Aftonroe - 5.7, 220 m (9 pitches)

This relatively new route has become a Bow Valley moderate classic.  The route was pioneered and equipped by two local climbing guides, Mark Klassen and Todd Anthony-Malone. Mostly a steep slab route on super firm and fun rock with cruxes well protected. This 9 pitch route requires a rappel descent, great half day outing.

The route Aftonroe became an instant classic as soon as the climbing community became aware of it.  I heard a lot of great things about this route and I was keen to climb it. Having just climbed it on Monday June 23, I agree with the common sentiment; super fun casual route on great rock. We had a mixed of sun, rain and wind on our climb, but windy conditions help to dry off the rock.

M. Klassen and T. Anthony-Malone developed this route on the far right hand side (east end) of the sport climbing venue, Guide’s Rock. The rock is primarily steep and very texture limestone slab.  Unlikely most slab rock formations, much of this route has fantastic hand holds with deep incut holds with super positive grip. The cruxes (Pitch 3 and 7) either have blank slab sections or slight overhanging bulges requiring delicate slab/friction moves; but don’t mistake this for meaning the route is a sketchy and frightening slab shake fest, the majority of the route has a great amount of incredible holds.  The spacing of bolts can be a bit far apart, but all crux moves are well protected.

Some people recommend linking some of the shorter pitches, but we climbed all pitches as individual pitches, using all bolted anchor stations. The set up for bolts and positions for anchors make climbing the full 9 pitches a breeze. We only brought a total of 9 quick draws and kept the rack nice and light.

Rappelled off the belay stations for a total of 8 raps, the station from the top of pitch two reaches the ground in 30 metres, obviously you need at least a 60 metre rope to reach safe ground.

Heart Mtn. to Grant MacEwan Peak traverse

It has been a winter of discontent. I was suffering most of 2014 with excruciating back, hip and leg pain; turns out I had one or two herniated disks in my lower spine. It put me out of action for months. Finally recovered enough to consider a hike or scramble. Laurie K. joined me for a fantastic after work scramble traverse of Heart Mountain to Grant MacEwan Peak. Great weather, fun times, all in about 4.5 hours for the traverse, loved being back in action.

King Creek Seeps - 30-50m, WI3

John and I got out ice climbing again. Apparently we like climbing together in the cold, overnight temperatures were -34 in the mountains and when we left Calgary is was about -27. John hadn’t led any ice yet this season and wanted an easy lead, so we headed to King Creek. I was hoping to grow a pair and lead “Magic Touch” (5.8 WI3R), but with the -25 conditions and the dark shade of the canyon I chickened out on the mixed climbing.


We each led a few pitches, then would second the pitch, rappel off and repeat. Considering the cold weather, the ice was not horrible. We later thought we should have picked a sunny ice crag since we were just out of the warm sun all day. Bright blue bird day, just not in the canyon. Fun and casual cold weather climbing; had King Creek to ourselves, but is was Monday and about -20 all day.

Rogan's Gully - 300m, WI3

Cold day, with deteriorating weather called for an easy climb where we could keep on the move. John and I met up for the second time this season and decided on Rogan's Gully, a climb neither of us had been to before. Since the temperate hovered around -20 C most of the day, with lots of high wind, so the easy grade and longish length seemed like a good choice for the day.

First pitch from approach

To our surprise, there were about 4 parties climbing Cascade Falls on this cloudy cold Monday morning (February 3) and one party we could see on the first pitch of Rogan's. Easy and quick hike to the base of the route, and the party we saw were still finishing the first pitch, they were moving slow and we did catch up to them. 

Fun, easy pitch of easy grade WI3, I used bolts on the left rock wall for station; the previous party did this pitch in two short pitches, with the same leader, I guess he wanted the ice belay practice? After the first pitch, a longish snow climb to the "narrows" which was a cool tight canyon with easy mixed climbing over the steps. Just above the last pitch has two options, both look fun, we took the long and steeper (more climbed as well) right hand side.  Solid 60 metres of nice grade WI3, fun lead and felt like a total cruise, I wanted about 4 more pitches of that ice. 

Final pitch, fun!

We had to wait a bit for the other party, once up the pitch, they indicated to me that they we going to slog up to look for more ice, by time I brought up John, they returned indicating no more ice. We did the walk off route, it has one short rap, fresh tracks from the Cascade Falls crowd made this easy. Great option for such a cold blustery day, great fun!

