Welcome

Welcome and Intent

Welcome to explor8ion! If you're thinking this site looks and feels a little different than last time you were here - you are correct. Due to the soaring costs and hassles of a fully hosted WordPress site, I have moved to a Google Site and have translated all my trip reports into PDFs for long-term storage and retrieval without the hassles of separate photo storage and constantly changing plugins and themes. This is the final move for me and is much more than I was originally planning to carry forward. Please note that most of the links in the PDFs will be broken, but the links to Gaia GPX tracks and external sites should still work for the most part. I considered removing all the links, but they are handy references in many cases. (I am in the process of redoing my favorite trips and the links will be fixed as I work my way through them.)

I understand that for some of my faithful readers, it might feel like something has been lost by transitioning everything to PDFs, but there are some advantages. I will not be around forever and I don't know how much longer I will actively update / post trip reports. It could be 10 more weeks, 10 more years or maybe even more. PDF documents have a huge advantage over web pages for the simple reason that they don't expire over time. They can also be printed easily in the correct format. I love doing trip reports and will continue to update this site as long as I feel like it. In the meantime there are younger, faster, more adventurous folks updating modern platforms such as TikTok, Insta, Gaia, Strava and AllTrails - usually with beta and GPS tracks that closely mimic anything you're going to get from me. I have uploaded all my tracks to Gaia and made them public, so none of those are lost in this transition.

Explor8ion has decades of content and grew from very humble beginnings. I love hiking, climbing, skiing, scrambling, canoeing and many other outdoor pursuits. I also love taking photos, videos and writing blogs about my adventures. I do all this work so that I can look back and remember good times. I love sharing my pursuits with others and love inspiring people to go beyond their comfort zones but this isn’t my primary mission in life or even the primary goal of this site.

I make no claims about being fitter, faster, more prolific or any other comparison metric that the Internet algos make us think we care so much about. The hubris of self promotion is not something that I’m interested in. I simply have too many years under my belt to care about that stuff. I do what I do because it gives me pleasure to do it. That’s it. No agenda, no lists, no goals, no side hustle, no influencing. When I feel like doing a trip, I do it. When I feel like posting a GPS track, I do it. When I feel like making  a video, I do that. When I don't feel like it, I don't. Pretty darn simple, and simple is what I like.

How to Use Explor8ion

Let’s explore how you can get the most out of this site because with over 1000 trip reports including hundreds of hikes, dozens of canoe trips and hundreds of scrambles, the sheer amount of data is a little overwhelming. Here are just some of the most efficient and sensible ways to view all of my data.

• If you’re just browsing around, take a peek at my top 10 page – there’s a lot to check out there for everyone from hikers to climbers to skiers

• If you have an area in mind but are unsure what might be there, check out my trips plotted on Google Maps and color coded by what type of trip it is 

• You can see all my trips by their date in descending order or by the areas that they are located in (i.e., Banff, Kananaskis, Yoho etc.)

• Another handy way to view trips here, is to look at them by effort and type of trip (i.e., hike, scramble, ski etc.)

• I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the search feature – using the built-in Google search at the upper right side of your screen. NOTE: In order to find individual trip reports make sure you click the "Embedded Files" tab after searching.

Standard Disclaimer and Safety Tips

This is your standard disclaimer so that I don’t get sued when you follow one of my tracks or reports and get yourself into trouble. Use this site and the beta contained therein at your own risk! The author (Vern Dewit) makes no claim of authority or relevance of any of this drivel on the successful outcome of your trip. Mountains are a dramatically changing landscape and routes that I plotted 10 to 15 years ago will almost certainly look and feel completely different today.

Please carefully read my difficulty ratings and know what I mean by them. Always travel prepared for the conditions and terrain you’re on. Just because I didn’t use a rope on a glacier does not mean you shouldn’t. Conditions, personal risk profiles and stupidity levels are different for each and every one of us. I know I don’t wear my helmet enough for example. Wear a brain bucket – the Rockies are doing their best to fall down and often they wait until you’re around to do it.

The Relative Unimportance of Fun (and this site)

I’ve written on this topic before, but it behooves me to point out that none of what is documented on this site is very important in the grand scheme of things. I’m not making the world a better place – you could argue I bring attention to areas that don’t need any more human feet than they already get. Of course, in the end what is the point of any of our hobbies? I recognize this as the great comedy called ‘life’. No matter how big you climb or how many peaks you summit, there is always going to be someone faster, fitter and more accomplished. There’s always more summits. There’s always more hikes. There's always more lists. In the end this is all just entertainment for people lucky enough to have the time and money to enjoy themselves on the weekend and de-stress from their regular, relatively easy, first world lives.

