Notice: as of December 2013, this news archive will no longer be updated. To search archive, use main page instead.
As of December 2013, this news archive will no longer be updated. Instead, the main (ie- the 'home') page will provide access to all image galleries and presentations, either via an expandable time-sorted list, or via the search function.
I'll leave this page as-is for archival purposes, but again, please be aware that no new entries will be added to it.
November 16, 2013 Yard and Big Slide Mountains Jenn wanted a new Adirondack experience. So, she chose a 4000-footer she had not yet climbed. Yet, already a 46R she is. How is this apparent paradox possible, you ask? [Read...]
Sep 27 - Oct 7, 2013 Permits and Politics The 2013 installment of our U.S. desert southwest adventuring. This time with the added spice of having to avoid park closures! Nevertheless, an excellent mix of scenic adventures - some encountered deep within the earth, and some on the edges of airy precipices. [More...]
September 1, 2013 Up Close and Personal on Gatineau Park's Wolf Trail Through the macro lens: A quick up close and personal look at Gatineau Park's Wolf Trail. [Read...]
August 17, 2013 The Shepherd's Tooth A summer bushwhack up and over the Shepherd's Tooth - the rarely-visited open bump on the southern slopes of the Adirondack's Iroquois Peak. [Read...]
July 25, 2013 Parc de la Haute Gaspésie - Tour du Mont Albert and Mt Olivine A solo outing to Quebec's Parc de la Gaspesie, where I hiked the "Tour du Mont Albert" - a loop route which crosses over the mysterious orange barrens of Mont Albert's large summit plateau. [Read...]
July 22, 2013 The highpoint of the Maritimes - Mount Carleton A perfect-weather climb of the highest peak in the Canadian province of New Brunswick - Mount Carleton. [Read...]
June 14 - July 1, 2013 European Hopscotch Miriam and Asmir invite us on a hopscotching adventure across Europe. From the snowy mountains of Switzerland to the minarets of Istanbul to an Italian boot factory, we packed quite a bit of diversity into seventeen days. [More...]
May 10-12, 2013 Achray to Squirrel Rapids Canoe - Barron Canyon - Algonquin Provincial Park My first real multi-day canoe trip, across several lakes and down through the scenic Barron Canyon in eastern Algonquin Park, Ontario [More...]
May 5, 2013 Climb of the Great Gully Route, King Ravine (+ Mt Adams) A climb of Mount Adams on a warm and beautiful spring day, via the winter Great Gulley Mountaineering route in King Ravine. A very nice combination of snow and warm weather [More...]
March 31, 2013 Mt Moosilauke via the Beaver Brook Trail The best possible winter conditions you could imagine greet us on a climb of Mount Moosilauke, on the final day of our 3-peak Easter Weekend outing in the White and Adirondack Mountains of the northeast. [More...]
March 30, 2013 Surprising Snow Mountain Our first visit to Snow Mountain - the little Adirondack peak with a very big view... [More...]
March 30, 2013 A Snowy, Springy Catamount Another cold and bright spring day in the Adirondacks sees us climbing Catamount Mountain - the first mountain of a 3-peak Easter Weekend outing in the Adirondacks and White Mountains. [More...]
March 29, 2013 Ice Climbing at Heffalump A fine and easy spring ice climbing day with Roland and Sara at Heffalump, a local Gatineau Park crag with decent icefall by the end of winter. [More...]
March 17, 2013 A Saint Patty's Hurricane - Hurricane Mtn via North Approach A cold Saint Patrick's day climb of Hurricane Mountain via the rarely-used northern access trail. [More...]
March 3, 2013 Video clips from an aMAZEing Trip to Color Country A revamp of the small and poorly encoded video clips from our 2007 trip to southern Utah. Video size and quality are now much better. The clips are scattered about the trip report in the appropriate places, but can be seen listed all together on the report's video clip index page.
February 25, 2013 Mt Jackson via the Webster Cliff Trail What was supposed to be a light warmup hike in the White Mountains turns into the main event, as we experience a wintertime ascent through fresh snow to Mount Jackson, via the Webster Cliff Trail. [More...]
February 21, 2013 Video clips from Elemental Iceland A release of several video clips from our great 2012 trip to Iceland. The clips are scattered about the trip report in the appropriate places, but can be seen listed all together on the report's video clip index page. Below is a three-and-a-half minute montage to get you started (and don't forget to turn on audio!):
(Don't forget that you can click on the full-screen icon on the lower right of the video to view it in a large format).
February 9, 2013 Pilot for a Day A birthday gift from Jenn sees me taking the control column during a short flight over the Ottawa Valley.... [More...]
January 26, 2013 Mount Marshall A cold (but beautiful) winter day climbing Mount Marshall via the very nice Herbert Brook ascent route. [More...]
January 5, 2013 King Mountain Snowshoe A beautiful sunny winter day marks our first hike of 2013: A return to a local quickie-but-goodie - King Mountain. We did it on snowshoes of course, and we did it from below (rather than from the summer trail on top). [More...]
October 11, 2012 Noonmark Mountain Team Hike A late-fall team-hike up of one of the Adirondack's premiere short-n-easy peaks: the most-excellent Noonmark Mountain. [More...]
September 22 - October 2, 2012 Questione di Famiglia A mostly family-oriented voyage to my Mom's home town of Avellino, Italy. Lots of pictures of aunts and babies in here... but for those of you so interested, we did get a chance to see, visit and hike a few beautiful nearby spots. [More...]
September 8, 2012 The Griffith Uplands Trail I join the Ottawa time-out hiking group for an easy hike to a brand-new south-central Ontario trail: The Griffith Uplands Loop, 50km west of Renfrew. Very modest elevation gain, really not much more than hills, but a very quiet, gentle, and scenic route. [More...]
September 1, 2012 Whiteface-Esther Traverse I join up with one of Julie's hikes - this time, a north-south traverse of Esther and Whiteface Mountains. And, if you like dog pictures, there's a lot of those in this report. [More...]
