The Long Road

I’ve been hearing a fair bit of grumbling about the recent cold snap that’s hit BC. I have to say though, despite the cold I’ve been battling, I’m really enjoying a bit of real winter. One of the things I do miss about life in the central interior is winter. It’s been between -15 and -20 degrees here for several days now and man, there is just something about a clear, crisp and cold winter day. It feels good!

… that you don’t need back? The pics below make you chuckle?

Then check out this great slide show of more folks posing wearing LP jackets.

Well yes, I’m milking this. You may remember me posting about Mich and I being on the Tourism Kamloops site. Now, if you glance skyward while in the Kamloops Airport you will spy us there too. Ha.

OK, I know this is an advert, but it makes me smile…

The weekend we skied at a new location for us called The Gorge. Several members of our little group of skiers recently heard of this spot on a bunch of separate occasions. So we checked it out. It certainly didn’t disappoint. And to add to the experience, we had a great blue sunny day. Nice.

This is Tod. He is uncomfortable having his likeness anywhere on the internet.
This may be why.

It’s been a great holiday, and one that seemed satisfyingly long enough. Don’t get me wrong, I could be away longer. However, for some reason, this last two weeks didn’t fly by like holidays so often do. Nice. But looks like we’re back to only skiing on the weekends again.

I didn’t really intend to be away from this blog for so long, but hey, I’m on holiday! Yes, and Mich and I have not been home much since work ended and the fun began.

Part 1. Christmas

We started off with a visit from Trev and Jennifer just before Christmas. They came up to Sun Peaks with us for a little fresh snow. Mich and I found a great last minute deal on a condo up there so we ended up hitting the slopes for 4 straight days of pow and bluebird. Not a bad start! After Jenn and Trev left, we stayed on and spent Christmas Eve at the hill, which was great! It was pretty cool to walk around the village and suck up the winterness of the night! I’ve spent Christmas in Vancouver, the Arizona desert, even on a train to Harbin, P.R.C., but being up in the winter mountains really does it for me. Some great scallops in wasabi cream sauce didn’t hurt either!

Anyway, that was Part 1. It was only a few days, but wonderfully seemed like enough for a whole holiday. Happily there was (and is) a whole lot more holiday to come.

Part 2. Après-Christmas

We relaxed at home for Boxing Day (staying as far away from stores as humanly possible) had a wonderful dinner with Kev and Rach and then hosted Patty and Richard from Vanderhoof for a night. Was great to see them again. Then it was a scramble to get prepared for a trip with Tod and Heidi to Rogers Pass for some back country ski action. It went like this…

1. Get all the gear together and confirm everything is good to go (like fresh batteries in beacons and headlamps - oops, maybe not BOTH headlamps!)

2. Load up and head out, stopping in Vernon to
a) pick up Mich’s new boards (sweet!)

and b) ski the day at Silver Star, again with Jenn and Trev.

3. Have a quick dinner at a pub with J and T, and then bust to Revelstoke where Heidi had arranged a great suite for the four of us.

4. Instead of hitting the hot tub (and I REALLY wanted to), cut Mich’s new skins for her new boards. Now I don’t know how many of you have done this operation, but it is a bit stressful. The shop we got the gear from refuse to cut them for customers as it is a touchy job and if you screw it up, well, someone’s out about $150. We got it done brilliantly, if I do say so myself.

5. Get up and head out to Roger’s Pass in Glacier National Park.

6. Climb, climb, climb.

7. Experience Nirvana in snow. (video to follow sometime if I get it done!)

8. Spend the night in the Alpine Club of Canada’s A.O. Wheeler Hut.

9. Wake up to even more snow! Climb, climb, climb.

10. Repeat Nirvana experience from previous day. Thank you, thank you, thank you Heidi and Tod for taking us with you!

11. Drive back to Kamloops and arrive in time to unload the car and celebrate New Year’s Eve by hitting the hay!