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Back to the gloom – but now we see the sun

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The London weather has turned over a new leaf for March – the last two days have heralded brilliant sunshine & something bordering on warmth. Apart from that, the last two and a half weeks since returning from Canada have been pretty gloomy & wet. Not that that has mattered too much as I’ve been staying up much too late watching the Winter Olympics – fantastic & quite addictive viewing Consequently, I haven’t taken a single photo since my return & may have some trouble remembering what I’ve been up to. Nice to catch up with NZ cousin Chris for his birthday the day after my return – & good to see the expecting couple Sasha & Blair, who are planning their return to NZ in a couple of months.

I haven’t been quite the tourist around London that I was when the weather was more conducive. Nonetheless, I’ve managed to finish off looking around the National Gallery – unfortunately mostly during the very busy period of half-term. I particularly enjoyed the English landscape work of Constable, Turner & so on. While the National Portrait Gallery is a lot smaller, I enjoyed looking around there yesterday – will be back some time to finish – I liked to see the pictures of various scientists from the 1800s, especially Faraday & Lord Kelvin.

A couple of days last week I had to head in to the city briefly & it was definitely museum weather. The first time I went to the Hunterian Museum (Royal College of Surgeons) before heading out to catch up with the Patricks. The museum is roughly a third of what it was before it got hit during the Blitz and is what remains of John Hunter’s collection of all sorts of anatomical specimens from humans & animals – from the days of surgery with public viewing, a shortage of corpses for scientific study, & grave-robbers supplying the demand for bodies. It was much larger than I was expecting & the history of the medical profession was fascinating; I’m sure all the displays would have been even more interesting if I was medically trained. The best part however was the rather extensive display of surgical instruments (some quite disturbing of course) & the history of the surgical instrument making trade. This was of interest to me as it was in this trade that my grandfather apprenticed in for seven years from 1939 & then worked in. It was great to see quite a few (ten to a dozen) instruments made by the company he trained & worked in (Down Brothers) during the period in which he was there – even if he didn’t make the exact instruments I saw, I’m sure he must have made some ones that were identical to those on display.

Opposite the Hunterian Museum, across Lincoln’s Inn Field is another fantastic free museum. The Sir John Soane Museum was left to the nation by Soane on the condition that it be free for everyone to enter & it be left in the state in which it was when he died. Soane was one of Britain’s greatest architects (his work on the Bank of England) may be his most well known, even if little of it except the imposing outer walls survives after expansion in the 1920s & ’30s. The museum is based on his three adjoining houses – Number 12, 13 & 14 & is filled with his vast collection of paintings, architectural drawings, sculptures & ancient artefacts. Soane was famous for his use & exploitation of natural light in a time when there was no electric or gas lighting in buildings. This was perhaps best demonstrated in ‘The Picture Room’, a reasonably small room in which there are over a hundred paintings (& not all that small ones at that) ingeniously hung on the front & back of large hinged false walls. The two series of Hogarths in there are quite something; there are also numerous pictures of Soane’s designs & buildings. Outside of The Picture Room two Canalettos of Venice are pretty neat, as is the sarcophagus of the Egyptian King Seti I (died 1290 BC) that Soane bought after the British Museum refused to pay £2000 for it. The Bank of England museum was only a couple of tube stops away & with spare time, I very happily whiled away a couple of hours learning about the history of the bank, the British currency & currency in general. As one would expect there is a bit of loose change of various ages lying around – also some ingots of gold, one of which you can pick up ever slightly (the case it is in is somewhat restrictive).

Saturday last I was down in Farnborough staying & riding with a MTB mate – Andy. It turned out to be the largest group ride I’ve ever been on – almost thirty people (& one dog, not on a bike) I think. Naturally, it had been raining for quite a few days before so the forest (mostly in & around MOD) land was pretty wet & muddy – just as well the sand drains reasonably well, or else it would have been even worse! We all met at nine o’clock (the earliest I had been up & out of the house in a couple of weeks) near the Basingstoke Canal – after general flaffing around & waiting for a straggler we were out riding just after half past. Thankfully the ride was a pretty easy pace, mostly due to the size of the group I think, & there were no real hills – this was good as it was my first MTB ride for the year & it was really wet (but not cold). There were some nice bits of singletrack & as always, I was pleased to be back on the bike. It was a little odd riding near a military firing range – there were some pretty decent booms not all that far away from where we were. Returning back to Andy’s place we were of course soaked & needing to clean bikes & ourselves (with the final bike clean this morning I’ve found I am in need of a new pair of rear brake pads – I’m sure they weren’t that old). After sorting myself out & watching Italy beat Scotland in the Six Nations, it was a pretty short drive up the M3 & M25 to the Patricks where I was babysitting for the night.