August 12, 2012 Hoffman Mountain Join us on a fabulous quest, where Schroon Lake hikers Larry and Andrew toil to reach the culturally significant and rarely climbed summit of Hoffman Mountain, in the Southern Adirondacks. [More...]
July 5 - July 14, 2012 Elemental Iceland A trip to the raw, hardbitten land of fire and ice, vikings and sagas. A trip to the land of tens of trees, hundreds of hot springs, thousands of waterfalls, and millions of sea-birds. A trip to the nation of Iceland! [More...]
July 1, 2012 Canada Day Canada Day 2012, spent with friends Asmir and Miriam. A bit of paddling in one of Gatineau Park's pristine lakes, the ever-traditional Canadian backyard barbeque, and the flash and fireworks of the celebrations on Parliament hill. s. [More...]
June 16, 2012 Wright Peak A super-straightfoward quick morning hike up Wright Peak - one of the Adirondacks premiere summits. [More...]
May 19-20, 2012 Pinnacle Ridge and Blake Peak (aka 'Where in the Heck is Ewart Tempest?') A plan to climb beautiful Mt Haystack in the Adirondack Mountains turns into a search for our friend Ewart, and very large amount of walking! [More...]
March 17-18, 2012 An Adirondack Cabin Weekend We are invited down for a pleasant weekend-in-a-cabin-in-the-Adirondacks. A bit of hiking, a bit of climbing, a bit of shopping, and a bit of bobsledding. [More...]
February 17 - March 3, 2012 A Hawaiian Kaleidoscope A hop-scotching visit to the four main Hawaiian islands. Plenty of tropical landscapes, as you might imagine, but also plenty of interesting personalities, foods, flora, and fauna. And rainbows. Lots of rainbows. And yes, we did manage to find freezing temperatures and snow. [More...]
February 4, 2012 Winter Climb of Mt Marcy A straightforward, scenic and speedy "ski-n-shoe" ascent of Mount Marcy. [More...]
January 22, 2012 Whiteface-Esther Loop A mostly-fine day doing a rarely-done loop hike of Whiteface and Esther. Part of our sporadic ongoing "Helping Harold" series.... helping him achieve his winter 46R goals, that is. [More...]
November 22, 2011 Visiting the Flying Eye Hospital Jody and I take time out over lunch to visit a unique and helpful tool in the fight against blindness - the Orbis International DC-10 Flying Eye Hospital [More...]
November 6, 2011 Roland and the Wolf Trail Superfriend Roland joins us for a most pleasant and sunny November walk in the hills of Gatineau Park. [More...]
October 9, 2011 Number 115 : North Brother (and Fort) Mtns Seventeen years after starting out, I finally complete my Northeast 111 on the top of North Brother Mountain in Maine. Also, we visit nearby Fort Mountain and it's very interesting 1944 airplane crash site. [More...]
September 22 - October 2, 2011 Southwest "Burnup" Trip A rare second trip to the desert southwest in the same year - courtesy of use-it-or-lose-it vacation rules. Highlights include a second attempt on the longest slot canyon in the world -- Buckskin Gulch, some mountain biking, and bit of the High Sierra. [More...]
July 16, 2011 Number 114 : Mount Abraham A beautiful summer day is the perfect way to summit my second-last NE 111er peak: Mount Abraham in Maine: [More...]
June 17-July 2, 2011 Overland to the Rock My first ever trip to the Island of Newfoundland. We did it by a (so far) still fairly unique way of getting there - overland, via the Trans-Labrador highway... [More...]
July 21, 2011 [Mostly] Escalante 2011 Videos After a very successful 'Utah 2011 video premiere' at a great BBQ at Pu's, the videos associated with the April 28-to-May 8 Utah 2011 trip are now available online. You can find them sprinkled about the narrative in the appropriate places, or you can find them on a dedicated video index page here...
June 4, 2011 Noonmark-Round Loop Noonmark once again gets trotted out as an intro destination for a new Adirondack hiker: Denis! (and seeing as we're up there, might as well tack on the nice little gem of Round Mountain... no?) [More...]
May 22, 2011 Wright Peak and Wright's Nubble A quick outing to a well-climbed peak, but with a few new twists for us that make it interesting... [More...]
April 28-May 8, 2011 [Mostly] Escalante 2011 An intensive return to the Escalante region of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (with a bit of other stuff on either side). Jenn's dad joins us, we re-visit the wonders of Coyote Gulch, and visit a few new special places... [More...]
March 9, 2011 Nut-less on Franconia Ridge Chris and I take a mid-week vacation day to sample the winter delights of Franconia Ridge in New Hampshire. And what's with the nut reference? Well, read [More...]
February 20, 2011 Jay Peak in the Winter Another hike, at long last. A beautiful day on Jay Peak and it's great ridge... [More...]
November 12 to 15, 2010 Aurele Lavigne's (My Dad's) 90th Birthday Our entire family executes a covert mission to descend upon Bathurst and surprise my Dad for his 90th birthday! [More...]
November 11, 2010 Remembrance Day Ceremonies, Ottawa Unusually beautiful late fall weather in Canada's Capital was the order of the day for this year's Remembrance Day Ceremonies [More...]
October 23, 2010 Dixes Minus One: Brian and Harold Climb their 46th! After sixteen long years, my good friend Brian Connell finally tops his 46th Adirondack 4000-footer on the summit of Hough Peak. Friend Harold Piel also finishes today on nearby Macomb Mountain... [More...]
October 9, 2010 Another Great 3000-footer: Hopkins Mtn We decided to expand our Adirondack horizons a bit more by climbing a superb little 3100-footer near Keene Valley: Hopkins Mountain... [More...]
September 20 and 21, 2010 A Traverse of the Rangeley-Stratton section of the Appalachian Trail The continuing quest for the NE111 led to this somewhat strenuous traverse of a full 'section' of the famous Appalachian Trail - from Rangeley to Stratton in Maine [More...]
September 18, 2010 Luke's Cabana Destruction Despite much wrangling, the City of Ottawa requires Luke to tear down his backyard shed, a sturdy little structure he affectionately calls the 'Cabana'. A sequence of images and a time-lapse video record the event: [More...]
