Ski Day 16, Sunshine April 27 2007

Vertical: 10,235 m, Cum to date: 161,420 m <== 1,648 short of our record year
Runs: 21, Cum to date: 309
YTD Average run 522 m, YTD Average 10,089 m/ski day

It was a wonderful day for spring skiing.




10 days ago we had a wicker winter blast that threw down 60 cm of snow at Sunshine. I was sick last weekend, so missed the powder (folks I know said it was world class). I was bound & determined to get out this weekend, as this week marked the official transition from winter to spring skiing.

And what a spring day it was. It was about 0° when we got to the village, so we did a few runs on Standish to start the day.



Standish isn't usually my favourite, but it gets early AM sun. By 9:30, it was generally soft in the sunny areas but not slushy. The shade was ice. So we headed up Divide and found a very mixed bag of conditions, with good at the top, a middle band of hardpack, and the lower part of ice. The conditions improved all morning; by lunch they were very nice.

Hanging on the deck catching rays for the morning hot chocolate is part of the fun of spring skiing.




We spent the afternoon on Goat's Eye enjoying the corn (it was soft and wonderful on Wildfire, Rolling Thunder & Sunshine Coast) and building vert. This season is very close to our record season of 1996/1997, where we managed 163,068 m. Now, in those days, we skied on the CFCN ski team, so had a lot of days with low vert. Last year we missed the record by 368 m (we were asleep at the wheel -- we bailed on our last day with only 7,250 m). All we need is one more day, 1,648 more meters. Think we can do it?

I do. After all, with 60 cm last week, the coverage is there.

The Hunt Spring Fling at Flames Central

My company celebrates Spring Breakup (a period of low activity in the oil patch due to road bans). Our social club puts on a party, this year with a Hawaiian theme, and this year the party also coincided with a Flames playoff game. Here's a raft of pictures (mostly so Hunt folks can download them).

The Junos

These things I learned at this year's Junos:

Don't party with the CTV folks.

We got home from skiing, then some of KC's friends from Toronto stopped by for a quick glass of wine and a house tour before we headed to Escoba for dinner. Dinner was late, as we awaited the arrival of all the folks who were working the set up and the Juno gala. We got out of dinner at 10:30, then went across the street to Seven Restolounge for the CTV party. The lineup was a little goofy. Some 1,200 people had been invited to a party where only 400 could be inside at any one time.




It was good that it wasn't too cold, but still we were directed across the street to wait for a few minutes to the Chicago Chophouse for a glass of wine (which was actually two bottles...)



Then security game and got us, and we were escorted in. To a zoo.




Still, it was a fun and star-studded zoo. I saw Tom Clarke, Ivan Fecan, Suzanne Boyce (Ivan is the Head of CTV, and Suzanne is President of the Creative stuff), Seamus O'Regan, MP Jim Prentice, Jack Layton, Genevieve Beauchemin (actually, she joined us for dinner, too), Pamela Wallin. Michael Buble was in the corner, and some of the guys from Hedley were there.

Here's Seamus & Lisa from Karen's office...




The dancing was good (right Wendell? Right Bonita?)



The bar was flowing freely. So freely that when I went to get a Cran/Soda at about 1:30, they really couldn't give it too me without putting Grey Goose Vodka in it (they were, after all, a party sponsor). It took me quite a while just to get a water.

We're not sure what time we got home, but it was about 3 -- and given that we had gotten up that day at 6:05, it was a long one.

Then KC was awoken to a work crisis at 8 AM Sunday, and she actually had to go to work at noon. Me? I got up at 3 PM. My throat was shot, partially from the LOUD music (so conversation was a scream), partially from dehydration, and partially from snoring, since Jello slept on me, keeping me on my back for several hours.

Then we went to the Junos themselves. It was a great event, with highlights being the 5 country guys who started the show, Finger Eleven, Feist, the kid Michael Buble introduced on sax who played Charlie Parker, Michael himself (don't like his stuff, but his voice is killer), Anne Murray's bad facelift, Jann Arden's re-gaining of the weight she lost (or her awful wardrobe) and being near Jim Cuddy.

But the bestest part? We dressed up for it.



You can't believe the number of people who noticed my red suede shoes with the mis-matched laces. Cool.

