Comox Post Christmas Detox Adventures

We arrived back to BC Dec 26th early early morning and left for Comox Dec 26th in the afternoon after some cleaning unpacking and re packing and an awesome trail run on the shore.

We spent three days telemark skiing, mountain biking, nordic skiing and trail running with good friends Mark and Nikki.

Day one was lower cumberland trails on our mountain bikes and night telemark skiing on Mt Washington



Day two was a beautiful skate ski around Helen Mackenzie Lake in Strathcona park along with a second wind ski up and down Raven with their dog Matilda



Day three was Mountain biking around Nymph Falls and area....and I snuck in a trail run down twister trail.....



it was so nice to eat, sleep, and play outside all day everyday! I love BC!

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

Christmas, Family and Running in Ontario

For ten days Andrew and I partied, ate, drank, travelled throughout Ontario and ran in the cold.

We spent the first part of my holidays in Toronto, Ottawa, and London with the Augaitis clan. We celebrated many things such as engagements, birthdays and of course Christmas. We saw a show (Toxic Avengers) in Toronto with Rasa and Mike... a modern sarcastic take on pollution...funny.

We walked around the parliament buildings in Ottawa, as well as celebrated our engagement and the holiday season with 50 LIthuanians.... and without a doubt the party ended with "salta balta" and lots of drunken singing and smiles... Lithuanian style!



We had Christmas number one in Port Credit at Asta's little place before Rasa and Mike took off for the East.

I got to reunite with my ladies from Queen's and then celebrate Christmas number 2 in London at Mociute's house. Andrew got to experience mass, christmas eve dinner with different fish and other traditional Lithuanian/Augaitis Christmas events.



Despite, the travels, the food, the drinks and late nights we managed to run every day... sometimes in -20, sometimes in only -10 and sometimes even in the pouring rain....

I loved spending time with my amazing family...



Merry Christmas!

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

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