Wandering around in knee deep snow

No, folks, I have not been sleeping. Rather, I have been skiing my face off, which I write about on my other blog. I'm up to 42 days, almost 300,000 vertical meters and over 500 runs so far this season.

My daughter, however, does not ski, despite my bestest efforts to convincer her to try (and now with KC being a Level 1 instructor, she doesn't have to listen to me...). In general, she doesn't like winter that much (she's living in the wrong place). But she does like snowshoeing.

So last Friday, in an effort to show her the joys of skiing while snowshoeing, we went up to Sunshine and into the backcountry.

Our walk started on the top of the continent, at the Continental Divide marker.

Goat's Eye on the left, Angel on the right, my daughter in the middle

There's a summer trail that starts here and heads down to Rock Isle Lake. Trails are easy to see in the summer. There's nothing to show them in the winter. So we basically made up our own route, and wandered through the forest.

Yours truly, breaking trail

Looking back

Our main goal was to stay out of avalanche terrain, as the avi report called for Considerable avalanche danger above treeline. In many places we found the 20 cm or so that fell in last weeks storm.

Coming down in 20 cm is easy

The snow depth back here was outrageous. Some examples from when we did find the summer trails:

A trail sign. 4' tall

This guardrail protects you from falling into a waterfall in the summer

In spots, the snow was VERY unsupportive, and even with snowshoes on we sank in up to our mid thighs. Each of us got stuck at least once.

That's actually a lake with an island in the middle

Our tracks across the lake to the island

Snacking on the island. The ski hill in the distance

Sunshine runs a groomer out to the lake because it has utilities back there. So the walk back was easy, all the way to the backcountry access gate, and you really didn't even need snowshoes.

One of the several gates on the resort's boundaries

I volunteered to design an in-bounds snowshoe route for Sunshine's hotel guests, and so after bush-bashing (snow bashing?) our way out to the Rock Isle Lake environs, we wandered around in-bounds for a while after lunch.

The Gondola and the old ski out

What better way to end the day than by making everyone cook their own dinner? Well, sort of. We like to cook on hot rocks. Makes a big mess but it's a lot of fun.

The hot rock spread

Skiing accomplishments

Once you get to a certain advanced point in skiing, it becomes hard to progress that next step. For some, lessons just don't cut it, for you need to acquire some very specific skill or other that requires personal coaching. So at that point, a lot of people gain their instructor's certification. It was the same way when I was a glider pilot. First you learned, then you flew solo, then you flew cross country, then you flew higher performance aircraft, then you learned to teach.

Karen decided recently that she had reached "that point", so she signed up for the Canadian Ski Instructor's Alliance Level 1 course. I got my Level 1 way back in the late 1970's. Level 1 instructors teach beginners how to snowplow and progress to an intermediate level of skiing, primarily to kids. It's not really advanced skiing, but the course teaches you how to ski a technique "perfectly" and how to plan and deliver classes. And one key to the course is the absolute requirement that your skiing improves. Because it's Level 1, you really don't have to be that incredible a skier to take the course, but no matter how good you are, you MUST get better.

She passed, of course, and the limited opportunities I've seen say she's skiing better to boot. So I am (as usual) proud of her for getting it done. Will she teach? I doubt it, because that seems like work. But it wasn't about trying to get a job as a ski instructor. It was about setting and achieving goals.

While she was in the class, I was skiing on my own. A few weeks back, I posted this on how I managed to ski a 3rd best ski day ever, by setting a goal to ski a lot one day. At the end of that day, I wondered if I would ever get the chance to break 50,000' again.

Well, I did, and then some. This past Monday featured fast snow, fairly good viz all day, some powder and a bit of hero snow around. As Karen was in class, I was on my own, with no reason (but wobbly legs) to stop during the day. On the downside, I have been (and continue to be) fighting a cold, so wasn't feeling 100%. But circumstances on the hill caused me to ride the Goat's Eye lift -- with it's 1,900' of vertical -- exclusively for the day. Karen's early start for her class got me onto the chair at 9:05 AM, and her late finish caused me to catch the last lift at 4:00 PM. Add to that the briefest of lunch stops and I managed to get...

18,040 vertical meters or

59,186 vertical feet

...in 29 runs in my day. That's 2,610 m more than my best day ever.

What did that look like?

As seen in Google Earth

As seen on my iPhone

And lest you think I took it easy this day, simply blasting up and down green runs, or doing hard stuff early and easy stuff later...

A close up of the South Side Chutes

...that's one in Mother in Law, one in Goat's Head Soup, one in Wildside Main, one in Farside, one in Think Again, two in Renegade, one in Stampede, one in Saddledome and one exit through Eagle Meadows. All but 2 of those are double black, and one was my 26th run of the day.

Now I have a new goal: 18,288 m, or 60,000 vertical feet in one day. Given the "perfect storm" of conditions that caused me to get 18,040 m, I doubt it will happen soon.

But you never know...