September 11, 2010 A Bootspective on Rocky Peak Ridge Jenn and I join Pu and his hiking group for another go at the most-excellent Rocky Peak Ridge traverse. In the interest of promoting new ways of looking at things, I introduce the bootspective -- a new way of documenting a hike... [More...]
September 9, 2010 Eid Dinner with Asmir's Mom Asmir and his mom Vasvija once again graciously invite several friends to share in a feast of Vasvija's fantastic Bosnian cooking.... [More...]
Aug 22, 2010 Whitewater Rafting on the Red River Jenn invites me on an easy day trip with some of her work colleagues on a guided whitewater rafting trip on the Riviere Rouge in Western Quebec [More...]
Aug 1, 2010 Mt Redington: Chipping away at the 111 After completing the NH48 on Monroe just the day before, we decide to make good use of our time in eastern NH / western Maine to climb a relatively nondescript member of the NE 111: Mount Redington [More...]
July 31, 2010 Mt Monroe, and completion of my NH48 A significant milestone today - the completion of my New Hampshire 4000-footers, also known as the NH48, on the beautiful summit of Mount Monroe in the Presidential Range.... [More...]
July 23 - 26, 2010 BHS Class of '85 25th Reunion A short image gallery documenting the return home to Bathurst and attendance of my high school graduating class' 25-year reunion.... [More...]
June 16 - July 4, 2010 Europe 2010 Asmir and Miriam's June wedding triggers a sooner-than-expected return to Europe. Follow along with the festivities and with the activity-packed vacationing that followed [More...]
June 8, 2010 Cascade Mountain Team Hike The folks at work get together for an excellent intro climb up Cascade Mountain... [More...]
May 24, 2010 Mt Isolation via Montalban Ridge A pretty strenuous day, comprising 13-and-a-half hours and nearly 60 kilometres of combined cycling and hiking in the Whites of New Hampshire. All to summit my 47th NH 4000-footer while pursuing some rather made-up notions of 'interesting' and 'style'.... [More...]
April 2-10, 2010 Grand Canyon 2010 A moderate and extremely varied 5-day backpack in the Grand Canyon. An introduction for four Grand Canyon newbies. Wonderful Weather. Great Friends. A bit of Death Valley on the side. What more could one ask for?... [More...](updated: now includes video clips!)
March 27, 2010 McKenzie Mountains Traverse (& the W46r Dinner) A climb on a beautiful cold spring morning up a near 4000-footer I'd never done before, and a great dinner with lots of great people I've definitely met before... [More...]
March 6, 2010 The Perfect Winter Mt Colden Loop After many ascents of Mount Colden, I finally do it in the winter WITH clear skies. And the views do not disappoint. And, doing it with a bunch of great friends makes it even better... [More...]
February 6, 2010 King Mountain Snowshoe II Mr. Hatko thinks another 'intro' snowshoe is in order before moving to higher ground.... [More...]
January 10, 2010 Mount Madison Loop in Winter A somewhat strenuous, quite wintry, and very un-busy loop hike of the Northeasternmost of the Presidential Range.... [More...]
January 9, 2010 King Mountain Snowshoe After a bit of a Christmas hiatus, it's time for a close-to-home intro to snowshoeing for a couple of guys from work..... [More...]
November 22, 2009 The Wildcats & Wildcat Ridge A super-balmy and snow-free late fall day in the Whites makes for a straightforward, pleasant traverse of Wildcat Ridge.... [More...]
October 18, 2009 The Best Cycle Ride in Ottawa: The Gatineau Park Road Bike Loop Time for something a bit more local: An account of what is likely the best road cycle loop in the Ottawa region: the Gatineau Park 'Loop' - a roughly 60km ride from the city into nearby beautiful Gatineau Park.... [More...]
October 10 - 11, 2009 A South-North Pemi Traverse I felt it was time to hit all of the 4000-footer peaks in the central Pemigewasset Wilderness. What better way to do it than at the height of the fall color season? Hmm... hopefully the weather will co-operate.... [More...]
August 29 - September 14, 2009 Europe 2009 Vacationing and touring Southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Northern Italy, we pack in 2+ weeks of much variety, including good food, family & friends, culture, history, and [of course] a few hikes and climbs here and there...... Read [More...]
August 16, 2009 Another Serving of 'Brussel Sprouts': Owls Head Redux Having learned that using a bike to approach Owls Head does not jive with the 111er club's rules, Jenn and I re-do Owls Head, and manage to make our second serving of brussel sprouts ja bit more palatable.... [More...]
July 24 - August 2, 2009 West Coast 2009 A roughly week-long trip to the west coast, where we experienced a bit of city touring, a bit of high-school reunioning, a few nice mountains, and a lot of hot, dry, sunny weather... Read [More...]
July 5, 2009 The 'Brussel Sprouts' of the Whites - Owls Head Jenn and I finally tackle what many consider to be the least appetizing peak in the list of New Hampshire 4000-footers: Owls Head. Turns out, it wasn't really so bad. Maybe I'm learning to like my mountain vegetables.... [More...]
July 1, 2009 Canada Day Happy Canada Day! Here's a short mix of pictures from our day spent enjoying Canada Day in downtown Ottawa, Canada.... [More...]
June 27, 2009 A "Liquidy" Lower Great Range Loop We accompany Julie Moran and the Hiking Mates Challenge crew for a challenging loop hike of the Lower Great Range. Dampness, Soakedness, Wettedness, Drenchedness are all words that adequately describe our day. On the flipside, there were some awesomely pretty waterfalls and cascades... [More...]
June 20, 2009 Doors Open Kingston Visiting Jenn in the Kingston area just so happened to coincide with Doors Open Kingston 2009 - and so we (Bob, Asmir, Jenn and I) went.... [More...]
May 18. 2009 Nun-da-ga-o Ridge Loop An intro hike for Dan and Rene (and a refresher for Asmir). Variety, Solitude, Scenery, and just enough effort. Not too much, not too little - just right! [More...]
April 3-13, 2009 Fine in '09: Packin' it In! 2009's iteration of our classic Desert Southwest trip was a finely-tuned packed-in whirlwind. Read [More...]
