• 1st prize - Barryvox Pulse digital Avalanche Transceiver
• 2nd prize - A G3 avi-tech shovel
• 3rd prize - a G3 avalanche probe

Aconcagua - January, 2007
Mt Kenya - February, 2007
Kilimanjaro - March, 2007 (3 ascents)
Carstensz Pyramid - April, 2007
Mt Elbrus - July, 2007 (3 ascents)
Kilimanjaro - July, 2007
Mt Waddington - July, 2007
Cho Oyu - September, 2007

Kilimanjaro - March, 2008
Mount Everest - May, 2008
Greenland Mountaineering - June, 2008
Mt Elbrus - June/July, 2008
Mt Waddington - July, 2008
Mont Blanc - July, 2008
Cho Oyu - September, 2008
Carstensz Pyramid - October, 2008

Our team will be lead by IFMGA Mountain Guides John Furneaux and Brian Jones. We will be joined by a strong team of our great friends who have climbed in the past with us on mountains around the globe. For two of our team members, this is their final summit challenge of the pursuit of climbing the highest summits on 7 continents!

Rob Hill of Vancouver, BC will be joining our team and continuing to raise awareness for IDEAS - the Intestinal Disease Education and Awareness Society. Rob has been climbing with Canada West Mountain School for 7 years and has summitted 6 of the 7 summits (Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Carstensz Pyramid and Vinson Massif). Please see Rob's website at www.ideas-na.com for more info on IDEAS, and at No Guts - Know Glory for more information on Robs Campaign to climb the 7-Summits.

Also joining our Expedition will be Sebastien Sasseville of Vancouver BC. Sebastien has recently climbed Peak Lenin in Russia (7,134 m) and was on the Canada West Mountain School Cho Oyu 2007 expedition. Sebastien is climbing Everest in order to raise awareness for Diabetes and has been involved in taking diabetic youth teams to mountains around the world, including Kilimanjaro and Mt Everest Base camp. Please see Sebastien's website for more details on his campaign at Sebastien Sasseville Inspires .com.

July 2, 2007
New Mountain Travel Course dates - We have opened up 3 spaces in a Mountain Skills Essentials course to be run July 6-10, 2007. Please contact us asap if you are interested in this course.

Mount Elbrus update - Our first expedition to Elbrus of this season has succeeded in reaching the summit early last week, congratulations to all on a fine climb!

Our second team has arrived today at the base of the mountain and will spend a few days acclimatizing and training on the local mountains before moving up onto Elbrus at the end of this week. We wish them the best of luck as well on their summit attempt.

June 21, 2007 - Summer is here!
Our summer season is in full gear now, with many of our Mountaineering, Rock Climbing and Backpacking courses already completed. While the weather hasn't been the best this past month, everyone has still managed to have a great time in the hills and on the crags.

Expedition news...
Mount Elbrus, Russia - Our first Mt Elbrus trip of the 2007 season is underway right now, with the team having just moved up to their high camp on the lower slopes of the highest mountain on the European continent. Lead Guide Keith Reid has been in regular contact and reports that everyone is doing very well and should be acclimatized and ready for the summit by June 25th - we're just keeping our fingers crossed for good weather!

Cho Oyu, Tibet - Our Cho Oyu expedition for September of 2007 is moving ahead well. Five team members along with Lead Guide John Furneaux are spending this summer preparing for their exciting ascent of the 6th highest mountain in the world. We will be joined by Rob Hill of the No Guts, Know Glory campaign to raise awareness for IDEAS - the Intestinal Disease Education and Research Society (check out www.ideas-na.com). Rob has now completed 6 of the "Seven Summits" with Canada West Mountain School, and will be using Cho Oyu as a training climb before heading to Everest with CWMS in March of 2008 to complete his ambitious project to become the first Ostamate and person with Crohns Disease to climb the highest mountain on each of the 7 continents.

Kilimanjaro, Africa - We are once again heading back to Tanzania for one of our favorite climbs, Kilimanjaro. This expedition in August 2007 will be lead by CWMS Director Brian Jones, a veteran of 8 successful African climbs on both Kili and Mt. Kenya.

There are still spaces available on all of our Expeditions for this summer and next winter, though some are almost full at this point. Give us a call if you are interested!

May 7, 2007
Expedition updates from 2006/2007
We have had a very busy season with more than 12 International Expeditions in the past 10 months, so our apologies that we have been a bit backlogged getting the news updated here!

April, 2007 - Carstensz Pyramid, Indonesia This adventure to Papua New Guinea to climb the 4,880 meter Carstensz was a very exciting one, with 5 Canada West team members reaching the summit over 2 separate climbing days with team leader Brian Jones. Amazing climbing conditions, unique cultural experiences and good luck with the weather made for a truly unforgettable climb!
(more climb details...)

