Lindsey Wallis chose a truly unique way to celebrate her 40th birthday: “Forty kilometres by bike. Forty pitches of climbing. All in forty hours.” Read on to hear how it went!

Thanks to everyone’s donations my 40/40/40 adventure has raised $5,701 for the Alberta Wilderness Association in support of their conservation work here in Alberta.

The actual adventure was spectacular, I couldn’t have asked for better weather, or a better team to help me succeed. Big thanks go to Keith Brodsky and Leslie Gerin, who provided a home base for my support team and outfitted me with some of the last minute things I needed. Also, Sarah Elmeligi, Shy Weeks and Kyle Eustace who joined me for different legs of the adventure and kept the stoke high and making me laugh, even when I was sooooo tired.

In the end I cycled 44 km and climbed 42 pitches of 5th class in 36 hours. I even got 4-5 hours of “sleep”! We started from Castle Junction at 6:30am, and biked along the 1A to Guide’s rock, where Kyle and I climbed 18 pitches on three different routes. Then we returned to our bikes (and the horrendous mosquitoes) and continued biking along the Vermillion Lakes road to the town of Banff where I stopped about 7 pm for a mandatory refuel (beer and chocolate croissants from Shy) in the park by the river before Shy tagged in and we biked to Rundle and climbed 6 more pitches on the route Sunriser at sunset. By the time we rappelled back down it was dark and we hiked down to our bikes by headlamp where we made a quick dinner and crawled into our sleeping bags about 1 am. The next morning the sun (and mosquitoes) woke us up early and after a much needed coffee were on our bikes for a short ride along the golf course in Banff to the next climb. After not enough sleep (I need my 8 hours!) the approach hike felt extra steep and the seeping wet rock extra slippery. I’ll admit that I didn’t have too much fun on this climb. But the day still had one more climb in it, as we cycled around the golf course loop and back to where we bivied and climbed the last 9 pitches of the day and the adventure. The sun was scorching hot but the rock quality was amazing and the climbing and views spectacular. The rappels felt extra long as we got closer and closer to that long awaited victory beer! Down and back at our bikes the mosquitoes were once again horrendous as we packed our bikes for the last time and rode the few remaining kilometres back to Banff, taking a much deserved dunk in the river on the way there.

Thanks again to everyone for your support. You really make a girl feel special!