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and Hiking

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Private Guiding
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Summer
Mont Blanc
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Best around Cortina
Via Ferrata

Best around Cortina
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Ice Climbing

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OnTop in Sports Illustrated!
OnTop will be featured in the December Issue of Sports Illustrated with our Wapta Ski Traverse Trips! Check it out, the magazine should be in the news stands for all of November and December. Even though the feature will be in the Women's Issue, we will still accept bookings from our male clients!

Fall Newsletter:
Canmore, Alberta October 20th, 2001

Dear Friends & Clients:

First of all-thanks to all of you who made our 2001 season so successful and FUN!! It's a pity it was marred by the events of September 11th. We hope all of you are doing well and won't let these events interfere with your zest for adventure.

Thanks a ton also to our partner agency - Camp 5 in Salt Lake City, UT with Kendra always restless in the office and Adventure Consulting, our booking agent in Crested Butte, CO.

We started the season with some long-time Dutch clients-turned-friends, here in Canada, Utah and Colorado. Ton and Roos came to Canada in May for some ski touring on the Wapta. Canada being, well…Canada, we were able to do some rock climbing on Yamnuska right after skiing! We all headed South after that for some climbing around Boulder and Moab. Ton was surprised at the lack of Dutch people in the campgrounds. In Boulder, we were also joined by Leroy and Margo from California, who had been climbing with us the previous year in the Dolomites and came back for more. As usual, we had the pleasure of staying with our friend Bob, who even tolerated us turning Chateau Barron into the OnTop base camp. Heather was able to catch up on some Marshall's shopping and her suntan!! It was a fun month and interesting to be different climates at various times.

Jorg managed to get in a bunch of climbing in Utah and our new back yard in the Canadian Rockies in June and July with Edward, Larry, Rinaldo and Blob before we left for Europe.

The last few days in July found us back in the Chamonix Valley at the beginning of our Alps stint. It began with a couple from the Czech Republic-Katja and Jim - for a private alpine course in the Swiss Valais. Jim ended up falling in love with rock climbing to his surprise. It sounds like they are so hooked, they are getting their 4 year old son climbing gear!

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The first Haute Route trip got us quickly back in the groove of glacier travel! Peter amazed us by doing the trip in "sandals", while Kate and Todd owed their successful traverse to their new pants, which #**!# rocked, according to Kate! Jon and Russ reminded the rest of us of our fun college days. I got to check out Jerry's special spot the next week on the curvy road up to Mauvisin-good that we didn't have too much driving!! Steve included us in his birthday celebration! It was great to have our international couple from Australia, Sue and Alan. They were missed when they had to leave early due to a family emergency. It was great to be able to have Last Second Laura with us-what a surprise to have someone book the trip the week before!! All in all it was a fun trip and a great group of people.

The good weather stayed with us for the second Haute Route as well. There were some familiar faces on that trip-Wil returned for the 3rd consecutive year!! He must love the abuse! Alan returned for the second year in a row-he really decided to do Europe-he joined us for three trips!! In addition to the Haute Route, he joined the Mont Blanc ascent and the Ortler/Dolomite trips as well. He definitely won the award for the biggest pack-again!! A fellow Heidelberger, Jurgen, joined the rest of the Americans-was he ever brave! It was fun to have some fellow Boulderites as well-Stephanie and Terrie. Alan B. managed to talk a friend into joining us as well, another Alan. It was fortunate that Alan T. was along-I think I'd still be wandering the streets of Geneva if it weren't for his navigating. I'm surprised that our sole vegetarian Mark didn't turn into a slice of cheese and bread. He definitely got to sample the different cheeses available in the huts and truly earned his nickname: "Le Grand Fromage". Luckily we were able to provide Gary with some alpenhorn entertainment heading up to the Bertol hut. It was definitely motivating hearing the music! Rosie spent the week looking for cows and flowers-she was even searching in a crevasse! She did get a unique view of the Matterhorn-upside-down!! Ken kept things lively with his spontaneity. He wasn't even phased by the lack of gas in the car the first day!

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The Haute Route trip got people super fit for the Mont Blanc! The route we did was the Traversee-starting from the Aguille du Midi and traversing over the Col du Tacul, Col Maudit up to the summit of the Mont Blanc and then down to the Gouter Hut. We even managed to get Ken signed up-usually people plan for the Mont Blanc for a long time-but not Ken-he decided the day before-typical!! Wil made it to the summit with Alan B. and Flory guiding! I wish I would have had a camera when I picked up the group the next day-Wil's smile was HUGE!! Ken and Mark cruised up the Mont Blanc with Craig as their guide. They were well into their beers in the Gouter Hut by the time everyone else got there! Jorg took Terrie and Jurgen to the summit. It was a great Mont Blanc trip with everyone summiting!