Winter attempt of Opoca Peaks

It is good to have friends who will follow you on crazy adventures. As part of my Opal 35 Project , I was joined by my good climbing buddies Vern, Eric and Steven for an attempt on the Opoca Peaks on January 25. Un-official names I created for two minor highpoints, both with two summits. The taller mountain is about 2480 metres (GR368155) is located between Mt. Wintour and Gap Mtn. was named Opoca for the two creek that surround it, Opal Creek and Elpoca Creek. The lower eastern highpoint, 2440 metres, was identified as “East Opoca”.

West Face of main summit Opoca Peak

East Opoca is a hike or ski to the top, Opoca Peak requires some 5th class climbing, no beta, so no idea on the grade, length or location of the best route. The original plan for this winter ascent was to ski up the closed highway (about 6 km) to Elpoca Creek, up the creek (about 4 km) and ski up to the twin summits of East Opoca, then descend to the shared col and assess an attempt on the northern end of Opoca Peak.

Well the highway ski was simple and fast, the ski up Elpoca Creek required extensive and arduous trail breaking, mostly done by me. Once we gained a view of East Opoca, we were well above the creek bed, and a few vertical cliff bands. The summit of East Opoca would require descent through steep, and potentially serious avalanche terrain; where as the south ridge of Opoca Peak loomed close over head.

What we could see of Opoca Peak, steep step on right.

We decided to check out the south ridge route, although we could not clearly see our summit from our angle. Ditched the skis, then a few quick hundred metres of easy scree bashing to a narrow ridge of moderate/difficult scrambling took us on the aesthetic south summit ridge. About 300 metres along the crest, the ridge raised in a steep wall. No way to tell if the summit was on top, I suspect it was further along the ridge. The steep step was likely about 5.6/5.7 climbing for about 50 metres; I was keen to try it out, the rest of team, not so much. We decided to head home. Faster ski out because of the nice packed ski track, then a plod on the highway. No summit, but some good beta on the Opoca Peaks and fun with my friends.

Steep step on south ridge.

Green Monster - 35m, WI4+

No I haven’t quit climbing or blogging about my minor adventures; I was just really, really busy the last half of 2013. New baby, busy job and some minor surgery kept me home the last few months. Got out with Tyler and John to upper Evan-Thomas Creek on January 6, 2014. First trip with these boys and we didn’t have a lot of time so we headed out for some low commitment climbing. Neither of the boys had been to upper ETC, so they were interested in the location. Cold spell just before our climb, in fact, about 24 hours before our trip the lows were -35 C (air temperature, not wind chill) so the ice was brittle.

Neither John nor I were keen to lead the 4+ (maybe WI 5?) curtain on Green Monster, but Tyler was. Once the top rope was set up, we all took turns up and down the curtain. Good times, I think we each did about 5 or 6 climbs, great workout. Cold day in the shadow of the canyon, never warmed up to the promised -5, warmest was maybe -15? Good to be back in the mountains.

Kevin TR'ing

Coronet Mountain - North West Ridge, Alpine II

Had a great trip with young Steven S. I only say young because he is less than half my age; impressive kid, loves mountains and is climbing them at an incredible rate of speed, but smart guy and not pushing his luck, seems a like solid guy to me.

Originally I had a crazy plan to day trip (24 hours +/-) Mt. Warren, but turns out we couldn’t do it.  The back up plan was Coronet Mountain, hopefully by the exciting North Glacier route (FA 1962 W. Pfisterer et.al.), but we couldn’t access the glacier since it was high above a vertical cliff with vertical ice walls, must have receded since 1962?  In the end we slogged up the North West Ridge (FA 1930 D. Sharpe et.al.) on loose scree, then solid easy ridge, ending with a short, fun snow climb on the glacier between the two highest summits.

Summit of Coronet Mountain (3152m)

After a full day of work for me, we met in Calgary, drove up to Jasper and left the parking lot about 8 pm.  Good pace on the first 10 km of trail, but soon after we took to the bush to gain the small drainage east of Poligne Creek, we got hit with a light rain that soaked the bush. Once up the drainage, we escaped to the scree slopes on the far south end of Coronet Mountain.  Travel was a bit slow, not too bad, but around 1am we decided to call it quits before we reached the col on the north end of Coronet.  Had hoped to at least reach the alpine tarn at this col, but we were about 1 km short. 

