Plans are meant to be broken

**REFLECTIONS FROM HALFWAY: SEPTEMBER 7, 2019** If everything went exactly as planned, life would be so boring. We planned for a month of route development and climbing in Armenia. We planned to establish long multipitch routes. We planned the majority of our trip in September to take advantage of perfect weather – not too hot, …

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Project Armenia

In seven days we fly to Armenia. We’ve called the expedition Project Armenia. We’ll be travelling to a remote area in the north of the country, on the boundary of Dilijan National Park and along the route of the Transcaucasian Trail (TCT). Here there extends a 7km long limestone escarpment, ranging from 50m to 250m …

Autumn Limestone Addiction

Since moving off the island back in 2012, we’d spent a grand total of six days at Horne Lake. These six days were spread pretty evenly among the years and usually our visits would go something like this: We would get super excited about the prospect of climbing back at Horne. We’d plan to go …

The Best of Summer 2018

The weather is changing here on the west coast (read: bouldering season is coming back). We've reached the final days of a jam-packed summer. Between working full time, trying our best climb as much as we can, mini getaways, and time with friends and family... this season was pretty full value. We shared a lot …

#tendercrew does Smith Rock

Five gallon buckets and nine gallon buckets. Why are these routes named as such? Nine gallon buckets (5.10c) is more difficult than it's five gallon (5.8) cousin. But wouldn't there be more buckets on an easier route? Does the name imply there are more huecos (buckets) on the 10c? Or are the huecos larger and …

Bishop: People and Pebbles

It is the people that really make or break an experience. After an anxiety-inducing clicking noise started in the FalcVan on our drive down to Bishop in March, advice from two mechanics led us to park the van for several days. No driving? In Bishop?! But we only had nine days! Our good friend Hana …

Las Vegas Girls Trip

I really love Vegas. Not the flashing lights, not the flowing booze, not the glamour and money. Not the slow desiccation of the Colorado river, the traffic near the strip, the hustle and bustle, or the slot machines in the corner shops. I love the stillness when you drive only 20 minutes west of town. …

So we live in a house now…

...and work full time jobs. We also cycle-commute to work, trail run, bake a lot, have board game nights, and do plenty of other non-climbing-related activities. How did we get here? Graham landed an awesome one-year contract job back at the MEC head office in Vancouver. I also gave into my secret-not-so-secret desire to work …

An East Coast Reunion and Nova Scotia Bouldering!

Almost as soon as we had returned to Canada from the States we hopped on a plane and flew west coast to east coast for a family reunion in Nova Scotia. Every five years my extended family holds a big reunion in Enfield, with upwards of 300 people attending. It is a great time to …

24th International Climbers Festival

We wrapped up our six months of south-of-the-border travel this year at the 24th International Climbers Festival in Lander, Wyoming! We'd heard many people say that the ICF is one of the best festival events in climbing - we can happily say it did not disappoint! Kim was signed up as a volunteer for the …