Biff and Brad Do Flora Swiftly

Brad and Kevin recently acquired new paragliders for their climb of Mt. Aconcagua. Within a week, they tested their new wings high up in the Chilliwack Lake Valley. See the video here.

The climbing doctor: Don Scaman prepares for Argentina

By Vikki Hopes - Abbotsford News

Don Scaman was coming down the Bugaboo Spire in eastern B.C. with a team of fellow mountain climbers, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Suddenly, the lead climber dislodged an ice sheet six inches thick, and began barrelling down the mountain, as if on a sled. He was travelling towards a massive crevasse, and he swung his ice axe into the snow, frantic to find an anchoring point.
It didn’t work. His fellow climbers could do nothing but watch in horror, certain their friend would be swallowed by the gigantic chasm ahead.
Instead, the momentum sent the climber clear over the gap and safely on to the other side.
A few shots of tequila and a good rest followed.
It’s the kind of scene that doesn’t happen often with Scaman, but when it does, it makes an impact.
An Abbotsford doctor, Scaman has seen a lot in his 30-plus years of mountaineering, but mostly it has been from the perspective of appreciating the world’s natural beauty.
He has scaled so many mountains he has lost track of how many climbs he has done. They have included 10 ascents of Mt. Baker – seven to the summit – and three climbs on Mt. Rainier.
He has made numerous treks in the coastal range and Rockies, spent six weeks hiking around Nepal, and recently returned from Patagonia, a region located in Argentina and Chile.
Scaman, 58, returns to Argentina this December as part of a 13-member team scaling Cerro Aconcagua. It’s part of a fundraising effort called Climb for Prostate.
The team has so far raised about $120,000 for prostate cancer research.
Scaman was invited to join the team, which heard about his mountaineering experience and wanted to have a doctor on the journey.
It was the ideal opportunity to combine his passion for the outdoors with a way to raise funds and awareness about a crucial men’s health issue.
“Men’s health has always been neglected. Women do a far better job of taking care of their health than men do,” he says.
Scaman was also attracted to the challenge of conquering the western hemisphere’s highest peak – 6,962 metres (22,841 feet).
“It’s always been something I’ve wanted to do. This is as big as I’ve wanted to go.”
The group consists of two others from Abbotsford – John LeBlanc and Ken Hurley – as well as men from Chilliwack, Surrey and the Okanagan. They range in age from 49 to 59.
They have done three climbs together – twice on Mt. Rainier and once on Mt. Baker – and have trained individually throughout the year. Scaman, for example, is an avid runner and also enjoys kayaking, playing hockey and skiing.
He also gets together whenever he can with the three other men he first started mountain climbing with in the late 1970s. They all had an affinity for the outdoors and tackled Mt. Baker together on their first climb.
“We didn’t even know what we were doing, but we made it to the top,” Scaman said.
They nicknamed themselves the Abbotsford Veg – as in “vegging out.” They later took rock-climbing lessons to perfect their skills for the more technical portions of their climbs.
However, Scaman said he prefers basic mountaineering over rock climbing.
“That’s a young man’s sport. You have to be like a monkey to do it,” he laughs.
The Climb for Prostate team arrives in Santiago, Chile on Dec. 20. From there, they travel to Mendoza, Argentina to begin the 14-day trek.

For more information, visit www.climbforprostate.com.

Climb the Squamish Chief at 50?

August 2009 my 13 year old daughter, Chantel and I took a top roping rock course in Squamish, BC. I have climbed with her for many years in a gym but never on real rock. During the course she climbed extremely well and with high praise from Tim our course instructor. I suggested to Tim that I would like to someday climb the Squamish chief (as it is called by the locals), Tim said I “was ready now” and he would go up as partners. ...Of course I said when?

On the morning of Sept 6th , I met Tim at a small café in Squamish, BC. We planned to climb the classic alpinist route called Angel’s Crest. I had always aspired to climb this giant but felt I was too old for the task. Now 4 months before my 50th birthday I was looking straight up this solid granite wall. The Squamish chief is second to El Captain in Yosemite in the USA as the in highest granite wall in the world.