Bivy

Slept about 4 hours, decided to try the North Glacier on Coronet, but the glacier was too difficult to access.  Long slog up the North-West Ridge, but fun snow climb to main summit from sub-summit. Lots of exposed ice and a few cracks were visible, but all probing showed solid ice where we wanted it. Fun summit  (3152m) with great views to many 11,000’ers, Mt. Alberta stole the show of course. Quick plod down and back down creek.  Made the car 24 hours after leaving, long drive home and tried at work the next day. Got to love coffee!

Baldy - Cragging

Fun, but short morning of cragging at the Mt. Baldy crag.  Raff K. only gave me beta on this nice little crag about a week ago.  I did find some good information on this area on rockclimbing.com

Karen is feeling pretty rough with her pregnancy, so I had only planned on a half day of cragging with Pat and his wife Susie, but our morning (Sunday June 9) was cut short with rain that arrived earlier than forecasted.  This crag is close to Calgary and has a short approach.  Not many routes, but they are well identified since the bottom of each route has a plaque indicating name, length and grade.  The routes are well equipped with good spacing and placement of bolts and double rings on the top anchors. We only climbed a few 5.6 and 5.7 routes, but they felt much easy than the quoted grade.  We were about to hop on a few 5.9’s and an easy looking 5.10a, when we were hit hard by rain.  Our last route was a three “pitch” 5.7 route, Cedar City.  Second pitch was a funny short pitch that wasn’t really climbing and had a cable handrail, the upper section of the last pitch was fun.  Definitely will hit this crag after work soon and try the stiffer routes.

Wasootch Slabs - Cragging

Great day out with some early season cragging, first day on rock for me this season.  Meet up with Pat for an enjoyable day at Wasootch Slabs.  I led up all routes, rapped off, and then Pat led and also rapped.  Each did 5 leads, had hoped to do more, but the crag got really busy mid day and route selection was limited. Started on B slab with a couple of short bolted 5.6 routes.  Then off to F slab for a 5.7 bolted route, then a 5.4/5.6, trad/bolted route. Had really hoped to get on Orange Arete (5.8 bolted route), but it was busy or it’s close neighbour were always busy.  Finished on a longer and nice bolted 5.6 route on B slab wall.  Great weather, great to meet and climb with Pat.

King Creek Ridge

May 6, still dismayed from the Columbia Icefield trip, and wanting to take advantage of the high pressure system that was providing perfect weather, completely clear skies, warm temperatures and no wind; I headed out for a short day that still allowed some quality family time in the evening.  As part of my Opal 35 Project, and to get great views and some exercise, King Creek Ridge filled the bill.  Bottom third of the trail as dry, middle third was ice/mud and top third of the trail to the ridge was boot deep snow.

Once on the ridge the snow got very deep, up to waist deep and the odd section that was about armpit deep! Short sections along the western edge of the ridge provided reprieve from the deep snow.  Getting higher on the ridge where was an abundance of Rocky Mountain Sheep, probably saw about 25 sheep.  Even with the deep snow, I was able to keep a strong pace, probably since was living around 10,000 feet the last 3 days? 

The first highpoint was snowy and I was wondering about a cornice, but once I stood on the cairn, it was clear it was very safe, off to the next highpoint, where the signature Canada flag pole littered the top, no flag material was left. Leaving this highpoint got a bit exciting since I hugged the eastern edge of the ridge to avoid snow, it was a bit airy.  Nearing the final, highest, northern summit, two mountain goats ran off the summit.  Always cool to see the more reclusive mountain goat in K-country. Fantastic views to the Opal Range.  With the snow plowed out, I made quick time back to the dry trail.  Fun hike in perfect weather.

The Twins’ Trip – “West Twin” East Face, Alpine II

High hopes and expectations for this planned 4 day trip to the Columbia Icefields ended in a hugely disappointing trip for me. I always like to stay positive, but this trip really bummed me out and left me feeling quite frustrated. I had strong and well experienced rope team members (Anton and Ian), but a combination of warm temperatures and hot sun slow our pace thus our camp was far from The Twins.  Original plan was for 4 days to summit all 4 twins (North, South, Twins Tower and West Twin) and the 2 Stutfield Peaks (North and South) and tick off six 11,000’ers, but in the end I only got up one summit, West Twin (11,024 feet, 3360m) and we left the Icefield on the third day, May 5.

