Hello London - Goodbye Vancouver!

Farewell to Vancouver, and a few of my favourite people. Now I'm in London, Ontario chillin' with my family until after Christmas. Coming up is the Robson Christmas in Toronto, and then Sippell Christmas (+skiing) in Sault Ste Marie.

A frequently occurring thought seems to be: "Boo ceremony; yay family."


I'm still going to head to Africa on January 7th. My mom and dad lived in the Sudan for a good while, so they have been good company while doing some early planning. They're helping me get my head around some key points:

1. Africa is really big.
2. Africa is really hot.
3. Africa can be dangerous.
4. It's hard to get around within Africa.
5. Kenn is ill-prepared for a trip to Africa - including but not limited to the trip he aims to start on January 7th.

Trip Report - University Wall Aid Climb

Nice clear day. Conditions were perfect for aid climbing. But I forgot that I needed some additional gear [1] [2] so we stayed in Vancouver late to pick it up.

The pleasant hike to Grand Wall base included some atypical snow this time around. There were also large clusters of watermelon-sized ice chunks which periodically free-fall from the overhanging wall above. Helmets!

I started us out by leading Seasoned in the Sun. This picture is not of me, but I'd probably look just like that guy. Corine and I once found a magazine with a picture of a girl climbing this route; before we knew what we'd done, we both dropped our lives to chase after the girl in the picture. It is a beautiful and classic climb.

Aside: I was climbing with one of my regular partners, Dima. Dima speaks a handful of languages and I rarely know which one he's cursing in. Cursing is not infrequent, but things are truly bad only if Dima yells in English. For example, "Momma" is often used before any imminent large fall on bad protection. Foreign language cursing usual indicates hardgoing, frustrations, or close calls. My favourite curse is the Russian curse "blei" because it just sounds like he's shouting out "blah" with lots of enthusiasm. I have a goal to start using it more regularly.

Dima belayed me up to the next ledge and then he took over to take us up some snow-covered scrambles. Using a single tree for protection, perched above a precarious drop-off, Dima slipped slightly on snow. "Blei!" Russian. All was well.

We progressed another 2 pitches up a little scramble, and then traversed over a slick, cold, frozen waterfall. We have completed the approach, and now stand at the base of University Wall!Here starts the beginning of our battle: our winter ascent. Dima and I look upward at the climb: eight relentless overhanging pitches up the sheer cold rock. The weather is clear. We're geared for success. Conditions are perfect. One last climb stolen before the year's end.

But we've moved too slowly. It is the absolute shortest day of the year. We touch University Wall and rapel down to drink hot tea as the sun sets at 4pm.

Trip Report - Garibaldi Neve Traverse

Things didn't line up for the completion of the Garibaldi Neve Traverse, but good were still had. On the second morning, we were on track but mucking around in avalanche shoots en route to the base of Opal Cone. But our path was eventually blocked by a long series of cornices and an intimidating river. Some conversations with knowledgeable people lead us to the conclusion that our route was impassable (crevasse-covered glacier, and an unfrozen lake) so we turned our attention to a steep climb up Diamond head (my first climb with an ice axe - feels as bad-ass as it looks) and eventually Travel Monopoly in a warm cabin. Tim won Monopoly; likely by cheating.

This gave us Day 3 to play in the snow (without 50 lbs packs on). A photo by Tim is attached. Good times.

Planning - Leaving British Columbia

I have three noteworthy outings planned before leaving Vancouver in two weeks.

1) Garibaldi Névé Traverse - This weekend, Tim and I will attempt a four-day ski touring & winter camping expedition in Garibaldi Provincial Park. The jury is out on the feasibility of the glacier and lake crossings required for the route we chose, but if things look safe the forecast is perfect - with a foot of fresh snow to fall while we're there. We may even reach the non-technical 2,700m peak of Mount Garibaldi (pictured here as-seen from Black Tusk), which Tim and I have talked about doing for a while.

2) Mother visits Vancouver - My mother (long-time reader of KennSabbatical) will be flying 4,000 km from London, Ontario to visit me in Vancouver for a few days. Aww cute.

3) Winter Ascent of The University Wall - Next weekend, I'm going to attempt a two-day eight-pitch winter Aid Climb of the University Wall (5.6 + A2). Rumor is that this is one of the best routes available on Squamish's Stawamus Chief (my climbing home). More details on this trip will come as the dates approach.

Planning - 100 Days from Windhoek, Namibia to Kampala, Uganda!

I went and bought a non-refundable plane ticket flying to Windhoek, Namibia on January 7th and another returning from Kampala, Uganda on April 9th.

This will give me 93 days to cover roughly 2,500 km of straight-line distance. My likely route will be a serifed "J" from Namibia, through Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and ending in Uganda.

Pretty cool! But feels weird to be so publicly elated alone in a travel agency...