March 14. 2009 Cliff Mountain via the Flowed Lands Helping out Brian achieve his 37th 46er peak on Cliff turned out to be much nicer than we thought. I don't think one could have asked for a nicer, more pleasant ascent of this pseudo-4000-footer. [More...]
February 15. 2009 The Shepherd's Tooth via Cold Brook Pass A rarely-done climb up to an attractive little crag on the south side of Iroquois Peak!... [More...]
February 7, 2009 An Atmospheric Eisenhower-Pierce Circuit A loop hike of Mts Eisenhower and Pierce in the Southern Presidential Range is wonderful on scenic merits alone -- but even more so when the weather decides to enhance the show.... [More...]
January 1, 2009 A Very Kinsman New Year's! New Year's Day was our best shot for a decent hike over the Christmas break, so we went for it -- on the summits of North and South Kinsman Mountains.... [More...]
November 30. 2008 Loop Hike of Flume and Liberty It's a race against the weather to summit two very pretty peaks on Franconia Ridge in the White Mountains... [More...]
November 2. 2008 Mt Carrigain via Signal Ridge A straightforward hike on a cold but beautiful late fall day in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Mt Carrigain is also an example of a mountain where part of the approach is more scenic than the actual summit (although the summit view is still pretty nice)... [More...]
October 10-14, 2008 An Awesome Autumn Appalachian Auto Adventure Luke and I take the S2Ks on a wonderful journey of fall colors, beautiful weather, scenic hiking, and, most importantly, ultra-twisty roads!! Read [More...]
October 13. 2008 The Dragon's Tooth A short and easy hike to a very neat spike of rock in Virginia's Ridge and Valley country... [More...]
September 20. 2008 The Rocky Traverse with lots of friends! An excellent west-east traverse of Rocky Ridge with Pu's hiking group and with a surprise encounter with Bill and Judy -- with Bill completing his ADK 46 this very day!... [More...]
August 31. 2008 Traverse of Porter and Cascade Miriam's second intro-to-the-Adirondacks hiking experience. A bit more challenging than Ampersand... but what a worthy hike!!... [More...]
August 13-22, 2008 Vancouver Island Hot on the heels of our east-coast visit, we jet over to the west coast for an additional helping of friends, family, and mountains....[More...]
August 9, 2008 Montreal Trio: The Biodome, Insectarium, and Botanical Gardens A day-visit with Jenn's mother and niece to three very interesting Montreal attractions... [More...]
August 4. 2008 The Tripyramids A very waterlogged loop hike of the North, Middle and South Trypyramid in the White Mountains, climbing the North Slide and descending the South Slide... [More...]
July 27. 2008 Ampersand with Asmir & Miriam A scenic intro hike for Miriam's first Adirondack experience... [More...]
July 10-20, 2008 One Lap of the Maritimes On this trip to the provinces of my youth - the Maritimes, a big mish-mash of all sorts of things: a bit of 4000-footering, lotsa ferry rides, some highpointing, some scenic hiking, some scenic driving, and lotsa visiting of friends and family....[More...]
July 16, 2008 The Highpoint of Prince Edward Island An in-depth report of one of the outings of our trip to the Maritimes: a hike (walk) to the highpoint of Prince Edward Island... [More...]
July 13, 2008 The Highpoint of Nova Scotia - White Hill An in-depth report of one of the outings of our trip to the Maritimes: a climb to the highest point in Nova Scotia -- White Hill... [More...]
July 12, 2008 Cape Split Hike An in-depth report of one of the outings of our trip to the Maritimes: a hike that was very popular for me in my University years -- the hike to Cape split, Nova Scotia... [More...]
July 10. 2008 The Hancocks An in-depth report of one of the outings of our trip to the Maritimes: a climb of North and South Hancock in New Hampshire... [More...]
May 25. 2008 Lyon of the North What's the northernmost "big" peak in the Adirondacks? You might think Whiteface or Esther, but you'd be wrong. Come view our trip report of Lyon Mountain in the Northern Adirondacks - a peak I've long neglected... [More...]
March 6-18, 2008 Eight in '08 : Gulches are Great! A big group calls for some big Utah hits -- including my first ever visit to Buckskin Gulch! Come and read the accounting of our 2008 visit to southern Utah.... [More...]
March
29, 2008 2008
Winter 46er Gathering An
accounting of the 2008 gathering and dinner of the Adirondack Winter 46... [More...]
February
23. 2008 Success!
Achieving the Winter 46 on the Best Peak in the Adirondacks Our
concerted effort to finish the winters in 2008 has paid off. And just what
peak is that I'm talking about? Well, you'll just have to read on to find
out ... [More...]
February
16. 2008 Gray,
Skylight and Marcy: The Final Countdown Remember
that jingle? It was playing through my head as I drew up the banner for this
trip report, which documents the climbs of our fourth-last, third-last, and
second-last winter 46er peaks... [More...]
February
3.
2008 Intro
to Winter on Cascade We
introduce the world of winter hiking in the Adirondacks to Phuong and Scott.
On a different tack, Jenn catches up to me... [More...]
January
26. 2008 The
Trap Dike in Winter Something
I've been thinking about doing for some time now - a winter ascent of
the Trap Dike route on Mount Colden... [More...]
January
19. 2008 The
Allen Mountain Winter 'Skishoe' Finally,
we tackle Allen in the winter, attempting to turn the approach into something
fun by combining skiing and snowshoeing - with mixed results!... [More...]
January
4-5, 2008 Marshall & Cliff
: A Bushwhacker's Tale Trailbreaking
and bushwhacking, bushwhacking and trailbreaking. Plus some annoying mink-like
creatures and some nice FDNY guys... [More...]
December
27, 2007 Tabletop
and a bit of Cloud-watching We
quickly duck
in to tag Tabletop ahead of approaching bad weather. It's quite neat to watch
brooding-looking clouds seep into the High Peaks... [More...]
December
26, 2007 Giant
and Rocky Superb!
A springlike day in the heart of Winter. A scenic ridge ascent of Giant
and a climb of Rocky are very worthwhile objectives in conditions like these.. [More...]