Sunset on The Twins from camp

At the of end day one Anton, Ian and I sent up camp beside Vern, Jason and TJ.  These boys were only planning on West and South Twin since they summitted North and Twins Tower last year.  Early start on day two, long ski towards The Twins, over the shoulder of North Twin, down to Twins Col, then skied to East Face of West Twin.  JW blasted up the deep snow of the East Face and set an awesome track for us to follow.  Easily tagged the summit of West Twin, then quick descent back to the skis.

Nearing East Face of West Twin

Skied back towards the North Ridge of South Twin, skied to the bottom of a short, but steep glacier ice slope.  Took off the skis and changed to crampons.  Anton and Ian started up the slope, with the plan to protect this section with a running belay protected by ice screws.  Vern, Jason and TJ were slightly behind us, approaching on skis. About half way up the ice slope, Anton picked a line on snow to avoid the icy section, while the snow patch was covering a crevasse and poor Anton went for a quick ride into the hole.  



Where did Anton go?

TJ and JW used their rope and went to the rescue up the icy pitch.  Vern and I chilled on the flat snow terrain, while Ian held the top end of Anton’s rope.  Great effort by JW and TJ to build an ice anchor and get  Anton out.  Anton didn’t get a scratch, but poor guy spent two hours in the hole. We packed up and did the long ski back to camp. 

Once at camp, ambition from Anton (understandable) and Ian was gone to do the long ski back to the northern Icefield, so no desire to attempt any of the Twins or the Stutfield Peaks.  Ian hadn’t been up Mt. Kitchener, Anton hadn’t been up Snowdome; these peaks were close to camp and an easy ski.  I have been up both these peaks, so I had no partners to climb any of my objectives. 

Day three TJ, Vern, Anton and Ian skied up Kitchener, JW and I stayed in camp. Later in the morning we broke camp, then TJ, JW, Vern and Anton skied up Snowdome, then us 6 headed home. 3 day trip to get up West Twin, yeah.  It took a lot of effort to get 4 days away from home and the office, this trip felt like a waste of time for me.

The Professor Falls - 280m WI4

Had a great day with my old climbing buddy Jason, it has been awhile since we climbed some ice together.  Originally I was super keen for a ski day and ideally a summit, but warm weather and spring conditions were ripe for isothermic snow, so Jason and I headed to The Professor Falls, a.k.a. Professor’s.

I think I first climbed Professor’s with Ian Hunt, Andy Meyers and Geoff (?) in December of 1995.  I am fairly sure I repeated the route in 96, 97, 98, 99 and I sure the last time I was there was in March of 2000 with Shawn Klimchuk. 

This winter I have hit a couple of routes I did with Ian back in the day BITD, Coire Dubh Integrale and Guinness Gully and last weekend, Professor’s.  Cloudy and brisk day with light snow and temps around -3 all day, solid and beautiful blue ice on Professor’s. I lead a couple of the lower pitches, JW a few of upper pitches and a bit of easy soloing in the middle.  Great day with a great friend on a great route; best ice day in a long time. 

Guinness Gully - 245m, WI 4

First climbed Guinness Gully back in March of 1997 with Ian Hunt. Back on March 11 Kyle and I had a late start, but great ice conditions for March, 2013.  Leading the third pitch felt tougher in 2013 than in 1997, I guess my age is catching up with me?  Also in the 96/97 ice season I probably had about 25 days of ice climbing, in 12/13 I have only had five or six days of mixed or ice climbing.  Fun day out.

Kyle on first pitch

Waterfowl Lakes – Middle Gully 200m, WI3

Back in the day before Mixed climbing was a thing, yes, I remember those days, these three gullies across from Waterfowl Lakes were referred to as the Waterfowl Gullies.  The southern and central gullies became the centre of cutting edge Mixed route development in the late 1990’s.  The first (southern) gully is now referred to “One Ring Circus Gully” home to the Canadian Rockies first M9 route; Will Gadd’s “Power to Burn”.  The central gully is now named “Finishing Hammer Gully” with bolted routes up to M8+.