Yesterday was the first of the cracking days of sunshine, so Walking London came off the book shelf & I tried to find a walk that I hadn’t done yet in the central city (didn’t want to head too far out as the ground is still pretty soggy). Found I hadn’t done the Covent Garden walk yet, so that was a pleasant stroll. Not too much I hadn’t seen before – a lot of theatres of course, & the houses of all sorts of literary figure & the rather fancy Savoy.

That’s about all the news – apart from the half-hearted start to the job-hunt; it’s a bit of a trade off between finding a job I could do & starting to earn some pounds or waiting for a job that I like the look of & might be a bit more challenging. And I’m going to Madrid on Thursday for ten days – that all happened very quickly. For half the time I’m volunteering at some English language internment – where basically you sit & speak English to Spanish people who are learning the language. I don’t know too much about Madrid, but it looks pretty neat, so it should be a good week & a bit.

Canada, family, friends, hiking, national park, snow, travel

A lot more skiing

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The ten days or so after returning from Bow Hut until departing Canada is a bit of a blur of various types of skiing & a few other activities. Having decided my arm had had enough rest (not exactly a medical opinion – more not wanting to miss the chance of any more skiing without testing it), the day after Bow Hut James & I headed up to Sunshine. We skiied a few runs off the top of Strawberry lift before I headed off to my second lesson – hoping to get a bit more control & more consistent parallel turns. I didn’t have the instructor to myself this time, but three wasn’t a bad sized class – & as last time, the lunch was huge & fantastic. During the course of the lesson I became a real skier & was bowled over by an out of control snowboarder. Apart from that it was good day with much improvement. A quiet DVD night with an ever filling lounge as people finished work (James) & got back from collecting new cars in Calgary (Megan & Alex). Megan had the rather exciting news that she was off for four days of heli-skiing courtesy of her new employers.

On Mark’s last day on Canmore, he, Adele & I went to the Nordic Center for a spot of cross-country skiing.

It turns out Mark is quite the accomplished skate skier & he spent a lot of time waiting for Adele & I as we slid along in the XC tracks (tracks groomed in the snow to fit the skinny XC skis in them).

I had not been on XC skis before, so it took a little while to get used to them – I was fine as long as I was in the tracks, but when the tracks ran out it was quite difficult to stop in a hurry as the XC skis don’t exactly have edges. Nonetheless I survived the 110 minute loop we did without falling over – XC skiing turned out to be quite the workout as you use the poles to propel you up the hills & along the flat & try to tie the propulsion with a gliding/skating action on the skis. <

Although enjoyable, it was a little boring being limited by my skill to the tracks; on the bright side, the day lodge serves a good plate of poutine. One last dip in the hot springs in Banff & we back to Canmore for our last dinner with Mark – at the Grizzly Paw. As well as making great beer (which I was not surprised about) they also make a good Ginger Beer – a rarity in North America – the sirloin was very good too. I said my goodbyes to Mark that evening as there was not much chance I was going to get up at half past four in the morning to do so. Sunday was pretty lazy as Adele & I spent the morning cleaning the cabin & the afternoon relaxing before moving back to James & Becca’s house.

Becca got the day off work for her birthday, so unsurprisingly she, Adele & I were up to the hill to celebrate with a day of skiing.

Over the course of the day we were joined by a few of her friends from working on the glacier over the previous summer. Sunshine had even managed to have a bit of fresh snow overnight to aid in the celebrations – not quite the metre Becca was asking for, but that may have been perhaps a little hopeful. Of course, we had masses of food & lunch was a pleasantly drawn out affair – it quickly wore off after a run or two. Twas a great day & I was able to explore some new lifts (new to me anyway) & didn’t fall until the ski out to the car park when I accidentally took a side route that should have had a black diamond posted before it.

