The university's outdoor and climbing clubs put together a joint trip to go to Calabogie, a great bouldering and climbing spot nearby. The plan was to leave early and spend the day climbing, then head to a campsite and spend the night before heading back the next day. It was a decently long drive, but also somewhat uninteresting. When we arrived, we crossed the road and did a short 20 minutes hike to get to the boulders.
One of the many boulders in the area with chalk marks on it.
The area had a lot of pretty decent boulders some of which were huge. Since it was November, it was pretty chilly and we had to deal with frozen hands on the cold rock, and somehow the worse cold on our toes in our poorly insulated climbing shoes. It was still a lot of fun. Originally it was meant to rain, so all things considered we got pretty lucky.
Since there were a bunch of us, we were able to split into groups and tackle different boulders at once. The area has a ton of them so there was something for everyone, no matter the skill level.
Mark Climbing a boulder with some spotters.
I am not really all that great at climbing but I enjoy it anyways. Even if you don't complete a problem, just working on it and helping outers finish it is a ton of fun. One group was able to go to the cliff above us and do some rope climbing there. Unfortunately since there was limited time and space, I wasn't able to go. Maybe another time. At once point someone had dislodged a boulder and apparently in very nearly hit someone on the rope. Thank goodness it missed because that would have been really bad.
Someone climbing the cliff.
After we were worn out from climbing and it was starting to get dark, we decided to leave and go set up camp. We hiked out and drove to a nearby site. By the time we got there it was dark, but it wasn't too much of an issue as we had headlights. We set up our tents and hammocks, and got a fire going. I was supposed by how many people brought a hammock, especially due to the cold, but apparently they are actually really quite warm.
Mark and some others near the fire.
Once the fire had been going for a bit, we decided to make some bannock on a stick. If you don't know what this is, it is basically a simple bread that you can cook over the fire by wrapping the dough around a stick. Its originally from Canadian and Metis culturesI believe. Anyways we made some with mixed success. After that it was getting late and we were getting cold, even with the fire so we retreated back to our tents and called it a night before heading back the next morning.