FHG from highway

Needless to say, Raff and I did not climb these routes.  On February 3 we were happy to romp up and down the ice section of Finishing Hammer Gully.  About 100 metres of easy solo grade 2 ice, one short 25 metre WI3 section, followed more grade 2, then a fun easy WI3 curtain, overall about 200 metres of ice.  Had so much fun, I lead the crux sections twice before heading home.  Warm weather and the route to ourselves.  

Bear Spirit – Mixed crag day

Great day at Bear Spirit crag with Kyle, January 13.  We walked up and set up a top rope above a fun M6+ route, Woody, and did a lot of laps on this fun moderate route.  Both Kyle and I considered leading, or pink pointing, this route, but after several laps, we were smart and didn’t push our luck. 

Kyle on No Love (M7)

The crag was busy on this cold January day, with up to 12 people sharing routes and top ropes.  We had a great day and did a few top roped laps on a M7 route (No Love), lead by Scott from Canmore (very impressive lead) and a few laps on an ice pillar.  Good pump and fun to think and feel the mixed moves.

Mt. Haffner - Ski ascent

January 5, 2013.  Short day casual day that started with a lot of people. Kevin P., Vern D., Eric C. and I headed out to ski up Mt. Haffner (2514m). We were meet by Steven S. and Grant at the parking lot, but didn’t see much of them since we went for Haffner and they headed up Vermillion first (Steven and Grant went on to bag Mt. Haffner as well).

Cool low valley cloud gave way to warm air and bright sun above treeline. Quick pace to pass between Vermillion and Haffner.

  

Vern, Eric and I really enjoyed the sun, snow, ski and boot pack up Haffner; Kevin P. gave up early, still below tree line, due to a lack of energy.  Eric and I were keen to bag both summits (Vern skied up Vermillion a few years ago), but I was a good dad and headed home to make bath time. Fabulous day in the sun with great views, great snow and great friends. Great day ;-).  About 4 hours to summit and about 2.5 hours from top to car. First summit of 2013!

No score with "Heavenly Bush"

lack of partners and only time for a short day, so I thought a solo ice route would be perfect.  I had read a trip report for a cool little WI 3 route in the drainage above the Kananaskis S & R and RCMP station near the Nakiska ski resort turnoff.  Martin S. and I had thought about hiking this creek in search of ice about 10 years ago, I use to refer to this drainage as Policeman Coulee, slight deviation on the name of a cool coulee in Writing on Stone Provincial Park in southern Alberta.  The trip report is linked here.

drips in canyon

Light to moderate bush bashing up the creek with boot to knee deep snow; I enjoyed the cool variety of short ice pillars in the main drainage, but I did not play on these as I was gunning for Heavenly Bush.  About 1.5 hours in I reached the drainage with Heavenly Bush, the approach was mostly running water over steep scree and slabs, only the vertical drop offs had ice formed.

I climbed about 100 vertical metres out of the drainage, mostly on patches of ice over slabs with running water.  I climbed 3 steep steps, with good ice, but these had open pools of water above.  The route was not formed.  I bailed and walked off in steep trees to climber's right. Good exploration day and some good exercise, but no real climbing.

Classic King Creek – Ice and mixed climbing

Met up with Kyle B. for some mixed climbing.  Originally we were both keen to head to the mixed bolted area, The Playground, but Kyle was out at King Creek the day before and had a rope jam up on the final rappel of day.  We headed to King Creek to retrieve Kyle’s rope, but I was also keen to scope out the mixed climbs in King Creek as well.  

Magic Touch WI3R 5.8

One of the first mixed crag routes developed in Kananaskis, Magic Touch (WI3R, 5.8; M4?), is in King Creek and has been on my radar for a few years.  I was pretty sure I wasn’t fit enough for leading Magic Touch, but I was eager to inspect the 5 or 6 lines of mostly trad protected mixed routes in the canyon.

We arrived at the parking lot around 9:30 and there were already four cars parked.  Reaching the main ice flow Kyle’s rope was still hanging in the corner where he was top roping a cool vertical mixed line.  Kyle jumped on a top rope in place by some friendly Romanians on the main ice flow, reached the anchor with his rope, dropped the rope and was lowered. 

We walked over to the short ice flow that originates from the cave, short WI3 lead to bolted anchor.  We played around on top rope on the rock to the right of the ice for a few laps, difficult mixed climbing and lots of water drips.



reach for it !

