Our West Coast weather has been top notch lately. It seems as though we have skipped the rainy Spring season all together, and have jumped right into the Summer months. Earlier last week, I was invited to join a group of amazing people on a climbing trip to Squamish. I don’t know about you, but there is something about mini road trips that makes my heart grow warm. The offer was tempting…
Beautiful people, gorgeous weather, and well, it just goes without saying that the mountains in Squamish are nothing short of magical. It’s safe to say, I happily accepted.
Up at 7am
pack
hat
harness
shoes
water
lunch
cameras
This time the crew was big:
Sally, Denise, Carson, Kyle, Kris, Kia, Kat and myself, Chloe. (Thats a lot of “Kuh” sounds…)
And let’s not forget our sweet four legged friends, Hogan and Berkley.
We met first thing in the morning to plan our route and our carpooling arrangements. Once that was sorted, we were off to spend our day blanketed in warm sunlight and cool dry winds.
When we arrived, the sun was just beginning to peak overhead and we were lucky enough to catch a gorgeous rainbow that had formed right above our climbing spot. Carson and Kia quickly hiked to the bolts above, set the routes, and raced as they repelled back to our level. After that, it was just a matter of time before someone tied in and was ready to go.
Kyle was the first to ascend, followed by Kris. Both of them met up part way and decided to plan the rest of the routes together. After they finished their climb, Carson took on one of the routes, followed by Kat on the other.
One after the other we all made our way up the two routes.
When we had finished climbing, Kia met me at the top of the routes and then Kat joined us as well. Kia kindly taught us how to set up our own routes and repel down. Although I must admit I was slightly apprehensive, I set up my route and repelled down for the first time.
Dangling in the thin wind, feet smoothing the slab, skin warmed by the direct sunlight, this my friends was one hell of a happy moment.
Let’s fast forward to about an hour or so after packing up…
On our way back home, Kyle had heard on the radio that there had been a terrible accident and both sides of the highway were closed. We all decided to do our best to make the most of it, and I can safely say it was the most entertaining time I have had while being stuck in traffic for two hours. We all got out of the cars, had a good stretch, and decided to wait it out. Luckily we had all stopped at Starbucks on the way home, so everyone had bellies full of frappuccinos.
We shared stories, played with the dogs, and played “guess whats in the yellow highway crash cushions”
(it was sand)
At one point the crew even decided to take Hogan and Berkley’s advice.
Eventually Kia found a deck of cards in his backpack but by the time we had started to understand the rules of the game we had committed to playing, traffic started moving and it was time to be on our way.
I can’t thank the group of people I went with enough for their encouragement and constant positivity. It was an absolutely amazing day and I am head over heels in love with every memory. I couldn’t think of a better group of people to have spent a gorgeous Saturday with.
I am happy. I am happy.
xo