over 2000 meters! We ran into a mother grizzly and 2 cubs before arriving at Amythest Campground (23 kms). We made supper and each drank our one can of beer as though it were a $200 bottle of champagne, beer is heavy you know!
After sleeping in late we woke up and departed to move our tents three kms down the trail to Clitheroe. After setting up camp and witnessing Adrian teach us how to eat cream cheese we were on our way to either find a glacier or climb to the peak of something. After crossing a swamp we made our way up and over suprise col, about 80 minutes of solid climbing on mostly all fours. The view from the top was spectacular.
The descent was significantly less work, as we boot skied several hundred vertical feet. Hans wiped out right at the summit and did his boot skiing totally out of control and riding on his butt, while Adrian and I practised our stem-christie.
We were up before 6 am on the last day and made our way out all the way to the Edith Cavell road before noon in perfect weather, we cleaned off with a swim in an absolutely numbing river and headed home to Edmonton.