Angel Crest climb has 14 pitches, is known as the one of the 3 difficult routes and is rated as a 5.10c. This I was going to take every bit on physical energy and mental focus. In 9 hours we climbed, with cold hands, bleeding knees and with a my heart in my throut for an OMG fall on the 13th pitch we made it to the top of the giant. In short an amazing adventure.

Thanks to Tim for leading and coaching. In life it is the journey that is important, not the summit. But I tell tyou he summit sure feels great!

The House Party of 2009

This summer, a friend of mine offered to host a small party and add a fund-raising component for the Prostate Center of Vancouver. Little did I know how fun and huge this event would be. This friend had just completed a six year project - he had a high school sized gymnasium built in his back yard with full movie theater, stage, lighting system, and surround-sound system. He hired a top-of-the-line event planner and invited 260 people, including all the climbers and three bands (of which one was my band, Head over Heels)

The party took place on Saturday, October 17th and I'm sure everyone who attended will agree, it was a magic night. The room was absolutely beautiful with bistro tables, couches, and amazing lighting. The food and beverages flowed endlessly. The main band, Soulstream, absolutely packed the dance floor. Dr. Martin Gleave, of the Prostate Center gave a short address to the guests and there was a Vancouver General Hospital Foundation table to provide more info to so it was a great combo of celebration and awareness raising. Click here to listen to one of the songs we played.

Flora Flight Fest

Training, fund-raisin', more training, more fund-raisin'. Getting more gear, training... that pretty much describes my life and those of the team these days. Fortunately, its all pretty fun and exciting.
This Thanksgiving weekend, I needed to catch up on my exercise after a couple of weeks of feeling blah, so I asked Brad H to join me for a hiken'fly up Flora Ridge above Chilliwack Lake. We had a camera and an Iphone and started out with great intentions of photo-documenting the day. However, once we launched our wings, that was all forgotten (for me) in the glorious experience of the flight. Still, I managed to stitch a little something of the experience. Click and Enjoy

Mt Baker - 26/27 September 2009

Unfortunately, only Edmond and myself could make this climb, but with the weather due to change at the end of the weekend, it was probably going to be the last opportunity to attempt Mt Baker this year. So with blue skies and a clear night expected and much debate over whether to take along our Alpha Hike wings with the forecast north westerly at 20kts due to blow up the Palisades Valley we set off from the Heliotrope Ridge Car Park. About 2 hours later we arrived at Hogsback Camp just below the Coleman Glacier, just in time for a beautiful sunset and watch the mountain change to an extraordinary shade of orange before fading into the darkness. This was to be my first ever bivvy experience and I must say I was rather sceptical as to how you could actually stay warm, particularly with the temperature due to drop below zero over night. However, I was amazed as to just how warm you become inside your sleeping bag, inside a bivvy bag. So much so, I found myself wriggling and twisting for many minutes shedding layers of clothing inside my bag, until I was at a comfortable temperature and really snug. But can somebody tell me why, it's only when you get to this stage..... you need to get up and pee!
When Edmond told me it was finally time to get up, I complained, I was so comfortable and amazingly he agreed to an extra 10 minutes, I think he was just as cozy and really didn't relish the thought of getting up either.

We decided to leave what we could at the bivvy site and take our wings, just in case the wind was in our favour further up the mountain and finally set off at 0430 under a beautiful clear sky. Edmond took the lead, but initially it proved very difficult to find a way through the many crevasses across the route. We doubled back many times to try a different route and finally achieved most success by heading to the far west of the glacier then paralleling the Heliotrope Ridge up the glacier. The crevasses en route were spectacular, but some of the snow bridges looked rather unsafe, which resulted in more detours. All the way up the glacier the wind was blowing down from the summit, an almost perpetual katabatic wind which would obviously make for a very difficult take off, so as we progressed up the mountain, the chance of a flight down was looking extremely slim. We gave ourselves a cut off time of 1100am, where ever we were at that time we decided we would turn around and start our climb down, particularly because of the difficulty of the route back around the crevasses. Just as the clock struck 1100am, we arrived at the Roman Wall, a climb which had taken six and a half hours to ascend just 3000'. We took in the view, both north and south, tucked into our nuts, raisins, chocolate fudge cake.....and cheese (guess who had the cheese) and contemplated the route down as the wind continued to blow down from the summit, albeit light. That's when an ingenious Frenchman hatched a cunning plan.

