Posted by Jane Carswell on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 @ 10:40 AM
Summer is synonomous with Family Vacations. We just returned from our family trip to visit grandparents on Sunday (10 hrs in the car each way from here to Saskatchewan) and then yesterday afternoon I met up with a group of guests returning from the Bugaboo Lodge Family Adventure. Curious to know how the trip went, I asked one of the kids for feedback on the trip.
Robson, who is turning 8 next month said "My trip to the Bugaboos was great, no, AWESOME! I wish we could have stayed for two weeks. I miss my new friends and I can't wait to tell my friends when they get home today about the helicopter and talking to the pilot in the front seat!"
His mom then asked him what his favourite part of the trip was and he said "Do I have to tell you just one, Mom? I had so many. Meeting new friends, water balloon fights, exploring the helicopter, sitting in the helicopter's front seat on the way home. Hiking in really cool places like yesterday in the grassy and mossy place with the huge spires all around us. Can we go 4 more times, Mom?!"
Then today I recieved the 'flower report' from the guides up at the lodge and was pleased to see a report on more than just the flowers! Sue, one of the guides on the Family Adventure told these stories:
"I was hiking today with one family, two very quiet boys aged 9 and 7 who never said a word. We had hiked all day along Black Forest Ridge. When we stopped at the place where the helicopter would pick us up I asked them what three words they would use to describe the trip to their friends when they got home to San Francisco. Animatedly they said "Fun...Awesome...Beautiful!" Wow. I almost cried. You never would have known that those were the words they had been thinking."
"On the other end of the spectrum were three guests, 89 - 90 years old that sat in lawn chairs at Tauck Lake today for 3 hrs with another guide. They said that they felt this was one of the most incredible experiences of their lives. Now how's that for a review! Beautiful elders who loved every moment of the trip, even though they didn't walk anywhere..."
For those of you that haven't quite made up your mind about what to do before school starts again next month, check out this Live Chat webinar recording with one of our Family Adventure Leaders, Mandi Kujawa and super-star Bugaboo hiking guide, Lyle Grisedale. There are a handful of spaces left on our August 11 Family Adventure at the Bobbie Burns and the August 14 Family Adventure at the Bugaboos. More fun than a 10 hr car ride to Saskatchewan. Guaranteed.
Posted by Topher Donahue on Thu, Jun 17, 2010 @ 08:55 AM
By now, everyone has heard of 16-year-old Abby Sunderland’s effort to sail around the world and 13-year-old Jordan Romero climbing Mt. Everest. Blogs, talk shows, and print media are buzzing with criticism and praise for the teen adventurers. It is easy to see both sides of the controversy.
On one hand, the effects of isolation on the sea and the lack of oxygen at altitude on the developing teen brain are not well understood. The parents who publicize these children’s efforts appear to be capitalizing on their children’s risk taking.
On the other hand, teens are capable of so much more than our culture gives them credit for. The very shelter we smother them with might also be stunting their growth and causing issues in other ways. By the time most kids from developed nations are teens, they will have spent as much time in front of the television as Abby has spent in a boat and Jordan has spent wearing boots.
One could argue that the expense of Sunderland’s rescue was unnecessary. Another could argue that the expense we’ll bear in the future, in the form of health problems caused from a diet of junk food compounded by an Xbox lifestyle, will dwarf the cost of any ocean rescue.
Some have said that Abby Sunderland’s parents should be tried for child abuse. It could just as easily be argued that any parent who uses the television as a baby sitter should face the same charges.
Kids doing exceptional and controversial things are nothing new, but we’re in the infantile stages of reality television, social media, and blogs like this one. My hope is that our wickedly powerful, but still painfully clumsy, modern media machine will not stifle these kinds of ambitions. Kids need to have the freedom to pursue their dreams without the keyboard pundits tossing anonymous rants at them. When a teen goes too far, like the 13-year-old Dutch sailor recently blocked from a solo voyage, authorities step in with or without our rants.
For most teens, the best approach lies somewhere in between. Encourage teens to pursue a bit of outdoor adventure - with professional training when needed - like sailing, surfing, mountain biking, climbing, skiing or hiking. Encourage them to avoid the all-too-common sedentary lifestyle that young bodies and minds were never meant to live. The real issue here is not the few kids who are pushing the limits of adventure, it’s the millions who have never tasted adventure at all.
