Cerise Creek... the Duffy Lake road surprises us once again!

Paul, Andrew and I headed back up the Duffey Lake Road area for some more backcountry skiiing on the weekend. Andrew and I were a little tired form hosting a Christmas get together the night before so we were glad Paul suggested a respectable time of departure of 8am.

After the regular stop at Galileo's coffee, etc we managed to get on the ski trail by about 1130am.... The tracks were icy through the start and Paul set off on a good pace (machine with those long legs.)

we managed to get into the hut just after one.. We stopped along the way to take some pics of the frozen creek etc... looked really pretty with the surface hoar on everything.



We were surprised to find hardly any sleeping bags set up in the usually busy hut... We headed out behind the hut for some skiing off the ridge. There was definitely some good snow in spots and then something would catch your ski and it was holding on time as best as you could.... i definitely had a couple of tumbles but all in good fun! (and so did Andrew!!! check this one out!)



It took awhile for pyro Andrew and these other two guys to get the fire going but eventually.... the hut warmed up... It was until after dark that a crew of 8 or 9 snowshoers rocked in... Apparently they were first timers and got lost and it took them 8 hours to find the hut..... ouch..... Needless to say the hut got cozy quickly... and we indeed had a very hot night..

Sunday we explored the area on the other side of the moraine.... and found some sweet powder indeed (along with some crunch etc...).... We made it back to the car just as it was getting dark... We skied lots and we all felt it in our legs...



I absolutely love ski touring....I think it is one of my favorite things to do for sure... just being out there in the mountains on your own power..... very cool.... I look forward to a winter full of it (I missed it last year)...

As always Paul has taken some fantastic pictures... check them out here!

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina

Sometimes low expectations lead to an unexpected wonderfulness...

not sure if that title made sense but I am going with it anyway....

Brilliant weekend (as my Irish friends would say...). Kala, Andrew and I headed out for a weekend of skiing up the Duffy Lake road. We weren't expecting much stellar skiing but I really wanted to get away to celebrate finishing up my first set of practicum teaching experiences. Also, I got some new skis from Andrew for an early Christmas present that I was dying to try out (G3, Viva....fab)

We didn't have the earliest of starts but early enough for a Saturday morning. After our traditional stop at Galileo coffee we drove through really not much snow at all.... I was getting a little worried that I hadn't brought my running shoes as I wasn't even sure there would be enough snow to ski on....luckily, I was happily wrong in my predictions and as we drove further on the Duffy Lake road the snow became whiter and deeper.

the sun was shining all weekend but the air and wind were very cold. It was that weird what do I wear dilemma?! I was sweating in the core on the uphills but sooo cold in the fingers, head and feet... but the second we stopped it was just cold all over. He hit up some awesome powder on a couple of laps before heading into the hut for tea, warmth (mostly) and food. We were riding a high since we expected to being skiing on ice yet were shreddin' it (haha) in beautiful powder...



We shared our living space with the infamous Traslin brothers. They were a riot. We couldn't believe how we lucked out with only another two in the hut. We had a wonderful evening and were rested up for a Sunday ski. It was great powder again but unfortunately the wind took its toll on our little bodies and we decided to ski out after lunch.



All in all a fabulous weekend of powder, skiing (on my new christmas present from Andrew, G3 Viva skis.....love them!), good friends, good chats and the wonderful outdoors.... I am so looking forward to many more backcountry weekend ski tours!

more pics from Andrew here

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina

Skiing and Biking...

Saturday Andrew, Jacek and I headed up to Paul's Ridge to get some turns in. It was pretty horrid weather in the city and we didn't reach the snowline until very close to the parking lot to Red Heather but as we rolled into the lot snow was falling and there was fresh snow! We were stoked!

