Climbing Adventures with Yin, Wallace and Sheldon

This is a shot of Wallace making a very fluid ascent of "Spiderman". This vantage point was created by lying down with my back on the rocky earth, my head at Sheldon's feet while using a wide angle lens to shoot straight up the wall. I wanted, primarily, to convey the bareness, and skill of the climb, as one ascends from large cracks to smaller holds and on to mere dimples in the rock when approaching the crux. The amount of balance and grace needed to surpass the crux on this route is astounding, as it is a, not so simple, movement of replacing ones hand with a foot, where the hold upon which the swap is made is a miniscule depressions in the rock. At the moment this shot was taken, Wallace had just negotiated his way through the crux of the climb and is about to disappear from our view as he breaks the skyline. This is a wonderful climb for anyone who enjoys slab.

Sheldon on "Spiderman" (5.11c)

This is Sheldon climbing "Spiderman". "Spiderman" is a nice 5.11 slab route found in Hidden Valley within Jasper National Park. Sheldon is on his first ascent of the route, and just about to find his way into the crux (crux: the most difficult portion of a particular climb). It is easy to see why the route was so aptly named as there are so very few obivious holds found on this climb. I was able to take this shot by climbing into a perch we had set-up using two adjacent routes. This is the very same perch that I was in long enough to cause the front half of my left big toe to go nerve def. Sheldon informed me this condition is commonly known as "Christmas toe", apparently since I would not have feeling return to my toe until sometime around Christmas. Well, I can happily report that Christmas has not yet come around and I have had a full recovery of sensation in my big toe, though it did take several months for the nerves to re-grow.

This is a Remembrance Day series that demonstrates the age of our war monuments, for this is a photograph of the barracks that housed the defenders of the Halifax harbor during the Second World War. All of these photographs are of the barracks found in what is now Point Pleasant Park in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

by Palamarek

This is the second photo in this series of photographs taken of the Barracks at Point Pleasant Park. This shot provides a closer view of the structure, and of its apparent state of disrepair, which is why fencing is now employed to keep people from exploring the hazardous buildings.

by Palamarek

This is the third and final photograph of the Barracks at Point Pleasant Park. I took this shot with the intention of capturing the whole barracks and bunker area, so as to really provide a feeling of the working conditions of soldiers on the home front defense during WWII. Age, the elements, and time have really have had there way with this structure, and it is a shame it is not currently being preserved.

by Palamarek