China-Harbin

I spent 1 month teaching English to Engineering students doing Masters and Phd's at the Harbin Institute of Technology.....China's MIT, or so they tell me. Harbin is way up in Northern China, close to the Russian border. A lot of mechanized farming....a huge contrast from southern China. Harbin is know for its Ice sculpture festival, but fortunately I was there in July/August and it was quite warm.


A very small piece of the futuristic skyline.


Cheers, big nose.

One of my classes

Flying fish

A country family who invited me in for lunch....I met the gentleman on a run up a mountain.

spot the big nose

Aside from swimming in pig fat, some of the best food on the planet.

My other class

Mainpro and Linda.....the class reps who's job it was to look after old big nose.

Russian Orthodox church in central Harbin. I believe this part of the country used to belong to Russia...

Our teaching team....from the US and Canada

Chinese Muslims

I hope not!

Camping chinese style....and I thought European campgrounds were short on personal space!

Good thing they used pictographs! As both signs say "men"

Ok...if you insist

Happy on the way!

Guess I won't bother then.

A FEW CLIMBS/SCRAMBLES

Article in the Canmore Leader


Took me 6 years to scramble up all 102 peaks in "Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies"(1st edition). I was the 1st person to complete the guide book along with another friend Roberto Pavesio, who took only 4 years.
Here is the Author, Alan Kane's website http://peakbagger.tripod.com/
Here's my review of the book on Amazon.com
My Bible, Jan 1 2000
By
Steve Tober (Calgary, Canada) - See all my reviewsWow...what can I say, other than this book has had a major impact on my life. From a valley bottom, trail dweller, "Scrambles" has shown me how to reach the heights without having to bother with the burden of carabiners, ropes, etc... If the essence of this guide book could be summed up in one word...that word would be FREEDOM. The Canadian Rockies are not a heavily travelled area (except for the main street of Banff!). With the exception of a few popular peaks, one is unlikely to encounter other people of most of these scrambles. Alan's route descriptions are concise and accurate, which is of great importance, especially under less than ideal conditions. There is a magical world waiting to be discovered in these mountains and "Scrambles" is the perfect passport to many adventures, here in the Canadian Rockies


Mt. Temple

Mt. Temple Sunrise....start at Morraine lake at midnight under a full moon...summit around 5am Note the morning shadow of Mt. Temple in the distance



Presidents....Yoho National Park

Raj al Ghoul Libya

Raj al Ghoul

Mt Stephen above Field BC

Cracks on Mt Ball

Mt. Lorrette Kananaskis ....where is the rope Vaughan? Oh, it's in my pack.

Monty and Jaden on Fairview above Lake Louise

Maria on Mt. Blackiston, Waterton National Park

Eiffel Peak with Mt. Fay in the background, above Morraine lake, Banff National Park

Studley on Mt. Andromache

Ptarmagin Pk

The high water mark of my climbing experiences. Mt. Louis

So where is that rope Vaughan? In your pack again? Mt. Louis

Final summit push. I think we need the rope now. Mt. Louis

last rap off of Mt. Louis. Vaughan is just a tiny little speck at the top of the rope.

2nd last rap off Mt. Louis.

Mt. Yamnuska scree

Maria on The Yam

Grillmair route on Mt. Yamnuska

Vaughan on the Grillmair route Mt. Yamnuska

Grotto Mtn. above Canmore

Pat on Mt. Baldy

George.....The Mitre

Vaughan....summit Eisenhower pk

Roberto on Devil's Head

Devil's Head

The Mitre

Commonwealth pk

Illiniza Norte....Ecuador

Cascade....above Banff Assinaboine in the distance...Nove

Chris on Mt Remus....in the summer

Summit of Mt. Lunette....an appendage of Mt Assinaboine

Eon in the forground

This is a ragtag collection of photos.....many, many more are in print form (and some of these are digi pics of prints) in photo albums in storage in Calgary. I haven't been back to Calgary for 5? years and these are all the climbing photos that I took with me on my laptop. I'll need to do a major update at some point in the future!