Ski Day 4: Sunny thinness

Vert: 5,140 m    YTD cum vert: 11,025 m
Runs: 13    YTD cum runs: 31


I think KC is learning to like midweek skiing. Few crowds, no lines at our favourite lunch haunts, getting up "late" (a lizardly 8 AM wakeup call had us in the parking lot at 10:05), riding what you want and quitting when you feel like it.


Today was one of those days where we bailed early, mostly since the light was fading. It's impressive how low the sun is at 2 PM. We were riding Angel chair and the sun was barely above Standish Ridge. I guess it's one of the downsides of skiing in December.


Still, it was a beautifully sunny day, and we searched and found some nice powdery tracks. We started our day on Wawa, as I was checking out potential tour routes that I may have to guide one day in my role as SnowHost.

AM sun on Wawa

We were all over the mountain though didn't ride Standish today.

Obligatory shot from top of Divide

We found some great lines today, including over descending into TeePee Town. Here's some pictures taken from the Angel chair:

Lower OS Pitch; very nice 

Access to TP Bowl

As I mention over on my blog at Powderwatch, if you knew where to go, it was a great day. However, since we haven't had snow since last weekend, and need a bunch more, the coverage is starting to get thin in spots. So if you didn't know where to go, it was dicy in places.

Ski Day 3: Skiing the impossible

Vert: 755 m   YTD cum vert: 5,885 m
Runs: 5   YTD cum runs: 18


As a Sunshine lover and SnowHost, I rarely ski elsewhere. Sure, we have our annual trip to Big White, but since the 07/08 season, I have put in exactly one day elsewhere (Norquay) -- and on that day, I tried to go to Sunshine but it was closed due to high winds, so Norquay was a "back up plan". Today, I got to go somewhere few people do:

Fortress Mountain

Now there's a name that brings back fond memories for a lot of folks. Lots of people liked the place, and were sad when past owner RCR (owners of Lake Louise and others) shut it down. Banff Rail Company bought the place and nearly managed to run it for a year or so. Then it was taken over by a different owner group, though it has never re-opened. For the last few years, not much has been going on there. The owners argued with the Provincial Government over an old bridge on the access road. Movies have been shot there (including Inception), and the movie makers re-built the bridge. But on-going negotiations between the owner group and the Government have meant the place hasn't yet re-opened.


Well, it so happens I know one of the principles of the new owner group, and Rob kindly invited me to go up sled skiing with him today (the lifts don't operate at this point). What a kick; you get to ski your very own personal ski resort. Not only that, because they are currently shooting both a movie and a TV commercial up there...

Unhappy camera-jib equipped car

...it's a personal ski area with groomed runs. I just wish the conditions were better (gosh, I'm demanding).


As I explain on my other blog at Powderwatch.com, there was a wind crust I had to avoid. We couldn't ski the old Frontside as that was in the way of the Nissan commercial being filmed. We couldn't ski the Farside because that was where "The Bourne Legacy" was being filmed. But the best snow was on the Backside anyway. How do I know this? Because as part of the safety protocol, they have two ski patrollers there supporting the various film shoots. They check conditions and assess avalanche hazard daily.


By the way, the two patrollers? Chris Chevalier and Rowan Harper, two of the folks involved in the issues at Sunshine last year. No, we didn't talk about any of that, nor do I find it interesting, and nor would I post about it even if I did.


So on the Backside, there was a bunch of blow in snow sitting on the crust which made for really sweet turns (so long as I didn't break through the crust). And as I was the only one skiing today, all the tracks were mine. Fresh, untracked pow every run. Since you may not remember Fortress, here's a trail map to look at.


I started out on Enchanted Forest (#29)...

Shame for the flat light

...which was sweet but still a little windblown. So Rob took me to Palisade (#20), which was super nice from top to bottom, so good that I took 3 runs on it.

Run 1 

Run 2 

Run 3

It was around here that Rob's snowmobile started to get unhappy with "Check Engine" lights on and blue smoke, so we had to call it a day even though it was only lunch.

The left side of Farside, and the Fortress

Near the base of the Backside Chair

The top of the old Curve T-Bar looking down the valley

The main part of the Farside

It's a very rare privilege to be able to ski Fortress, and I want to thank Rob for taking me up there. There's a chance that they will start a Cat Skiing operation there when all the movies are done in February. If they do, check it out. And cross your fingers that this little gem of a hill re-opens. Soon.

Ski Day 2: Blue Sky & Early Season Pow

Vert: 3,605 m   YTD Cum Vert: 5,160 m
Runs: 10   YTD Cum Runs: 13


Today was my first official day actually SnowHosting (at least for part of it). I did the "meet & greet" part of our job at the Borgeau Base area, helping folks at the ticket window. While I was doing that...

Yours truly on the right

...KC (who came in early with me) was bagging first tracks on Divide.