Right where we had our lunch was a snow dome, about 30 metres across, which meant you could actually face into the breeze blowing down from the summit with a small take off run in front of you down hill from the dome. So, we talked it through and had plans in place for an aborted take off and a place to land further down the glacier if we encountered sink en route, with a final LZ planned at our bivvy site conveniently marked with a ski pole complete with pink streamer. Edmond kited his wing as final proof of the take off run .....but then I lost the toss and went first! A great reverse launch followed with a rather loud 'Yee Hah' saw me heading out over the glacier with plenty of height and very smooth air. We maintained comms throughout via GMRS and the streamer at the LZ proved useful as the planned up hill landing did show a slight head wind. Up hill was really the only option, so it was always going to be a heavy landing, but a roll on touch down absorbed a lot of the impact. Edmond flew a very similar profile arriving over the LZ very high and also experienced a heavy, but safe landing.

We found out later that we were the only climbers on the mountain on that Sunday, another team that set off around 0400am gave up as they couldn't find away through the crevasses.

Overall a great experience for myself, disappointing yes, as we didn't get close to the summit, but the flight over the glacier sure made up for that short fall. I guess I'll just have to head back there next year!

- Jerry Mason

Climb to the Summit of Prostate Cancer

Mt. Ranier 2nd CFPC Training Climb

The Climb Team: John LeBlanc, Kieth Britz, Edmund Rivere, Ken Hurley, Randy Kolarcik, Don Scamen, Kevin Ault, Glen Derouin, Jerry Mason.

There are many parallels between climbing big mountains, teamwork and fighting Cancer.

The difference is, the pain one experiences when climbing is self-inflicted; and one can always walk away from it. While with Cancer, the battle leaves one fighting for life, with few options.

This past weekend, July 17th to 19th, nine of the 13 CFPC team members went back to Mt. Ranier to continue our training journey toward the summit of Mt. Aconcagua and our ultimate goal of raising $100,000 to further Prostate cancer research.

We dedicated this climb to those individuals and family members who are struggling with the climb of their lives, ‘battling cancer’ and to the four team members who could not make it, either due to injury or work commitments.

Special mention goes to our climb leader, John Leblanc, who unselfishly sacrificed the summit and showed great leadership in assisting a team member stricken with AMS. And to Edmund Rivere for his patience in leading the rest of our rope team to the summit.

Mt. Ranier's lower meadows are in full bloom, masking the ever present hidden dangers that lurk above like a 'Siren of Cancer' calling out seductively.

Recently I sat with an acquaintance who is battling advanced stage Prostate Cancer. He described his battle in a before and now scenario. Before he started his treatments he could walk up a flight of stairs without breathing hard, go hiking without breathing heavy, now during his treatments, he struggles to find ways to just climb one stair or even to take a next step while walking.

Like a team of climbers who are roped up to one another for safety and support in the face of danger so too is the Cancer patient roped up to his treatment regimen, his life depending on his caregivers team members to deliver a quality of care that will give them a fighting chance to survive.

While our struggle up a big mountain pales by comparison with the individual's battle with Cancer, the parallels in experience are nonetheless striking.

These personal experiences of cancer go with us onto the mountain, to inspire us with the hope our actions will further inspire others to help us reach our summit objective; raising $100,000 to further Prostate Cancer research.

We urge you to join us in this battle;

You can donate @ http://www.climbforprostate.com/