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jumpingrock
Aug 11, 2005, 3:26 AM
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Registered: Dec 16, 2002
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So Emilie and I have decided that we are going to get married on the side of a mountain. Unfortunatly, this has many unfortunate complications that I need the advise of the fine members of community to solve.
So here's the basic plan (which won't quite work out but anyway it's a starting point) The climb of choice is a 5 pitch 5.5 climb on Yamnuska, a loose, slightly dangerous trade route on a largely adventure crag. This climb happens to be the first climb that Emilie and I did together. The climb includes a 1.5 hour uphill approach with some relitively scary (at least for a newbie) exposure while traversing the base of the cliff. So the idea for now is to have myself, Emilie, a videographer, a justice of the peace (all the formentioned are skilled climbers) and two witnesses (not skilled climbers) hike up to the climb. At this point we have two options: 1) The entire party of 6 (or 7) climb up the 5.5 route. 2) Everybody but Emilie and I hike up the descent route and we meet them at the top. 3) Some permutation of those two options. The actual ceremony will take place at either the top (BBQ ledge) or the second last ledge of the climb depending on which of the previous choices was made. After the ceremony the party hikes back down and the video is made into a DVD to show at a reception. Sounds simple right? wrong.
The problems that I see are as follows:
1) We have two people that are relitively inexperianced climbers and hikers of unknown physical shape. The approach to Yamnuska is not easy. It's actually pretty tough. I had a friend breakdown on the approach. Could this happen to either of them? yes. My proposed solution to this is to bring them up on a few "practice" climbs/hikes in order to make the day smoother. Only problem with that is that Emilie's witness will likely not be able to be in the area until just shortly before the wedding.
2) The family. It's a well known fact that the family will want to see their lovly children get married, and if that's not possible, at least right after they are married. This climb and approach could take between 5 and 9 hours depending on how things go. Therefore how does one arrange the parents in order to see them as soon after the ceremony as possible. Something akin to calling them at the before starting the descent.
3) The weather. Obviously this is something that highly depends on weather. You really wouldn't want to get rained out on your wedding day. It would be difficult to arrange a reception on the day of the wedding or even have all the parents be there if the wedding needs to have the time changed. It's rather difficult to have backup plans such as a tent. It would take a hell of a tent to cover that route.
So there you have it. That's pretty much all I can think about right now. I know there are further complications so if anybody wants to cast illumination on them that would be great. Any other ideas, concepts, thoughts, flames, crude jokes, memories?
Thanks.
(btw this won't happen for at least a year if not two or even three, the wedding day (week) hasn't been decided yet)
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tattooed_climber
Aug 11, 2005, 3:30 AM
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dude......have the whole climb filmed....i'm sure you know some dudes that can set up some rigging and do some filming....that be cool....might as well go all the way right????
any how, sounds like a wicked plan...best of luck
oh yeah, i vote for option number 1
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tattooed_climber
Aug 11, 2005, 3:34 AM
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as for the weather, plan it for a known heat wave (i have no idea when that be over there)..(example: for squish i'd say june to aug)
as for your friends that are in question for the appoarch? take them afew times up the approach prior to the wedding.....as for their inexperience on the climb??>>>>get 'em a harness and a set of jumars...no problem...
no reason why this can;t go your way....after all its your wedding, make it as narley and cool as you (both of you) want
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macherry
Aug 11, 2005, 3:40 AM
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okay here's the deal.............whatever you do, your family will be pissed. Bruce and i decided on a civil ceremony in our apt., with only our best friends present (2). We've never heard the end of it from both sides of the family......some claim we never got married :lol: But, in the grand scheme of things, we did it our way and we still look back fondly on that day. You will have to accept the fact that someone won't be happy.
Do it your way.........make the most of that important day. Go for the video tape. Appease the family in another way, such as a big social or another ceremony later............if it's important for them to witness the marriage thingy.
If one of the parties/witnesses can't do the climb/approach now, there's a good chance they'll never do it. That's a big risk!!!
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match
Aug 11, 2005, 3:42 AM
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google, helicopter canmore i was looking at it earlier today... the helicopter ride is only 80 bucks for 12 mins, canmore to the top of yam might not be much longer...
if not option 1 then you should at least get the guy filming to climb an adjacent route, and if he can't climb hard enough just get a buddy to film that section..
also my sister who has 0 to negative hiking experience hiked up to the base of yam on fathers day and she handled it pretty decent... she did freak at that sketchy traverse but it was washed out..
i don't know what route you are climbing, sounds like something on the west end if so, just maybe bring them up the death scree which is more work but defiantly less frighting...
don't know how expensive or details but the kanaskis guest ranch on 1X is a super chilling little resort, throw the reception and have the famillies there they could likely see you climb, and watch much of the ceremonies, then the banquet could practically be at the base of yam...
and weather, after this year i'm hoping it never rans here again.... wouldn't be suprised if it didn't for a couple years, ;) can't believe its shit again, snowed downtown today..(rumour has it)
cool idea though, good luck!
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kachoong
Aug 11, 2005, 3:54 AM
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That sounds awesome JR.... I really hope it all comes together for you both and I'm sure whatever you end up planning and/or whatever eventuates on the day will be memorable for you both AND anyone who happens to be there.... (hint hint....we want invites) :wink:
I reckon weather will/could be a real problem, dictating whether it goes ahead or not.... like most weddings.... but you guys have some pretty reliable weather on that east side of the range, don't you?