The light at the top of Goat’s Eye was really flat & the snow quite icy, but the second half of that mountain was great fun. After James cooked up another storm for the birthday dinner & then it was endless games of Monopoly Deal until Becca finally picked up a “It’s My Birthday” card from the draw pile – Murphy of course saw that these cards were in short supply, & when they did come around they went in to the hands of other players.

While Adele was off climbing Cascade Falls (the formation of ice that we had seen from the TransCanada every time we drove to or past Banff) with Craig, I had a relaxing morning until Becca came home in the middle of a split shift with XC skis. After a large lunch of last night’s left over roast, we were off to the Nordic Center (not before we had broken in to Scoobie [the Soobie – bare bones, but reliable Legacy] with a coat-hanger to retrieve the keys; honestly, who keeps the spare key to their car inside the car?) for another good workout. There were far fewer people on the trails this time, the sun was out & the temperature must have almost been reaching 0ºC – it was very pleasant. Unfortunately, the trails weren’t quite as groomed and further away from the pavilion the snow was getting quite thin & at times we were skiing on a little grass. Still, we managed to hardly stop (except for the odd photo)

& finished well worn out in forty minutes less than I had the previous time. XC skiing started to make a bit more sense.

For Adele’s last full day in Canmore (sniff, sniff) we were of course back to Sunshine for a day on the slopes (well, Becca, Adele & I were – James was off super early to climb some multi-pitch piece of ice). There was more powder around up the hill than there had been two days previous & it continued to snow for most of the day. We had a pretty good day – although Becca seemed to have a target on her back & a big flashing neon sign attached to her helmet that said “Try & Crash in to ME”; to say she had a few close calls would be putting it mildly, I was not completely without blame in one of them but managed to cross behind her just avoiding what would have been a spectacular tangle. We spent a lot of time trying to find little tracks through the untouched powder in between trees – some were better trails than others, no-one managed to wrap themselves around a tree although some tried a little harder than others.

Finding little jumps to hit also provided a good diversion from just skiing runs; of course Adele’s last runs for this trip to Canada were off the top of Strawberry.

Despite Megan having just returned from her four days of heli-skiing, we took her & Alex out dinner – ended up back at the Grizzly Paw after Adele & I rather rudely shot down the idea of sushi in flames. Adele & I were completely boring & both took the same option for mains that we had had on Saturday. I think the night will be remembered for Megan being so tired that she could hardly eat any of her pasta & me getting some of my own back on Adele – after having endured a month of conversations about gear & climbing, it was nice to have others around who would happily quote Blackadder, The Big Bang Theory & so on & Adele didn’t have a clue as to what we were talking about. Not to mention Alex’s rather amusing Communist Party T-Shirt – with the emphasis on ‘Party’.

Adele had the rather gargantuan task of trying to pack all the gear she had bought over the last month in to her Macpac & a ski-bag before James, Becca, Adele & I headed off for yet more gear shopping in Calgary before heading to the airport to drop Adele off. Surprisingly, I took an early lead in the gear-buying stakes with a pair of shoes, a pocket knife & very pleasingly a replacement pen for my Swiss Army card (yes, I still have it if you are reading this Kate Southern – it’s fantastic) – one of the most useful things in the card, at least it was until the ink ran out. Eventually, Adele found the jacket she’d been looking for for weeks & Becca got some elusive soft shell trousers (I quite happily relinquished my lead). A grand (had to get that word in once more) Indian dinner in Calgary & it was off to the airport for (dammit) goodbyes (& a few more TimBits of course).

The XC World Cup was in town over the weekend & Friday morning James & I headed out to the Nordic Center to catch a bit of the action. Now that Adele had left, the sun decided to shine all day & it was a glorious day. The event that day was the Free Technique (10 & 15 km for women & men respectively) – which was the skate style of XC skiing, not in tracks. We had enough time before James had to start work to see the sixty-odd women start & finish their time trials (staggered starts).

Some of them were really quick, I was surprised to see a Kiwi out there – apparently she is living in Canmore, she got quite a cheer from us. There was a great crowd out & the ones around us were really chatty & helpful in explaining things about the sport & the competitors. Catching the shuttle back in to town it was funny to see the main street closed off & covered in one and a half feet of snow with XC tracks set in the sides – all part of the festivities.

