impressions soleil levant [jatp]

Squamish snapshot [jatp]

Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (1932-2018)

 

I heard of the death of the writer V.S. Naipal late today, after arriving on the North coast of Vancouver Island. While not familiar with many of his books, I remember reading a House for Mr. Biswas and A Bend in the River in the mid 80’s, following a suggestion by my late friend José de Sam Lazaro, who was a professor in Rouen when I was doing my PhD there and with whom I would travel from Paris to Rouen by the first morning train… As most suggestions from José, it was an eye-opener on different views and different stories, as well as a pleasure to read the crisp style of Naipaul. Who thus remains inextricably linked with my memories of José. I also remember later discussing with, by postal letters, while in Purdue, on the strength of Huston’s The Dead, the last and possibly best novel of Joyce’s Dubliners, which stroke me as expressing so clearly and deeply the final feelings of utter failure of Conroy, Gretta’s husband. As well as his defense of Forman’s Amadeus!

Canadian Rockies [jatp]

Locarno beach [jatp]

Stawamus Chief

Being back in Vancouver gave me the great opportunity to bag a climb I had wanted to make for quite a while, the classical route on the Stawamus (or Squamish) Chief, which is a big granite dome standing on top of the Howe Sound, north of Vancouver and south of Whistler (for NIPS longterm attendees!). In 2011, Julien, David and I went climbing for a whole day a cliff nearby called Burger and Fries. While the Chief is a 600m big vertical wall that makes for a fairly involved climb, the standard route is mostly bypassing the vertical exposure and goes up on gritty granite slabs that do not require hand pulls (The Apron) and then cracks that make for an easy climb, until the crux of the climb (Buff), again involving cracks if vertical ones and a half chimney, somewhat more exposed, with a solo free climber passing my guide Brett Nixon from Vancouver Mountain Guides and myself on the way. Something around 12 pitches total. Just a great climb, well-suited for my lack of sufficient training in the past months!, and with terrific views all the way, plus constant shade a big plus on a very hot day! Meeting with friends at the top, who had gone up the hiking path, was an added bonus as we could hike down together. Hopefully, I will be back in a near future to try another route, like Angel’s Crest…

for a coincidence

Last night in Vancouver, we were walking back to Chinatown under an expressway, in a rather uninspiring section of town. Waiting at a cross-light with another couple on the other side. As we crossed the street I glanced at the man and noticed his Chamonix North Face tee-shirt. He happened to do the same and… noticed my identical Chamonix North Face tee-shirt! We shared a laugh at this (huge?) coincidence and continued on our respective ways. (He was not taking part in MCMskiii in case this seems a likely explanation!)