Planning - My Continental Travel Destination

The only travel destination which I've actually decided on for the sabbatical is Uganda with a brief tour into Rwanda. I'll be meeting my friend Shannon here from mid-March to early-April. She is in an Occupational Therapy practicum for 6 weeks in Kampala, Uganda then has 2 weeks to travel afterward. My only criteria for January to mid-March therefore is to do something fun and mini-epic. This gives me many options, and in the past few months I've wavered back and forth between several possibilities. I'll highlight the ones which I took seriously for more than a week and confidently told my friends that I planned to do:

1) Biking the Mediterranean Coast - I originally requested a sabbatical with the intent of biking from Portugal to Turkey and then sailing along the southern Mediterranean coast.
2) Backpacking with Friends in Asia - My super-cool friend Mark is backpacking in India presently, and my childhood bestest-buds Ryan and Jaymi are on vacation from teaching in China during February for Chinese New Years. We would backpack together around the continent.
3) Hot Rock Africa 2010 - A rock-climbing expedition through Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, and ending in Uganda. I was totally sold on it but the dates didn't end up working out.
4) Trekking in South America - Deema turned me onto the idea of traveling through South America with his stories of adventures through the mountain ranges there. My schedule aligns with the South American summer so there are a lot of options including the Patagonias.
5) Eastern Coast of Sub-Saharan African - I could see what happens if I do my own thing on my own schedule in Africa and end up in Uganda. I don't really know anything about Africa, but have been hearing about the Eastern Coast of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Maybe my hypothetical blog readers will comment on their favorite choices? Decision time is approaching.

Day 2 - MEC Staff Christmas Party

MEC's Staff Christmas party was killer - dinner and dancing with some amazing people.

A pretty girl I've never met, but who caught my eye numerous times approached me on the side of the dance floor. She tried to start a conversation with me. My response is to fist-pound her, and turn around.

Being a dork is very frustrating.

Day 1 - Impromptu Whistler Weekend

My last day at Microsoft for 128 days - more than a 3rd of a year. I still wonder how it is that I'm so lucky to have had this happen.

I left work at 5 sharp and got a call from Tim at 7. Friends from TIFF are in Whistler - there's an open-bar and a free bed. We arrive in Whistler by midnight.

The party is lame and the bar is anything but open ($16 drinks!), so we tailgate a little and end up climbing things in the heart of Whistler village. I lead a nice easy stemming route up an ostentatious man-made waterfall. But Tim stole the show when he nailed a wicked first-ascent of a crimpy boulder problem on the textured wall-paneling within a stairwell.

We hit the slopes early, greeted by clear skies and cold winds (-17 degrees at the peak and windy). We were in Whistler for 8cm on Tuesday, but no snow since then and now it's pretty caked. We manage to find some good stuff when we climb up Spanky's Ladder (top left) into the bowls on the wind-loaded side of Blackcomb. Best runs of the day were all here.

First big wipe of the season happened here, too. I got stuck in a steep narrow chute and tried to inch my way down rather than climb out (or ski it proper?). I eventually lost control as the chute gradually became a cliff, and I slid on my back head-first down the rest of the chute. Trying to stop myself resulted in three end over ends. I popped into Tim's line of sight at about this point; he saw me slide another 15m on my face before I finally arrested myself (Mr. Barranco will please note my diction). Snorted a lot of snow, but walked away unscathed.

Tim took a potentially nasty fall at high speeds during a 1:1 race when the route dropped off sharply with little notice. Attempting to slow himself, he hit the lip of the drop-off sideways. Yard sale.

Whistler closes at 3 (outrageous for $90!!) so there was plenty of time to hot-tub at the hotel with our TIFF friends. We were joined by a bachelorette party from Seattle + cool Icelanders. We ended up in a bar with the entertaining folks from TIFF late into the eve.

Then a 5am wake-up to get Tim to work for 7:45 in Vancouver.

The sabbatical has begun.

[Pictures to come]

Mini-Manifesto

I have been thinking a bit about the purpose and format of the blog.

The purpose of the blog is simply to tell the story of my time on sabbatical.

There are some other minor reasons to blog:

• My family (mom) and friends allegedly care about me and want to know what/how I'm doing.
• I've always wanted to share a cool story in which I am a character. Best start writing first, then wait for the story.
• I'm traveling alone, and somehow I feel that the blog will be a useful tool - as a possible source of honesty, companionship, motivation, etc.
• Blogs have better memories than me. It's like a virtual souvenir.

I'm going to use bullets a lot because that's how I write to myself.

I like things like computers and brains and math and rock climb and skiing etc. I'll use domain-specific language when talking about many of these activities, but I've decided to not be overly accommodating for n00bs. If you don't know about this stuff you have a search engine, and I like being asked questions.

Let the blogging begin.