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.

Winter has Arrived!

The last few weeks since we made our way home from the Caribbean have been great. We have been getting out playing in the snow and fully embracing winter. We've lucked out with an early snow year this year and all the ski hills open in November; it's been fabulous. We got out for our first day of skiing on November 20, so early in the season. For our first day we headed into the back country and skinned up to Paul's ridge in Garibaldi Park with the Alpine Club. It was an excellent first day out with light, fluffy, fresh powder and clear skies. Click Here for Some Pics. Click here for some more.



Since then we've headed up to Mt Seymour to do a few laps of the Brockton Point Trail. It's been a great way to get some exercise and play in the so close to home. This coming weekend we're heading up to Whistler to go for a ski tour to Cowboy Ridge in the backcountry. We're also getting back into climbing at the Edge after Mike's finger injury and have been keeping up with running on a fairly regular basis. Having the opportunity to play outside and enjoy all the things we love to do has been amazing. This is why I moved to North Van and love living here! Check out Ski Pics here.



On another note, we've been enjoying some Christmas outings with family and friends like my work Christmas party and the Brights Lights Train at Stanley Park. It's getting to be that season; let the overabundance of food and drinks begin!



My Christmas Photo Album (Click Here)

St Maarten and Steidl-Kortmann Wedding

Last week Mike and I jetted down to St. Maarten/Martin in the Caribbean for a week to attend the wedding of our good friends Christian and Ursula. We stayed in a villa with our friends Steve and Bobbi-Jo just minutes from one of St. Maartens 30+ beaches, Orient Bay and just as close to Lara and Barry’s beach side condo. All-in-all, a fabulous trip.

The flight to get to and from the Caribbean is a bit of a gong show. We flew out of Seattle, so we had to drive to Seattle, fly to LA (where we almost missed our connection due to having to leave the secured area and change terminals all within less than an hour), then fly overnight to Puerto Rico where we had a 4 hour lay over before finally making our way to St Maarten.

The rest of our arrival was seamless, we got picked up from the airport and dropped off at our villa where we got settled in and went for a swim before doing some grocery shopping and enjoying a nice French dinner in Friar’s Bay.

The next few days we spent relaxing and enjoying the island. We went to the beach, had dinner with locals at a Lolo (Caribbean Beach BBQ), had drinks on the beach, wandered around the towns, checkout out the casinos, chilled by our pool, sampled the local cuisine, drove around the island on a self-directed tour and just enjoyed the company of good friends and exploring new places. One of our most memorable days had to be the accidental trip to the Brothel; talk about uncomfortable ….but that a whole other story……

We had some good tropical storms while were there, but luckily they were mostly at night so we still got a tan. The Storms were crazy and actually kind of fun to watch and it was always warm, even in the rain, so it was all good! The Fire flys at our villa at night were pretty cool to see too.

On the last few days of our trip we attended a “Get to know you” pirate ship boat cruise to meet all the friends and family of the Bride and Groom. It was a great idea and beautiful night for a boat ride. Unfortunately a few of us didn’t a great job of mingling since it was a bit choppy out and sea sickness overtook the fun. Luckily the upset stomachs went away promptly when we reached the shore and we all got to hang out an mingle at the bar afterwards.

On our second to last day we went to Christian and Ursula’s Wedding. The location was amazing, a beautiful, secluded white sand beach and they managed to luck out with a gorgeous sunny day; the best weather of the week. The ceremony went off perfectly followed by a super yummy dinner at their villa and a great night of dancing. We all had a fabulous time at the wedding and reception and wish them all the best!

Sadly, we had to head home the day after the wedding. One week is never long enough for a vacation, I should know that by now. We spent our last day enjoying lunch overlooking the ocean and watching the planes land at eh airport beach bar before our journey home.

The trip home was almost as exciting as the one there. We flew from St. Maarten to Philidelphia. In Philly we enjoyed a dinner of Philly Cheese Steaks and then spent the night sleeping on an aiport bench. In the morning we boarded a plane to Seattle and drove back to Vancouver, officially ending our newest adventure.

Click Here for Photo Album

Fall Getaway

Only a few more days and Mike and I are jetting off to St Martin for a vacation and, more importantly, to see our good friends Christian and Ursula get Married. We are super excited for the trip and super happy and excited for Christian and Ursula too! We've never been to the Caribbean and are looking forward to exploring a new area. St. Martin is a tiny island, only 36 square miles, which is half dutch and half french. It should be exciting to explore the different areas from the fancy french restaurants to the parties and casinos on the Dutch side. We've rented a villa on the French side of the island with our friends Steve and Bobbi-Jo and are looking forward to our private pool and BBQ lunches on the deck. We're also located only a few minutes walk away from the beach and restaurants and only a block away from the Condo where our friends Barry and Lara are staying. It should be an awesome week of hanging out in the sun and exploring new places with good friends.

(Apparently Plane watching is a popular activity on one of the St. Martin Beaches)

Keep your eyes open for pics next week.

PS. I'll be looking forward to snowy mountains and ski touring when I get home!

Happy Halloween!

Huber

My Jack-o-lanterns

Hallow's Eve Trail Race

Fun in the Fall

The last few weeks have brought about some cooler weather and with it, some fun outings with friends. Over the Thanksgiving long weekend Mike and I drove out to Vernon to visit our friends Steve and Bobbi-Jo. We were originally going for a wine and climbing trip, but with mediocre weather and Mike's injured finger we decided to skip the climbing part of the trip. We filled our Saturday with a day of wine and cheese tasting where Mike and I restocked our wine rack. On Sunday Bobbi-Jo made us an excellent turkey dinner to celebrate thanksgiving and while we were waiting on dinner we headed out to the Shuswap River in Enderby to see the spawning salmon. It was something else seeing the thousands of red fish swimming up the river. We also spent a great deal of time trying Steve and BJ's new game, Rock band! It was great fun, so much fun in fact that we stayed up way too late every night playing it and managed to finish the game over the 3 days we were there. All in all it was an great weekend of hanging out and visiting with good friends. Click Here for some pics.



Just this last weekend we threw a stag and staggette for Christian and Ursula who's wedding is coming up in just over 3 weeks (In St. Martin; Yay to destination weddings!). The boys did the usual boy stuff - Rock climbing, Strippers, dinner, gambling - but us girls decided to keep it classy. We all got together for cocktails and Thomas Haas chocolates in the late afternoon and then we had a limo pick us up and take us to Frederico's Supper Club on Commercial Drive. It was an excellent choice for a night out and I recommend it to anyone, groups of friends and couples, to check it out. The evening started out with a 3-course Italian dinner, which was fabulous. During dinner a solo classic guitar player provided music for dinner entertainment. After dinner, Frederico and his band took the stage and did a 2-hour set of dancing music, everything from classic Italian tunes, to 60's music to top-40 hits from today. The crowd had great energy and everyone was dancing and having a good time throughout the night. Overall, a successful staggette to send Ursula off to a new stage in her life. Click Here for some pics.