Posted by Jane Carswell on Tue, Apr 27, 2010 @ 03:22 PM
Last month my husband and I took our two girls (aged 2 and 4) on a trip to Mexico. It was our first 'out of country' trip with them and granted, I was nervous, but excited at the same time to show them a new place and a new culture.
We'd arranged to stay in a friends place right on the beach and before we went we read Lonely Planet and checked out some websites and thought about some excursions we might like to take.
Then we arrived. Then the girls saw the pool. Then the girls saw the beach. And, well, that's about all we saw for the 2 weeks we were away. So much for the planned excursions.
This vacation taught me a few things:
1) The value of deprogramming
Our lives are like yours, pretty rush-rush. Always trying to get to various places on time. How great it was to do nothing each day and just enjoy our time together and dig in the sand and walk the beach. Although we never had anything to do, the girls were never bored and their imaginations flourished. The idea of an excursion seemed like work when we factored in diaper bags, naps, snacks, changes of clothes, bus transfers and the like.
2) The value of nature
We're lucky. We live here in Banff and every walk out our front door is a lesson in biology and natural history. A short walk in the woods to a friend's place and we see deer and elk scat, pinecones and various different trees and bugs that delight the kids. So a chance to play in sand and feel the ocean washing between our toes was an amazing change from what we're used to. It freaked the girls out a little bit but they soon began to comment on and delight in the noise of the ocean, the smell of the salt water and the size of the waves. It's important for kids to get dirty, to dig in the dirt and play with water. In fact, last week the White House hosted a conference on America's Great Outdoors speaking specifically to the value of getting kids outside and in touch with nature.
3) The value of time together
There's no doubt we referreed our share of fights over sand shovels, but it was really nice to see our girls become friends. To see the oldest take care of and develop appreciation for her little sister and to hear her say "Mommy, I love my baby sister." more often than "Mom, she stole my barbie doll." was magic to my ears. We met other families and played with other kids in the pool and the beach sometimes, but mostly we were happy to get to know each other again.
In a few years we'll be able to take the girls on a CMH Family Adventure so they can walk on a glacier, try their hands at rock climbing, examine the amazing rocks and minerals in the Columbia Mountains and hear the stories of the early explorers like Conrad Kain. But for now, the slow pace of this family adventure was just the antidote we needed for our busy lives.
CMH's Family Adventures offer the perfect mix of programming and spontenaity for children aged 5-15. A chance to get up-close and personal with Mother Nature and appreciate the earth beneath our feet. Call our Heli-Hiking experts at 1.800.661.0252 start planning your family adventure!
Posted by Topher Donahue on Thu, Apr 15, 2010 @ 10:50 AM
When you show up at the airport these days, just getting on the plane is an adventure. It reminds me of travel in parts of the third world where you need a pocket full of bribe money, extra time to get anywhere, the mental fortitude to patiently handle whatever you encounter - and a sense of humor.
Remember when air travel was fun?
First they ding you for your checked luggage. Ok, if we all travel lighter, the airplanes use less fuel. It also gives the marketing departments at airlines like Southwest endless advantage over the other carriers: they just advertise NOT doing what the other airlines are doing. Now Southwest advertises, “Your 1st and 2nd checked bags are free only with Southwest Airlines!”
More recently, Spirit Airlines unveiled a plan to charge for carry-on bags. Anything that goes in the overhead bin will cost passengers $45, almost double the cost of a checked bag. Some items will be exempt from the rule including “umbrellas, coats, cameras, car seats, strollers, medicine, reading material and food for immediate consumption. “ I can just see the new travel luggage that looks like a Burger King go-bag but is actually a high-quality roller bag, and jackets with pocket capacity for a 2-day trip.
Now Ryanair, a low-cost European carrier is taking the next step: charging passengers to use the toilet! And they are trying to get aviation authorities to allow them to redesign the cabin with only one toilet to make room for more seats. If passed, the new ratio will be 189 seats for one toilet! In an article in Business Week, the Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary rationalizes: "The purpose of charging for the toilets is to change peoples' behaviour," he said. The company sees profit in the theory that by giving people incentive to use airport toilets before they depart, it would be able to remove two out of the three toilets on each plane, making space for six additional seats. Seats they can sell.