December
22,
2007 Whiteface
and Esther via the Toll Road Kickoff
hike (and ski) to the 2007-2008 Adirondack 46er winter hiking season.... [More...]
December
14 to 16, 2007 Visiting Stan and Pat in TO, plus a whole lotta
white stuff Stan
and Pat invite us to spend the weekend with them at their flat in downtown
TO. Good food, a great Christmas party, a wintry exploration of a bit of
downtown TO, and a big wallop of a snowstorm. [More...]
December
12,
2007 Bye bye, "newHomePage" Some
of the more web-astute amongst you may have noticed that all of the pages
on this site have been located under a somewhat superfluous "newHomePage"
path. Well, no more. Starting today, there's been a restructuring of the
guts of the page and "newHomePage" has disappeared.
There
should be no action required by you - redirects should occur silently.
You may want to update any bookmarks you might have to remove the "newHomePage"
string, but this is not strictly required.
Please
let me know if you see any strange behaviour on the web site, and use
the contact page to tell me about it.
Thanks!
November
10 and 11,
2007 A Frosty Traverse of the Bigelow Range A
very interesting, fun, but co-old November traverse of the Bigelow Range
in northwestern Maine... [More...]
November
5, 2007 Meeting a Legend: an Evening with Fred Beckey Our
local section of the Alpine Club of Canada hosts an evening with a most
distinguished figure - mountaineering legend Fred Beckey... [More...]
November
3,
2007 Ottawa in November: A quick tour Jenn's
classmate from University provides the impetus for a quick tour of Ottawa,
for which I am quite grateful. Late afternoon on a late fall day can be very,
very scenic!.... [More...]
October
21,
2007 The Two Gs: Garfield & Galehead A
beautiful fall loop hike in the Sunny-but-soaked Whites to bag two more
for my NE 111.... [More...]
October
17, 2007 Go
team, go! A team-building mountain hike up Noonmark Mountain Another
introduction, this time to a group of co-workers on a team-building outing
in the Adirondacks.... [More...]
July
14-30,
2007 (posted
October 14, 2007) The
Dolomites A return
to the unique and fantastic crags and spires of the Dolomites. And more
Via Ferratas than you can shake a stick at! ... [More...]
October
6,
2007 Dad
in the 'daks: A Loop Hike of Mount Jo It
was about time that I introduced my Dad to the rigours and rewards of Adirondack
hiking.... [More...]
September
23,
2007 MacNaughton:
The Forgotten One After
more than ten years of hiking in the High Peaks, I finally turn my long-overdue
attention to MacNaughton Mountain... [More...]
September
7 & 8, 2007 Mt Hale and a Weekend with the Wards Luke
and Sophie invite us to visit with Luke's parents in New Hampshire, and of
course we climb something along the way.... [More...]
September
2,
2007 Carter Mountains Loop Finishing
up what we wanted to do back in June - A loop in the Carter Range of the
White Mountains in NH.... [More...]
August
26, 2007 The Changing of the Guard A
look at a colorful ceremony in my own home-town of Ottawa, Canada: The
Changing of the Guard on Parliament Hill [More...]
July
1,
2007 Mt
Colden Slides! We
try a
challenging and fun way to tackle Mount Colden, by going up the Southeast
Slide route and descending the Trap Dike Route... [More...]
June
16, 2007 Whiteface and Passaconaway Unsettled
summer weather conspires to limit us to two of our four New Hampshire
peaks for this weekend.... [More...]
June
20,
2007 An
aMAZEing trip to Color Country : Video Update The complete
set of video clips from our trip to southern Utah are now available in
the web presentation, both in the narrative and in a separate video-only
page... [More...]
June
3, 2007 Killington Peak My
last 4000-footer peak in Vermont was only a short drive away from Bolton
Landing, where we had just finished spending a wonderful time at Mark and
Linda's place.... [More...]
June
2,
2007 A visit to Mark and Linda's Place A
weekend visit with our new Adirondack Winter hiking buddies in beautiful
Bolton Landing, NY, on the shores of Lake George....[More...]
April
6-14, 2007 (posted
May 22, 2007) An
aMAZEing trip to Color Country To
the remotest corner of Utah we went, to experience true
desert wilderness and a true dash of adventure!... [More...]
May
26, 2007 Sailing with Roland A
short outing with Roland and Johanna to Kingston, Ontario... [More...]
May
19, 2007 Algonquin Park Sampler Four
Algonquin Provincial Park newbies embark on a dayhiker's sampling of three
trails... [More...]
April
21,
2007 One of the Finest Hikes on one of the Finest Days A
superlative weekend in April dictated a superlative ridgewalk -- and of
the best in the east is Franconia Ridge... [More...]
October
1999 (posted
April 2, 2007) Autumn in the Desert An
account of one of the very few times we visited the desert
southwest in the autumn. This was a very diverse trip, including: a long
canyoneering adventure; backpacking at high altitude in the rockies; and jeeping
in canyonlands national park.... [More...]
March
25, 2007 Ice Climbing with Roland at Calabogie A
bit of end-of-season wet ice climbing with Roland near Calabogie, ON... [More...]
March
24, 2007 2007
Winter 46er Gathering An
accounting of the 2007 gathering and dinner of the Adirondack Winter 46... [More...]
March
18, 2007 Hiking
with class We
witness the birth of not one, not two, but three new winter
46ers on Hough Peak... [More...]
March
13, 2007 A
new way up: Basin & Saddleback via the Chicken Coop Brook route Mark
and Linda help us explore an excellent winter route up to Basin & Saddleback... [More...]
March
11, 2007 Two
Slides in a day: A traverse of East Dix, South Dix, and Macomb Scaling
back from our ambitious winter ascent of all five dixes, we instead do what
I've never done before in the Adirondacks - climb up one slide and down another... [More...]
February
24, 2007 Trailbreaking
is tough: A traverse of Gothics and Armstrong A
recent large snowfall turns the Adirondacks into a super stairmaster workout.
Also, Gothics on a blustery winter day can be quite spectacular.... [More...]