I gotta share this

Sometimes, you get to be in the right place in the right time. This dude in my neighbourhood was, last Friday. He caught a lynx and her cub on camera.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Disappointment

I have never been one to go to very many movies, and it's harder where I live now. We have one 4 screen theatre, and they rotate movies weekly. A really popular movie will last 2 weeks. By the time I figure out something's on that I want to see, it's gone.

I liked the LORD OF THE RINGS series, so I wanted to see THE HOBBIT. It's in town on a rare 3rd week of showing, but I guarantee it will be gone this week. So I caught it before it disappeared.

For LOTR, I though Peter Jackson did an amazing job of condensing the books into their essence. He kept the story moving. He made the characters engaging. His special effects augmented the story, not dominated it. He took three long books and made 3 long movies. 

THE HOBBIT is not like that.

Jackson took one short book and is making 3 long movies. He padded the beginning of the movie with stuff to tie it to LOTR, including an appearance by Frodo. He padded pretty much every scene with junk not in the books and not really true to the story. Examples:

• In Rivendell, both Galadrial and Sauruman show up. Neither is in the book.
• In Rivendell, the dwarves "escape", and Elrond isn't pleased with them. In the book, Elrond wishes them luck and escorts them away with music.
• Gandalf has a fellow wizard called Radagast show up who rides in a chariot pulled by rabbits. Not in the book. Radagast has a morgul-blade sword. Not in the book. Radagast saw a necromancer in the Greenwood (that has become Mirkwood). Not in the book.
• After leaving Rivendell, they are caught in a storm in the Misty Mountains -- a storm that takes only 3 paragraphs in the book. This is a 10 min scene in the movie where they cling for life on a rock ledge (not in the book) while rock giants fight (in the book, but it doesn't affect them, and its a 3 line throwaway).
• After the storm they hide in a cave, where the floor falls in and they drop on a huge slide to the goblin's dungeons below. Not in the book. In the book, the back of the cave opens and the goblins come in and capture them.
• At Weathertop, it's Gandalf's arrival that causes the trolls to turn to stone at sunrise. In the book, it's Bilbo's wit and skill that trick them into ignoring sunrise. Gandalf isn't even there. It's Bilbo's first demonstration of his true worth to the dwarves and Jackson wrecked it.

Jackson spent $180 MM mostly making silly battle sequences. Is it me, or:

• Do all folks who live underground have rickety swinging bridges that fall apart on a moments notice?
• Does no one understand the concept of "railings" on stairs or bridges or platforms on the precipices of 2,000' drops?
• Is there magical some way hobbits/dwarves/orcs/goblins survive 1,000' falls into rocky chasms that would kill everyone else?
• Do all underground caves have natural lighting systems?
• Does every battle scene look like it's designed to become a video game or ride at Disneyland?

I could go on; my list of complaints is nearly endless. In THE HOBBIT, Jackson covered 6 chapters and 107 pages of the 279 page book. Each of the LOTR volumes is over 400 pages, and took only one movie. I guess he had to pad in order to make his billions. THE HOBBIT has been out about 4 weeks and has already made $850 MM. No wonder they're making a trilogy.

I've read that Jackson is a stickler for Tolkein details, and has merged stuff into THE HOBBIT from books like THE SILMARILLION and the appendices to the LOTR. For instance, Saruman is there because he actually turned evil already and wants the ring.

Horse hockey. Let him go make a prequel to LOTR. He should have left the book -- an excellent book, a wonderful story -- alone.

Why we read newspapers

A while ago I posted a rant about newspapers and how I miss them. I saw this on YouTube today, and it explains it better.

Anniversary Presents

It was December 23, 2011 when we actually moved into our new house, only 129 days after we took possession of it. You can read about that eventful day here.

So it seemed somehow fitting that when we got home from skiing on December 21st this year, we arrived to a new kitchen that was essentially finished. Electrician dude was in on the last work day before Christmas to fix up some things that weren't working, and releasing us to "move in".

Now, we are not totally done. We still have a "but" list of items. There is still wiring to change out in the garage. There are shelves missing from cabinets because the sent the wrong ones. There are doors on some cabinets with the wrong hinges. There are bases missing from other cabinets. There are repairs to be made on one of the trim strips because the laminate has delaminated. A drop in bit of quartz countertop has not yet been cut.

But we are essentially done, almost one year to the day after we moved in, giving us an anniversary present for our first year here.

And it looks good.

Missing counter bit in the middle 

Eating peninsula 

New laundry area in the back 

Screaming for art to be hung

And so we did what we designed the kitchen to do: we entertained. We had folks over for dinner on Dec 22 and again for our annual Christmas Eve lobster extravaganza (which I wrote about in 2007 and last year).

Now we just have to get rid of the old fridge, move the stuff from the old basement room to the new basement room so we can paint the floor, move it back, move the freezer and beer fridge back where they belong, complete the landscaping, connect the sump pump drain, and clean up all the "but" list things...

Maybe we're not quite done. Sigh.

