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, Canada, friends

If 1-1-11 is anything to go by

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This year is going to be a cracker – a sentiment that has been echoed quite a few times today already.  I couldn’t believe how many people (a couple of thousand at least) were out skating on the pond at around -20ºC, but the ice was chocker for New Year’s Eve.  The fires around the side were pretty popular & my skating is slowly getting better – even if I did take my first, & due to the date – last, fall of the year.  After the rather cute fireworks & suitable oohs & aahs, it was time to retire for a nice big sleep before the first ski of 2011.  Here’s a picture shamelessly stolen from Alex, that goes a little way to showing how crowded the ice was – avoiding all those people had its moments.

I was pleased to see the weather forecast was predicting slightly warmer temperatures & even more pleased to have a ski buddy in town who wasn’t working.  Alex (got to love the friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend connection when you are travelling; another Aussie too, have I met a single Kiwi since I’ve been living here?) [& yes, that is another Alex, just to confuse things] is over here putting in a few months of intense boarder-cross training & competition.  The twenty centimetres of snow over the last week had the hill in a much improved condition than previously this season.  Skiing a whole day with only one other person & that person being much more experienced than me was great for my skiing.  I went on a whole heap of runs I haven’t been on before & was regularly challenged by some of the terrain I found myself on.  Not really related to that, I somehow took my biggest dive yet – I hit one of the few sections of crusted powder left untouched a little too fast & somehow lost my skis & went flying a couple of metres forward.  Thankfully Alex didn’t see that & could only watch as I, rather bemused, turned & recovered my skis & poles.  Goat’s Eye was also perhaps the most improved part of the resort & there were quite a few runs to be had down there in relative peace & quiet.  Other/original-Canmore-Alex (to me anyway) also joined us for a couple of runs.

Back in town we headed to the Hotel (more of a pub really) for (new)Alex’s first poutine & some beers.  I believe I have already declared my love of poutine here before a number of times – this particular incarnation didn’t disappoint either.  Now after a little relaxing, dinner cooked & eaten it’s off to bed to rest up so I can do it all again tomorrow.  Well, not quite the same – Alex (original, I’m getting confused already) & I are going backcountry off the back of Sunshine to Citadel Pass.  I’m not sure I really know what that means either – but then I am slightly tired.

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).

family

Merry Christmas!

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Shortly after posting my last update I suddenly realised I hadn’t wished that rare breed of people (those who read these musings) a great holiday season.  So, Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year; I hope you get to spend it with loved family or friends or both.

My first Christmas cards turned up yesterday (now that I have others, I’m not counting the one from the Plant Manager here).  Along with a very sweet one from my grandfather in Sydney mentioning how much he misses my grandmother (she has had dementia for a few years now & is in residential care), Mum had slipped in a DVD of home movies from our 1987 trip around England & Scotland in with her card.  Once I started watching it last night, I had to go all the way to the end, little realising that it was almost two hours long.  It’s precious viewing – with many occurrences that have since entered Pheasant family legend.  The first half in particular is quite amusing as it has much of the family that I spent time with last year in England looking twenty-three years younger & thinner (& in some cases, alive).  [Megan, there is even some short footage of your grandparents.]

Unfortunately, the episode of almost-rolling the rental car isn’t quite on there, but you can see the narrow flooded, un-paved lanes we were traveling down.  Only once do you hear me launch in to my catch-cry of “P for Parking!”.  Every time we are near a farm (we seemed to stay on quite a few while touring) there is a brief summary (usually from Dad) of stock levels, farm size, wintering arrangement & so on – that’s to be expected really.  There are many shots of Dad leading Adele & I (we were 2 & 4 years old at the time, strangely I was still blond at this time) off in to the distance while Mum gets the shots she wanted.  I could go on, but while it may be compulsory Pheasant-family viewing it doesn’t really fit in to the compulsory family viewing category that is so popular at this time of year.

Have a good one.

Biking to go places, going places to bike.