Back home for a quick lunch, James was off to work & I had the afternoon to myself – I seem to remember sleeping a bit before making an early dinner, Becca came home, we ate & headed to Norquay for a bit of night skiing. Norquay had just the one lift open with a couple of short floodlit runs coming back down to the daylodge. It was just as well the runs were quite wide as I probably would have plastered myself on to a tree if they were narrow – both the runs were quite fast & after a few quick runs down I started to work on my technique & stopping a bit more.

It definitely novel skiing at night; we had a much easier drive home after the dust was wiped off Scoobie’s headlights & our vision was increased by orders of magnitude. Picking James up from work we were off to watch some mixed-climbing at the local indoor rock wall; from what I could work out the competition was basically indoor rock climbing with ice axes to help. Only one competitor finished the route that we saw.

After good sleep-ins (Megan I think was still recovering from the heli-skiing) we rode the few kilometres to the Nordic Center to catch a bit more of the World Cup action. It was much more exciting the second day as the racing was head to head around a much shorter course – what we couldn’t see live, we could see relayed on the big screen. Having six racers on the course at once, with only four sets of tracks led to a few entanglements. The biggest crashes were on a tight right-hander on the last down hill. It was interesting to see the different techniques that the racers used depending on the gradient they were on. In the gap before qualifying & the finals we left the bikes (it must be noted that this was my first bike ride of the year – in February! Shocking!) at the Nordic Center before heading down to town for no reason other than to lunch – my last bagel & chocolate chai at the Bagel Company. The racing was even better after lunch, with only three & a half minute races we were quickly through the quarters & semis & in to the finals. In both finals the champion completely dominated the field to win by a large margin – a Pole in the women’s & a Swede in the men’s. The biggest cheer of course was for the local Canadian who finished third in the women’s. As an aside, I was very surprised at how many Kazakhs were competing – a lot of them made it in to the latter finals too.

With such a beautiful & warm day we couldn’t waste the rest of it. A short drive from town & we were at the start of the track to the summit of Hi Lung (or Chinaman’s Peak). It wasn’t long before our shoes were shod with YakTraks – a wide rubber mesh surrounded by steel coil that enables one to walk on snow & ice, not quite as hardcore as crampons. We climbed pretty steadily for an hour before breaking through the tree line & the view towards Banff started to open up. After another twenty or thirty minutes of climbing through a mixture of snow, scree & slabs of rock we were at the summit looking out over Canmore, the Bow Valley, Kananaskis Country & up towards the summit of Lawrence Grassi. It was very still at the top & the sun was still out so we managed to keep warm – we had been shedding layers most of the way up as the weather was so good.

Sunday was also spent with Megan – she is the only person in Canmore that I know that has normal Saturday & Sunday weekends (& she’s pretty cool too). After some indecision as to what to do with another stunner day close to Canmore (thinking of the head gasket on the way out in the Outback) we went & paid Becca a visit & hired light touring skis (a little bit wider than XC skis). Parking in the same lot as yesterday’s walk to Hi Lung, but heading in the opposite direction we headed off (mostly) down the Goat Creek Track – this goes 19 km to Banff, but as we didn’t have someone to meet us we decided to see how far we got in a couple of hours & then turn back. It wasn’t long before I discovered that it is really hard to stop easily on these skis as there are no edges – it just so happened that the steepest hill of the day was heading down from the parking lot & I spent a fair chunk of it on the ground sliding. The trail was of course no where near as groomed & nice as those at the Nordic Center & of course the tracks were no set, rather just those that had been worn out by many previous tourers. This mean that they were generally pretty shallow & usually disappeared altogether on the downhills. We kept up quite a reasonable pace & stopped for the occasional photograph as it was a beautiful area. Just before our two hour turnaround we reached the Spray River – the snow on the hand rails over the bridge has started to turn in to pretty cool crystals. Turning around, it was of course mostly uphill back up the valley – a few people we passed thought we were nuts & perhaps we were. But as it were, as I wasn’t falling over so much & we weren’t stopping to take duplicate photos we got back to the car in the same time as it took to get to the river. Believably, half way through the return journey I was beginning to feel the lack of lunch & my gliding technique was suffering – never mind, made it back quite alright & it was another great little adventure. Who would have thought so many different types of skis existed? Not me.

For my last full day in the Rockies, I was also keen to spend it at Sunshine. It turned out to be the clearest day that I had out there. I caught a ride up there with Craig & Kelly – we did a couple of runs off Wawa together before they headed out slack-country to do a little touring. I was keen to get my money’s worth out of my lift pass for the day so I spent the day exploring bits of the hill that I hadn’t been on yet & visiting favourites. As I was by myself with no one to keep up to or avoid, I was much slower than normal & could spend the time working on my turns & stops. There was also plenty of time to take photos of the spectacular mountains.

