The Alpine Club of Canada – Ottawa SectionMembers, New Members & Potential Members are WELCOME to attend!Come out, meet fellow outdoor enthusiasts, swap some stories & find out what’s happening in ACC Ottawa
Come enjoy some great company and conversation! Pub nights are usually held on the second Thursday of each month. Pub nights are open to both members and non-members. They are a great way for members to meet other members, plan trips and hear some stories. And they are a great way for non-members to meet our members, “check us out” and hear some stories. Click here for more info.
April Pub Night Location: Clocktower – Westboro – 418 Richmond Road
April Pub Night Host: Elfrieda
Ask for the ACC Ottawa crew!
Members, New Members & Potential Members are WELCOME to attend!Come out, meet fellow outdoor enthusiasts, swap some stories & find out what’s happening in ACC Ottawa
Come enjoy some great company and conversation! Pub nights are usually held on the second Thursday of each month. Pub nights are open to both members and non-members. They are a great way for members to meet other members, plan trips and hear some stories. And they are a great way for non-members to meet our members, “check us out” and hear some stories. Click here for more info.
MAR Pub Night Location: Clocktower – Westboro – 418 Richmond Road
MAR Pub Night Host: Elfrieda
Ask for the ACC Ottawa crew!
This account was provided by Stuart Rickard, member of the ACC-Ottawa section. Funding in support of this project was provided by ACC-Ottawa.
On June 29, 2018, I set out for Vancouver to embark on the most unusual project I’d ever been a part of. The goal was to summit Mount Waddington the largest mountain in British Columbia. Waddington, like most peaks has many challenges, an elevation of 4019 metres, an 18 km long glacier traverse, and, when approaching by foot, a 55 km bushwack through a coastal valley rainforest. To make this climb even more demanding our plan was to do it replicating the way it was first attempted by Don and Phyllis Munday, in 1926. These self-imposed hardships included, sleeping for 30 days using hand made floorless tents (and no “Deet”), in 10 lb wool lined sleeping bags, and ferrying loads of tin cans in the old expedition style. To add yet another angle to this, we were wearing period clothing, including hobnail boots, and would be relying on a safety system mainly comprised of hemp rope and alpinestocks. I questioned our sanity when, after shopping in Vancouver we took a full day to remove the light weight plastic packaging required to preserve our approximately 1000 lbs of food and replace it with hand waxed cotton sacks, cheese clothes, and of course, tin cans. This was shaping up to be both a mental and physical challenge of epic proportions.
We left a lodge on the north tip of Quadra Island and headed up the coast to Bute Inlet, a 9 hour boat ride in a beautifully restored schooner, the Misty Isles. The next three days the physical reality of the task set in. Two members of our team turned back, one because of a flu and the other because of severe foot blistering, both afflictions that were the result of the on and off rain and the constant moisture, trapped within the walls of the valley we were travelling in.
The next 20+ days became a routine slug fest; wake, eat, pack, carry, eat, sleep, became our rhythm. The monotony was broken by challenges like broken pack frames, grizzly bear encounters and debating where exactly we were on the map. There was also the anticipation of leaving this valley and gaining the alpine for the next phase of the journey.
On day 22, the freak weather that had led to almost three weeks without rain in most of the rest of BC and a growing blaze in the Okanagan, resulted in our planned extraction helicopter being called to fire duties. This canceled our take out, planned for the next week and unfortunately resulted in us having to stop our progress towards the mountain. We were left to spend the next 6 days camping close to the mouth of the inlet in wait of a water taxi home.
Like many projects of this nature we had ended far from the success we had envisioned, however it was also far from a failure. We had learned more about ourselves, what limits of discomfort we could endure, and had gained the best possible insight into the relentless dedication and extreme tenacity the Mundays possessed when they spent over a decade and 11 attempts to conquer such a beauty of a peak. Thanks to all my friends and family for their support and a special thanks to ACC-Ottawa for the financial contribution to this unique project.
