Mike
Thanks for the posting. I hadn't been aware of Impeesa (or the
High_Adventure Yahoo group for that matter). Sure sounds nice :-)
Tom Corrigan
Troop 72 / Glenwood, MD.
Wednesday, September 3, 2003, 2:28:21 PM, you wrote:
MB> Sorry for the off topic post and blatant own horn tooting by me, but I
MB> wanted to make sure that everybody here who helped me put this together
MB> saw
MB> this here as well.
MB> Mike
MB> ------ Forwarded Message
MB> From: "SSimpson@nyc.rr.com" <SSimpson@nyc.rr.com>
MB> Reply-To: High_Adventure@yahoogroups.com
MB> Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2003 10:07:40 -0400
MB> To: High_Adventure@yahoogroups.com
MB> Subject: [High_Adventure] Crew 729's Impeesa Extreme experience
MB> September 3, 2003
MB> Just wanted to give a report on our trek to Impeesa Extreme. Although
MB> we
MB> were gone a total of two weeks, the trek itself had to be cut short to 7
MB> days, given that we had to fly into Seattle. That meant that our total
MB> traveling time just to get to camp was three days coming and going. I
MB> will
MB> forgo descriptions of the travel to camp and just describe our trek.
MB> Camp Impeesa is located in the southwest corner of Alberta, very near
MB> Waterton-Glacier National Park. We never saw it. The entire west is
MB> fighting forest fires this summer, we drove past many, and the trek site
MB> was moved up to the Kananaskis area on a parallel with Calgary. About a
MB> day before we left for Seattle, that area too became subject to fires,
MB> so
MB> our operation was moved even farther north. If you go due west from
MB> Edmonton toward the Rockies, you will see a town called Nordegg. The
MB> road
MB> continues south a little ways to Abraham Lake. About midway down
MB> Abraham
MB> Lake on the western side is a tributary called the Cline River. That
MB> was
MB> our trailhead.
MB> Our trek guide was Jeff Kittmer, the Fearless half of the Fearless
MB> Leader
MB> and Awesome Leader Dynamic Duo who led our 2001 trek to Atikokan. It
MB> was
MB> great spending time with Fearless again. Because this was all new
MB> territory, hundreds of miles north of the Impeesa base, Fearless was
MB> unfamiliar with the area, but remained his usual undaunted self. We had
MB> to
MB> rely on a guidebook which described the Pinto Lake trail that followed
MB> the
MB> length of the Cline River from Lake Abraham to Pinto Lake, a glacier-fed
MB> lake abutting the snow-capped mountains at the eastern edge of the
MB> Banff-Jasper National Parks border. We were then to cross over the
MB> saddle
MB> connecting Minster Mountain to Cline Mountain and enter into the valley
MB> on
MB> the other side formed by Waterfall Creek. From there, the guidebook
MB> assured us we could pick up a trail taking us back down to the Pinto
MB> Lake
MB> Trail, allowing us to circumperambulate the Minster Mountain massive.
MB> Suffice it to say that there really isn't a trail down the length of the
MB> valley. We had to bushwhack our way down almost the total length of the
MB> valley climbing over rock fields and pushing through thick copses of
MB> shoulder-high evergreens. We picked up game trails where we could. The
MB> second go-around, I am quite confident that Fearless can make the trek
MB> much
MB> smoother, though the scouts thought the bushwhacking was one of the high
MB> lights of the trek. Our crew should be entitled to a pathfinding
MB> commission for subsequent treks.
MB> The entire trek was roughly 65 kms and was accomplished in 5 days. The
MB> sixth day we rode horses at the Timberline program area deep in the
MB> Alberta
MB> wilderness. This too was the real deal, no nose to tail of the horse in
MB> front of you walking around the corral. We negotiated serious hills and
MB> valleys and stream crossings and saw some terrific countryside. Many of
MB> the scouts felt it was a highlight of the trek. There was a significant
MB> contribution to scouting made by the Canadians whom B-P met during the
MB> Boer
MB> War. It was neat to learn how those elements survive in today's scout
MB> uniform.
MB> "Philmont is nothing compared to this."
MB> -- Jahzeel Montes, Philmont July 2003, Impeesa Extreme August 2003.
MB> For me, the highlight was crossing over the saddle into the valley
MB> beyond.
