Out there in the wide wide world...: April 2007

Camp Squeah 20.-22.4.2007 Day 1

The Fraser River close to Camp Squeah where I had a MCC retreat with some other volunteers from British Columbia and Alberta. Camp Squeah is located in the mountains about 20minutes northeast from Hope.

some of us guys checked out the river after we got there late friday afternoon

later that evening we had a good time sitting around the fire and talking with each other

Camp Squeah 20.-22.4.2007 Day 2

day 2...after the breakfast which was freaking early we hang out for a while in the sun
Rose (Uganda), Mwemba (Zambia), Supa-arpha Itthikaiwan or just call her Mandy (Thailand),
Dimitri (Germany), Rebbekka (Germany), me, Jeise (Brazil)

we had a guest speaker who talked about eco-justice and our responsibilities...

in the afternoon we headed out for a little hike, here we had to cross a washout from the last big rainy storm a few weeks ago

"house" in a huge tree

Second Falls

some Bear and human traces

and in the evening we had a big turkey dinner and later a talent show...

Camp Squeah 20.-22.4.2007 Day 3

a statue...lady Squeah or so....

Gottfried from Uganda....the guy with a german name

time to pack the cars

look at her tongue ^^

Eco the cowboy from Indonesia

Vancouver Sun Run - 15.4.2007

Today I run the Sun Run, Canada´s biggest running event...54.000 people did the run

just crazy how many people were there on the street and excited to run the 10km

49:16min...not bad for my first run in my life...

lots of fresh food after the run in the BC Place Stadium

Dimitri, Lan and me... we all agreed that our tour last weekend was a good preparation for the 10km we run today

and in the afternoon Dimitri and me went to Kitsilano Beach to have our first swim in the Pacific this "summer season", the water ist still quite refreshing.

Garibaldi Park - 6.-8.4.2007

Friday April 6th 2007, we (Dimitri, Lan and me) finally arrive around noon at the trailhead (around 400m elevation) to Garibaldi Lake and some nice mountains which we will find out later after a few hours. Here we parked the car and then left the civilization behind us. After days of planning and preparing for this day it was a great feeling for all of us to start this journey!

hiking up the trail through mud, ice and snow was quite a challenge with our heavy bagpacks...

we were happy to arrive at our campsite for the next two nights - Taylor Meadows (1500m)

awesome views from where we set up the tent

Garibaldi Park Day 2

I woke up just in time to see the sun come up from behind the mountains, my other tough hikers are still sleeping and dreaming of climbing Black Tusk

here he is - BLACK TUSK - the left over from a volcano

after a good breakfast we headed out to reach our goal to climb Black Tusk...we just hiked up through the forest and didn´t follow any trails because they don´t exist in the winter. Our tent and other stuff we left behind at Taylor Meadows (about 1500m elevation)

once we passed the treeline we had wide and open snowfields to cross and sweet views of the sourounding mountains and the glaciers

Garibaldi Lake in the valley and behind Mount Price (2049m / 6721ft.)

catching some breath before we reach Black Tusk, the last part up to the peak was crazy steep and covered with lots of snow and loose rocks. To avoid to get hit by a stone we walked in a line always on the same height. We chose to go through the ice and stone field because the other routes looked like potential avalanche slopes which we tried to avoid.

reaching Black Tusk 2315m or 7598 ft., we didn´t spend much time up there because it wasn´t easy to stay safe up there, snow and ice came falling down from the peak and the terrain was too steep to stay comfortable