Hunt Oil Ski Day, April 5, 2008

Vertical: 8,430 m, Cum to date: 151,185 m
Runs: 13, Cum to date: 288
YTD Average run 522 m, YTD Average 10,079 m/ski day

A bunch of folks from my company went skiing to Sunshine last weekend. It's taken me until now to get the post up. It was a great day, with most every kind of weather known to mankind. There was about 15 cm fresh, there was some blue sky in the afternoon, a bit of wind and cloud in the morning -- Bob Park summed it up best when he called it "just a great day to be out". The vert wasn't high, because all group ski days are like herding cats. In addition, KC and "Jimmy Bob" Davies spent an hour waiting to get into the Chimney Corner for lunch, and KC & I had to scoot home to go to the Junos (see next post).

And the final reason vert was low is because of the aforementioned Mr. Park, and Mr. Petrovic. These two "way better than me" skiers decided to push my personal limits of sanity in run selection, so we spent most of the morning mashing in the double blacks in the Cleavage and Wild Side areas of Goat's Eye, where the chutes are steep with 10+ foot drop ins and the moguls are the size of small tractors. Thus degradeth my legs...

Skiing Day 14

Vertical: 10,370 m, Cum to date: 142,755 m
Runs: 16, Cum to date: 275, Average run 519 m

The weather forecast called for a chinook-y 11° & sun in Calgary, but a steady -6° at Sunshine, with increasing cloud all day, and significant snow starting at lunch. For once, they got it right. The front arrived about 10, giving us all of two runs in the morning clear skies. We haven't had consequential snow in the mountains in nearly a month. It showed. Some stuff had been groomed, and it's a good job, since the ungroomed was generally hard pack ice nasties. Silver Gladerunner was groomed, but good for only one run before turning into glare ice. Silver Scapegoat was groomed; Wildfire was the best, however, with about the only turns that were actually soft. They had groomed Rolling Thunder, too, but it was closed for a race.

One of my favourite silly ways to come down Goat's Eye is the cat track next to the Eagle Creek run. Horrid when ungroomed, wonderful when buffed. I once saw fresh lynx tracks down there. For fun, since I had my camera, I decided to make a movie of the run. The first part is unfilmable; it winds and twists and and is a little steep to be holding a camera. But the next section is tuck city. You get moving at quite a clip at some points, as the wind noise will attest. My only comments during the video are to note where the really flat part starts, and where the runs off the back side of the Jackrabbit Hill start merging in.



Late in the morning it started to snow. Up top, it started to get windy, and that caused wind sift to blow into a few places, like behind the snow fences on the upper face. The last few runs up top were great.

We did our typical trek to the village via Wheeler & Tee Pee Town. By the time we hit the top of Tee Pee Town, cloud-base was at the top of the Divide Chair. Two runs on Divide and it was almost down to the top of Angel. The snow up top was OK, but it was bitter cold in the wind. We bailed for lunch, and it started snowing in earnest.



Cloud-base continued to drop, making more runs on Divide pointless. We did a few off Angel, but the viz kept getting worse, and the snow was pellets up top. Below treeline the skiing was actually quite fine, but we had no desire to play on Wawa or Wildfiire. We checked the vert, noted we had broken 9,000 m already (and it was only 2 PM), so we went to the top of Angel one last time, then headed home. It didn't feel like we skied that much (it never does on a "cruizin the groomed" day), so we probably could have done 12,000 or 13,000 without breaking a sweat.

Eagles & The Drive Home

Sunday was a beautiful day to drive home; we had clear blue skies nearly the whole way home to Calgary. And we even made it home in record time.

The Okanogan Valley was full of birds on the way. We saw plenty of robins, lots of hawks, but best of all were the bald eagles.

There's a stretch of road between the end of Mara Lake and Enderby along the Shushwap River where we usually see bald eagles on our drive, and the drive out was no exception. We saw at least 13 in one tree, and several more solos and small groups. I promised myself to keep the camera handy and pull over if I saw some on the way home, and we did indeed luck out. In a single tree just south of Grindrod, we found a tree with 6 eagles in it.



Most were flying around and didn't stay parked all that long.






One landed on a pile of earth behind what I think is a chicken barn.