Now there's a dream start to the day

As you can see, it snowed last night. As I mention in last night's post, we had to go to Calgary for the evening last night. KC left early to do some running around, and I went in after SnowHosting. On my way in, the weather was fine to Hwy 22, then from there to Westhills, it was a blizzard with snow covered roads and 50 km/hr. In town, KC got stuck in the Calgary traffic, which was paralyzed by the bad weather. The drive home was MUCH worse, with a blizzard the whole way, crappy viz and a LOT of snow on the roads. The traffic was light, which was fortunate, because plows had not been out and the lanes were missing. There was a semi-truck jackknifed on the highway. There were folks doing 40 km/hr. There were folks driving in the middle of the road. There was one plow. Fun times, and a 50 min drive turned into a 90 min "experience".


Unfortunately, the heavy snow stopped at Lac Des Arcs (I say "unfortunately" from a skiing perspective. It would have been nice if had not snowed at all from a driving perspective). But Sunshine and the rest of the mountains still got some, making yesterday's nice conditions very sweet indeed. Add to that a bluebird sunny day with little wind and moderate winter temps and you have the makings for a very sweet day indeed.

11:30 AM - Compare to the first tracks photo above

Sun, snow and no crowds

From way over on Standish at 1:30.

It was a great day. More snow allowing the opening of more terrain would have made it better. Now, looking at my stats, this is the earliest in the season we have ever skied (first days in the last 5 years: Dec 5, Dec 12, Dec 18, Dec 22 & Dec 30). So taking that into consideration, I'd call this a pretty awesome early season day.

Ski Day 1: Just a taste

Vert: 1,550 m
Runs: 3


This will be but a brief update as it is late and I am up early in the AM.


Saturday was my first day as a SnowHost at Sunshine Village, and as expected, it was an orientation/training/paperwork day. Your first day with new companies is always spent filling in forms and listening to managers, and Sunshine is no exception. But I also got a look see into all the back offices, and got tours through the Infirmary, Mountain Operations, all the rental places, and offices inside cubbyholes I never knew existed. Very cool, and I'll say, man, are the "offices" these folks use tiny. For instance, all the SnowHosts share a space the size of a broom closet.


Since my on-hill time was mostly orientation, we only took two runs to talk about on-hill tour planning and execution. I have posted a more detailed review of the ski conditions over on my other blog at Powderwatch.com, but I didn't have time when I wrote it to post pictures.

The terrain park, still a ways from opening 

The top half of Divide, in pretty nice shape 

A fuzzy Quartz Ridge from the top of Divide.

I had to run into Calgary tonight, and much to my surprise, ran into a huge blizzard just outside of the city. It dumped on the city for several hours, leaving me with about 6" of snow on my car, then I drove back through the same raging blizzard to get home. The roads sucked both ways, and I don't think I broke 80 km/hr all the way.


Tomorrow is my first actual SnowHosting workday. Should be fun!

So close we can taste it

We left for Maui with work left to do on the house. Much was indeed done while we were gone, but alas, some is still ongoing.


The electrical was a bigger job than anyone imagined as the house appears to have been wired by a drunken monkey with schizophrenia high on LSD, using a roll of electrical tape and speaker wire. Every time the electrician tried to fix an obvious problem, a new one would be found. Examples:

• Yesterday, for reasons we have not yet figured out, the light switches in the bedroom no longer control the bedroom light. They did the previous day. All that happened was that the electrician wired up a new light. In a different room. On a different circuit.
• We had a 3 way switch wired incorrectly. It took over 2 hours for the electrician to find out what the guy had done. He had cross-wired hot wires with ground in one of the junctions. The "switch" was not opening and closing a circuit, it was just breaking the connection to ground. The circuit was hot at all times. Nothing short of a fire waiting to happen.

In addition to this obvious set of headaches, it turns out that while we now have a lot of lighting installed, we do not, in fact, have the light bulbs. The bulbs we need (MR-16's in a mix of 20W, 35W, 50W, shielded & unshielded) are sold out at all the shops in town including the newly opened Canadian Tire. The Canadian Tire lighting manager said he sold out within 4 days of opening 2 weeks ago, and now they're all on back order. Light bulbs are an hour's drive away.


Still, the final painting is underway, and our new hardwood has arrived so we can fix the floor. If I were an optimist, I'd say we can move in starting next week.


But it may be the week after. Or the week after that.

Hoops without snow

My Dinos are a few weeks into their regular season though I have not as yet made a game (two this weekend, though). It's cold and snowy in Calgary. Not in Maui, which among other things is the home to one of the premier pre-season NCAA basketball tournaments, the EA Sports Maui Invitational.

2,400 seats. 30% smaller than Calgary's gym, similar to Groningen

I don't follow the NCAA, but catch good basketball when I can, and so I asked my NCAA following friends and went to two tournament games.

First up: Michigan vs Memphis, both top 25 ranked teams.

#1 Jackson fires a long one for Memphis

Michigan took Memphis fairly easily by killing them in the transition game. Head to head, it was pretty even, but when Michigan went fast, Memphis couldn't get organized. Final 73-61. Tim Hardaway Jr. was a standout for Michigan (His dad was in the crowd; he played for Golden State, Miami Heat, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets and the Indiana Pacers, and was the 2nd fastest player in NBA history to make 5,000 points).

Next: Duke vs Tennessee.