Once the Romanians we done on the main flow, Kyle lead a scrappy and thin WI3 pitch to same anchor where his rope was jammed before.

Kyle a built great TR anchor and we both did numerous laps in this fun corner.  The upper half was vertical and offered a variety of ice or rock holds for climbing, great to test skills on TR!   Headed home after several pumpy top ropes, but gave an party a belay up the route so they could set up their own TR, buddy dropped the anchor setup, biners and all, jack ass. 

Jack ass on top rope in corner

GR 396213 ('Little Tombstone') – East Ridge Attempt



'Lil Tombstone' with route

As part of my Opal 35 Project, I was keen to bag the obscure and remote 2800 metre summit located at GR396213. I refer to this summit as “Little Tombstone” since it is a far north outlier of Tombstone Mountain.  This little peak has a prominence of 160 metres from the saddle towards Tombstone Mountain (North) and an isolation of about 3 kilometres from the Tombstone Mtn. summit. Based on some photos and the topo map, I thought the East Ridge would be a moderate scramble.  



Nice 20 km bike approach on the Little Elbow Trail, then a short bushwhack and I was scree bashing up the East Ridge.  So much for the moderate scramble, around 2400 metres the terrain got interesting, steep slabs broken by short steps, the occasional vertical cliff band required short traverses; all covered in water ice and snow.  Crampons and an axe were essential since many of the ice patches were extensive.  This sketchy terrain continued to get steeper until I reached a near vertical cliff band around 2600 metres. 

Turnaround point

This band was 10 to 15 metres in height, covered in ice and snow and very blank with few holds.  I attempted two of the shorter sections, but the climbing felt like 5.2/5.3 with very small holds.  Had the landing zone been flatter, not a 50 to 60 degree slab and ice slope, I think I would have pushed the route, but I chickened out.  I think a combination of remoteness, being solo, bad landing zone, hammering winds, spindrift, concern about downclimbing, and the late hour with limited daylight all weighted too heavy on my mind; good decision to bail.  

When I turned to descend I was 7 hours away from the car.  About half of my bike ride out was without lights and from my turnaround I was only 3 hours back to the car; got to love the downhill bike rides!  Next time I come back for Little Tombstone I will attempt the North Ridge in the summer and pack some rock shoes.

Mt. Assiniboine, Lunette Peak and Mt. Strom, Alpine II, 5.4

Great two day trip to Mt. Assiniboine which was in perfect conditions on Sept. 22, 2012. Vern and I approached from the BC side via Assiniboine Creek and Lake to the Assiniboine/Strom Col. The glacier below the col was mostly dry and we travelled its left side (north) unroped. Made this col in 5 hours, dropped the packs and walked to the summit of Mt. Strom, simple walk with great views. Spent Friday night at the Hind Hut; had the whole place to ourselves.


Worried about conditions, I brought a full set of wires, a dozen pins and three ice screws, turns out we didn’t use any of it, or even a rope. We left the hut at 6am and the temperature was +8. We had great scrambling with dry conditions; we scrambled the full North Ridge route without using the rope. We had prefect conditions, there was the odd small patch of snow/ice, but all easy to avoid. We had fully expected to rope up at some point, but the climbing was easy and on great rock. Hardest moves (red band) felt like about 5.3/5.4 to me. 

Kevin and Vern on summit of Mt. Assiniboine

We made the summit in 4 hours. No wind and a summit temperature of +12. We spent nearly an hour enjoying the summit and descended the SW slopes, on route to Lunette Peak. Took us 4 hours to reach the summit of Lunette Peak from the summit of Assiniboine. The SW face of Assiniboine is a nightmare; crazy loose, very exposed and just plain miserable. We did two rappels (fixed stations, cord on boulders) and lots of shitty downclimbing to reach the Lunette/Assiniboine Col. Scramble up Lunette was better quality rock, easy/moderate ledges were choss, but the steeper rock bands were pretty solid, all scrambled no gear or rope used.

OSWB on Lunette Peak summit

Descent to Lunette Lake was a pain, we found several rap stations below the col, but only did 1 rap. Took about 4 hours from summit to reach tree line, but lots of cliff bands above lake were tiring to traverse around, back to the truck at 11pm (8 hours from summit of Lunette).

Awesome trip, prefect conditions and weather and we had the big A all to ourselves! Life is good!