Webcams are good!

We woke to steady rain…didn’t look good for skiing, or for anything outside really. Checked the Callaghan website, the forecast was still calling for 2 deg C but the forecast 1 mm rain had been increased to 4 mm in the morning and 3 mm in the afternoon. Hmmm, combine that info with the weather outside our front door and the skiing outlook was looking bad. BUT, the webcams on the Callaghan site showed lots of fresh snow on the trees, which wasn’t in the overnight forecast, and it didn’t appear to be raining in the photos. After some deliberations we decided to take a chance on the weather. Well, as we approached the parking lot the light rain had changed to light snow…things were looking excellent. We both skied classic and got in good skiing but the conditions were not overly speedy…actually they were quite sluggish, both the snow and our bodies. Interestingly the snow outside the tracks was really grippy, it would grab my skis while descending almost face-planting me over my skis…yikes! On the return ski from Madeley Lake the snow began to fall in huge flakes…was really pretty…and a white Xmas! By the time I got back to the car the snow had tapered off, maybe a bit of light rain but nothing to worry about. Put in nearly 2.5 hours and can really feel it in my tired legs…but can totally justify pigging out tonight and tomorrow before getting back on skis in a couple days.

Faster skiing

The trails were hard packed last night making for fast skiing…the only real slow parts were the steep uphills where the old snow was really soft…and the tight corners which are a challenge for me at the best of times, make them a bit icy and the challenge increased exponentially! One thing I noticed in the Tuesday race was that the better skiers I was following often used the single skate technique on the flatter terrain, which for the non-skiers means to pole on each leg kick. I tend to 2 skate more often, meaning I only pole on alternate leg kicks. I understand that 1 skate can be faster but only if it is done properly, which I don’t do often enough yet to take advantage of the technique in the race. So last night I did lots of 1 skate, even up most of the hills. Was concentrating on something my coach at silver star said, “a flat ski is a fast ski”. So worked on keeping the ski flatter, longer during the glide phase. Can feel the difference when I get it right, but can also feel like I’m gonna fall over when I lean too far over my ski. I definitely felt like I was skiing faster last night, while wasn’t working as hard so must be a result of using better technique. Still have this darn cold, but isn’t getting worse and hasn’t moved into my chest so I’m hopeful it clear soon!

1st ski race

Perhaps I should count the 2 loppets I did last year as races, but really those were long distance survival skiing…with the odd bit of racing, meaning there were other skiers within view for short periods of time. Last night did the Tuesday night ski race at Cypress which was put on by Bruno along with timers Bob and Marshall…great job guys, thanks so much! The race was 2 laps of their standard loop, which is about 4 km so a total of 8 km raced. I did a couple laps before the race to warm up and get used to skating again since had done mostly classic skiing lately. I started with batch 2, the less fast group. I had no idea how my body would react to a hard effort on skis so I stayed within myself most of the race, only turned on the jets on some of the hills to pass other skiers. I finished in 30:44, just a bit behind Cynthia…another surfski racer. Overall I’m happy with the race, and will try to push myself a bit harder next race…in the New Year. Full results can been seen here.

Also took a drive at lunch time today to check out the snowy owls at the wetland behind Boundary Bay Airport…pretty cool birds…easy to spot, they are big and white…and surrounded by hoards of people standing behind huge lenses mounted on tripods…here is the link to Jeremy’s photos.

2nd for Chandra

Canada’s Chandra Crawford today raced to second place in the skate sprint world cup event in Rogla.

Check out the video of her race.

Guess what…more skiing!

Hit the trails again Thursday evening…snow must’ve been quite a bit faster since my lap times dropped to 20ish minutes…again skiing classic. Managed 5 laps before packing it in. Saw Leo and Bob out on the trails…although Bob claimed to only have skied 15 minutes, was mostly coaching the young’ns.

Was feeling kinda sick when I got home so a magical hot lemon, well lime in this case was in order. Felt pretty run down all day Friday at work, but didn’t feel like flu, kinda cold like symptoms in my throat/chest…with nasty mucus…bet you just needed to read that!