Jacek is a machine when it comes to going up and we hammered past everyone (i think) and reached the hut in record time. We decided to just keep skinning all the way to Paul's Ridge. We took a different route and Andrew broke trail to the top of one of the main runs... surprisingly no one had skied it yet. As we finished digging a pit and changing into down mode I looked down and there seemed to be a huge train coming up our tracks... We quickly changed over and ripped it down with some frenchies... Well, when I say rip it down....I mean Andrew did and I mostly tumbled down the slope. We did a couple other up and downs. Had some lunch at the hut and headed back out as the visibility was getting worse and Andrew and I had a date for the Vinyl Cafe Show Downtown (which was great by the way). It seems like backcountry skiing is becoming more and more popular which is great! it just means we need to be a little bit more creative with where we go to escape the mass crowds! I do love backcountry skiing though, there is something amazing about the feeling of deserving each downhill turn for working hard to get to the top!



Andrew and I were both pretty zonked from the week and Saturday that we slept through our intended Cyclocross race.... OOPS. Next year.... No worries though as I got to Spin for 3 hours at Lululemon Park Royal for a spinathon raising money for cancer.



Still havin' fun!

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina

Playing in the SNOW!

A bunch of us headed to Mt Baker on Saturday. Now, I don't normally ski at resorts as I love love love backcountry skiing but as I acquired a pretty little telemark set up over the past year I figured I ought to learn to telemark. Apparently it is much easier to learn on groomers rather than heavy hip deep backcountry snow... Andrew was kind enough to give me some tips and others were keen to work on their turns as well... I think there was a total of 13 of us at Apres...

Baker is awesome! It had been only my second time on the hill. My first was about 5 years ago on a snowboard (yes, I used to be a snowboarder...until I discovered friends you were into backcountry skiing and I quickly changed my snowboard for skis and fell in love with the sport).

The snow was perfect, the crowds good and my friends can't be beat... we skied from opening to close and I managed to sort of look like a telemarker. I definitely alpined it on the steep stuff but really tried to tele up my turns. Thanks to crossfit and other things my thighs could handle the constant lunging required for this style of skiing.

I had a blast and look forward to my improvements... But don't get me wrong I will never give my AT skis....

This morning Andrew, Johnny and I headed up to Cypress Nordic. First skate ski in two years.... I impressed myself... my technique needs some help but my strength is there. It was a little soft but so fun to get out in the winter landscape and break some sweat. I love skate skiing. It is a killer workout and fun too! Hopefully we can sneak in some time before the Olympics hit... I think some trips to Manning and the interior are in the making.

and that's the end of the weekend....

life is good.....

go play outside

live, love, laugh,..DREAM!
lina

SNOW!!

I am busy..... so this will be short

Remembrance day: we took advantage of the day off and the recent snowfall and headed for the mountains. Not only did we find snow....we found thigh deep snow! We headed up the Coquihalla, to Needle Peak. Despite a pre organization to meet our Irish friends, the highway patrol, heavy snowfall, bad highway conditions and lack of phone service we failed to meet up. Dan, Paul, Andrew and I had a fantastic day anyways....

Paul took some amazing photos that you can check out here

Andrew took some pics as well here

Jack's photos here

I just skied....

This past weekend.... was our annual mud ride in comox valley..... well, we got more than mud....we got tons of snow as well... Saturday was a respectful couple hour ride in light powder snow with minimal rains while SUday turned out to be a little bit of an epic. The rain was rather torential and as we rode up frobidden the snow became deeper.
We pushed, we rode, I swore a little, we were cold and wet and yet I think I saw tons of smiles (I was too cold for smiling...hehe) it was fun but I think I am ready to hang up the bike for the skis now (for the most part)

during the week, its running, crossfit, yoga, circus, etc time.... all good things

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina

EGMONT, a new special place...

This weekend, Andrew and I were going to Bike tour to Egmont.... the weather didn't cooperate and neither did my books and stress. Instead, we packed the car with mountain bikes and running gear. We were off to check out a potential wedding location..... it's beginning to feel real.. It's definitely a good thing.