Is there any way Emilie's witness could train prior to meeting you out that way? Get them into climbing before hand... heck, get 'em in harness and shoes now and you won't have to worry two years down the track.
I second Taddy and macherry with the whole video experience thing.... get two or three cameras.... make the most out of a special day, if that's what you want, make it GOOD! Have a photographer too.... there's plenty of us that could help out :wink: (that was another hint, by the way!)
Get the family a small tour bus... hire one and they can drive up to Lake Louise for the day or something.... you could even (somehow) feed the wedding live through the net... they could log on and watch the final ceremony.... I'm sure the family wouldn't want to watch you hiking and some would probably rather wear a blindfold during the climbing parts.... basically though, keep 'em busy, so they're not hangin' around all day....
Good luck to ya, JR.... sounds like the planning could be just as fun as the end result.... :righton:
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jumpingrock
Aug 11, 2005, 10:36 PM
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Oo another thing I just remembered, how does one deal with other people on the route? I know that the route is a pretty popular/busy route so it might be a concern.
Thanks for all the suggestions so far. We have a long drive out west from here, so we have lots of time to mull over the suggestions.
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rockfarmer
Aug 11, 2005, 10:50 PM
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id be willing to bet that the other climbers in the area would be cool with the route being clogged for the day going to such a sweet cause....id hope so at least...
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taualum23
Aug 12, 2005, 1:06 PM
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"This never would have happened if we had the wedding inside the church with God, instread out here in the cheap showiness of na-ture"
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winter
Aug 12, 2005, 2:45 PM
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JR, I think it's a lovely idea with the exception of the fact that you have your heart set on doing it on Yam. It's so chosy that the whole wedding/cameramen/witness thing could totally go awry. Make sure you read the acount of the ledge that broke on Balfry...
Also, I absolutely hate the scree traverse. I'll go up it, down it, whatever but the traverse sucks balls. I climb alot and I feel like barfing walking across that.
What are you planning? King's chimney?? Because going up that climb will be easier for your party than walking across the traverse so no worries there. You could do a shorter climb on the east end and avoid the traverse all together.
That aside, Kananaskis guest ranch is the way to go, if you meet the fam right after for the reception it's easy for everyone.
Oh, and make it sooner rather than later, if you bothered to get engaged, then get on it and get married. No sense in waiting 3 years!!
Good luck!!
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shakylegs
Aug 12, 2005, 4:04 PM
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If I'm not mistaken, blueeyedclimber and wonderwoman did something similar. They got married at the base of Whitehorse, and then climbed Standard Route or something along those lines.
Shoot them a PM.
FWIW, if you're planning on taking up a classic route for the whole day, I don't think *everyone* would be so accommodating. As romantic as I may pretend to be, I'd be kinda pissed if I had to change my plans because a whole bunch of people were taking up a route.
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blueeyedclimber
Aug 23, 2005, 12:53 AM
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In reply to: If I'm not mistaken, blueeyedclimber and wonderwoman did something similar. They got married at the base of Whitehorse, and then climbed Standard Route or something along those lines. Shoot them a PM.
That was the plan anyway. Jumpingrock, I do have some advice for you. All of the "problems" that you mention are legitimate ones, and must be dealt with. BUT, in the end you must do what is right for yourself and your wife, NOT what your family wants you to do. Wonderwoman and I were able to have our perfect wedding AND be semi-accomodating to our families. Here is what the plan was: We were to have a 7 am ceremony at the base of Whitehorse ledge and then climb up Standard Route (5.5), which we had already rehearsed a couple of times before. (IMO, you don't want anyone to be climbing it for the first time on your wedding day. Rain is good luck, epics are not). We then had a reception planned for 6pm.
What actually happened: Well, it poured heavily the night before the wedding and was still raining when we got up. We decided to bail on the climb. THe funny thing is it stopped raining for the ceremony and started again shortly afterwards. We decided to hike up the backside of Whitehorse. We rounded up a bunch of our friends and family and had a great time. It actually turned out better than if we had done the climb. We got to spend time with each other and the people that we care about.
My last advice is to make sure you don't lose sight of what's important. On Tiff's and my wedding day, nothing was going to ruin it for us. Not the rain, not my father complaining that the music was too loud, not any drunk relatives, etc. Because you may have this extravagant day in mind, but what happens if it doesn't quite work out that way. Tiff and I had planned our climb for months, but we had to change our plans on the spur of the moment, and it couldn't have worked out better.
Josh
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j_ung
Aug 23, 2005, 2:32 PM
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Registered: Nov 21, 2003
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I applaud your sense of romanticism and your desire to express yourselves in an environment for which you both share a deep love. Truly, I do. But don't do it. Really. Don't. The pay off may be high, but to me the risk is unreasonable. And I'm not just talking about risk in the physical sense.
Take it from someone who got married, when it comes to planning weddings, less is more. Your plan has so many things that can snag -- your list doesn't even come close to covering everything that can happen -- and will take so much work to pull off, you'd be psycho to even try. You'll piss off your family, introduce a previously unheard of level of stress into your relationship with your fiance and screw over everybody who isn't in shape enough to keep up. You'll virtually invite an alpine epic of biblical proportions into a moment of your life when you really should want things to run as smoothly as possible.
IMO, what your proposing is the equivalent of turning left and walking all the way around the world to get to a spot that was two steps to your right when you started. Alternative: Find someplace that is easily accessible with a great view of the area you love so much and get married there, instead. Oh, and have a plan B in case of rain.
Whatever you decide, best of luck, my friend. I wish you a lifetime of happiness!
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