Category Archives: snow

around home, Canada, friends, snow

Sunshine Meadows touring

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Up too early after all that skiing & hardly sleeping, I picked up Alex & we were back out at Sunshine by nine o’clock.  This time we took the gondola up, one lift & then went out of bounds on to the Sunshine Meadows for my first decent ski-tour this winter.  It was slightly warmer than the previous day, & the still-rising sun slowly warmed us as we skinned across the meadows.  This was a similar route to that which Alex, Megan & I hiked at the start of July to kick off our three-day hike to Mt Assiniboine & Mt Shark.

It all looks a little different to what it did in the summer (but just as beautiful):

Anyway – back to the snow.  We were aiming for Citadel Pass & slowly worked our way towards it picking whatever route looked good – it was difficult to see any previous skin tracks to follow.  This made some of the climbing a little difficult as all of a sudden whoever was trail breaking would fall an unexpected foot or so in to a void.  Well, it was difficult for me at times being unused to such occurrences.

Alex skinning across another flat patch

We had a few downhill runs here & there.  I think these were just to show me that I can’t really ski all that well off-piste.  I took a few more dives – at least landing in soft snow doesn’t hurt.  We veered off from our path to the Citadel (that’s that big hunk of rock in the centre of these pictures) & headed up another ridge that looked nice.

The route we chose didn’t look so inviting half way up, so we turned again & skied back to Howard Douglas Lake (which we had skinned across no so long before) before skinning up to our lunch spot.  The skin on my left ski managed to frustrate me no end as it managed to come off five times, even after I’d tightened the fastening mechanism.  At half past one, I was fair starving so pleased to sit in the sun & mostly out of the wind that had picked up here.  It didn’t seem too cold, but at -10ºC it turns out your sandwiches freeze to the bottom of your lunchbox.  After I made a few more rookie errors on the small run down we had, we turned & headed back to the meadows & the ski resort.  Most of this was skinning, but there was a little cruising downhill.

Here are a few pictures, courtesy of Alex (I can’t keep writing ‘shamelessly stolen’, even if it’s true).

That’s me taking it easy & not falling over for a change

Oh look, I’m putting my skins on again

Eventually, we were back across the meadows & heading in to the resort boundaries (that’s that blue sign there).

After six of so hours of this excursion, I was exhausted & my feet were starting to hurt.  When I found the small blisters on the top of my feet (above the arches) I learnt the importance of loosening my boots while skinning.  For a pretty busy day as Sunshine (the beauty of where we were was that we didn’t see another soul for five hours), we managed to time it right & missed chaos on the ski-out.  So tired, I couldn’t really be bothered making turns so snow-ploughed most of the way back to the car.  Another great day here in the Bow Valley & 2011 doesn’t seem to have slowed down yet.  Thanks Alex for taking me back-country & not having to put my shoulder back in.

around home, friends, snow

A little more skiing & snow

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One last post for the year – Christmas was nice & quiet as I imagined it would be up at Sunshine.  It was calm & warm & clear (it got a little overcast in the afternoon) – I left my down jacket in the car & didn’t even regret it.  Early(ish) morning the parking lot was relatively empty & all the lifties were in good spirits wishing people a Merry Christmas & some even were dancing as you came to the top of Strawberry.  There were a few costumes on the slopes as well – Santa, of course; a Yeti; and some guy that looked like he had a lynx skin on his head.  There still wasn’t a lot of snow, but I had a good time & got a lot of runs in; Alex joined me briefly between some of his jobs.

It was still pretty warm on Sunday, but I was exhausted from all the skiing the previous day (I don’t think I’ve ever had a Christmas that was so active, for once the Energy In to Energy Out ratio must have been above unity).  So a good day for lazing around ploughing (damn this continent – I don’t know how to spell anymore; I thought it should be plough, but the spellchecker says plow & now I am confused) through my book – I’ve almost finished the epic.  It’s been an interesting walk through England’s (more particularly, Salisbury’s) notable events from prehistory onwards – & it’s always nice to finish a 1000+ page book, there’s been a few this year.  I digress, we (Steve, Alex & I) did make it out to the Nordic Center that night for a quick lap around under the lights – once again it wasn’t really cold.

We finally got some decent snow yesterday & the mercury has dropped a good twenty degrees Celsius – so hopefully the skiing will be better in the New Year.  Another good sign that it’s a little nippy is when you go to unplug your car, you can’t coil up the extension lead as it has lost all of its pliability – despite having had a standard current running through it all day.  Have a great 2011 – I hope you’re as excited about it as I am (on that note, I’m trying to work out what to buy first for the roadtrip – a GPS for riding, a SPOT personal tracker or a GoPro helmet cam – the SPOT is the cheapest & available locally, so it might be that).

around home, bikes, Canada, Europe, family, friends, MTB, snow, travel, UK

Twenty-ten summary

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I’ve spent a lot of time this week sending out a rather brief attempt at a Christmas letter (about my only concession so far that Christmas is quite soon; actually, I did send some gifts home but they may be a bit late, oops).  It really is just my take on my year & trying to remind people back home I still exist & if I’m lucky I might get some NZ (or whereever) news back.  Without further ado & my being distracted by many classic Brit comedy moments, here it is.

