Snow Day - Dec 7, 2008

Sunday brought a rare novelty. I biked and skiied in the same day and in the same place! Craving some exercise, I got up early before church and headed out to Nose Hill on my bike for a quick spin. The hill was bare of snow save for a few icy spots in the snow. It was a cool morning, but just about the right temperature for December biking.

Towards the end of my ride, I noticed a few scattered snow flakes fluttering about. I didn't think much of them, untill....



Once I got home and had showered, I noticed that the snow intensity was increasing. In fact, it was really coming down!
This is what our home looked like by the evening.

The street was covered in a layer of soft packed snow!

Here is the view from where I am right now.

When Erin and I got home for the evening, I took the opportunity to live out a dream I've had for quite some time. I hastily put on my ski gear, walked a few paces out of the garage and skiied over to the hill down the street. It was powder-licious! There was about 20cm to play in. The hill is really not much to scream about (maybe 20-30m long), but it was worth it. I went up and down about 5 times. Getting up was a bit tougher than I figured because my poles would go right down to the grass and not provide a whole lot of support.

It was a crazy day in Calgary. I really love this part of the world. If only we got dumps like this more often:)

Lake Louise - Nov 22, 2008

So much for blogging in order.

This was my first day out for the year and it was pretty good. There were some equipment issues.

On my first run(!) near the Grizzly Gully, I must have caught a rock and my ski fell off. Of course, this always happens at an inopportune time and I observed a large stump in front of my. The stump and I quickly exchanged pleasentries. After shaking myself off, it came to my attention that my pole had broken! The nice collapsable poles! Dang! I skied down with only one pole to the base of the Top of the World chair to find some tools. The break in the pole was just below one of the joints, so I figured I could wiggle the pole back into service. The tools at the lift were not quite enough, so I made my way down Wiwaxy to the shop at the bottom. They let me borrow a pipe cutter, which saved the day!

Back up I go!

This little detour made it so that was I not the first to venture into the Boomerange Bowl, which had just opened for the season. Dang. Oh well. The snow in Boomerage Bowl was fantastic! The fog was also ominpresent, making it somewhat difficult to enjoy the powder.

Throughout the day, I found lots of great turns on the newly opened terrain. Not that much was open, but what was open was great! It's a very freeing experience having official rock skis in November. I watched people ski and inevitably catching rocks and grumbling to themselves about it. I would catch a rock and be glad it wasn't on my good skis!

Anyhow, it was a great first day. The legs survived pretty well. I just went by myself. We learned last year that Erin and November skiing don't mix. She wouldn't have had any fun. A few more dumps and the Lake will be ready for prime-time.

On a side note (and we'll see how long this lasts) I think I'm going to stick to Lake Louise this year. After spending many days both there and at Sunshine, I find that LL has a better variety of terrain and the lifts are setup way better to get you to the good stuff.

Bike to Work - Dec 5, 2008

I've often wanted to try and keep track of the more routine adventures I find myself on.  I'll probably throw some pictures from older trips up here, but who knows. Once mom bought me a little biker's record.  In it you're meant to make a few quick notes on the trip like where you went, the number of kms, who you went with, encounters with bears, etc.  I did that for a bit, but it never really caught on.  I also tried the "Light Bulbs on Mountain Tops" blog, but I just couldn't keep it up because I expected too much out of the entries.  Maybe these more day-to-day adventures will provide a less threatening blog style. 

All this to say....

I biked to work today.  Headed down through Nose Creek pathway and took the dirt paths just for a little fun.  Crossing 64th Ave, I got clipped slightly by a car's side-view mirror.  There was no damage and no real danger, but it shook me up a little.  I guess I should stick closer to the curb.

The paths are mostly clear, but for a very few spots of ice.  It was probably just above 0 degrees.

I really love biking into work.  I save gas money, get some exercise and don't have to deal with sitting in traffic.  If only it didn't take so much time to get all changed into my biking gear.

Sunshine Village - Opening Day 2006, 2007

I have this weird habit of saving all my expired ski tickets. Maybe it's because I've paid so much for them. Maybe it's because they're a memory of the day. Maybe I'm just a pack-rat.

Whatever the case, these are the most easily posted memories I have of two consecutive years of opening day at Sunshine Village. 2006 was POWDER-licious! Just a phenominal year. 2007 was poof-scratch-licious. For 2007 the longer lasting legacy is skis with some pretty serious gashes in them. Two good things came of this:

1) I had an "official" pair of Rock Skis
2) I got to buy my SWEET Rossi Scratch BS skis. Their about 2 cm wider and MAN does that make a difference. I think that my skiing style (high power, low grace) and heavier weight for my height means that a wider ski does me much better. I can't wait until there's a enough snow to pull those babies out this year :)

Sunshine Village - April 2, 2007

This was Erin and I's first adventure as an "official" couple. I've always found it funny in our culture how there is for most couples a well defined moment when they became "official". I suppose it's when the two parties have the "define the relationship" chat and grant each other permission to be called "boyfriend" and "girlfriend". The question is, "who makes it 'official'"? Personally, I like the "officialness" of marriage much better. We have a certificate now. Three, in fact (one from the church and two from the government).

Anyhow, this ski date was just a couple days after we had that "DTR" chat. It was the Monday of Spring break and I had worked some extra hours to earn the day off of work. It was a fun time to learn more about each other and enjoy some skiing. These first pictures were taken as we headed from Goat's Eye to the top. There was pow-pow-powder at Goat's Eye which was making me very happy and Erin very tired.


















This is still one of my favority pictures of Erin. The clouds broke at just the right time!

Johnston's Canyon - Jan 3, 2007

We headed out as a family on a short trip to Banff that January.  As I recall, it was quite cold, but it was fun to get away.  Winter is definately the time to head to Johnston's Canyon.  It's beautiful, and way fewer people!

Ian got a new camera for Christmas.

A mountain off in the distance.  Not sure which one.

The lower falls from the ledge past the cave.  You have to kinda sneak through an old water passage.  It's neat.

Picklejar Lakes - Jun 24, 2006

Father-son bonding in the great outdoors.

This outcropping just begged to be climbed.  I remember freaking out a bit on that rock becuase it drops off quite stepply in the back.

Note that I have a big scrape on my shin. That was from falling off my bike about a week earlier.

This is one of my favorite Dad pictures.   

Prarie Mountain - April 30, 2005

I figured that the first post that I made to this blog should have some pictures.  These are the first pictures that I stumbled upon.  

Anyhow, this was a classic adventure that was our way of celebrating the completion of University.  Ian (shown below in stunning zip-off pants) and I had just finished our bachelor degrees and Ken had just finished a grueling semester.  Katrina was along for the ride.  In running shoes.  Oh, the adventures we took her on... 

This picture is the obligatory "Mountain Conqueror Picture".

I sent this picture to my Compassion sponsor child. She must think Canadians are weird.

This is a lasting memory.  "Hey, Trevor!  I'm going to take my pants down.  Take a picture".  

We just flew down that mountain in the snow.  It was an adventure for the ages.