It was also the quietest day that I had visited Sunshine – I don’t think I waited for a lift all day. It was especially dead when I hit the lifts & slopes again after an early lunch – the few people that had been on the mountain were all still inside eating. It was bliss. The light and snow at the top of Goat’s Eye was much better than it had been last week so I spent quite a bit of time on the blue runs there – a couple of the new ones were a bit steeper than I was used to, but I somehow managed without planting myself in the snow.

After Craig & Kelly got back from their little mission we did a couple of hours of Angel, Tee Pee Town, Strawberry, Jack Rabbit & Wolverine together – some amusing moments going through the trees in various parts.

When we left for the ski out at 4.30, we must pretty much had the run to ourselves – I did manage hit a big hole in Upper Canyon, but some how recovered. For the first time I managed to ride all ten lifts & not fall on a whole day on the hill. I even threw in a couple of easy black diamond runs – it turned out they were easier than some of the blue runs I’d been doing previously, go figure. Final dinner with Megan & Alex – which of course included a couple of Big Bang episodes – unfortunately, I discovered I quite like port, particularly the bottle I bought Alex, just as well I was leaving.

Not much of note on the Tuesday – somehow crammed all my gear in to my pack & small suitcase, a bit of cleaning of my room & bathroom; Becca kindly came home during her split shift & then dropped me to meet the shuttle. A few lasts – last A&W burger (they are pretty good) & last box of TimBits (these are pretty good to take on the plane – good snacks between the inadequate Air Canada meals). A great holiday – thanks especially to James & Becca, Megan & Alex, Adele, Mark, Craig & Kelly and the staff at Gear-Up for such a wonderful five weeks in & around Canmore. I would like to be back some time in the reasonably near future.

Canada, family, food, friends, hiking, national park, snow

Back-country skiing & snow-shoeing to Bow Hut

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Having checked in almost four hours early (not by choice – the best shuttle from Canmore got me here that early) for my return flight to Heathrow, I’ve got a bit of time to sit down & try & remember the blur of activity that was the last two weeks. Wednesday a fortnight ago, we loaded up Mark’s small hire SUV with four sets of skis, a pair of snow shoes (for me – still trying to give my shoulder a bit of a rest), avalanche gear & an awful lot of food & wine for an overnight trip. We were off to Bow Lake (we had passed the lake a couple of weeks before on our Icefield Parkway roadtrip) to skin/walk up to Bow Hut to stay the night – this trip was planned for the week before but the avalanche danger was too high. Finally (after almost three weeks) it had got proper cold – it got down to -24ºC on the way there; not the coldest it had been all winter, but about the temperature I had been preparing myself for in London & which was beaten away by a pretty mild January.

Parking at the lake, we were under way & skinning/walking across the lake at about eleven o’clock.

I’m not sure I was completely used to walking across a lake for half an hour, it’s kind of odd to think about. As the day was so cold & clear the scenery was already spectacular before we’d even begun to climb.

Also, I was finally able to experience the sensation of hair on one’s face freezing up – mostly nasal hair & eyelashes for me, but James’s beard looked pretty cool.

Across the lake we slowly begun to climb up a gentle & wide canyon before we turned up in to the trees, coming out in to the open again for a view of Bow Falls & a good lunch stop.

Following lunch we skinned/walked up a much narrower & steep-sided canyon for a while. The stream running down it was frozen over in places – but not usually when we were trying to traverse above it, it made for some hairy moments. It was also very beautiful.

We left the canyon before it got too steep for us & climbed up to the left (true right really) & through more trees. All this time I was making reasonably good time on the trusty (but boring) snowshoes & had plenty of time to wait & take photos. Being out in the -10 to -15ºC clear day surrounded by magnificent mountains was just fantastic & I was pleased to have the time to take it in as best I could. We were soon out of the trees for good & left traversing across the top of a nice little cliff down to the canyon (it was a little way away) we had just climbed out of. The skin track wasn’t really wide enough for snowshoes (who would wear such ungainly things on such terrain?), so provided me with a little bit of trepidation. The hut was spotted with an hour to go perched up on a ridge & it looked big –

Beneath the said glacier, we turned a hard left & had the biggest climb of the day to reach the hut; by now I was sick of trying to stay on the skin track that snaked its way up the climb – it was much easier just to power straight up the steep stuff.