Who are they kidding? Changing people's bodily functions? Everyone I know already tries to avoid using the cramped cabin toilets by using the airport toilets just before boarding. I don't know of anybody who waits to get ON the plane to use the toilet. I can just see Southwest Airline’s next slogan: “Use the toilet for free!”
Do you think this family is waiting until they board to use the toilet?
The nice thing for us at CMH is that these trends in the air travel industry make our all-inclusive approach and helicopter travel seem that much more refreshing. Just show up for a CMH Summer Adventure and we’ll take care of the rest. Sure, we charge additional for massages and alcohol, but everything else is part of our award-winning adventure travel package. We’re not about to start charging for the spa, nor do we charge rental fees for our fleet of comfortable hiking boots and warm jackets. We don’t charge for mountaineering or via ferrata equipment use during our high-flying summer adventures – or for using the toilet.
Photos by Topher Donahue
Posted by Topher Donahue on Tue, Apr 06, 2010 @ 11:36 AM
The worst sunburn I ever had was in Ecuador on a 5897-meter volcano called Cotopaxi. It was cloudy all day, we never saw so much as a sliver of blue sky, we never even thought about putting on sunscreen, and yet the next day we were all so sunburned that some of us ended our trip early.
Another time I was hanging out on a beach in Thailand and got sunburned in the shade from the sun’s reflection off the water. Then there was the time I used some sunscreen that seemed to enhance the sun’s rays rather than reduce them.
While I still play outside all the time, these encounters with the sun have turned me into a bit of a solarphobic. Now I’m the guy in the big dorky hat with a swath of zink-based white sunscreen smeared on my face. I’ve become a conesoir of sunscreen, and a lot of the time in the mountains I look pretty silly - but its worth it. Here's a sunscreen-doused self-portrait from an expedition to Patagonia:
I look bad, but not as bad as the woman in this photo:
A really educational and comprehensive sunscreen investigation, including the best sunscreens, can be found here, but my takeaway are these big factors:
- Less than 10% of the sunscreens available do what they claim without the use of dangerous chemicals.
- The US Food and Drug Administration has been working on sunscreen safety standards since 1978, but they are still not completed.
- Research before buying. Sunscreen marketing is not regulated, so companies can claim whatever their marketing department wants them to.
- Oxybenzone, a chemical used in many sunscreens appears to be on its way out as less sunscreens are using the once standard sunscreen ingredient. It is a hormone disruptor that has negative side affects and is not recommended for children – although many sunscreens marketed to families still contain oxybenzone.
- The big sunscreen brands like Coppertone, Neutrogena and Banana Boat are among the worst offenders for making claims that are not substantiated in tests!
- Sunscreens that use zinc, for a physical block rather than a chemical block, and give the skin a ghoulish white look are actually the healthiest for your skin and for these reasons are best for children.
- It is more important to reapply frequently than to use higher SPF rated product.
At the end of my research, I learned that mountaineers had it right all along. The classic photo of the high-altitude climber is grizzled from weeks without shaving, topped with the worst bed head imaginable, and accented with white zinc sunscreen smeared around a delirious grin. Before the recent sunscreen marketing craze of 50+ SPF ratings, the mountaineer’s wisdom was:
- Use a sunscreen containing the least amount of chemicals with SPF of 15 to 30 for arms and legs.
- Use a zinc oxide based sunscreen for the sensitive areas of the face. When the white stuff was visibly smeared off, slather on some more.
- Use physical barriers like generous sun hats, wrap-around sunglasses, light-coloured clothing and bandanas instead of relying entirely on sunscreen.
Now it seems the regulators and researchers are coming to the same conclusions.
Mountain guides view the sun as another hazard to be mitigated. For this reason, especially around the highly reflective snowfields and glaciers, your guide on a summer adventure will make sure everyone is using sunscreen, sunglasses and sun hats.
Posted by Topher Donahue on Tue, Mar 16, 2010 @ 04:08 PM
The views out the window of the helicopter during a CMH Summer Adventure
are staggering. Looking straight down at a glacier, deep into the crevasses where the white of the snow turns to icy blue and the blue fades to black in the heart of the glacier. Gazing out at a thousand summits receding past the horizon. Seeing fellow adventurers standing on one of those summits. Watching waterfalls pour over huge mountain faces just outside the helicopter window.
