Wrapping up Winter

The last few weeks have found me out enjoying the winter weather, both rain and snow, in the mountains and getting the most out of the season before heading to South America in 3 weeks.

Digging Pits

I've been taking part in a Mountain Madness Trail running clinic every saturday morning to build up to the Dirty Duo 25km trail race which is taking place on March 10 (Our 2nd Anniversary!). Mike has also been joining Lara and I in the clinic so we can run the race together in two weeks.    This past weekend we completed our longest run of the clinic with a 4hr, 23km lap of the woods that covered a majority of the race course. The weather was dry ( a nice change from the past few weeks), but the recent rain made for an exciting muddy, snowy adventure run.  We're now into tapering mode and enjoying a couple weeks of casual running until race day. In other running news, I threw my name in for the Knee Knacker lottery; fingers crossed for lotto day on March 5!

Rutsch Block Tests

On the skiing front, I've been taking advantage of the training opportunities that the Alpine Club of Canada has recently been providing to its members. Two weeks ago I took part in a very informative 2-day avalanche awareness course where we spent one full day in a class room learning about avalanche safety and a second day out in the Paul's Ridge area of Garibaldi park digging pits, analyzing snow and choosing safe travel routes through avalanche terrain. I have also been taking back-country ski technique lessons on a weekly basis that are proving to be incredibly useful.

All in all, I've been making the most of the winter season before leaving it behind for some South American Sun!

Table Mountain Circuit Ski Tour

View of  Mt. Shuksan from Herman Saddle

  Last weekend Mike and I joined an ACC trip out to Table Mountain in Mt Baker National Park, WA, USA. The day was beautiful, clear and warm and the avalanche rating was at moderate (or level 2), providing good stability for the trip.  We started out our day meeting in Maple Falls and then headed over to the upper parking lot at Mt Baker Ski area.

Table Mountain

We were on our way all geared up at about 9:30 am. Our biggest concern for the day was crossing below the South Face of Table Mountain as it tends to become unstable as it is heated by the sun throughout the day.
In order to cross under this face as early as possible we circumnavigated the mountain in a clockwise direction.

Mt Baker

 When we reached the South face of Table mountain, after a long climb and short run off of a shoulder, we noticed evidence of previous slides in the area, so we spaced out moved quickly and watched out for one another as we crossed the “danger zone”.

Danger Zone: South Face of Table Mt.

 Once we got through this area we found a high point to take a break for lunch where we could enjoy views of both Mount Baker and Mt Shuksan. The lunch break was quite relaxing and enjoyable with temperatures reaching a balmy +10c.

After lunch we enjoyed another short run down to Iceberg lake which we crossed and then skinned up for our final climb of the day up to Herman Saddle.  On the way to Herman Saddle we were entertained by some ice climbers on “Death Picnic (WI6)”.

Death Picnic (WI6) on North face of Table Mt.

From Herman Saddle we enjoyed a great, long run all the way back to the parking lot followed by some well deserved cold beers at “Chair 9”.  

The complete circuit was about 10km in length with 600m of elevation gain and took about 6 hours travelling at a moderate pace, including a lunch break.

Click Here for a route map

Click here for Photo Album

Needle Peak

On Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012, Mike, Gary, Adrian and I headed out to the Coquihalla highway for a day of ski touring up at Needle  Peak.  I'd never skied in that area before so was excited for a day of exploring.  I was also looking forward to a relaxed traverse of the mountains instead of the usual  craziness of "bagging lines" that the boys normally want to do. I am 100% more into the touring side of  backcountry skiing than the downhill, yo-yo skiing aspect of the sport. The area is described as "challenging"  (or level 2) and we skiied about 2000ft of vertical to our turn around point, just shy of the first alpine bowl. We made conservative choices with regards to avalanche exposure and we were skiing with Gary who is certified to teach the AST1 with his completion of the CAA Level 1 course a few years ago. Skiing with Gary is always a great way to learn more about playing safe in the mountains.


After checking out the avalanche reports (described as 3-Considerable; 25 cm of storm snow on well bonded layers)  and deciding we were all comfortable with the current conditions we headed out approaching the day with a relaxed feel from the get go with an 7:30am departure time from Coquitlam (not exactly an early start). We arrived at the pull out and were on our way at about 10:30 am.  The area was pretty popular that day; we followed one group up a well traveled skin track, and we saw 3 or 4 other parties in the area once we gained the ridge.  