He hung out there long enough for me to get into digital zoom mode.



Turns out this isn't all that unique. A little bit of 'net research led me to the site of the North Okanagan Naturalists’ Club and their report on the January 13th, 2008 annual bird count. On that same stretch (Vernon to Sicamous) they counted 35 baldies. I felt humbled.

I hate snowboarders

That's a pretty harsh way to start a post, but after 20 years of uneasy coexistence with snowboarders, this week I have officially come to hate them. Today alone, I was:

• Cut off by a boarder on a green cat track. Both of us were doing a fair clip; the boarder came from behind me unannounced and missed my ski tips by less than 6". The reason he cut me off is uncertain, but I suspect it had to do with the fact that his 5 buddies were on my right, and he was on my left.
• Nearly hit by two boarders on two separate occasions blasting out of the trees onto a run without looking
• Cut off in a lift line by a pair of boarders who insisted in riding the T-Bar up behind their buddies. When they got to the lift, the two boarders added insult to injury by riding up as singles.
• Had my skis skied over and pinned down in a lift line by a boarder behind me who decided that it was important for the nose of his board to push against the back of my binding;
• Nearly got clipped by a boarder trying to do jumps over trees without first checking his landing area (which happened to be an active run with lots of people on it)

I have come to believe that no one actually teaches boarders the Alpine Responsibility Code, which, for the record, is:



In fact, I know virtually no boarders who pay attention to items 1-4. In addition, they like to sit, 5 and 6 abreast, blocking lift exits while putting their boards on. Boarders traveling in a group love to sit and block whole runs. I very, very rarely see boarders on the sides of runs; they like plopping down in the middle. If they drive the way they board, no wonder drivers don't seem to know how to merge -- or yield -- anymore.

I can put up with boarders sideslipping down runs scraping all the snow off; poor skiers do it too, though less. I have learned tolerate boarders who rocket pass you without warning; it seems as if the simple courtesy of calling "on your left" has left both boarders and skiers.

Come to think of it, more skiers (especially young ones) need to be drilled in the code, too. It's just that boarders are more arrogant at ignoring the rules.

I'll make you a deal. STOP IGNORING THE ALPINE RESPONSIBILITY CODE, and I'll stop hating you. That goes for skiers, too. I'm an equal opportunity safety guy.

Big White Day 7

Vertical: 10,070 m, Cum to date: 132,385 m
Runs: 22, Cum to date: 259, Average run 511 m

Total for this week: 75,815 m (248,737 vertical feet), 162 runs

I'm told there comes a time in a marathon when a runner hits "the wall"; they have run out of energy with miles to go. Every stride is a struggle. Winners figure out how to push through the wall, and fight on.

My legs are not winners.

Today, after a mere 216,000 vertical feet in 6 days, my legs decided they weren't going to work well anymore. This I learned in my first 3 runs off the groomers. It was like I was being held up on partially cooked spaghetti. "Sloppy" is inadequate to describe it. A pathetic, hopeless mess is closer. Not that my skiing on the groomed runs was all that good either.

Still, we decided to stick to mostly the groomed runs, and we again learned that the Big White grooming report is "merely a suggestion". The only way to find what is groomed is to ski to the top of it. Runs groomed today that were NOT on the grooming report? Surprise, Roller Coaster, Corkscrew, Blue Ribbon, Upper Perfection, and probably some more we didn't try. We think they groomed extra today because of the number of runs that were closed: Upper Roller Coaster & Speculation (for a race); Paradise (for another race); part of Sun Run (for yet another race).

The weather dawned weird; low cloud below the mountain base, high cloud enshrouding the mountain in fog; plus sunny spots with snow showers.



As the day progressed, the upper clouds turned to towering cumulus, and there were actually thunderstorms in the forecast. When these babies arrived, it sure looked black in places.



We tried to avoid all the nuts racing over on Ridge and spent a bunch of the morning in the Enchanted Forest off the T-Bar where there were still nice fresh lines and the tracked stuff was great.



Here's KC blasting in the crowds. Crowds of trees, that is.



By lunch it was snowing again.



And there was company for lunch: Molly the Newfie (yes, Carolyn, I thought of you immediately).



As I write this, snow showers are still passing through, and the one we're having this moment is a sun shower.