Members, New Members & Potential Members are WELCOME to attend!Come out, meet fellow outdoor enthusiasts, swap some stories & find out what’s happening in ACC Ottawa
Come enjoy some great company and conversation! Pub nights are usually held on the second Thursday of each month. Pub nights are open to both members and non-members. They are a great way for members to meet other members, plan trips and hear some stories. And they are a great way for non-members to meet our members, “check us out” and hear some stories. Click here for more info.
FEB Pub Night Location: Clocktower – Westboro – 418 Richmond Road
FEB Pub Night Host: Elfrieda
Ask for the ACC Ottawa crew!
Thur Jan 19 @ 7:00pm – ACC Ottawa PUB NIGHT
Members, New Members & Potential Members are WELCOME to attend!Come out, meet fellow outdoor enthusiasts, swap some stories & find out what’s happening in ACC Ottawa
Come enjoy some great company and conversation! Pub nights are usually held on the second Thursday of each month. Pub nights are open to both members and non-members. They are a great way for members to meet other members, plan trips and hear some stories. And they are a great way for non-members to meet our members, “check us out” and hear some stories. Click here for more info.
JAN Pub Night Location: Clocktower – Westboro – 418 Richmond Road
JAN Pub Night Host: Elfrieda
Ask for the ACC Ottawa crew!
One of the world’s most exotic landscapes lies at the heart of the Colorado Plateau. Across the high desert of Utah and northern Arizona stretches a labyrinthine connectivity of slot canyons – narrow, deep, overhanging and fantastically carved by wind and water. Top of the explorer’s bucket list is discovering lost worlds or hidden kingdoms. And some are consumed by a lifelong quest to find them. In their new book Searching For Tao Canyon Art Twomey, Pat Morrow and Jeremy Schmidt embark on a decades-long quest to find the perfect slot canyon in America’s southwest-what they call ‘slickrock Xanadu’. In this book, they have documented over 30 distinct slot canyons in Arizona and Utah and in an effort to maintain geographical anonymity, given them all the name ‘Tao’ (‘The Way’ in Chinese).
For over a decade, beginning in 1975, the dirtbag trio inadvertently helped pioneer the sport of canyoneering. Using jury-rigged climbing and caving techniques, they hauled their cameras through the wildest, most intricate canyons they could find. The book reveals a hybrid climbing/caving sport based on rappelling down sandstone cliffs into the unknown, wading or swimming through bone-chilling pools, and using rock climbing skills to follow moki steps left by the ancient ones who lived in this subterranean world. At the time, slot canyons were virtually unknown, their exquisite beauties not yet appreciated. There were no guidebooks, no guided tours, no satellite images to work from. The pleasure came from old-fashioned exploration and a sense of discovery, of finding places no one knew. Last spring Pat and Jeremy returned to the slots in order to document the changes that have occurred in some parts of the desert, and also to look for the timeless world they had known.Get Event Information & Register Now
Join us for Rockfest 2018 – the biggest ACC Ottawa Rock Climbing event of the season – a not-to-be-missed weekend of climbing, camping & socializing at Montagne d’Argent. During the day there’ll be organized climbing events & clinics for all levels from novice to experienced. Saturday night there’ll be a BBQ for all participants. Fun for everyone! 
Ready to bring your indoor top-rope game to the outdoors? Thinking about breaking into multi-pitch? Trying to climb harder routes but you’ve plateaued? We’ve got your back! This trip is appropriate for all climbers who are at a minimum comfortable belaying. Apart from all the learning opportunities, you are also welcome to climb independently. And bring the kids – family climbing is on the schedule.
Saturday features a variety of climbing events and clinics (click EVENT DETAILS button below). At the end of the day we’re hosting a BBQ dinner on-site for all participants – even if you were out climbing independently. You’ll never have tasted burgers so scrumptious as after a full day on the rock, and you won’t want to miss the fun and games we have in store. Get ready to make some great memories with your fellow climbers and to meet and socialize with ACC members you might not know (yet!) and to hear the best climbing stories of the year. You’ll want to stay over Saturday night – Sunday features even more clinics and top-rope climbing.
Event Details and Registration Link