Friday 21 August 2015

Sweet Kyle




         Loosing a friend is always rugged.   It's easy to ignore the brevity of our existence, but when a brother falls, the unthinkable slaps us with a cold, opened hand.   Kyle's death is beyond tragic, but in life he found meaning through his community, sky flying and the mountains.  This was his destiny... 
         Risk taking is integral to humanness,  if you never stick your neck out you never fully understand the value of self or others.   It's true in the hunt for daily bread, and in relationships.  Kyle once told me that his way of dealing with a negative person was to go out on a limb and "hit them with  the Love." Words to live by my friends...





                                                Kyle, into the wind of the Thunderbird





Going outside is a good remedy for heartache so the Sunshine Coast pulled  Helen and I to her shores.





The Eldred Valley is a zone I've always wanted to visit - being amongst these backcountry domes was good for the soul


                                                                   Bear Tooth Spire




Colin Dionne pioneered this area for climbers and like Kyle was killed in an aviation accident



                                                 West Main Wall, an honest 800 meters of granite


Carag-Dur, 600 meters high and home to only one route:  "Funk Soul Brother" established by Matt Maddaloni and the late mountain maestro, John Millar

   



Boulders o' plenty









The Golden Boy at your service



A place called Huber Country







 Without doing any climbing we left for the Island of Savary.

 



 Savary has a Swiss Family Robinson feel to it and we camped on the beach by these fun driftwood shelters.



Kyle visited Savary last September and noted the flying potential off these sea banks.  We woke to rain so my Yak stayed in the bag.  Here's Kyle with his signature birdman launch

Next up was a hike out to the Skookumchuck Narrows where these paddlers enjoyed a miracle of nature:  The sea transmogrifies into a river in this fjordal constriction.




                        Refreshed, we returned home and finally felt like doing some climbing

                                     Helen enjoying Sunset Strip



That night, we hit the music fest where the eight piece, Slightly Stoopid threw down a five alarm set infused with an irieness that makes you wanna get up and shake your booty.

Kyle, I wish you could have come dancing with us...