MB> From atop the saddle, high above the tree line, we could look down on
MB> herds
MB> of grazing big horn sheep and look out to snow capped peaks that
MB> surrounded
MB> us on all sides. If Pinto Lake and the valley beyond were in the lower
MB> 48,
MB> they would be a crown jewel in the National Park System and visited by
MB> millions ever year. Up here at the back door to Banff, no one pays them
MB> any mind. The view was beyond spectacular; so much so that by the time
MB> we
MB> arrived for a day at Glacier National Park in Montana, we were pretty
MB> much
MB> jaded and not too impressed with the Many Glaciers Campground. What we
MB> saw
MB> on the trek completely blew it away. The mountains were so high and so
MB> huge that I couldn't use the panoramic setting on my camera, since I
MB> couldn't take a picture of the lakes, rivers at the bottom of the frame
MB> without cutting off the tops of the mountains. That is how huge, tall,
MB> and
MB> close up the mountains were. The only people we saw during the trek
MB> were
MB> two who were choppered in. The only signs we saw of civilization were
MB> the
MB> helicopters flying over that were chartering sightseeing rides for
MB> people
MB> to see the ice fields where we were camping. Understand the
MB> significance
MB> of this. Where we had pitched our tents, other people had come from all
MB> over the world to charter helicopters to take them to see. We were
MB> camping
MB> in a National Geographic special.
MB> Major credit goes to Mike Bingley for pulling this off. Though I have
MB> yet
MB> to see Impeesa, both Fearless and I feel strongly that the Pinto Lake
MB> trail
MB> needs to be kept open as an optional satellite base for the program.
MB> Our
MB> crew consisted of me and my wife, Kathy, and five boys and five girls.
MB> The
MB> youngest was 13. All had a tremendous time, they all took care of
MB> themselves, they were all overwhelmed by the landscape. I probably had
MB> the
MB> hardest time dragging myself over the saddle and would do it again in an
MB> instant.
MB> Bingley is a true visionary, and as more young turks move into executive
MB> positions at Scouts Canada, they will have the opportunity to seize the
MB> potential for high adventure treks that Canada has to offer. Bingley
MB> outlined four other program areas he has in mind from Newfoundland to
MB> Vancouver that could service the 35,000 scouts that are turned away from
MB> Philmont every year. At Impeesa there is a cave formation called
MB> Gargantua
MB> that can take three days to explore. One of the options they are
MB> investigating calls for a three-day campout inside the cave, including a
MB> 50-foot rappel. I am convinced that with a million dollars in
MB> capitalization and ten years, Scouts Canada can own high adventure in
MB> North
MB> America. We will all be the better for it.
MB> In closing, it is not my intention to put Philmont down. I just want to
MB> point out the tragic reality that for so many troops across this
MB> country,
MB> Philmont is an all-or-nothing proposition. Troops either get into
MB> Philmont
MB> or they do nothing and try again next year. Many troops refuse to
MB> consider
MB> viable alternatives to Philmont. That is most unfortunate. For my
MB> money,
MB> Impeesa Exteme is just like Philmont except a. you won't come out of the
MB> experience feeling like processed sausage #C-2479, b. you won't see
MB> anybody
MB> else on the trail, c. the mountains are ten times higher and green and
MB> d.
MB> every campsite is either by a glacier-fed lake, waterfall or river.
MB> I don't believe I can attach photos in this newsgroup. However anybody
MB> who
MB> wished to contact me off-line, I see if I can send some. And I'm
MB> serious
MB> about the million dollars. Any venture capitalists reading this should
MB> contact Bing directly.
MB> Scott Simpson
MB> Advisor
MB> Crew 729
MB> New York City
MB> --------------------------------------------------------------------
MB> mail2web - Check your email from the web at
MB> http://mail2web.com/ .
-- Tom mailto:thomas.corrigan@jhuapl.edu ------------------------------------------------------- Scouting E-mail Discussion Lists @ usscouts.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe at http://usscouts.org/lists/ Listserv Commands at http://usscouts.org/lists/lc.asp ------------------------------------------------------- Send listserv commands to: listserv@troop47.com Send postings to: philmont@troop47.com List FAQ found at: http://usscouts.org/lists/faq.asp List Administrator: philmont_owner@troop47.com ------------------------------------------------------- As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. -------------------------------------------------------Received on Thu Sep 4 14:41:41 2003
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