Only four hours after setting out we were at Bow Hut.

It turned out to be (relatively) salubrious & rather large with the bunkroom separate from the kitchen & dining area. The kitchen was well stocked with propane cooking & lighting & plenty of firewood to keep us toasty warm. Becca & James headed out shortly after up towards the glacier a bit so they could ski some of the runs down in the lovely powder that we had been walking through all day. By the time they got back it was dark – but only just, as the full moon provided us with a stunningly bright night. Mark, Adele & I had set to preparing some of the masses of food the others had carried out – in deference to my shoulder I was not allowed to carry more than a packet of corn chips in my small backpack, on the proviso that they were not broken. Carrying such a precious cargo I made extra sure not to fall & they came through whole & ready to be devoured with all the ground beef (what they call mince over here) & fresh veges. For once, we were the noisy one in the hut (much to the bemusement of an older German couple; the two young guys up from Lake Louise were too busy taking photos & smoking pot they probably didn’t care how much noise we made) – I’m not sure if this was because it was such a great day, the company, the quality & quantity of the food or the fact that Mark & Adele had discovered TetraPak cartons of good wine in the bottleshop. Probably a combination of them all, but weighted towards the end of the list. Just before bed we all popped outside to have a look at the night sky – all wrapped up out there it wasn’t too bad, the outside temperature was pretty constant up there at -12ºC. And what a night it was – these photos were taken at nine-thirty (sunset was about five-thirty at that time) without a flash, James has a very distinct shadow in the second picture.

After we all had varied nights’ sleep, we were up & refuelled with another large meal before heading up above the hut & on to the glacier. Here’s James cutting the wood to fuel the fire to melt the snow to provide the water to boil to make our porridge.

The others skinned up so they could have some nice powder runs back down, I of course just went for the walk & the vista. Here’s Adele & I with our makeshift harnesses, just in case we fell in to a crevasse, on top of the glacier – you can just see my gumby snowshoes (there’s not many photos of them thankfully).

I think all had a great time skiing on the longest & deepest powder runs of their lives (a not completely substantiated claim, but I’m sure someone said that). James particularly left some nice squiggles behind him in the snow.

After two runs down that slope, we were back to the hut to tidy up & have another huge meal – we were determined not to carry any food out (that was quite ambitious as it turned out, but we got there in the end). The steep hill that we climbed up to the hut was pretty sketchy descending on snowshoes & I had my first little fall of the trip.

We got down with only a few little falls (Adele had a good faceplant that I missed, after she hit a submerged rock: & I seemed to spend a bit of time pulling Becca out of the snow as she made good acquaintance with some small trees). The last section through the trees was the only bit I really missed not being on skis, it was so twisty & flowly – really I was probably just missing my bike. I stopped & waited after a little rise to take photos of everyone skiing down; James got past in style,

Becca went past & I got my photo & then she stopped & fell over, Mark waited just as he came in to shot & then came down & crashed right in front of me,

& Adele did a convincing impression of someone scared of a camera & ran right off the trail just before me. Out of the trees it was pretty gentle down to the lake; by the time we reached the lake all Adele’s activities of the previous four days were catching up with her & I ended up towing or pushing her across the lake with her poles – snowshoes really aren’t all that slow, you just look like a muppet.

That’s really the end of that adventure – what a great couple of days & beautiful scenery & great friends & food. Thanks James for organising that & James, Becca, Adele & Mark for carrying my food & other stuff.

Canada, family, food, friends, hiking, national park, snow

Enforced Rest

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Now that my arm is out of its sling I can catch up my ramblings here – yes, I dislocated my shoulder again last week. The last week hasn’t been quite as active for me, but I have managed to get out & see & do a few things. I think it was Saturday over a week ago that Tristan & Margie (Adele flatted with them for a while in Timaru) turned up from the west coast – we had a great dinner catching up & teaching the group how to play Monopoly Deal (the card game I was given by the guy next to me on the flight over). Much hilarity ensued – the game has proved to be quite a hit & seldom a day goes by without at least one game. My enforced rest started right at the top of my first back-country ski touring day – Megan & Alex took Adele & me out for a taste of touring. We headed about forty-five minutes out of Canmore in to Kananaskis Country & headed for Chester Lake from the parking lot. With skins on our skis, we were able to walk/shuffle (the heels of the boots are clipped down, so one can perform a walking action, but really you just slide the ski along the snow) up the trail that immediately started climbing up towards the lake.