Then, when you get out of the helicopter, it will take off against a backdrop of postcard-quality mountain scenery. If you have a camera, you’ll be trying to capture these memories, but getting a good photo is not as easy as just pulling out your iPhone and pushing the screen. Here are a few tips for shooting from inside, as well as photographing the helicopter itself.
For shooting inside the helicopter:
- Shutter speed is everything. On automatic, your camera will shoot at a 60th or 125th of a second. This is too slow and the helicopter vibration will cause every photo to be blurry.
- Switch you camera to Shutter Priority and adjust the speed to 500 or higher.
- Turn OFF the flash so it doesn’t reflect off the window onto the camera sensor.
- Hold the camera close to the window so it cannot focus on the glass and instead focuses on the scenery outside.
- Watch for opportunities when the sun is not shining on the window as this causes glare.
For shooting your family and friends inside the helicopter:
- Switch you camera to Shutter Priority and adjust the speed to 500 or higher.
- Turn ON the flash. Even if there is enough light, the flash gives sparkle to people’s eyes and adds life to the image.
- Remember the people closest to you will get more flash than those sitting farther away, so you’ll get the best results if everyone is about the same distance from the camera.
For taking photos of the helicopter:
- Have your camera ready in an easily accessible pocket, or around your neck.
- Switch to Shutter Priority, or at least the automatic sports setting so you can increase the shutter speed.
- To freeze the rotor movement, you’ll need a shutter speed of 700 or higher.
- Cover the lens as the biggest wind gust from the rotor passes, and then pull it out ready to shoot while the helicopter is still nearby.
- Look for places where the helicopter is in the sun and the background is in shadow. This way the helicopter will stand out against the scenery.
The most important photo tip is to try, every chance you get. During a day of helicopter adventures, if you keep your camera handy and take every photo you see, you'll get the best photos you've ever taken.
For photographers who want the ultimate shooting opportunity, check out the Lodge-to-Lodge
adventure where you will see more mountain photo opportunities in six days than most people see in their entire lives. For further aircraft photography tips go here.
Photo by Topher Donahue/www.alpinecreative.com
Posted by Jane Carswell on Tue, Feb 23, 2010 @ 10:15 AM
by Ellen Slaughter
I’m a very lucky person. Now in their 80’s, my parents are healthy, active and full of vim and vigor...an inspiration to our whole family!
A couple of years ago my mom’s 80th birthday was fast approaching. My sister, brother, dad and I were all wondering how we could truly celebrate, mom, someone so unique, witty and life-loving...the person who has always been the “glue” in our family.
Then it happened! We all agreed to go on a family heli-hiking trip in the Bugaboos. For 3 ½ days that August, all 14 of us, ranging in age from 15 – 84, came together from all across Canada to celebrate our mom, grandma and wife.
As we arrived at the heli-pad, there stood mom and dad waiting for us, my mom smiling from ear to ear. That beautiful smile never left her face for our entire trip. From the time we hopped into the chopper at the helipad until we returned there a few days later, all the CMH staff embraced us as if we were superstars.
The lodge was our home-away-from-home. We chatted by the fire, gathered for delicious meals, played cards late into the night, hung out at the bar, danced and played ping pong. We celebrated the “Birthday Girl” with toasts, stories, laughter, tears and a huge birthday cake baked fresh for her by the lodge pastry chef.
Each day our chopper flew us high into the alpine and with our guides; we explored the spectacular Bugaboo Range. Two of the kids spent a day roped up scaling granite faces with a mountaineering guide and others hiked across a glacier to summit a rarely visited peak. After hiking hard for several hours, some of us cooled off with a skinny dip. Mom and dad flew back to the lodge after lunch for some R&R.
All 14 of us treasure special memories of the time we shared together. In celebration of my mom’s milestone birthday, we reconnected as a family. Tucked away at the remote Bugaboo Lodge our busy city lives faded away and we had time to just BE – BE together, BE a family. We all agreed this was the greatest gift that we could give mom and each other!
Celebrating a milestone this summer? Graduation, birthday, anniversary or other success? Consider the Bugaboos or Bobbie Burns for your group's celebration. Contact Audrey, our Memory Maker Extraordinare to start planning your gathering. 1.800.661.0252 or by e-mail at info@cmhinc.com.