Anybody know where we are? Jorg and the Gang in the Dolomites. Photo Howard Petrie

After the Mont Blanc, we drove to Munich to start our stint in the Dolomites and Ortler. Luckily, we had Alan B. along with us, who by this time reached "assistant guide" status. It was the second year in a row that he signed up for the Dolomite/Ortler trip! A glutton for punishment!! I have to be careful what I reveal about this trip in case I blow the cover from our secret spy Howard (code name Harold)! It was nice for me to have another woman along-Debra was super fun-often it's me and a bunch of guys! Debra impressed us all with her Ferrata gymnastics! Danny, who was NEVER tired, had a surprise trip-he was convinced we were often going the wrong way (up), but he LOVED the ferratas!! I just hope he didn't feel badly that he got no "speck!" (but he did get a lot of potatoes and eggs…) Unfortunately, we were unable to find a wife for Ali, though we really looked-not even a semi-wife! Vlad was a great cheerleader on the trip-always a smile and a word or two of German! And a great navigator in Munich!! Uber-Hans, or actually SuperHans returned to the Langkofel-only this time he did it with via Ferratas instead of soloing it! I'm glad you all made it home safely and took advantage of your unexpected stay in Munich.

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After the larger groups, we had a few trips with private clients in September again. Heather got to go some place new with Mark and Kim, which is always fun. We did some via Ferratas and hiked around the Tre Cime and actually met the South Tyrol version of Billy Bob-complete with the hat and lack of teeth! Aaahhh, local flavour! We headed back to Cortina, to meet up with Kay, only to find snow and cold temperatures. The nice thing about small groups is the ability to change the venue! We jumped into the VW and drove to Arco, Italy for more Mediterranean-like weather. The five of us (Mark, Kim, Kay, Heather & Jorg) did a fun via ferrata that consisted of LOOOONNNGG ladders. It was beautifully situated above the Lago di Garda. Heather likes the Via Ferratas because it's like social rock climbing. Kay and Jorg did some hard rock climbing in the Arco area for a couple days! Kay should be proud that Jorg was actually a bit sore from the climbing!!
Finally Helmut and Ursel from Munich joined us in Arco too - for their 12th year of climbing with Jorg! We did some more climbing and via ferrata around the Garda Lake and finished up the season in our old an beloved hunting grounds - the sandstone rocks in the Pfalz in Germany.

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In addition to these trips that were all guided by Jorg, sometimes with help from Larry Dolecky, Flory Kern and Craig Ellis we organized a bunch of custom trips: Geri Unterasinger took Sandy and Lezly on a one week Ferrata Trip around Cortina with a lot of early season snow but great weather.
Our old friend Edward Bekker managed to sneak on the payroll for a day (after Jorg was on his for the last 15 Years and counting!) on an attempt to climb the Mont Blanc du Tacul with Al & Joan, which had to be aborted at an early stage, because the winds were so strong, that the cable car to the Aiguille du Midi didn't operate. They went rock climbing instead.
Geri also took Mike, Al & Joan on an alpine traverse in his Austrian home lands, the Gross Venediger Range and finished the trip with two days at our favorite hut keepers at the Fonda Savio Hut in the Dolomites.
Bernie Schuelke and the father & son Navarro team gave their best on their Mont Blanc attempt, but had to abort because of acclimatization problems.
Howie and Scott came for a week in September to Zermatt hoping to climb the Matterhorn, but like many Matterhorn-candidates this year they were out of luck due to increment weather and early snow, which in combination with a load of late snow made for a very short Matterhorn season of only a few weeks this year. Rinaldo Borra guided them on alternate venues around Zermatt and Saas Fee and in spite of the shock of the September 11th events, they managed to bag a wide variety of climbs.
Neil Hitchings took Mike to the summit of the Mont Blanc, while Kim preferred to wait for them at the Gouter Hut and give her pulled hamstring a rest.
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Heather actually managed to finally summit the Mont Blanc, after having to look at it every day in France for the last five years! We picked a beautiful day and even managed to make it a day trip with our friend Karin.
There are so many great memories from ALL of you and we want to thank EVERYONE joining us this summer! It was great fun for us too!

We are glad to be home in Canmore! It's a new feeling for us to actually have a real home waiting for us, not to mention the infamous Biscuit! She nonchalantly greeted us when we arrived-she didn't really seem so surprised. We arrived to beautiful autumn-just in time as it's al-ready beginning to snow a bit here and there. Jorg is looking forward to his winter heli-skiing season with CMH and the ski touring and ice climbing that he will be guiding. He is also in the process of developing some new programs-some in Europe and some here in Canada! You should check them out! We welcome any feedback! Keep in touch!

Cheers,

Heather & Jorg Wilz

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