Born 1954 in Banff, Alberta, in the heart of the Canadian Rockies.
My only recollections of my Banff years are: A black bear in a culvert down our street,
and me throwing a tantrum on Banff Avenue. My mom threatened to leave me there so I
quickly stopped misbehaving. Click here
for Banff info.
1959 we moved west and I went to school in Golden, British
Columbia, a beautiful little town situated between the Purcell Range and the Rocky
Mountains. Good place to hike, explore and fish. The ski resort, Kickinghorse, is great.
Flew hang gliders off Mount Seven in Golden in the early seventies, jarred my back
pretty hard. Tried skydiving twice; jarred my back worse. For a rundown of back
remedies I've tried and suggestions, click here. Learned
to play guitar; had fleeting visions of rock stardom(!) before coming to my senses.
1976-78 Attended Southern Alberta
Institute of Technology in Calgary, Alberta, east of the Rockies, and studied
Industrial Electronics. Was employed as computer maintenance tech in Calgary for various
companies. Began seriously exploring more of the fabulous Rockies west of Calgary.
Took mountaineering, ice- and rock-climbing climbing courses through the Canadian School
of Mountaineering in Canmore, Alberta; joined the Alpine Club of Canada, went on
climbing trips, occasionally even led one.
Began documenting my ascents of peaks, particularly those that were relatively
non-technical. Got married to Diana and honeymooned in the European Alps, climbed Mount
Blanc and other peaks while there.
Wrote Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies, published in 1991 by
Rocky Mountain Books, one of the better
guidebook publishers around. An expanded edition of my book came out in 1999, which won an award
at Banff Mountain Book Festival in November 1999.The new 2016 expanded edition is in color. Whoohoo! I revisited a lot of the peaks to get better digital color shots. It's way easier taking photos now than it was with 35mm slides.
Haven't quit my day job; I still work full-time. Today my passions are both flyfishing and scrambling. Guess which one I do when I feel lazy...
Am currently boring people with my outdated, sub-mediocre web page.