What is Pie-aineering?

noun /ˌpai-əˈnɪərɪŋ/ /ˌpai-nˈɪrɪŋ/

the sport or activity of climbing mountains with pies
- to go pie-aineering
- a pie-aineering expedition

Here are some pie-lights from the last couple years. Some in the mountains, some elsewhere. Most importantly, many slices shared with friends and family.

Quiche with cheddar, basil, yam, bacon and egg at the top of Iron Pass, halfway through the Pioneer 70 miler. July 22, 2023

Chocolate-peanut butter pie with all-butter crust. Post-Kusam Klimb recovery fuel/Karen’s birthday pie. June 24 ,2023. If you haven’t done this race before, check it out, 23km, 1600m vert, awesome community low-key event on the north island.

VanIsle 360 birthday apple pies. These survived a wild downwind sail from Winter Harbour to Ucluelet in 30-35 knots. Jun 12, 2023.

Blackberry pie on the summit of Mount Shasta. May 21, 2023

Pumpkin pie on the Wapta Traverse, April 2023

Apple pie post Chuckanut 50k, Mar 18, 2023

Broccoli garlic pie, and chicken pot pie. Pi Day 2023

Colin’s 40th birthday blueberry pie on Hollyburn, Mar 11, 2023.

Cam’s birthday pie, mixed frozen berries at the Kees and Claires Hut, Jan 11, 2023.

Grand Canyon Crust to Crust to Crust, aka the Rim to Rim to Rim, with a pecan pie at the Coconino Overlook, Nov 2, 2023.

Pecan pie on the Phyllis Engine, Oct 8, 2022. Part of a high circumnavigation around Garibaldi Lake via Castle Towers and the north ridge of the Sphinx.

Cabin Crust, peach crumble pie celebrating Julie’s birthday. Sept 16, 2022

Finlayson Double – the 100k and the 28k. Chocolate Peanut butter pie with oreo crust. I actually carried a mini-one to enjoy on top of Mount Finlayson during the 28k event. The crust design is based on the course profile. Sept 10-11, 2022.

Shulaps Wedding Hike-a-Bike Cherry Pie, July 22, 2022

Strawberry rhubarb on top of Komo Kulhsan (Mount Baker) with Julie, July 1, 2023

Birthday blueberry pie, from Costco =) Thanks Matt! June 12, 2022.

Pi Day 2022. Lemon pie, and two tourtieres in the Pemberton backcountry.

2021 new years eve hut trip with chocolate tart

West Crust Trail. Chocolate peanut butter pie, Sept 2021.

Appie pie photoshoot by Bruno Long, at Whitecap Alpine, August 2021.

Pie in the Sky. Apple Pie. Robie Reid with Sarah, Aug 18, 2021.

Celebration of Pies (Caro made most of these!) Aug 14, 2021.

Cherry pie on the South Powell Divide, on top of Overlook Mountain, with Meghan, July 2021.

Will and Susie’s wedding. Strawberry rhubarb pie, June 19, 2021.

Vancouver 100. Apple berry pie at Cleveland Dam. June 5, 2021.

Death Star Pie. May the Fourth be with you, 2021.

Chocolate tart, or what’s leftover of it. Summit of the Sphinx, Apr 11, 2021.

Mushroom tart, re-heated up Fat Dog Creek, Manning Park for Pi Day celebrations 2021

Apple tart, critical fuelling for a 3000m ski day on the North Shore mountains, shared with Anne. Feb 27, 2021

Manning Park quiche and powder. Can’t remember which one was tastier. Feb 7, 2021.

Powder and Portuguese egg tart deep in the North Shore backcountry with Nick, Jan 30, 2021.

Lemon meringue pie at De-pie-cier Lake for Cam’s birthday, Jan 28, 2021.

Broccoli quiche, Coquihalla, Jan 9, 2021

Pumpkin Pie, just before a icy puckerfest descent down the Red Heather road, Dec 13, 2020.

Apple Touring pies with Jenya at Paul Ridge, Nov 28, 2020

Ski-mo race pie. A virtual all you can eat vert/crust event on Black Mountain. Dec 5, 2020.

Key lime pie on Demon Ridge, Nov 7, 2020

Where’s Rich. Halloween celebration on Hat Mountain, pumpkin pie and pumpkin carried up the west ridge. Oct 31, 2020.

Thanksgiving 2020. No large gatherings during COVID, but that just means more pumpkin pie per person. Oct 10, 2020.

Enchanted Lions. Apple pie on top the Lions (East Lion via the SW face, West Lion by standard route) with Nick.

Forks on Forks Peak. Apple Pie with Macallan 12. An obscure peak on the North Shore Mountains, but very rewarding. A great first meeting of the North Shore Whisky and Pie Club. October 3, 2020.