February 11,
2007 Redfield...
yes. Cliff... no. Lots
of tiring trail-breaking and a well-earned peak. And we fail once again to
find the regular Cliff herdpath in the winter.... [More...]
January
21, 2007 Long,
tiring, and cold: the Santanonis in winter A
very, very long day in the Santanonis. But ultimately,
success, some cold but beautiful weather, and a lesson
on snowshoes.. [More...]
January
7, 2007 Warm and Social on Big Slide Solar and Social warmth were the key words of our ascent of Big Slide Mountain in the Adirondacks. [More...]
December
31, 2006 Last
and First: Sawteeth Mountain This
climb is the last of 2006, and also our first winter
46er climb of the 2006-07 winter adirondack climbing
season..[More...]
December
29, 2006 A "Wright" of
Passage: Jenn's Dad's First Adirondack Climb Jenn
introduces her dad to the Adirondacks in the form of
a beautiful day on the summit of Wright Peak...[More...]
December
10th, 2006 Mount Lafayette A failed attempt on
Garfield, but a very blustery summit of Lafayette,
in storm-force winds... [More
...]
July-August
1998 (posted
December 7, 2006) Left & Back
Again - The Original My first cross-country
road trip adventure from way back in the summer of
1998. Lots of sunny driving on fantastic twisty roads;
an endless stream of wonderful parks, mountains, trails,
and scenery... [More...]
July
1998 (posted
December 2, 2006) My
First Mountaineering Course Full of interesting
twists and turns (including a real wilderness first
aid scenario), this image gallery documents my first
mountaineering course... [More...]
November
25, 2006 The
Great Slide of East Dix One
month later, much better conditions allow us to experience
the excellent scramble up the Great Slide of East Dix...[More...]
July
1997 (posted
November 20, 2006) Recent History : Sampling California Reaching back in time
to post a set of images from a July 1997 exploratory
tour of California... [Image
Gallery ...]
November
18th, 2006 The Osceolas and Mount Tecumseh After weeks of warm
weather and heavy rains, finally a nice day in the
mountains - and on a Saturday, too!! We simply can't
pass up the opportunity to scale three more 4000-footers
in New Hampshire. [More
...]
November
11th, 2006 Ottawa
Remembrance Day Ceremonies Jenn's niece accompanies
us in attending the 2006 Remembrance Day Ceremonies
at the National War Memorial in downtown Ottawa. [More
...]
November
4th and 5th, 2006 The
two highest Catskills A
trip to climb my last two 4000-footer peaks in New
York State...[More...]
October
21, 2006 The
Great Slide of East Dix A
dusting of early-season snow puts the kaibosh on our
attempt of the Great Slide on East Dix. But, it still
turns out to be a great day...[More...]
October
9, 2006 First
Lapping at Calabogie After
many years of waiting, our group finally gets to do
a track lapping session at the new Calabogie Motorsports
Park... [More...]
October
7th and 8th, 2006 The Pilot and Pliny Ranges A wonderfull fall
long weekend in New Hampshire... Ewart emerges from
his hiking slumber... A long, strenuous hike along
a ridge of remote, northern hills... A
quaint little mountain hut all to ourselves for the
night... Two
unclimbed northeast 4000-footers... Don't you want
to read [More
...]?
Septermber
30, 2006 The Notch Mountain Slabs,
Redux While heading to do
more practice climbing at the Notch Mountain Slabs,
some friendly strangers stop us and introduce themselves... [Image
Gallery ...]
September
27, 2006 The
Birth of a Track Luc
and I attend the pre-opening ceremonies at a fantastic
new world-class racetrack just an hour away from Ottawa
- Calabogie Motorsports Park... [More...]
May
2000 (posted
September 23, 2006) Recent History : Desert Southwest
Trip with Luke and Sophie Reaching back in time
to post a set of images from a May of 2000 outing to
the Desert Southwest... [Image
Gallery ...]
Septermber
17, 2006 The Notch Mountain Slabs A quick little image
gallery of a short bit of ropework practice at an easy
climbing cliff in the Adirondacks... [Image
Gallery ...]
Septermber
1-3, 2006 The Willey Range A backup plan to avoid
the remnants of Hurricane Ernesto sees us climbing
three new New Hampshire 4000-footers with Luke and
Sophie... [Image
Gallery ...]
August
26-27, 2006 Sailing
with Roland After
a two-year hiatus, we are finally back on Roland's
sailboat for some fun on the Saint Lawrence River... [More...]
August
5-8, 2006 A Visit out East A
quick visit to my home province of NB and a quick intro
to the mountains of Gaspe. Also of note: this summer
is the first time I've been to the east and west coasts
of Canada within the space of two weeks! [More...]
July
20-27, 2006 Island Visiting After
almost two weeks of nonstop mountain stuff, it was
time to visit with Jenn's friends and family on Vacouver
Island (and Gabriola Island)... [More...]
July
20, 2006 The
Stawamus Chief We'd
been driving by this mighty granite monolith for a
week and a half now. So, Jenn and I decided to hike
up to its three highpoints... [More...]
July
17-19, 2006 Putting
skills to the test : Mount Garibaldi Hot
on the heels of our mountaineering course, Jenn, Sara
and I decide to tackle a mountaineering route by ourselves
- on Mount Garibaldi... [More...]
July
9-15, 2006 Summer
School with Canada West The
great outdoors is our classroom as we take a week to
learn and re-learn some basic mountaineering skills
in the coast range of British Columbia... [More...]
July
3, 2006 Google
Maps, version 2 I've upgraded all
of the integrated google map capabilities on my site
to the most recent "version 2" of the google
maps API.
What
does this mean for you? You get more satellite imagery at the "higher" resulotion
level, a new overview map on some displays, and an improved
ability for me to include custom maps.
I've
also reworked sections of my map software to give better user
feedback. Please send
me a feedback note if you see any unusual behaviour or
bugs in any of the map stuff. Thanks!
June
24, 2006 Return
to Jay Peak A
much-less-snowy visit to the Jay Range with Luke and
Sophie...[More...]
