(Clicking on the photos, you may see them in original size).
Though some of the club members tend to move toward "early retirement," luckily there is still a group of the club "hawks" who set ambitious goals for themselves. The last Saturday it happened to be the Tower, 3117 m, peak in Kananaskis that is evaluated in Alan Kane's book as "moderate scramble."
The leader of the trip, "ever-young" Roman ...
collected an impressive group of youngsters:
(from the left: Roman, Marek, Piotr Z., Ludmila, Piotr R., Yanek taking selfie, Mike, and Gennadij), all experienced, tough hikers and scramblers.
It took us 1 hr 50 minutes to get to ...
... Rummel Lake. Shortly thereafter, we had a little break around this dry pond ...
... and we split into two teams. While Mike and myself decided to take it easy ...
... the brave souls such as Piotr ...
...Yanek ...
... Marek ...
... Gena, Roman, and the jewel of all, Ludmila ...
.. hit the scree.
Things have become very nasty very soon. The scree was steep ...
... and quite loose. The rocks started to fly. Gena was hit in his helmet, while Yanek recorded a hit in his backpack and his unprotected side.
To avoid rocks they tried to negotiate steep chimneys and slabs.
Eventually the team split in two parts: Roman, Piotr and Gena reached the ridge and attempted to proceed to the top. However, the scree took so much of their time, that they decided to turn back around 2:30 pm. The Tower triumphed this time. At the same time Marek, Ludmila and Yanek decided to call it quits a bit earlier.
Sitting at the bottom of the wall, with Mike, we were watching their descent through Gena's binoculars. This was a "blood freezing show." They had to proceed slowly to avoid rock avalanches, and there were only a few opportunities to rest.
Eventually, to our great relief, Yanek and Marek ...
wrestled Ludmila out of the "arms of death."
From now on, Ludmila tells me, she only goes to the mountains with these two.
We reunited happily at Rummel Lake.
To the disappointment of all, only Mike decided to jump in.
There are fewer and fewer "true men" out there.
The return was rather leisury. It appears that the bath in the lake made Mike truly happy. To my surprise, after our return to the hostel, Piotr's wife, Joanna ...
... and Marek's wife, Grazyna ...
... not only didn't give them heck, but even served them ... nutritious supper! Some people are having it so good in Canada! The rest of us enjoyed can food, Rioja wine, and Marek's exquisite home-made cherry liquor. We sang Polish, Czech and Russian songs!
The next day, just to outstretch, we hiked Baldy Pass (4.5 km, 1:50 hr).
As this was Ludmila's last hike with us, she was, and so were we, somewhat sad. We only hope that, after completing some unfinished business in Europe, she will join us again!
Krywaniu Wysoki!
(Big thanks to others for letting me to use their photos).
(PR).
It was still fun, or as close to fun as possible
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