It was great to be out amongst the trees & seemingly a million miles from anyone else – I instantly loved touring (I’m a little weird, I’ve always found some enjoyment in working up hills – whether on a bike, hiking or on skis, as it turns out). The day was a little overcast, & perhaps a little over freezing point – but the touring proved to be a good work out, so we were soon shedding layers, gloves & toques (Canada-speak for beanies).

Once we reached the lake after a good ninety minutes – two hours, Alex led us off the trail up much steeper hill; it may not have been much stepper, but there was a lot of powder & that made it a little tougher.

We finally got above the trees (after some challenging turns on steep uphills) & went up a nice slope we were going to stop & have lunch & admire the view.

In the end, the cold wind persuaded us to take our skins off & find a lunch spot further down the hill. Unfortunately my downhill skiing in half a metre of powder on telemarks (no touring skis left at the rental shop) was not really up to scratch & I bailed a few times. That in itself wasn’t so bad as the powder was nice & soft; getting up proved to be a bit more difficult as it was had to get any sort of coordination on such a soft, steep slope. In my flailing around the third time I managed to put my arm behind me, put some weight on it & pop my shoulder out – not that I was sure I had done it. But my inability to use my arm seemed to suggest that I had. After a bit of drama trying to get off the slope & on to a reasonably flat spot to try & relocate the pesky arm; it took a few attempts to get it back in & then I was slinged up, lunch was had, my skins were put back on & we were off again. Getting back through the powder & trees proved to be a bit difficult for both Adele & me (Adele spent a good few minutes looking for a ski that she lost in the snow, & I had trouble getting up the few times that I fell), but once we were back on the trail the going got easier. Around the lake the trail was overall pretty flat, so I as able to keep ahead with one arm & two skins. Skinning down the hill was more work that going down should have been, but it meant I didn’t ever get out of control & crash. Eventually we were all safely back at the car – quite the adventure & apart from the fifteen minutes of pain, it was a great day & I loved it.

I took it pretty easy on Monday while Adele, James, Craig, Tristan & Margie hit the slopes again. Don’t think I did a lot, did manage to make the seventy minute walk in to town through what snow remained & along the river, meet Becca for her lunch break, get a round of cards in & then try out the much talked about chocolate-chai (delicious) at the Bagel Company. I tagged along when Craig took Tristan & Margie ice-climbing at the Grotto on Tuesday – a good chance to get out of the house & it still wasn’t too cold to be standing around at the bottom of an ice wall. We donned our crampons for the walk up the frozen stream, it was quite pretty walking up the narrow (but shallow) gorge to the ice.

There were two faces to be climbed, but we had to wait awhile for a couple of groups to get off it before the others had a go. I spent the time looking around & chatting to whoever was not halfway up the wall.

Due to the recent warm temperatures & snow fall, the avalanche risk was too great for our planned overnight trip in to Bow Hut. Therefore on Wednesday we (James, Becca, Craig, Tristan, Margie & Adele on touring skis, me on snowshoes) headed back to Kananaskis Country for the Burstall Pass trail. The parking lot was pretty much opposite where we started the ill-fated trip to Chester Lake three days prior.

This day was clearer, & a little colder. The trail started off a lot flatter than Sunday’s & snowshoes turned out to be pretty easy (especially on the packed trail) & it wasn’t nearly as much of a work out as touring skis & skins; I don’t think I had to strip off any layers all day & I was pleased not to be holding everyone up with my one arm & snowshoes (apparently, I looked pretty funny).

We reached the bottom of a few lakes on the river down the valley & as they were all frozen & snowed over we dived off the trail & walked up the lake through more powder & in to the sun for quite a while, before having lunch sitting on skis in the sun & out of the wind – it was surprisingly warm.

After lunch & above the lake, the trail got a lot steeper & the snowshoes once again proved an asset. A couple of skiers coming down told us that the fog was rolling in above the trees, but thankfully we got a few good views when it got a bit flatter out of the trees. The others’ eyes were salivating at the sight of the powder slopes ahead, but as the fog was rolling in & I was not so excited about such slopes on snowshoes, I turned around to get a bit of a head start on the (supposedly) faster skis for the run down hill.

