Adventure Diary
Flathead RAVE
Conrad Kain Centennial Celebration
South India
Canmore, Alberta
Bhutan and Nepal
Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Celebrations
Year 2009
Flathead RAVE
© Joe Riis
In mid July, Pat was invited by Wildsight, and The Wild Foundation, to film photographers from the International League of Conservation Photographers who held a Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition, or RAVE over a 10 day period in B.C.’s Flathead River Valley.
The photos and video footage these award-winning professionals shot will be used in a variety of ways to help draw attention to the industrial threats facing the area.
As icing on the cake, Pat had the good fortune to join old friends John Bergenske (exec director of Wildsight) and Harvey Locke (v.p. for Conservation Strategy, The Wild Foundation) on overnight hikes into the high country bordering Waterton and Glacier national parks, and filmed up and coming nature photographer Joe Riis in action.
Joe specializes in setting infra red camera traps, and the photos you see here were taken during the RAVE. To see more of Joe’s work, visit his site at www.joeriis.com
For more info on the Flathead, and how you can get involved help preserve this amazing "Serengeti of the North" habitat, please visit www.flathead.ca/links
© Joe Riis
Conrad Kain Centennial Celebration
© Pat Morrow - outfitter Bill Dubois leads "Conrad Kain" and a pack string through the streets of Wilmer on the way to the unveiling, in Conrad Kain Park, of the memorial cairn made from rocks collected on 20 of Kain's peaks.
This was the culmination of the Conrad Kain centennial projects that Pat has been working on since we moved to Wilmer, and we couldn't have had a better turnout, or weather for the outdoor event.
Where the Clouds Can Go, a song inspired by the book of the same name, composed and performed by recording artist Mark Koenig, uplifted the already high spirits of the 300 + crowd that came to celebrate Wilmer's mountaineering legend, Conrad Kain on July 11. Five other local musicians entertained the crowd with homegrown songs, and actor Phil Nugent pleased the audience with a lively rendition of Conrad Kain's early life leading up to his ascent of Mt Robson in 1913. Representatives of alpine clubs and guiding associations from New Zealand, Austria, Canada and the US were on hand to dedicate the cairn, and share climbing and adventure stories informally during the picnic lunch of bratwurst sausages and homemade cookies that displayed the "CK" Kain brand.
This wonderful event was followed by a three day Bugaboos Teens climbing camp in the nearby Bugaboo Group. Pat began his climbing and photographic career in the Bugaboos as a teenager, and this outing was a way for him to "give back" to the climbing community.
For more photos and details, visit the Conrad Kain site.
© Pat Morrow - our team enjoys the view of Snowpatch and Bugaboo Spires from atop East Post
Spire (Baiba on right).
South India Ayurvedic Retreat, Jan/Feb
© Pat Morrow - Baiba receives Shirodhara oil treatment at Zamorins Heeding the call to take a therapeutic break from the daily grind, we immersed ourselves in an ancient Indian ayurvedic rejuvenation treatment, panchakarma, at a venerable ayurveda establishment in Kerala. Owned and operated by Dr Baji, and Col Babu, Zamorins Health Retreat lived up to its reputation, and we came out of a month long regimen of lovingly delivered holistic healing feeling totally refreshed, and resolved to rein in our hectic lives (somewhat).
But not until we had given a presentation at Microsoft’s Lab in Bangalore, and spent a delightful couple weeks touring the historic sites of south India, from visiting the Sri Aurobindo ashram in French colonial Pondichery on the east coast to hiking above the coffee and cashew plantations in the Western Ghats, and side trips to the World Heritage site of Hampi, and Badami, both destinations for rock climbers as well.
© Pat Morrow - David and Prasad shoot their way through the sandstone ruins of Badami
Year 2008
Great Bear Rainforest Video Workshop
Sept 29 - Oct 5
© Ron Watts - JD and Pat listen in as Baiba interviews Fern, as part of the video workshop
We had a fabulous week aboard the wooden heritage vessel, Columbia III, shooting stills and video in the archipelago north of Bella Bella, B.C.
Many thanks to Ross, Fern, Miray and Luke, the Mothership Adventures crew, for providing the perfect venue for this workshop – not only were they consummate hosts, offering a level of comfort and cuisine not normally found in such wild surroundings, they were also able to put us and our video workshop students within easy lens range of coastal glaciers, grizzlies, eagles and an ancient Kitasoo/Xai’xais Big House ruin on the outer islands.