We got off the ferry in Langdale and figured why not hit the mountain bike trails right here?!? The rain had temporarily taken a break so we quickly found ourselves changing in the parking lot of the Sproc Kids biking area.

We rode the Sidewinder trail and some... it was pretty cool, as the rain started to come down hard and we rode into the clouds... it had that spooky/haunted forest feel.



It was wet but the trail was in good condition... It was a great 2 hour ride and was the beginning of my destressing therapy.

We stopped in Roberts Creek for lunch, in Madeira Park for coffee and managed to make it to Egmont in the late afternoon but on the way found a cool log dock... Andrew almost fell in...haha




We were greeted with smiles at The Strong Water Camp site in the very small town of Egmont. One look around, a chat with Cheyenne and we were sold on the place. We took a little stroll to the community centre and the marina (about 2 minute walk)
and could picture our friends and family here partying and celebrating!



The cabins are cute and comfy too!



Sunday morning we were off (after our morning coffee) to run down the skookumchuck trail to watch the kayakers ride the world famous standing wave. Andrew checked the charts and we made sure we would get there at the peak of the wave's height. It was pretty impressive. The trail was great too....After some pics and checking out the paddler's tricks we ran back and made ourselves a hearty oatmeal breakfast.
We managed to run into Cheyenne and sealed the deal for the Wedding... YAY! It's gonna be awesome!



Cheyenne was worried about her duck Daisy that lived on Lake Klein so we told her we would go make sure she was okay and feed her. We found a little piece of heaven.... We borrowed her canoe and canoed around the lake alone looking for Daisy.
I really enjoyed the canoe...very relaxing and peaceful but to our despair we could not find Daisy. We docked the canoe a little sad that she might have died.... when there she was on the dock next to us.



So we managed to walk on some slippery logs and jump onto the sketchy but very cool dock with our multigrain bread(apparently she is a healthy duck, no white bread for this chick)... the docks around here are very rustic...generally it is pieces of logs tied together with rope with some random planks put randomly on top.



She eventually warmed to us and ate away...she felt like our little duck as well. I hope she is still there when we come back...



It was a fab multi sport weekend away... the sunshine coast is a special place... and I look forward to sharing it with friends and family.




live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina

Vampires...are they real?

Lots of lesson planning and school work for me but i did manage to take some breaks throughout the weekend. Andrew and I enjoyed a night before Hallowe'en watching "scary" movies with friends, and learning about zombies. If you ever come across one I think you need to shoot it in the head or cut off its head... good to know.

Andrew and I went for a long wonderful fall run in Lynn Valley. It was nice to get the legs moving for more than an hour. I missed those long runs. It turned out to be cool and sunny which was perfect for running. Although it was not raining at the time, it had been the night before and some parts of the trail looked more like a river rather than a trail. Andrew kept a good pace going, it was nice to have him push me on those long runs...

Saturday afternoon we carved our pumpkin and after some lesson planning got ourselves ready for some Hallowe'en fun. We were off to the Crossfit gym and Our Community Bikes for some dancing and good times. We made a good team costume this year. Andrew was a vampire and I was his most recent victim...in the process of turning into a vampire myself.




Following a night of fun we decided that a good way to release the toxins from our body would be a healthy, intense, hard cyclocross race. We drove over to Aldergrove in Langley to get a thorough thrashing. The course was 2.5km and we raced for 30 minutes. This race had an extra insentive... a 25$ prime on the second lap. First person across the line on the second lap would win the prize. I did not have many girls in my group but some nonetheless. I booked it from the start along with the others. Following the steep sand hill I managed to spring a lead half way through Lap 1.... and kept it for the rest of the race. I pushed hard to win the prime and definitely felt the remnants of last nights festivities. I pushed back the desire to quit right after lap 2 and continued to lead and work hard for another 3 laps to finish in 1st! Nice feeling! Hopefully there will be more cross races in the near future.



Live, Love, Laugh,...DREAM!
lina