I had a very pleasant solitary walk back down through the snow & as it turned out I got down almost two hours before the others. Another great day out in the wilderness – it’s beautiful here.

Thursday was a bit more a restful day (except for James & Craig who had a great day on the hill) & after Becca eventually won a game of Monopoly we picked up Margie & Tristan & headed for Banff to meet James & Craig & spend an hour or so soaking in the hot pools again – this time it wasn’t snowing & it was daylight, so we could see the mountains (on the way in we saw the Olympic torch making its way slowly towards Vancouver). Friday I had another morning resting my arm while Adele went rock climbing with James – she was very excited on returning, having led for the first time. Becca somehow got the afternoon off work, so she took Adele & us out for a little outing to Johnston Canyon – basically an hour or so walking up a beautiful canyon to see the very frozen Lower & Upper Falls. Adele’s friend, Mark (he worked in Timaru Hospital for a while & is now back living & working in New Hampshire), arrived for a week’s vacation & was quickly initiated in to the ways of Monopoly Deal.

As Mark had been working so much recently, Saturday was declared a non-strenuous day & we (Adele, Tristan & Margie included) had a nice late start to the day & we drove the hour or so up to Lake Louise to check out the ice carving on the lake.

There was a thirty-eight hour competition spread over Friday, Saturday & Sunday; the large works were starting to come together beside the lake. Back down in the village, we were just in time to catch the speed-carving competition – billed as one man, one block of ice, one hour. It was very neat to see the twelve competitors create some magnificent sculptures with chainsaws, chisels & who-knows-what-else from just one 300lb block of ice.

There was even a Kiwi having a go (apparently his first weekend ice carving) – his Maori face with moko was pretty cool; none of us really liked the one that won, but there was plenty to keep us interested before we returned to the lake (after a spot more gear shopping) for ice-skating (I sat that out, in deference to my shoulder, & walked across the lake instead – it was finally getting cold, my the moisture from my breath on froze my scarf & ruined any insulating properties my scarf previously held).

I was most pleased to see a traditionally uniformed Mountie; I was very tempted to break in to song though – “I cut down trees, I eat my lunch, I go to the lavatory, on Wednesdays I go shopping & have buttered scones for tea”.

Back at the ice rink the others were finishing up around this cool fire in a stump – there was no wood inside it, it was burning the stump from the inside-out.

The large carvings were coming along nicely too.

We split to return to our favourite (& only that we know of) restaurant in Lake Louise – the Alpine Club. We had to get the poutine (sounds remarkably like pootang), heart attack in a bowl apparently – a dish from Quebec (I think) that is basically fries with gravy & cheese curd, absolutely fantastic.

After a discussion on tipping, our waitress turned out to be a bit of a plonker – didn’t bring ordered drinks, brought out two lots of burnt nachos, brought us the bill after Mark had just paid & brought two mints for a table that had had five people at it all night. Luckily, the guy that we had last time was around to keep things going.

By Sunday, Adele & I had gone to stay with Mark at the cabin he is staying in & I seem to remember a lot of trips to the supermarket. The cabin is a short walk from town (much shorter than the hour from Three Sisters) & I popped in to town to find a post box & get my bearings for this part of town. I was surprised to see all the wild domestic bunnies loping around the straight. Apparently a few/many years ago someone’s pet rabbit(s) escaped & they have since breed like rabbits do. The first two were pretty cute, but after seeing a dozen or so in a short space of time chewing away at what grass they could find amongst the snow I could see how they could be a pest. They are particularly prolific around this part of town as it is further from the hills & the predators (coyotes & so on) up there. Apparently the town has taken a vote on whether the town should let them alone or push them off their mortal coils. It would seem the cuteness factor won out. We seemed to be going to the supermarket quite a bit, the last time was to stock up for our traditional January barbecue – Tristan & Margie’s last night in town. January barbecues make a lot more sense in the southern hemisphere; it was quite novel to be out grilling steak & sausages in the snow & -8ºC – can’t think why no one would come out & join me for a beer around the barbie. A great night (unless you happen to be a plate or handle – they somehow ended up endangered species) with pretty much everyone Adele & I know in Canmore.