Welcome

Welcome and Intent

Welcome to explor8ion! If the site looks different than last time you were here — you’re correct, again. A couple of years ago I moved everything to a Google Site and turned every trip report into a PDF, and I said at the time that it was the final move. Apparently I lied. 🤥 Sue me. 😂 The PDFs did what I wanted for storage, but they were a lousy way to actually read anything, the search was hopeless, and most of the links inside them were broken. So I’ve rebuilt the whole thing properly: real web pages again, every report searchable by any word in it, photos that load at a sensible size, and links that work.

The reason I went to PDFs in the first place still stands — I won’t be around forever, and I wanted this to outlast me without needing constant care and feeding. This version handles that better than the PDFs did. Everything is stored as plain text files that I own outright, the photos sit somewhere I control, and the whole site costs a couple of dollars a year to run instead of several hundred. Nothing here depends on a plugin that stops working or a hosting bill that keeps climbing. I’ve also uploaded all my tracks to Gaia and made them public, so those are safe regardless of what happens to this site.

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 a map and colour 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 — it looks through the full text of every report, so a peak name, a partner’s name or half-remembered phrase will find it

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.

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. 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!

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