My friend Don Vockeroth is a pioneer in Canadian mountain climbing and anyone who climbs in the Rockies is standing on Don’s shoulders.  Don has an impressive list of first ascents, but always did it humbly and quietly, and always for the adventure, never for the glory.  He also had a wicked sense of humour in his climbing, but I’ll get to that later. 

In the early 1960s Don was instrumental in the first alpine helicopter rescue (this is the story behind the song “Fearless”).  In those days helicopters…

I recently discovered a podcast by Peter Mansbridge called “The Bridge”.  This episode was about Justin Bieber renting the Stratford arena on Boxing Day to play some shinny with some friends, including some Toronto Maple Leafs.  It inspired me on many levels and I wrote him a letter.  It was rather long and at times rambling.  He read parts of it on his next podcast as his letter of the week.  I must confess it was really gratifying to hear that voice reading my words.  It was also impressive the way he…

My dear friend Alfie was born in 1909.  He remembered the first car in town ... the honey wagon that used to empty the outhouses at night ... he took violin lessons 1400 feet underground in the mine.  He could put a vivid picture in your mind of what life was like 100 years ago.  As a young boy he used to go up to the mine on Saturdays and collect the powder boxes for kindling ... his dad was in charge of the powder and would put them aside for him.  One day the skip tender asked him what he was doing. 

…