On top of all that, our old friends Janis Kraulis and Ron Watts were along to share their photography secrets.
Michael and Jean Layland, from our Adventure Network days, joined us as well. Keep an eye out for Michael’s upcoming book - The Land of Heart's Delight: the history of exploration and mapping of Vancouver Island. Scheduled for publication Fall '09 by Touchwood Publications (part of the Heritage Group)
The workshop was so much fun that we are considering where and when to offer it next.
© Janis Kraulis - the Columbia III, our luxurious floating classroom
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Conrad Kain, Mt Robson 1913
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When he was a teenager cutting his climbing teeth in the Purcell Range, Pat was very much inspired by mountain guide Conrad Kain’s book, Where the Clouds Can Go. Kain lived here in Wilmer nearly a century ago.
Kain’s enthusiasm for life burned in a “splendid fire” as he quietly set new standards during the Golden Age of Canadian Mountaineering, in the early 1900s. The Conrad Kain Centennial Society (CKCS) has been formed to celebrate the legacy of Kain, and Pat is an active member.
A dedicated group of mountain guides, recreational climbers, skiers and Kain fans from the upper Columbia Valley, the CKCS has developed a series of projects and events that will promote community-building infrastructure and activities for many years to come. This will be carried out in the spirit of Kain’s down to earth belief system about treating the mountain environment, and each other, with respect.
Find out more at: www.conradkain.com
photo: Byron Harmon, courtesy Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
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Keep Jumbo Wild!!
Pat, and other East Kootenay locals, including Bruce Kirkby and Scott Niedermayer, collaborated with DOP Kevin Shepit on a documentary film, Alas Resort, based on the controversy surrounding the proposed Jumbo Glacier Resort in the Purcell Range near our home.
Despite nearly 20 years of local opposition, the ski resort proponents have persisted in trying to take the decision-making out of our hands, to the pro-development government in Victoria.
Please visit www.jumbowild.com or www.wildsight.ca for details on how you can help stop this environmental and socioeconomic disaster from happening, or dial in the seven minute trailer, which was a finalist at the 2008 Vancouver Mountain Film Fest finalist, on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHn0YRke7Us
Year 2007
25th anniversary of Canadian Mt Everest Expedition
On Oct 5, 1982, Laurie Skreslet became the first Canadian to summit Everest. Two days later, Pat was the second. Four lives were lost in the process of putting us and four Sherpas on top. Our bittersweet accomplishment can be summed up in this analogy: “In times of war, there are no victors, only survivors”.
The Whyte Museum in Banff, AB, graciously hosted a reunion for we “survivors” on the eve of the anniversary. Among the guests in the audience of about 150, we were honoured to have the late Bill March's wife Karen in attendance, along with Margaret Griffiths, stepmother of Blair Griffiths, our cameraman who was killed in an ice fall collapse. Also, Danuru (Dawa) Sherpa, who narrowly missed being fatally hit by the same avalanche that took three of his fellow Sherpas, received a warm welcome. Despite a leg injury sustained in the avalanche, Dawa valiantly went on to make four carries to Camp 4 at the South Col.
In spite of the sad memories, the evening turned out to be a joyous occasion, reconnecting with old friends, and our many supporters from the Rockies and Calgary area.
An exhibition of ’82 climbing equipment memorabilia, and Pat’s photos, will be on display in the Rummel room until March ’08.
Team members who attended: (l to r) Tim Auger, Pat, Lloyd Gallagher, Dawa, Laurie, Bruce Patterson, Dave McNab, Peter Spear, and Stephen Bezruchka. photo by Craig Richards
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B.C. Raincoast: Sept.
Pat just spent a wet and wonderful 3 weeks on a shoot with wildlife filmmakers Jeff & Sue Turner (& their delightful sub-adult offspring, Chelsea and Logan), in the archipelago north of Bella Bella. The Turners invited him to shoot a 10 minute “making of” film to accompany their 50 min BBC Nature's Great Events series documentary on the life cycles of the flora and fauna of the Pacific coast, entitled The Great Salmon Run.
Jeff, Sue and Logan orchestrate a tilt move from a pool filled with salmon to the green canopy of the rainforest, with a special high definition underwater camera that records straight onto a laptop hardrive.
