Back on the Wagon

After 2 1/2 weeks of fighting off a cold/flu/sinus infections and generally feeling horrible, I'm finally feeling 100%, just in time to be back on the outdoor bandwagon for a beautiful Vancouver winter weekend. Friday night wasn't too exciting, we spent the evening packing gear and organizing food for our upcoming backcountry ski trip to Roger's Pass, which I'm completely stoked about.

On top of the World; Roger's Pass 2009

Saturday I woke up to a chilly, but amazing, sunny morning and headed out for a 20km run with Mountain Madness Trail Clinic to train for the Dirt Duo Trail Race coming up on March 12. The run clinics are always a blast. The group of ladies that Lara and are running with this session are awesome and inspiring and I look forward to hanging out them every Saturday morning. Our little group ended this weeks run with coffee and Pastries at Moja. Yum!

On Saturday night Mike, Ramona and I went to the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival for the Finale and climbing night and enjoyed some great videos and presentations for the evening. My personal favorite was a presentation by Jasmin Caton, a hard core woman climber, skier and aspiring mountain guide who did a great presentation and was uber inspiring. We also went to Skiing Night and Alpine climbing night of the film fest earlier in the week and say some excellent videos and speakers.

The Lions from Cypress Mountain Today

Today Mike and I headed up to Cypress Mountain with our friend Christian to enjoy a day of downhill skiing in the amazing weather. The ski conditions were surprisingly soft and good and the mountain was incredibly quite. It was a fabulous day! There were a few moments when I may not have felt that way as I followed the boys onto runs that we're a bit over my head; but all in all, it was still and excellent day of cruising the mountain and it has me stoked to head to Roger's Pass on Thursday for 4 days of backcountry skiing with Tom Wolfe and ripping up the flanks of some magnification Selkirk mountains.


Livin' the Dream.

AKM

Vancouver and Beyond from Cypress Mountain Today

Roger's Pass 2009

Anticipation

One of the best parts of going on trips is the anticipation, planning and excitement leading up to actually going. In some ways, I find looking forward to a new adventure is almost as good as actually being on the trip. We've been busy recently planning a few upcoming trips and adventures in between trying to get out and ski & run.

In a couple weeks we're off to Roger's Pass to ski tour with 3 of our friends and a mountain guide, Tom Wolfe, who we've hired to keep us safe out there . We did this trip back in 2008 with Tom and it was exceptional. Can't wait to go back and check out some new areas in the pass and play in the crazy amounts of snow they get there. We're all excitedly organizing gear and planning the road trip out to the Rockies for our 4-day ski adventure.

We are also booked to escape winter a few weeks later and relax down in Mazatlan, Mexico in March with Mike's Family to celebrate Dave and Debbie's 30th Wedding anniversary. .I've never been to that part of Mexico before and am checking out website and travel guides to find soem cool stuff to do while we're there. It looks like there's lots to do down there and lots of cool areas to explore. Any suggestions? We're staying in a town house, not at a resort, so we'll have lots of freedom to roam around. I'm already day dreaming of Sun and Sand.

and Finally we are getting our summer vacation plans off the ground and trying to nail down some logistics. We've decided to helicopter into the Tantalus Range this summer and spend 8 days mountaineering out of a backcountry hut. We are thinking of staying at the ACC's Tantalus Hut which is in a valley between tonnes of awesome mountains and right on an amazing lake (complete with canoes and fishing gear to play with). It's been pretty exciting trying to get this trip off the ground. It'll be a sweet week of experiencing my first flight in a chopper coupled with 8 days of playing in a new area of wilderness that not many people get to explore. Doing it all in relative comfort by staying in a hut instead of a tent is also an added bonus. If anyone has been there before, we're open to suggestions on things to do, places to stay, routes to climb, logistics, etc. Im looking forward to the trip itself as well as the excitement of the planning stages and daydreaming for the next 6 months.