We’ve been talking about it for over a year, and last weekend we finally had our first climb! We never got round to doing an indoor course and decided that learning out in the open in beautiful scenery would be much better anyway. We joined our friends Ruth and Dave, Brigitte and Tim in the Cal-Cheak area just outside Whistler, which has many different climbs for different abilities. I initially just went along to watch and hang out with the guys and maybe learn a bit of belaying but once I was there and had seen Graham do a climb and make it look pretty easy I decided to have a go.

We started off on a 5.5 (5.4 being the rating of the easiest climbs you can do) - I only ended up getting half way up because my feet were killing me in my borrowed climbing shoes. I’m not sure if it was because they were too tight or because I was flexing my feet in a way I never have before, or because I was wearing socks when I should have been barefoot, but when I got over the crux (the hardest part of the climb) I had to beg Dave to lower me because my feet felt so crippled. It was disappointing not to get to the top, but it was enjoyable enough that I have commited to trying it again.

Graham was a natural and he really loved it.

He went on to climb a 5.6 and a 5.8 before the end of the day, which looked a lot more scary than this little cliff. He’ll definitely be going back for more!

And on the way home we saw our first bear of the season munching grass along the highway.

The big news round here lately has been about the recent rash of cougar sightings and attacks in Squamish, BC. At the weekend a cougar attacked and killed a dog that was on the Stawamus Chief hiking trail with its owners (on-leash), and attacked another dog. It was emaciatied so likely was killing to survive. There is Youtube footage of the cougar taken by the owner, but I have no idea why he wasn’t sensible enough to just get the hell out of there.

On Tuesday, a 3-year old girl was attacked by a cougar while out walking in a park with her mother. I know this area well as it was where we were walking/snowshoeing at Christmas. It is not in the middle of the wilderness. It is a built up residential area surrounded by forest and cougars should not be coming into populated areas like this unless there is something significantly wrong with their own territory or unless they have lost all fear of humans and see them as easy prey. The girl is OK - she got away with just a couple of minor injuries after the mother fought the cougar off. It seems that this one was well fed and likely a younger cougar practicing its hunting skills. Full story here.

Meanwhile, a dry, hot beginning to the summer has contributed to conditions that has allowed a wildfire to burn for almost a month now around the Tyaughton Lake area near Lillooet. The fire started on May 29th and has now reached 8000 hectares with many evacuation orders applied. The guys fighting this fire have had a hard job, but seem to be slowly getting things under control - it is now at 70% contained according to this most recent article. The skies around Vancouver have been hazy this last week due to the smoke from this fire - pretty amazing that the effects can be seen this far south of the fire. We’re all hoping for a bit of rain for once before more fires start springing up!