Stationed out of a floating pleasure craft base camp, the team spent long days swatting pesky gnats, and rubbing shoulders with the grizzlies and black bears that feed on the spawning chum and pink salmon in this region.
Check out a couple film clips on the BBC World website:
Jeff and Sue graciously shared their many years of wildlife filming experience. They are the winners of the Telluride Mountainfilm 2007 Best of Festival award for the film Edge of Eden, which chronicles Charlie Russel's work with orphaned grizzlies in Kamchatka, Russia.
Pat’s observation based on the experience he picked up from this shoot: “When it comes to filming wildlife, it’s much easier to anticipate the behavioural patterns of my climbing animal buddies - they respond readily to the clinking sound of beer bottles.”
Jeff about to get some closeups of a grizz cub
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The Great Adventure of Moving!
the view of the Columbia River Wetlands, from 9154 Fairview Ave.
After celebrating our 20th year of living and playing in the Alberta Rockies, alas, Canmore is no longer the sleepy, idyllic mountain town that we moved to in 1987.
Edged out by the Calbreedian invasion as well as a swelling local population, we bought a small house with a great view in the village of Wilmer, (140 houses, give or take). It’s two hours drive west of Canmore, and a half hour bike ride north of Invermere (where Pat was born), on the flanks of the Purcell Mountain Range.
In spring and autumn, it’s hard to sleep in past 6 a.m., due to the clamour of avian pilgrims flying over the Columbia River Wetlands. Ironman fur trader/map maker David Thompson established Kootenae House trading post just a couple kms from Wilmer in 1807, and prolific Austrian guide Conrad Kain (first ascents of Bugaboo Spire, Mt Robson, etc) built his home on the western edge of town in 1920.
While we will deeply miss the spectacular limestone crags and our dear friends in the Bow River Valley, we look forward to reacquainting ourselves with the Purcells and our old friends in the East Kootenay and Columbia Valley. And we harbour the vain hope that the industrial tourism sprawl of "Canmore West" (Invermere) won't destroy the collective integrity of its satellite hamlets.
Of course, we’ll continue the peripatetic life, so if you’re planning a visit, contact us at least 36 hours in advance to make sure we’ll be home!
Go to "Contact Us" at the bottom of the page, for our new coordinates.
Baiba looks back at Wilmer (on point of forested bench) - no sign of condos...yet.
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Kananaskis Country Film Series
Pat films Mt Sir Douglas from Chester Lake area © Will Schmidt
During all the years of living on the doorstep of half a dozen Rocky Mountain national and provincial parks, we’ve never had more than a few consecutive days of film or photography work here in our back yard. All that changed just as we were about to move to our new home in British Columbia.
Pat has been invited to work as a camera operator by Will Schmidt (Skylight Pictures: skylightpictures@gmail.com) who landed a contract with Kananaskis Country parks service to produce four - 20 minute feature films, in HD and HDV format. These films will be presented on the big screen at K-Country’s theatre and on television monitors at several interpretive kiosks in the park. The project will be shooting through the winter, with a delivery date of March/08.
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Cover Girl...Again!
Baiba has appeared on many magazine and book covers over the years, including half a dozen travel/hiking guide books. Now she and fellow hiker Jeff Boyd grace the cover of the 8th edition of the Canadian Rockies Trail Guide, first authored by our buddies Bart Robinson and Brian Patton back in '71. The photo was taken on a lovely autumn day at Lake Agnes, on our way back from a scramble up Mt Niblock near Lake Louise. The book is available locally, or through Summerthought Publishers in Banff: www.summerthought.com
Year 2006
Canmore - Grassi Lakes - Sept
In September we shot a fun assignment in our back yard, with local climber/graphic artist Scott Withers (Rockdog Designs www.pbase.com/rockdog). We were hired by Microsoft to provide photo content for a new 3D photo stitching technology, called Photosynth, being developed between Microsoft and the University of Washington. On the last warm, sunny day of autumn, we shot hundreds of digital stills of the lovely Grassi Lakes and the ancient reef from the Devonian age above, which is peppered with sport climbs.