The climb up to the ridge of Needle Peak starts out fairly gentle and about half way up starts to steepen with the trees tightening until you reach the ridge, where the trees thin out and the grade mellows out dramatically. Once you break onto the ridge the views of the surrounding peaks and alpine bowls show themselves and make all the hard work worth it. We spent the next hour or so touring along the undulating ridge line until we reached a high point before the ridge dropped down slightly and headed back into the bowls. We took a break here for some lunch and a chance to take in the view.


After lunch we decided that we weren't really into yo-yo skiing in the bowls with the other parties so we reversed our route along the ridge back to the tree line where had originally gained the ridge. From here we ripped our skins, got into downhill mode and made some spectacular powder turns through the open trees back towards the highway. We skied a variety of open trees, tight trees, survival skiing terrain and undulating flats, all in shin to knee deep awesome powder!  Finally we popped out of the trees and skied our way right back to the edge of the highway, a 5min walk back to the car. 

Winter So far

 Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted.  Instead of trying to write about everything I've done in the last two months, here's a photo journey of my winter so far:

Exploring Barry's Hollyburn Cabin

Cleaning out the Cabin

Mt Seymour; First Ski tour of the Season & testing out my new gear. 

Snow Study at Brockton Pt (Mt Seymour)

Christmas Lights at Park & Tilford Gardens

Creaming the boys at Texas Hold'em (AECOM Xmas Party)

JackFM Charity Toy Drive Breakfast

Vancouver Christmas Market

Santa's Reindeer at Grouse Mt.

Snowshoeing at Grouse

Top of the Snowshoe Grind (Grouse Mt)

Seafood Feast at Contractor's Christmas Party

Bridge Group Christmas Lunch

Rainy Ski tour to Paul's Ridge (Garibaldi Park)

Happy Birthday Dad!

Dad's Bday

Christmas Cats 

Ringers Family Christmas Eve @ Geoff & Shannell's House

Merry Christmas!!!  Christmas Morning in Richmond

McMinn Family; Christmas in Prince George

A "Special" Gift

Ice Fishing

Got One!

Moose!

Viva Las Vegas!

Last weekend Mike and I, with our friends Ange and Kyle, headed down to Las Vegas for a whirlwind weekend of fun! we started our trip with a 7am flight out of Bellingham airport on Thursday morning to get the most of our day. We promptly checked into our room at Caesar's Palace (24th Floor with a view of the Strip!) and headed out to explore. We spent the day enjoying a Texas Hold'em poker tournament where Mike came in 4th place (one away from the Money!), we explored the strip and we indulged in a dinner buffet at the Mirage (mmm.....crab legs!)

The next day was our "lets act stupid" day to live it up, party and experience the craziness that is Steel Panther. We started our day with an early bird breakfast special on the Miracle Mile and then headed down to "slots-of-fun" Casino for an afternoon of $1 Blackjack and free beer. Ange and Kyle arrived that afternoon so we met up with them and spent the evening having a fabulous dinner and yummy blended drinks at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. How can you go wrong having dinner at a place where a bikini-clad girl jumps out of a volcano, goes down a water slide and lands straight into a giant blender every hour?!?  After dinner we got decked out in our 80's attire and headed out to the House of Blues to rock out to Steel Panther. The show was absolutely ridiculous (as expected), but incredibly entertaining and well worth checking out. I'd see them again in a second and I was originally incredibly skeptical of going.

We decided we'd "class it up" a bit on the following day, so after a nice brunch we strolled along the strip and checked out all the fancy hotels. We wandered through the new City Center, Cosmopolitan and Aria hotels which are absolutely stunning. We also checked  out the craziness at MGM which was getting ready for fight night. That evening we all got dressed up and went for a nice dinner  at "Trevi" in the Forum shops of Caesar's Palace where we had a great bottle of wine and some extraordinary Ahi Tuna. After dinner we wandered down to the Bellagio to see Cirque du Soleil's "O", which was amazing and recommended to everyone! We finished off our night with some slots, poker tournaments and dollar margaritas at Gambling Bills Saloon.



Our last day on the strip was pretty laid back. We went to a tasty breakfast buffet at New York, New York and spent the afternoon at the Shark Reef Aquarium in Mandalay Bay where we got to pet some Sting Rays, which was pretty cool! After that we spent the rest of the day relaxing back at Caesar's Palace before making our journey home, ending an excellent fall getaway!

Fall

Sammy and Uncle Mike at the Petting Zoo

Quality Time with the guys

Turkey Dinner at the Oliver's

Mosquito Creek

Hallow's Eve Trail Race