Tipoff

Tennessee's #34 Maymon & #0 Makanjuola rebound

Two Plumlees play for Duke, brothers #5 Mason & #21 Myles 

Duke had their hands full with Tennessee, but won in the end. Tennessee stayed with them or led the whole first half, and had Tennessee's shooting been better in the first half they would have taken it in a walk. But the first half shots didn't fall, and Duke finally won by 10, 77-67. Duke's Austin Rivers (son of NBA coach Doc Rivers of the Boston Celtics) was a player to watch. He doesn't pass it off enough, but he's got a great outside shot and a constant willingness to drive to the net. Mason Plumlee plays just like Ross Bekkering, who used to play for Calgary but now plays in Holland (or he would it he were not injured).

#0 Rivers with Mason Plumlee & #34 Kelly

But an absolute highlight for me was seeing Coach K. of Duke, as of last week the winningest coach in NCAA history with now 904 victories.

Mike Krzyzewski

The man is a legend.

I got to pet a turtle! I got to pet a turtle!

I always recommend visitors to Maui go to the Maui Ocean Centre. While not that large, it's a great aquarium and a nice place to spend the better part of a day. You get a chance to clearly see some of the critters you see in the oceans here, only in MUCH clearer water, and you even get to see nocturnal guys during the day.

My typical snorkeling view, with Tangs, Idols and Unicornfish

Banded Coral shrimp, a nocturnal dude

An Hawaiian Turkeyfish, another nocturnal dude

Amenemomees. Or something like that.

Seahorses are pretty common, though where I don't know

Frogfish. Masters of camouflage

Whitemouth Moray. I see a lot of these.

A napping octopus

I learned today that octopus only live 10-14 months, which I think makes seeing them all the more fun. So far this trip we've seen about 5.

Moon jellyfish.  The only jellies I see here are bad ones.

We lucked out at some of the things happening at the aquarium today. We watched 25 lbs of food being prepared for the big pelagic tank with all the rays, sharks and giant trevalleys, and got to see feeding time.

Stingrays, but not the kind I have seen here

But the best part of all was getting to spend time with and shake hands with young green sea turtles, who we swim with all the time (we saw 14 the other day, and at one point were swimming with 5 at once). The MOC is part of a breeding and release program for these guys. They get hatchlings, raise them until they're about 2 or so, then let them go. Today was "weigh day" for the 6 18 month old dudes they have, so they pull them out of the enclosure, and get checked over by a vet. You're also allowed (under a watchful vet's eye) to touch them.

Measure time 

An impatient patient 

"Look mom, I'm an albatross!"

"Can I go back in the water now?"

It was VERY cool to be able to touch these guys, and they are much softer than I thought they would be (OK, except for the shells). They're endangered, so it's illegal to touch them in the wild (and they're usually covered in algae anyway).

I think that petting a turtle is right up there as the high point of this vacation. Also good was the pass-by of a group of spinner dolphins earlier in the week. I tried valiantly to get some good shots, but this was the best I could do.

Two spinners at the surface

Birds and pigs

It's always fun to go birdwatching in Maui, especially to find native birds, most of whom are rare or endangered. They become endangered by habitat loss (the result of turning the islands into resorts, planting non-native trees that mean native bugs have no homes), and competition from non-native birds.


For the first time, we got to the Kealia Pond wetland, and saw the rare Hawaiian Stilt, or Ae'o (as he is known in Hawaii). They're rare (only about 1,800 left), but not in Kealia Pond.

About 50 of them hiding from the wind

We went birding upcountry on our favourite trail and found (but could not photograph) some 'Apapane (a red and black nectar feeder that likes trees that are very rare) and 'Alauahio (a high speed green tennis ball of a bird), but did get shots of 'Amakihi.

Hangin' in a mamane tree 

The curved beak is a giveaway

We hike this trail every time we are on Maui, and every time, there is more damage from the feral pigs and goats up there at the 6,000' level. This time, for the first time ever, we saw the pigs, and not just once, but we had two different sightings.

Not very big, and in a hurry

We were surprised at how small they are, being no more than about 12" tall and 24" long.

It's been REALLY busy on the island. Here's one of the beaches we were on.

People as far as the eye can see

Jam packed with tourists. Don't you just hate paradise?

Shades of Gilligan's Island

Last month, a 49' boat sailing from San Diego to Honolulu got into trouble 700 miles north east of Hilo on the Big Island. Too far away from land for the Coast Guard, a cruise ship went out of it's way to perform a rescue. The story and a cool video of the rescue is available here.


Once abandoned, the boat drifted, and it beached itself this week on Maui. We had to go find it. It ended up on a beach we haven't been to before (!) where it is quite the tourist attraction.

Beached 

Worse for wear 

The crowds

It was an interesting beach, complete with sand dunes ready for dune jumping...

Shades of Oregon

...and low flying aircraft.

Under the runway

It was a "local's beach" not frequented by tourists. What this means is that there was lots of trash. Shame that. I always find it interesting that the locals treat their island very badly, then complain (in the paper, anyway) about the tourist wrecking the island. I've always found its the other way around.