<rant>

I think that Social Media has slowly led to the degradation of our culture and society and will be remembered as an experiment gone wrong for humanity in future years. From mental health to politics to false information, it has led to overuse of the environment and a dangerous underlying FOMO and restlessness in the vast majority of humanity. Why dangerous? Because people aren't living authentic lives anymore. Rather than doing what they truly love and discovering new things for themselves, vast numbers of us are now herded like sheep into visiting the exact same places, doing the exact same activities and sharing the exact same beliefs by mathematical algorithms (increasingly driven by AI). Independent thought has all but vanished and conspiracies are believed with more veracity than scientific facts. Independent, rational thought has largely been replaced with the loud opinions of influencers (mostly inhuman algos) and obnoxious personalities on various platforms promoting us to "take sides" on every issue from politics to the environment to social justice. Finally recognizing this, I deleted all my Social Media accounts and I haven't felt this positive about life in a long time. You won't find me on Strava, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X or even LinkedIn. (I'm still on YouTube because it's the most viable way to store and share my vlogs.) The best way to contact me is via cell or email.

If you think you aren't influenced by Social Media, try going for one month without sharing anything with anyone on any of the platforms you're on. Try not looking at any of your accounts for just 30 days. I think you'll be surprised how hard it is and how good it feels if you succeed. Next step? Stop sharing all your activities. Don't wait with breathless anticipation for all those "likes" to pour in over that sunrise photo from East End of Rundle. Stop planning activities based on how others might react to them. Go out and explore on your own. Decide what you actually enjoy in life and pursue it without looking for a "side hustle" or "influence" to make money on your hobbies. There is no quicker way to ruin what you love than using it to put food on your table. 

Take my advice for what it's worth - think for yourself!

</rant>

About Me

Some basic facts about me that may or may not explain some of what you read or see over the decades of trip reports. I grew up on a small family farm in southern Manitoba – about as far from mountains or even hills as you can get. I was raised in a very strict Calvinist religious sect and grew up with a correspondingly strict and embarrassingly limited world view. I moved to Calgary in 1999 and my first mountain was Ha Ling on a work trip. I was immediately hooked. I didn’t know it at the time but over the next 25+ years the freedom of the hills would slowly work its way into my whole life and eventually set me free in many ways I never thought possible. 

I have always struggled with my weight and have a borderline eating and body dysmorphic disorder. My weight fluctuates terribly and mountains have always been the one way that I can somewhat regulate it – although eating always wins out in the end. I chuckle at well-meaning folks who think exercise is an automatic way to stay slim – I am living proof that it is most certainly not! I have managed to gain weight while exercising ridiculous amounts. Calories in / calories out folks. C’est la vie! The mountain community is certainly not immune from folks with eating disorders and body issues. If you struggle with this issue please know that you are most definitely not alone.

I am a hiker that dabbles in alpinism, rather than an alpinist that hikes. I wish it were the other way around but it’s not. I never had the luxury of wandering the world when I was young. I got married and started a family in my early 20’s and have always had to work to support them. All my mountains and trips were done on top of a full time job while raising my two wonderful kids (Kaycie and Niko) with my even-more-wonderful life partner (Hanneke). Sometimes the things you love have to suffer for the people you love. In case you’re wondering, Hanneke and I were childhood sweethearts and have been together since we were 13 years old which is pretty darn cool, I think. 

Although my family is the joy and ultimate priority of my life, I’d be lying if I said it was always easy balancing their needs and my burgeoning passions for adventure and explor8ion. When the kids were young and we were a single income family there were many tough days trying to balance the two! Now that both my kids are done college I will have more time to pursue some of my other life passions. Hanneke won’t do sketchy scrambles with me, but she’s game for canoe trips which is pretty great. That’s enough about me for now. If you want some more of my philosophy you can check out some of my articles;

• Perspective in an Overshared World

• Praise for the Weekend Warrior!

• Sisyphean Life Lessons

Feel free to reach out any time to discuss anything you read or see on my site or to ask me questions or make suggestions. 

Vern