June
17, 2006 A
quickee to break-in my bootees A
short hike to visit to a new little peak and to break
in some new boots....[More...]
June
3, 2006 Ishpatina Ridge Roland and I (and
Jenn) finally get around to making an overland-only
attempt on Ishpatina Ridge, the highpoint of the province
of Ontario. [Image
Gallery ...]
May
15-24, 2006 San
Francisco, JavaOne, and Soggy Hikes A
work-related conference brings us to San Francisco,
where we explore a bit of the city by the bay and knock
off a few Northern California hikes....[More...]
May
7, 2006 Cannon and North Kinsman Mountains Finally... we get
back to New Hampshire and summit some new peaks (well,
for us, anyway). [Image
Gallery ...]
April
30, 2006 Noonmark
and Round Summer arrives very
early to the High Peaks, as we undertake a short, easy,
but way scenic loop hike over Noonmark and Round Mountains. [Image
Gallery ...][Trip
Log ...]
April
9, 2006 Mount
Marshall A beautiful spring
day, and an enjoyable - and also un-enjoyable -
loop hike up Mount Marshall. [Image
Gallery ...][Trip
Log ...]
March
10 - 19, 2006 Exploring
the Escalante A
texture, color, shape and solitude-filled week in a
remote slice of southern Utah... [More...]
February
19, 2006 The
Wolfjaws Sigh. Traverses. What
is it about them? Something always goes wrong! [Image
Gallery ...][Trip
Log ...]
February
12, 2006 Street & Nye A moderate winter
hike up two peaks I need for my winter list and which
Jenn needs for her... well, her list!. [Image
Gallery ...][Trip
Log ...]
February
1, 2006 All-New
Via Ferrata Page I've finally revamped
and updated my Via Ferrata page. Much improved from
the old page, with more routes, an integrated locator
map, and a much tidier look. [Click
here ...]
January
29, 2006 Race
against the clock One more time to the
Corey's road trailhead to get a winter ascent of Seymour,
before the weather turned (and in case the road closes!)... [Image
Gallery ...][Trip
Log ...]
January
22, 2006 Celebrities
on the Sewards Beautiful weather,
good trails, famous hikers, and a short approach make
for a memorable and enjoyable winter ascent of the
Sewards... [Image
Gallery ...][Trip
Log ...]
January
15, 2006 A
Key Objective A seemingly-simple
traverse of Porter-Cascade ends up being a bit more
interesting than we had planned... [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
January
12, 2006 A New Web Server At 10:00pm (EST),
alavigne.net was hot-swapped over to a brand-new web
server. My old machine, a trusty 677Mhz Celeron II
with 12 Gb of drive space, was getting a little long
in the tooth.
The
new machine is a lot faster and has a lot more space, and
is running much a much newer OS and web page-serving software.
Hopefully you'll see an improvement in speed and reliability.
If
you encounter anything unusual or if something is broken, please
let me know by leaving me a message here.
January
4, 2006 New
Year's Resolve Armed with more time,
better trail conditions and a healed muscle, we decide
to give Nippletop and Dial another go... [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
December
31, 2005 Update
of recent major trips with satellite maps A while back I promised
that I would add my new integrated track-and-photo-locations
satellite maps into 'selected earlier reports'. Well,
I've completed that activity. The following trip reports
have been updated with this new map information:
December
27, 2005 Attempt
on Dial Oh, no! Another one
of those frustrating winter defeats! [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
December
18, 2005 Re-vectored
Intro Hike We were going to do
an intro winter hike... except no "intro-ees" came
along! so we did Giant instead. [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
December
10, 2005 Graham's
Catamount Hike Graham has me along
as his personal Adirondack hike consultant. And, the
choice for a short, scenic hike today is... Catamount! [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
November
27, 2005 Near-failure
on Tabletop A badly placed tree
almost causes a repeat of the 2003 failure on Tabletop..... [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
November
12, 2005 Mount Mansfield Traverse A very interesting,exciting,
and beautiful traverse of Vermont's best peak.... [Image
Gallery ...]
October
30, 2005 Snowed
out in October? My first explorations
of the Jay Range are thwarted by some unexpectedly
heavy October snows.... [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
October
22, 2005 The Monroe Skyline Ewart, Jenn, Caro and
I bag two more of Vermont's 4000-footers: Mounts Ellen
and Abraham. And the traverse hike along the Monroe skyline
to do them was kinda different and interesting.... [Image
Gallery ...]
October
15, 2005 The
Wolf Trail A quick local hike
in the scenic Gatineau Hills north of Ottawa. [Image
Gallery ...]
October
10, 2005 Big
Slide via the Brothers A vain attempt at
a "nice weather" fall hike in the Adirondacks. [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
October
1, 2005 Google
Maps Integration I've discovered that
with a little programming (er, ok - a lot of programming),
I can have very nifty interactive maps containing GPS
tracks and where photos were taken, and with your choice
of highway, satellite, and, in some cases, topographic
maps.
Look
for all image galleries and trip reports posted after September
2005 to have this integrated map capability. I'll also be
adding this capability to selected earlier reports in 2004
and 2005.
September
2 - 11, 2005 Vancouver
Island A
foiled attempt to climb Mount Baker has us instead
exploring the remote wilderness of Vancouver Island.
And there is much to discover... [More...]
September
and October, 2005 Automated Website Notification
Difficulties I
have
been getting indications from subscribers to my e-mail
web update notification system that updates are in
some cases no longer being received. I suspect that
tighter spam filter controls may be to blame. I will
investigate and try and find some sort of solution.
If it is possible in your particular situation, please
specifically allow e-mails from the domain 'alavigne.net'
August
21, 2005 Pu Guides Charleston Lake We
join Pu as he leads a bunch of friends around a pleasant
loop in Charleston Lake Provincial Park. [Image
Gallery ...]
August
14, 2005 Camel's Hump A wet day on the back
of the beast! [Image
Gallery ...]