Felt good enough Saturday morning to make the trip to Callaghan with Katja and John. The weather forecast was bang on, temps were in the 1-2 deg C range with overcast skies, threatened but did not rain. The humidity was high though, fortunately I wore my light rain shell which became coated with water drops. I still got wet, but from sweat. The conditions were really slow but there was excellent grip for climbing the hills. We skied classic and got lots of poling practice…even when skiing down the hills…it was that slow. The route that took us 1.5 hours last weekend took us an extra 20 minutes today. We had quite a good ski despite the conditions…we even pushed ourselves a bit harder on the hills today, only walked up a couple at the beginning, then at the very least ran up the hills when could not get any glide to ski up the hills. We must’ve worked pretty hard since when we switched to skate skis I lasted all of 5 minutes before having to pack it in…my legs were done. Didn’t take much to convince JG to cut the skate session short…he was back at the car moments after me. We all felt pretty wiped after our morning of skiing so again treated ourselves to a nice meal at Shady Tree. I’m hoping to take part in the next Tuesday night ski race so will have to see how my body feels tomorrow to decide if I can ski again…or if I need some rest.

In paddling news Hank is back to his winning ways taking first place in SA’s Cape Point Challenge…and TJ was dethroned as Aussie 20 Beaches champ as Clint Robinson put nearly 2 minutes on him…the guy is a machine. Would be interesting to see Clint do more of the international surfski races…could likely make a serious challenge at the surfski world series championship.

Classic skiing in the snow

Excellent conditions for classic skiing tonight on Cypress…the light snow in the tracks made for great grip for our crowns. Really enjoy classic skiing Cypress when the snow is falling and can diagonal stride up all the hills. But I timed myself on the race route that the Tuesday night racers did last night…the winning time was 11 min…my laps were 22 min…nice to see I still have some room for improvement.

Great Bear Rain Forest Video

Check out this excellent video about the Great Bear Rain Forest.

http://vimeo.com/19582018

 

WOP is excellent!

Today JG and I enjoyed an excellent day on Whistler Olympic Park’s trails…aka Callaghan. We arrived to -7 deg C and blue skies. Weirdest thing on the drive in to WOP from the highway…flocks of 20-30 tiny birds collected in the middle of the road. And they were very reluctant to move for approaching vehicles. Was quite sad as they were getting hit by cars. Fortunately we didn’t hit any but only because we came to a complete stop a few times then proceed slowly to motivate the birds to move. Must’ve seen a dozen dead birds on the drive in. Was very odd. On the drive out didn’t see any birds, dead or alive, on the road.

We started off skiing classic, put in 1.5 hours on really nice tracked trails. The snow was quite nice, particularly on Madeley and Norwegian Woods. Met Trevor Linden and his gal up at Madeley Lake, talked to them later in the parking lot…they really enjoy their skiing! We briefly considered staying on our classic skis but figured would be better to work some different muscles for a while. On skate skis we headed out on the trails used by the 2010 Olympic ski races, and they are way more hilly than they look on video. The trails had many short but steep hills, both up and down, with challenging high-speed corners just to keep us on our toes. These trails had seen very little use so the grooming ridges had become somewhat hard, the groves would tend to catch our edges so we snowplowed down most the hills…just to maintain a moderate state of control. The steep hills were quickly sapping what little strength we had left so we headed back to Norwegian Woods and did short loop. After 1 hour we were back at the parking lot feeling we’d well earned a beer and meal at our favourite post skiing haunt…Shady Tree in Squamish. The day was so nice we were disappointed to not have the energy to continue skiing…looking forward to later in the season when we’ll have a few more kms in our legs to allow us to ski longer on days like today.

Topped off the day with a victory at our Sunday evening curling match.

Fishing season review

I converted this blog to record my personal adventures just after putting away my fishing rods for the winter so thought I’d provide a bit of a highlight package of the season. Well, by season I’m gonna focus on the salmon season which started for us (Katja) in late July. Being an odd number year, 2011 brought millions of pink salmon to rivers within easy reach of the Vancouver fly fisher. For reasons unknown to me, but I’m sure make sense to Ma Nature, pink salmon runs are prominent north of Campbell River on even years and south of Campbell River on odd years. Our story begins in July.

Discovered an excellent beach near a golf course in Howe Sound to fly fish for pinks which were on their way to the Squamish River. Katja got her first pink salmon on her new 2 handed switch fly rod.

I also got a new rod, a single handed Beulah Blue Water 8/9 weight. Originally designed for fishing tropical waters but I really enjoy casting/fishing it here in beautiful BC.

Did some excellent pink fishing in Sechelt Inlet while staying at the Porpoise Bay Campsite. Heard some coho were around but didn’t get into any.

Loaded up our K2 Accord with camping gear, launched from Deep Cove and spent the night at Bishops Creek Campsite. Had an excellent morning of pink fishing…before the buzz bomb chuck’n snaggers showed up to put a damper on the day.