As multi-media content providers, we're keen to see where this type of technology will lead - our friend Bill Buxton (Principal Researcher at Microsoft) www.billbuxton.com is equally keen: “Digital is more than just another film stock, or a cheap alternative to printing, distribution or the darkroom. It opens a whole new way of approaching imagery, one that goes beyond traditional still or cinema photography. Photosynth is just one piece of this emerging creative mosaic.”
This is from the Photosynth site: http://labs.live.com/photosynth
The Photosynth Technology Preview is a taste of the newest - and, we hope, most exciting - way to view photos on a computer. Our software takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and then displays the photos in a reconstructed three-dimensional space, showing you how each one relates to the next. In our collections, you can access gigabytes of photos in seconds, view a scene from nearly any angle, find similar photos with a single click, and zoom in to make the smallest detail as big as your monitor.
Note: Unfortunately we Mac users can't access the program, and only Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista RC1 or later are supported at this time.
photo: Scott hangs it out over Grassi Lakes
Bhutan and Nepal - May/June
Our journey to Bhutan and Nepal provided a wonderful opportunity to visit old friends, and research a couple of new film projects.
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In Bhutan, we were graciously hosted by Barba Tulku Rimpoche and his wife Sangay Tshoki at their warm and accommodating Nor-thrung Guesthouse. During the three weeks of our stay with them in Thimpu, our hosts kindly took us on excursions to stunning sacred locations such as Taktsang Monastery (Tiger’s Nest) near Paro, where Guru Rimpoche meditated in what has become one of the most famous monastery sites in all of the Himalaya.
We also began research on a film about the uniquely Bhutanese Buddhist Middle Path approach to coexistence with the Himalayan Black Bear. In other parts of the world, when there is a human-bear conflict, the bear almost always loses.
photo: Barba Tulku Rimpoche and Sangay Tshoki on a rhododendrun-viewing excursion near Paro
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In Nepal we rendezvoused with fellow Canadian climber, Laurie Skreslet, fresh off a filming expedition with Banff DOP Guy Clarkson on the west ridge route of Everest, first climbed by Canadians in 1986.
A film crew recorded our “walk down memory lane”, as we trekked to Everest base camp together.
We spent just 12 days on the round trip, in some ways the least satisfactory trek we've ever done.
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photo by Frances Klatzel
One of the positive aspects of the experience was that we were lucky to have our friend Ang Nima along to work with us, and also Lhakpa Tshering’s widow, Nim Phutti joined us on the walk to Thame where we filmed this year’s Mani Rimdu celebrations.
In Kathmandu, we visited her boys, Ang Tshering (left) and Sonam Tashi who are attending a boarding school there for at least two more years. A group of around half a dozen Canadian “Friends of Lhakpa Tshering” have established a fund for the family that will continue to pay out for the next 8 or 9 years, until the boys are old enough to provide for their mother and auntie in Kunde. We’re happy to report that the boys are doing well in school, and their mother has been picking up work as a dzopkio driver with treks run by Canmore guide, Wally Berg.
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Alpine Club of Canada Centennial Celebrations
As part of its 2006 centennial celebrations, The Alpine Club of Canada invited two dozen climbers and artists, who share a similar vision of the mountains, to collaborate on a work of art.
Having been on four climbing/ski expeditions and three river journeys in the St. Elias Range in Yukon, Pat picked the region as his favourite part of the Canadian cordillera. Fortuitously, he was paired up with artist Dominik Modlinski, http://paintingjourneys.com who maintains a summer residence in Atlin, in the northern Coast Range of British Columbia. Dominik has hiked and painted extensively in Kluane National Park, and the St Elias mountains.
The two compared notes to find a location that they had both been to, and fallen in love with, and settled on the world-class view of the Kaskawulsh Glacier from atop Observation Peak. "What each of us find most striking about this view is that it lies at the vegetated interface of the front ranges and the largest ice fields outside the polar regions", says Pat.
Dominik’s painting will be part of the exhibit opening October 13, 2006 at the Whyte Museum in Banff, entitled “The Mountaineer and the Artist: Reflection on a Mountain Place”.
For details on the exhibit, and a plethora of other centennial events planned by the ACC, visit their site at www.alpineclubofcanada.ca
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Pat & Dominik, with their tools of trade
photo © Craig Richards www.spiralroad.com/sr/craig_richards/index.html |
© Dominik Modlinski oil on canvas, 2006 32" x 72"
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