March, 2007 - Mount Kilimanjaro Three more successful climbs of Kili via the Londorossi and via the Rongai, for a total of 27 people with Canada West on the summit in March! John Furneaux and Brian Jones lead these teams up in almost perfect condition, though there was an unexpected amount of fresh snow on the summit crater for all the climbs.
(more climb details...)

February, 2007 - Mount Kenya Back for another Mount Kenya trip, this time with a twist - we brought our skis to get some turns in on some tropical snow! Lead Guide Brian Jones and Canada West team member Bruce Hay managed to carve a few turns on the 4,700 meter Lewis Glacier of Mount Kenya on this trip! Global warming is taking these glaciers down very quickly, so we hope that others will be able to have the same experiences on these peaks soon.
(more climb details...)

January, 2007 - Aconcagua This season marked the first season ever that we have not managed to get our team to the summit of Aconcagua. Unusually high winds and cold temperatures for extended periods caused our team to retreat after reaching 21,000' on the Polish Traverse route. Our Lead Guide Conny Amelunxen brought everyone down as it would have been unsafe to continue in the conditions they had. We'll hope for better weather next season!
(more climb details...)

September, 2006 - Mount Kenya Our climbs of Kenya were successful, with Brian Jones and John Furneaux leading Canada West climbers up all 3 summits of Mount Kenya - Point Lenana, Batian and Nelion.
(more climb details...)

August, 2006 - Mount Kilimanjaro We had another amazing trip to Kili in August of 2006, with John Furneaux leading one climber (Ken Lee) up a rarely climbed mixed ice route on the southern side of Kili, the Heim Glacier. This 2-day technical alpine climb to the highest summit of Africa was certainly a highlight of the trip. Brian Jones also lead a team up Kili via the Lemosho route at the same time.
(more climb details...)

July, 2006 - Mount Waddington 2 separate trip for a total of 11 people on the summit of "The Wadd" in July and August. Both were amazing trips with John Furneaux and Keith Reid Leading these, though increased crevasse issues made for a bit of interesting travel, including a Tyrolean traverse across one big crevasse!
(more climb details...)

June/July 2006 - Mount Elbrus Two more trips in June and July saw a total of 12 Canada West team members on the summit of Europe's highest peak. Trips were lead by Brian Jones and Keith Reid.
(more climb details...)

June 2, 2006 - Sign-up form added!
You can now easily register to receive our e-updates at our Newsletter sign-up page! Stay in touch with Canada West Mountain School and find out about our latest courses, expedition updates, recent photo galleries and more!

June 1, 2006 - Expedition updates
Our June 26 trip to Russia to climb Mount Elbrus is fully subscribed, but we still have space on the July 10th departure. The July trip will be lead by Canada West Mountain School Guide Keith Reid.

The Expeditions to Africa to climb Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya are also filling up, with a couple of spaces left on each trip. Canada West Mountain School owner and Lead Guide Brian Jones will be leading these trips again this season.

We are looking forward to these trips, check back for updates (or sign up with our recently added Newsletter sign-up page!). Feel free to contact Brian Jones directly for more details on

New courses for the 2006 season
Complete Mountaineering plus is our popular Complete Mountaineering course with added food services and group equipment included!

This course still the same content as our traditional Complete Mountaineering course, yet we take all the hassle out of preparing. We have recognized that many people just don't have adequate time to fully prepare for this course, especially if they are traveling from other regions. We take care of all the food planning, prep and purchase as well as supply all the communal gear for the course. You just need to show up ready to have a great learning adventure in the mountains!

Intermediate Mountaineering is our newly added 2nd level mountaineering program for climbers with previous mountaineering background who are looking to improve their skills and tackle more challenging alpine routes. This 5-day program is spent in the alpine climbing major glaciated peaks. Great for climbers looking to increase their skill and technical knowledge through practical experience

Plans are also underway for our Mount Logan expedition for May 2006. Check these out and give us a call soon as these Expedition dates look like they will be booked full fairly soon!

Of course, we are once again heading south for our 7th expedition to Aconcagua in January of 2007. Also in January we will be heading back to the Antarctic to climb Vinson Massif.

Rob recently joined us on a successful bid to climb Vinson Massif in the Antarctic, reaching the summit on January 19, 2006. Canada West Mountain School has already worked closely with Rob in his successful ascents of Elbrus, Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua and, in May of 2005, Mount McKinley. We look forward to working with Rob on his future climbs!