Spent a week fishing mid and north Vancouver Island. Got into some sunrise coho off the Little Qualicum, but no springs as I was hoping. Discovered Cluxewe River Resort which provided good fishing for both pinks and coho. Katja landed her first ever coho while fly fishing for pinks. I also had some fun coho fishing, mostly early in the morning and then again on a bright sunny afternoon chasing a school of coho up and down the beach. Also discovered Naka Creek Campsite, an absolute jewel. Got to enjoy sea lions and orcas swimming close by the beach…and more pinks. Didn’t think much of the seiners working the shorelines, but I guess they have to make a living too. We also had an excellent afternoon fishing the Eve River, we both got into many pinks and the odd coho.

Fished the Vedder a couple times, found a spot where we could watch thousands of pinks and coho swimming upstream in the clear water. Was so cool, but we didn’t catch many. Highlight was finding an excellent restaurant in Yarrow called Vedder Mountain Grille…we had an excellent meal, the orders are huge and are very tasty, a very European home cooked taste…which means some of it tasted how Katja’s mom cooks…don’t go there if you are watching your waistline.

Had a couple nice evenings fishing pinks from the Fraser River near Deas Island. Get there on the right tide and there are tons of fish swimming by close enough to easily reach with a cast fly.

Had a good October/November fishing the Harrison. I never get lots of fish but this season I was rewarded quite well by the river. Katja got her first Harrison River coho, a beautiful hatchery fish of about 7 lbs. Katja also did quite well fishing chum, she has become quite handy with her double handed switch rod.

We traded in our Blazer for a Tacoma then took it up to one of our favourite lakes in the Merritt area for a fall weekend. Was really cold, -5 deg C at night but the fish were quite cooperative. We also got quite close to a couple coyotes and a bunch of grouse.

By mid-November the snow started to accumulate on the local mountains and the salmon runs were nearly done, so put away the rods and dug out the skis…time to prepare for loppet season!

Mad Dash to Cypress

Looked like all of Vancouver decided today was the day to hit the trails at Cypress. We (Katja) arrived around 9:40 and were parked in the lot past the tubing area…had never before parked down that far. The ticket checker informed that there was a big group from Vancouver Skiers club and many herds of Jackrabbits, those tiny, fearless kiddos out learning to ski. After passing the mob of skiers migrating up the main trail from the parking area the trails were busy but very skiable. The snow was in fine condition for skating, much faster than Thursday evening’s session. Met up with John where Sitzmark joins Powerline, he was on his second lap of the 5 he wanted to complete. After his 6th lap JG reluctantly joined me on a speedy ski/snow plow down Grand National and Jack Pratt, a long downhill ski that ended beside a frozen pond…and it really ends abruptly with a big pile of snow acting as a deadend. At the bottom we met Viv from DCO who’s friend must have taken a spill as she was being tended to by a couple ski patrols. They were waiting for a snowmobile to take her out. Talked to Viv later in the parking lot, her friend was fine, suspected bruised ribs, they were making a trip to the doctor. Our (JG) journey back up the hills was gruelling…ok, went down there once for the season, don’t have to do that again…right John?

Other paddlers out impersonating skiers today were Reid, Paul, Robyn and Leo. Reid and Paul are uber athletes, I don’t think there is anything they don’t do very well…former university level swimmers, triathletes, bike racers, that kind of thing…and they are fast in a surfski too! Robyn was apparently helping out guiding around a group of Vancouver Skiers. Leo was just getting started…apparently there is a V10L in her plans, she’ll have a blast with that surfski next spring…very cool!

I packed it in after 1.5 hours today, wanted to save some energy in case a trip to Callaghan is in order for Sunday. Oddly enough I’d been checking the Whistler Olympic Park website all week to see if they were opening more of their trails. As of Friday evening they only had groomed the shorter trails close to the lodge, the long trails that make the drive worthwhile to us were closed. Then surprise, surprise, this morning over breakfast I notice Callaghan has opened all our favourite trails. There is something seriously wrong with your business plan when you don’t communicate this key information to your potential customers. Anyways, 3 skiers didn’t travel to their trails today because of it, and perhaps we weren’t the only ones judging by the mass of folks at Cypress. And the folks at Manning aren’t any smarter. They advertised to open today but then didn’t provide any information about their trails having enough snow or what trails might be open until this morning…stunning! Anyways, enough ranting.

This afternoon I finally washed the thick dirt off the car accumulated on last weekend’s Silver Star trip…now, where should we take it tomorrow?