August
6, 2005 Whiteface
and Esther Jenn starts her 46er
quest in earnest by tackling the two most northerly
of the 46. [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
July
1-July 25, 2005 Italy
2005 Click
here to read the account of a jam-packed trip to the
big boot. Included are almost 1,000 pictures of hiking,
mountains, cities, via ferrata climbing, family pictures,
modern art, classical ruins, twisty roads, and [More...]!
June
26, 2005 Shannonville
Lapping Session Graham
invites us to a pre-track BBQ at his cottage before
we hit the Fabi portion at Shannonville Motorsports
Park... [More...]
June
26, 2005 Golfing with Dad During my dad's recent
visit to Ottawa, Jenn, George, my Dad and myself play
a quick 9-holes of golf at a local Ottawa course. [ More...]
December
31, 2005 Update
of recent major trips with satellite maps A while back I promised
that I would add my new integrated track-and-photo-locations
satellite maps into 'selected earlier reports'. Well,
I've completed that activity. The following trip reports
have been updated with this new map information:
December
27, 2005 Attempt
on Dial Oh, no! Another one
of those frustrating winter defeats! [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
December
18, 2005 Re-vectored
Intro Hike We were going to do
an intro winter hike... except no "intro-ees" came
along! so we did Giant instead. [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
December
10, 2005 Graham's
Catamount Hike Graham has me along
as his personal Adirondack hike consultant. And, the
choice for a short, scenic hike today is... Catamount! [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
November
27, 2005 Near-failure
on Tabletop A badly placed tree
almost causes a repeat of the 2003 failure on Tabletop..... [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
November
12, 2005 Mount Mansfield Traverse A very interesting,exciting,
and beautiful traverse of Vermont's best peak.... [Image
Gallery ...]
October
30, 2005 Snowed
out in October? My first explorations
of the Jay Range are thwarted by some unexpectedly
heavy October snows.... [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
October
22, 2005 The Monroe Skyline Ewart, Jenn, Caro and
I bag two more of Vermont's 4000-footers: Mounts Ellen
and Abraham. And the traverse hike along the Monroe skyline
to do them was kinda different and interesting.... [Image
Gallery ...]
October
15, 2005 The
Wolf Trail A quick local hike
in the scenic Gatineau Hills north of Ottawa. [Image
Gallery ...]
October
10, 2005 Big
Slide via the Brothers A vain attempt at
a "nice weather" fall hike in the Adirondacks. [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
October
1, 2005 Google
Maps Integration I've discovered that
with a little programming (er, ok - a lot of programming),
I can have very nifty interactive maps containing GPS
tracks and where photos were taken, and with your choice
of highway, satellite, and, in some cases, topographic
maps.
Look
for all image galleries and trip reports posted after September
2005 to have this integrated map capability. I'll also be
adding this capability to selected earlier reports in 2004
and 2005.
September
2 - 11, 2005 Vancouver
Island A
foiled attempt to climb Mount Baker has us instead
exploring the remote wilderness of Vancouver Island.
And there is much to discover... [More...]!
September
and October, 2005 Automated Website Notification
Difficulties I
have
been getting indications from subscribers to my e-mail
web update notification system that updates are in
some cases no longer being received. I suspect that
tighter spam filter controls may be to blame. I will
investigate and try and find some sort of solution.
If it is possible in your particular situation, please
specifically allow e-mails from the domain 'alavigne.net'
August
21, 2005 Pu Guides Charleston Lake We
join Pu as he leads a bunch of friends around a pleasant
loop in Charleston Lake Provincial Park. [Image
Gallery ...]
August
14, 2005 Camel's Hump A wet day on the back
of the beast! [Image
Gallery ...]
August
6, 2005 Whiteface
and Esther Jenn starts her 46er
quest in earnest by tackling the two most northerly
of the 46. [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
July
1-July 25, 2005 Italy
2005 Click
here to read the account of a jam-packed trip to the
big boot. Included are almost 1,000 pictures of hiking,
mountains, cities, via ferrata climbing, family pictures,
modern art, classical ruins, twisty roads, and [More...]!
June
26, 2005 Shannonville
Lapping Session Graham
invites us to a pre-track BBQ at his cottage before
we hit the Fabi portion at Shannonville Motorsports
Park... [More...]
June
26, 2005 Golfing with Dad During my dad's recent
visit to Ottawa, Jenn, George, my Dad and myself play
a quick 9-holes of golf at a local Ottawa course. [ More...]
June
25, 2005 Re-visiting the Canadian War
Museum A few new pictures
(from a visit we did with my dad) have been added to
the tail end of my May 8 image gallery of the new Canadian
war museum. [ More...]
June
19, 2005 Pu
guides Ampersand We join Pu as he leads
a bunch of friends up to the summit of Ampersand Mountain [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
June
10-11, 2005 Maine Mountain Visit An intro to Katahdin
for the uninitiated; making some new friends; and a
climb of a new 4000-footer. [ More...]
June
4-5, 2005 The Connell Cottage Visit We combine a ropework
training session with a very excellent visit to Brian's
lakeside cottage. [ More...]
June
4, 2005 Doors Open Ottawa A quick tour of some
of the neat buildings open to the public during the
2005 Ottawa "Doors Open" event! [ More...]
May
21-23, 2005 A Visit Home A very very rainy
May long weekend in Northern New Brunswick. Oh well,
at least there was good italian cooking! [ More...]
May
8, 2005 Canadian
War Museum Grand Opening A quick photo-montage
of the new Canadian War Museum, which opened its doors
on May 8, 2005. Quite a impressive place! [Image
Gallery ...]
May
7, 2005 Meghan's
First Hike Jenn's sister-in-law
Meghan joins us on her first ever Adirondack Mountain
hike [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
April
16, 2005 Mount
Adams Luke and Sophie invite
us on a hike to get them back into the ADK hiking scene
- and we end up re-doing mt Adams!! [Trip
Log ...][Image
Gallery ...]
April
1 to April 10, 2005 Alone
in the Grand Canyon Or at least that's what
it seemed like, hiking for days without seeing hardly
a soul. Join us on a fantastic journey through the depths
of the Grand Canyon! [ More...] (as
of June 8 - updated with inline video clips).
Google
Maps, version 2 