River blueberry pie, bicycle design. Sept 12, 2020.

Brunch Pie on Coliseum Mountain. This was part of Aeron and Rae’s Cove to Cove hike, and I joined at Cleveland Dam to support them with pies. At 5am on Coliseium Mountain, we enjoyed an early brunch, with a tomato basil cheddar tart, and a bacon, kale, potato quiche. Both were delicious, but I ran out of pie on top of Mount Seymour. Sept 6 to 7, 2020.

Revelstoke Pies. That time I taught Natalie how to make a pie, and then they multiplied! Aug 30, 2020

Pie-aneering on Mount Assiniboine with my apple and nectarine “A-cinna-bun” pie. I was lucky enough to climb the north ridge with Kate and Sean, at the same time as legendary Al-pie-nist, Sepp Renner. We celebrated his 55th Assiniboine summit with my completely unexpected pie, one of the “pie”-lights of his career. Aug 27, 2020.

Mount Louis via the Kain route. It started rainy when we topped out on the summit, with ten rappels. We had a quick pocket pie on the summit, and then celebratory pocket pies once we were safely on the ground. As we were out of pie, there was nothing left to do but hike out, and drive home. Aug 24, 2020.

Eisenhower Tower with the remaining half of the peach pie, plus extra peach pocket pies. The rock wasn’t as bad as I expected, especially compared to Mount Mike. But honestly, I prefer my pastry laminated, not the rock. Aug 23, 2020.

Traverse of Mount Mike in the southern Rockies, with an ascent of the east ridge, and descent of the SW ridge. Meghan and I bought peaches from the organic gas station in Kimberley, and baked a peach pie and peach pocket pies in preparation for three days of climbing in the Rockies. This was the first of three big peaks. Aug 22, 2020.

Brenta Spire Southwest spur and South Ridge with all that was left of my Snowpatch Pie. Aug 19, 2020.

The classic apple pie, on the northeast ridge of Bugaboo Spire with Lucas. Aug 18, 2020.

Snowpatch Route on Snowpatch Spire. It was Sarah’s birthday, so I surprised her with a chocolate pie on the summit. The lower satellite summit south of Snowpatch is known as the Son of Snowpatch. We had the son of Snowpatch Pie up high, and then the full pie at Applebee camp. Aug 16, 2020.

Sarah and I hiked into the Bugaboos for a few days of climbing. Our first climb was Ears Between Direct on the Crescent Spires. Trip planning was difficult for me on this one, as I facing a dilemma on how many pies to pack into the Bugaboos. In the end, I opted to go with mini-pies for the summits, and a base camp pie. This was an apple and chocolate pie on our first summit in the Bugs. Aug 15, 2020.

After waiting what felt like forever for summer to arrive, Nick and I finally got a chance to do the Tantalus Traverse, from Sigurd Creek to the tippy top of Tantalus and back down the Squamish River, with a bivy at Lake Lovelywater. Conditions were perfect for some fast and light al-pie-nism. Fast and light, pie at night. Chocolate almond hazelnut pie, only 858 grams to keep things light. July 18-19, 2020.

Chocolate Hazelnut Pie on top of Co-Pie-lot and Sky Pie-lot Mountain with Susie, July 4, 2020. This pie was originally planned for the Tantalus Traverse, as high calorie as possible, but the weather didn’t cooperate for the Plan A. Instead Susie and I had a very foggy day of pie-aneering in the Shannon Creek basin.

A very berry pie on top of Cypress Peak, with Aeron, Rae, Diana and Dylan to celebrate Tau Day. Unfortunately, there was only one pie, rather than 2π on June 28, 2020.

Giant egg tart pie on top of Mount Gardner, for a birthday hike and sail with Anne, Mary, Christian and Laura on June 13, 2020.

Christmas Gully Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie. A solo outing skiing off Mount Strachan, June 1, 2020, the day Cypress Provincial Park opened up again for recreation after closing for COVID-19.

Cinnamon Bun Apple Pie, extra crusty Pi Day on Mount Seymour Second Peak with Alex and Maddy.

Happy Pi day, the tastiest day of the year! I was a little worried about the lack of crust after cancelling my usual pi day celebration to avoid a gathering over 250 people, but there was no shortage of crust today (unless you were trying to buy butter and flour at the last minute today). Instead of having all the members of the #northshorebeerandpieclub get together, the directors opted for a much smaller low key event to discuss ways to mitigate the current situation, while members opted to bake remotely and submit mouth watering pie photos instead. We concluded that it’s much safer to stick to one pie per person for the foreseeable future. Hopefully we can share pies again for July 22, which is Approximate Pi day. And frozen crust is never fun to ski on, and best saved for pastries.
Director of the North Shore Beer and Pie Club, March 14, 2020.