13,640

There are those who might call me a competitive person. I never think of myself that way, though I do compete with myself on some things.

Skiing is one of those things. I like to challenge myself, tacking new places and runs that I don't get to very often, and skiing more/farther/longer than previous years.

I am silly enough to keep skiing stats. I used to report my stats here before I started contributing to the Powderwatch.com blog. Now that I write over there, I don't write too much about skiing here.

But today was a bit of a "red letter" day. As I mention in today's Powderwatch post, I had the happenstance to be very early to the hill, stuck at the hill until late, and skiing on my own. So I decided to go for as much vertical as I could today.

The easy way to do this would have been to find something groomed and rip up and down it. But 6-25 cm of snow fell last night, so there really was no corduroy around, just acres of powder. So I skied it like I normally would, only more of it.

And I skied 13,640 vertical meters in 25 runs today. That's 44,750 vertical feet.

My best day ever was April 1, 2001, when I managed 15,430 m (50,623 vertical feet) in 29 runs on a day with a lot of groomed runs, sunshine and 10 cm of powder.

My second best was April 12, 1997, when I estimate that I got 14,263 m (46,795'). My altimeter was broken that day, so I kept track of my runs and calculated the vertical. It was a groomer day with sun and no new snow.

Today was my third best day ever, and even more impressive an accomplishment as the weather wasn't good, there were no groomers, and there was tons of new snow.

I wonder if I will ever get a chance to break 50,000' again.

Chicken wings

It's official. We're in the kitchen and cooking.

The electrician dudes came back today while we were out skiing to finish, and they sort of did. The lights on my porch still don't work, and I have a plug that doesn't work yet, but my hood fan works.

The hood fan dude came back and installed the stack and chimney...

Fan done

...scratching my newly painted ceiling while doing it.

Who fixes this?

Having been cooking outside since mid July, I had a serious hankering to bake something for dinner on my first night with a stove again. I have been craving home made chicken wings for a while, and telling everyone that it would be my first meal in my new kitchen.

So I roasted up a batch for dinner tonight. They were awesome. Even my contractor knew it was wing night, and he sent me a text accordingly. I also boiled up some ribs for broiling tomorrow. It's nice to have my stove back.

The End is always Tomorrow

As of last Monday, here's what was left (and when it was supposed to be done) before our kitchen project was finished:

• Final painting (Monday)
• Grouting the backsplash (Monday)
• Kitchen cabinet "but" list items (Tuesday)
• Installation of the hood fan (Tuesday)
• Completion of the electrical (Wednesday)

Based on this, we shut down our temporary kitchen space and moved to our new kitchen space on Sunday in anticipation of completion. We even used the kitchen space as prep zone on Sunday night (though I'm still cooking outside in -15° temps). Now, we did this in part because a friend from Ontario started staying with us on Monday night, and we needed to turn our guest room back into a guest room. But still, we're supposed to be done Wednesday.

When we started the week, everything was lined up for a Wednesday finish. All the trades were scheduled. But...

It's Canmore.

Monday, the painter dudes came and wrapped us up in plastic and drop cloths.

Everything we need is under wraps

Made it kinda hard to access anything to cook. Then the grout dude delayed a day -- meaning he got in the way of the kitchen dude. They made a mess on Tuesday, and all the while the painter dudes were still painting (which in the end took 3 days, not 1).

Kitchen dude spent several hours re-installing the fridge, and the panels on the front of the fridge. He was also able to finish some other stuff, like the wine rack interior...

Better

...and the toe kick under the dishwasher, but he has still not received many kitchen "but" list parts we thought we would have by now (glass shelves for one cupboard, a latch for another, bases for 2 others, a replacement door, a replacement trim bit, etc) so he won't be back "for some time". 

Accordingly, hood fan dude was delayed a day, and only got in late today to partially re-install the fan.

Panels on, grout done (but not cleaned) and fan partially installed

And thus, electrical dude got delayed a day (now supposedly here Thursday) and after he's done (hopefully in 1 day), hood fan dude STILL needs to come back to connect the vent pipe and put on the chimney cover (probably Friday) after the electrical dude is done. A 1 day hood fan job becomes a 2 day job.

In typical Canmore time, what was supposed to be 3 more days of work turned out to be 5 more days of work -- 66% longer than expected.

It's seeming these days like the end of this project is always "tomorrow". As the immortal Frank Sinatra once sang:

Let's forget about tomorrow,

For tomorrow never comes.

He's back again!

My pine marten was back again today, and this time, he really didn't seem to be in a rush to leave, so I got lots of photos.

What a face 

Hunting 

He was following vole tracks 

What does he smell?

It turns out the little dude was hunting for something up in the tree:

What's up there?

"Up there" is my suet feeder.

Found it!

But when he found it, all he did was sniff it and move on. He never attempted to lick it or break into it (knowing him, he would have chewed through the bars in a heartbeat). No, he got into the tree, sniffed it, then moved on to track the voles.

Outta here