This Christmas finds me well away from any family (immediate or extended) for the first time – I’m still not sure exactly how I came to be living in Canada.  Never mind, it was a great rushed decision – I thoroughly enjoyed a summer chocked full of mountain-biking (& a little hiking).  Now winter is slowly rolling around – well, it’s cold but there’s not all that much snow yet; so the next few months of skiing promise to be almost as good.  For those that haven’t been keeping up with my ramblings here are a few of the many highlights of 2010 for me.

  • Ten days in Madrid & further south exploring & conversing with Spaniards trying to overcome their Spanglish.
  • Many many days spent exploring London & spending time with friends & family.

Here in Canmore I supported myself for a few months with all manner of temporary jobs before starting at a cement plant (pretty much the only industry around here) – where I still am enjoying it & I hope to be there until my visa expires in May.  I’m trying to contain my excitement with respect to next summer’s three-month mountain-bike oriented road-trip around the western USA & British Columbia.  I’ll be back in London in August next year – after that, I don’t know.

Still being distracted, damn it.

around home, Canada, friends, snow

Winter sports variety

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After a getting a couple of concerned emails worrying that I had dropped off the radar (thanks Mother), maybe I should update this.  Looking back, it seems that I’ve been busier than it feels like.  There was the weekly session at the local bouldering gym last Thursday – it would be nice if I was progressing.  Alas, as I have no technique & no “measurable upper-body strength” there are a few problems in the numerical progression that I’m finding fiendishly difficult to get past the second-to-last hold.

Joel, Kristy & I hiked off to Calgary last Friday evening to watch a hockey game (that’s ice hockey for those down in the bottom of the world that don’t realise that hockey here is played on ice & quite the big deal as far as sports go).  After searching too many grocery stores for corned silverside (I still maintain that all the Safeways around here must share the same supply chain) with no luck (who would have thought that would be so hard to find in this part of the world – I thought they loved beef in Alberta) we picked up Karin (a friend of Kristy & Joel) before heading to the Saddledome.  For my first hockey game attendance, it was the Calgary Hitmen against the Kelowna Rockets in the WHL (Western Hockey League – the highest level of junior competition around these parts).  Some of the hits & fights were pretty good, but the game as a sporting spectacle couldn’t really hold my interest – but the skating ability was quite amazing.  I hope my disappointment was mainly due to the Hitmen getting spanked by five goals to one & not with the sport itself.  Apparently the Hitmen are defending champions, but you would have hard time trying to convince me of that on Friday night.  Nonetheless, it was good night out of the valley.

After quite the sleep in on Saturday for most of us, the four of us headed out for a short day of skiing at Sunshine.  We got to Banff before some muppet realised that he’d forgotten his pass & we wasted forty minutes going back to Canmore to get it.  Eventually we were skiing by one o’clock – I don’t think any of us were too fussed with our lazy schedule (I tell myself that so I don’t feel guilty about wasted skiing time) as all afternoon it stuck around -15ºC.  Pleasantly, there was no wind & that temperature wasn’t quite as bad as I would have thought.  The good thing about it being pretty chilly was that the lift lines were really short & we could fit a lot of runs in to our short time (there was a little more snow than a fortnight ago, but it’s still pretty bare in parts).  The last few runs of the day were off the Divide chair & these were the best – but also the coldest as it seemed to be the most exposed.  Getting home, it wasn’t long before we all assembled again for a nice little dinner party with yet another Australian added to the group – there were quite a few very strong accents assaulting my ears!  Good food, good wine & great company – all in all an excellent day.  [Sunday was a write-off with a lazy morning sleeping in & then the afternoon on the couch attacking the thousand-page book & watching movies.]

Since the weekend I’ve been for my first skate & XC ski of the season – finally.  Perhaps inspired by the hockey, it was time to drag the skates out & have a go.  As it takes me ages to relearn how to skate every few years, I was pleased that I wasn’t quite as bad as I remembered – but by no means was I any good.  I’m just home from a quick lap at the Nordic Center under lights – my waxing of the XC skis seems to have been adequate; perhaps a little more grip wax is in order for next time, but that could just be lack of skill.  I may be a lot fitter than January, but it was nowhere near as exhausting as I remember; being alone may have reduced the pace a bit.  Either way, it was hell boring (as I correctly remember) – but it serves the purpose of getting me out of the house after work exercising & will keep me semi-fit for the next riding season & it was a beautiful evening to be staring at the surrounding mountains.