Jaclyn Dacyk | Special to the Fitzhugh
Jasper’s locals spent Monday night at the third annual Night of Lies event at 4Peaks Nightclub, presented by Rockaboo Mountain Adventures.
Night of Lies started off modestly but has since evolved into an event of national proportions.
The event’s focus is to share different sorts of past experiences mostly to do with extreme sports.
It was a great way to kick off December and celebrate our little mountain town at this well organized social gathering.
Doors opened just before 7 p.m. and the venue was full shortly after that.
There were six speakers - five planned and one last minute, mostly being Jasperites, with some guests from Bow Valley who have been taking part in the event in their area longer than Jasper has held its own.
The intriguing event was led by Max Darrah and Bob Covey on stage, kicking off with a true rock climber, Brandon Pullan, who has years of experience attending the event.
Pullan resides in Bow Valley and is the editor of Gripped Magazine.
He explained: “The whole point of this is to heckle and boo people while telling whatever sort of crazy stories.”
And the event has come a long way since originating in a basement in Banff years earlier.
Pullan shared more than a few stories of climbing in the Rockies, some with good outcomes and some with interesting outcomes; such as ending up needing to swing 70 metres over ice and snow while rock climbing due to winds being so high.
He had a request from his audience for support on “if any climbers can help me find the loosest, worst lines around”.
With the venue being jam-packed and with the help of the Jasper Events team ran by Jordan Tucker and Elsa Begrand, the turnout was astonishing not to mention the good cause.
Max Darrah, owner and guide at Rockaboo, said: “Ticket sales are being 100 per cent donated to the Canadian Cancer Institute, particularly for lung cancer, to honor Carol Davey’s personal battle - as well as 4Peaks donating $1 from every drink sold during the event.”
He added that proceeds support a different charitable cause each year.
The second speaker to take stage, Mike Gurnham, reminisced on his ten day bike tour covering 2,200 kilometres of mountain and city terrain across Japan at the 2019 Japanese Odyssey.
Gurnham was biking up to 260 kilometres a day and running off next to no sleep - usually catching some shut-eye in a public washroom or a bus stop.
Gurnham told the ups and downs of his journey and how the ending was “the most anti-climatic thing ever”.
Wendy Hall shared funny stories of hitchhiking, living in Jasper since 1995 and the situations she had ended up in along the journeys - bringing lots of laughs to the crowd.
Estelle Blanchette from Jasper Food Tours, shared a more R-Rated story and had the audience feeling like they were at a comedy show.
There was a last minute surprise by an audience member, then Anne Gibson finished the night off with a sentimental touch.
Gibson expressed personal struggles, keeping the tone humorous but touching, as she shared her story that brought her to a current 14 years of sobriety.
The audience stayed present and intrigued by the stories and it was yet another successful turnout.
