Jasper Skyline trail 15-16 July

This walk must truly go down as one of the most spectacular walks we have done! We headed off on Saturday from Maligne Lake for the 22km hike to Shovel Pass Lodge - 47km over the next 2 days. Earlier we had dropped off our bottle of red wine at the stables for the horses to cart in during the day (part of the deal with your lodgings). The weather was a little overcase for most of the day, but didn't spoil the amazing scenery. We got hailed on twice - which actually wasn't too bad. Stings a little on your face, but better than getting wet. Home baked cookies and hot chocolate were awaiting us when we arrived. There's no electricity or running water here, but the rooms are warm and dry. During the night we were awoken by heavy heavy rain (and hail) and very grateful we weren't in a tent in the campground above. The next morning was glorious blue skies, but ice everywhere - and a light dusting of snow on the mountain pass agove. As we walked through the campground the next day we saw tents all strung up in the bear poles drying out. We met some girls who said their tent was frozen in the morning with a huge ice flow around it! This photo is a "The Notch" looking back to Curator Lake and the trail we climbed up. From here the trail clings to the ridge back of the mountain for the next 7 kms or so with sensational 360 views over the ranges behind Jasper in the west and across to the Eastern Maligne ranges. We could also see the summit of Mt Robson 90kms away. The guide books say that on a good day this is the best hike in the Rockies, and on a bad day - ie wind and rain, this is one of the worst. And we can see why. You are incredibly exposed on the scree slope and the wind funnels up from the valley below. In the guide books it describes éscape routes' if the weather comes in bad! You descend the ridge line down into a valley never out of view of Mt Tekarra. Along the way we passed dozens of hoary marmots and a mother moose and baby. The last 8 kms were along a fire track so pretty uneventful except that the trail was overgrown with bear berries and the area is known as 'bear alley'! Needless to say we walked quickly!!

Calgary Stampede and UNESCO Dinosaur Park

When in Rome........ yes we took ourselves off to the Calgary Stampede on 8 July. $40 for pretty good grandstand seats where we could watch all the usual rodeo events. The whole town goes crazy. There's line dancing in the mall, horse parades, both country AND western music everywhere, and other cowboy/girl events all around town. We had a ball!

We headed east to Brooks and home of the UNESCO Dinosaur Provincial park - proclaimed world heritage in 1980 because of the significant number of major dinosaur bones found everywhere. We left the tent poles at home so had to stay in town - a small town but like the rest of Alberta is booming (even found a whole telephone directory for the oil business!). Dinosaur Park is smack in the middle of the badlands - warnings about rattlesnakes everywhere! The info centre is particularly well done (just opened). It's been built to be super environmentally efficient and really worth a visit. We did a few short walks to some of the fossil finds (didn't see any rattlers thankfully!) Spectacular scenery and a terrific visit.

More Mt Robson pics

Canada Day Celebrations - Mt Robson hike

As much as we would've liked to hang around Edmonton for the long weekend celebrating Canada Day (quite an event apparently) - the lure of the supposedly magnificant Mt Robson (the highest montain in the Canadian Rockies at 3954m) hike beckons! And we weren't dissappointed. It's 23km each way hike starting at the bottom of the western face and hiking up the valley and around to the Northern face to Berg Lake - so called because Berg glacier actually touches the water line and ice bergs regularly calve off and make their way across the lake to the camp ground on the shores - the saying goes ýou bring the scotch the bergs bring the ice'. We didn't take any scotch, but did cart in some red wine and íce wine'(which is this truly splendid drop that is made by taking just a couple of drops from the first grapes after the frost leaves the vine).

We got into Rearguard camp at the top end of Berg Lake about 6pm. This only has 5 sites and has the most stunning views of Mt Robson and Berg glacier. The thunder kept us awake in the night (which was actually the glacier moving and calving) and Jenny slept with the bear mace next to her just to be sure!

The next morning we took a short walk toward Snowbird Pass to give us as magnificant view of Robson Glacier. The walk out took us past Emperor Falls - this HUGE waterfall that you can walk right up close to. Of course Ian got too close! We also saw our first Hoary Marmot - these cute little creatures named after the frosted white snow which is called hoar.

We got back to the trailhead at about 6pm on day 2. A 50 km hike which is truly one of the most spectacular walks we have ever done. There's a very nasty 5km section in the middle which is straight up and bloody hard yakka - but otherwise a reasonable grade. Along the way you pass 16 glaciers and are never out of view of Mt Robson - though we have been extremely lucky this weekend to have perfect weather. Because Mt Robson rises up as a 3000m vertical face is creates a lot of cloud - only 20% of visitors actually see the peak. So we were lucky to see it for the whole 2 days!

Ian's Job

Ian's Job

I have been employed by the Alberta Geological Survey as part of a team to undertake a risk mapping project associated with potential Coal Bed Methane (CBM) development. I am not that well qualified for the job, as it is an office-based data crunching exercise, but any hydro who is úpright and warm' will get a job at the moment.

CBM is a relatively recent discovery where gas is extracted from coal seams that can't be mined economically. Basically, methane is absorbed onto and within the coal beds and can be extracted if the pressure is reduced. So. . . that means pumping water out of the coal beds to reduce the pressure and then the coal de-gases and you collect it through the dewatering borehole. Sort of like opening a can of soft drink.

The Ardley coal seam is the youngest in Alberta and the study area is about 300 km long and 100 wide. We have to produce a map that says where CBM can be produced with minimal impact on various other users, including the environment. Dewatering the coal seams could/will impact water levels in overlying and underlying sandstone aquifers that are used for stock, industrial and community use. Also, the produced water has to go somewhere, and there are various options depending on the salinity which ranges from 500 - 4000 mg/L.

AGS is very well resourced. I am on this job 100% and 2 other guys about 50% each, and the minister has said it will be done in two years. The AGS is definitely a different environment than I am used too - about 40% of the people have doctorates and so far, I think I am the only one without a masters. Being in a department where the geologists get more excited about databases than drill rigs is strange. For instance, the boss did his doctorate under Toth, and Toth was head of AGS's forunner for many years.

There is a huge shortage of skilled workers in Alberta - especially hydrogeologists. The mega-sized oil sand projects up at Fort McMurray ($100 billion of projects currently on the run) are sucking up a lot of people. AGS has underspent on wages this year, because they can't find anyone to employ.

They now have a scheme, where if an employee recruits somebody to an advertised position, they get a $1500 bonus - anybody want me to get them a job?

Funniest thing was that today we had a record temperature - 32.9 - and the buildings aircon broke down, and we were all sent home at midday because to was too hot!