My life is so hard: Round One

Now that my weekend job of cross country ski instructing has wrapped up for the season, I’m doing my best to spend as much time as humanly possible in the backcountry.

Last weekend 6 of us packed up hellishly early and drove out to Bow Summit. Bow Summit is along the Ice-field parkway, and although it’s a fair distance from Calgary, skiers from the city are still drawn out there. There are a few reasons for this as far as I could tell. First off, there is essentially zero approach. If your descent is properly planned, it’s pretty easy to descend all the way to the parking lot without having to re-skin. Second, Bow summit pretty well always has good weather, and this weekend was no exception. Despite looming clouds on the drive out, we had clear skies all day, and with the exception of a bit of wind slab at the top, the snow was fantastic. There is also a great deal of good skiing below tree line, so even if the avi conditions are less than favourable, skiing isn’t completely ruled out.

We managed to get 3 laps in, and despite my super ancient 200cm skis, I managed to get in a fair number of turns. I mean, there was a fair bit of face planting as well, but my telemark guru has told me that if I’m falling on my face, at least I’m in the right position. I’m definitely feeling a dire need for a gear upgrade, backcountry skis just popped up to the top of the gear priority list.

After listening to so many of my friends go on and on about how awesome ice climbing is, I finally had the chance to get out for myself. My usual climbing partner and our mutual friend drove out to King Creek, which has three falls pretty close together, about 20 mins from the trailhead. They’re graded at WI 2/3+, so it was nothing particularly difficult, but it was so much fun!

I have a fair bit of climbing experience, but ice climbing is a totally different ball game. It’s sort of novel to be able to get a massive jug hold wherever you want it. It took a little while to get used to the crampons, and I had to consciously not try to smear my feet (shocking I know, but smearing on ice really doesn’t work.) I definitely have intentions of getting out again. Soon.

Shiny Things: Sport Rack

The very least that I can say is that my family knows me pretty well. Most of the pictured gear (and a 60 m 10.2 maxim dry rope) were christmas gifts. I finally spent the time to mark it all. I got the rope out for the first time ice climbing last weekend, but I can’t wait to scuff up the rest of the gear…It’s all way to shiny for a respectable climber to be carrying.

Reading Week backcountry skiing

Well, It’s been a pretty busy few weeks for backcountry adventures…

I went up to Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park over reading break and spend 3 nights at the Naisset huts with some friends.  This was the first proper back country trip I’ve had the chance to do, and it solidified my desire to get out more.

The ski in is 28 km, starting at Mount Shark provincial park, heading into BC over Assiniboine pass. Normally there would have been the option of staying at the Byrant creek shelter, about 14 km from the trailhead, but the shelter was fully booked for the day we were heading in. Instead, we got up extra early and trekked in the full distance.

Assiniboine lodge is closed this season while the lease for the land is being renegotiated, but the rustic Naisset huts, and the Wonder Lodge cook shelter are still open.

The second day we headed up towards Eli’s dome, but had to turn back about 3/4 of the way up. the light was so flat it was hard to tell what was happening. I managed to get in a few good turns on the way back, which made up for the lack of vista.

The light was still really flat on the third day, and according to the other people up there, the snow up high was pretty gross and slabby. We opted to stay a bit lower and did laps on the Niblet. The Tele skis I am currently using belong to my mother, back from the days before children when she and my father did a lot of backcountry stuff. They’re about a foot too long, have basically no side cut, and there is no heel lift for hill climbing. So it was a bit of a challenge, but I still managed to pull of some pretty good turns.

It wasn’t until the morning we left that we actually had a view of Assiniboine. Spurred on by the cold and wind, we made our way back to Mount Shark and down into Canmore for nachos and beer.

We made pretty good time, 10 hours in, 8 hours out and the trip went off without incident. (A good thing considering we lost the group’s SPOT device somewhere between Bryant creek and Assiniboine pass.) Backcountry skiing is making me reconsider why I spend so much money at resorts. This is far more rewarding.

Night Riding

Thanks to the unseasonable warmth that Calgary has been experiencing recently, I’ve been able to get out riding  a lot more. Despite the spring temperatures, we’re still living in a winter solar cycle, so it gets dark a lot earlier than it gets cold. As nice as it is to see so many people out enjoying the trails, there are a few things that drive me absolutely up the wall when it comes to night cycling.

1. Get an appropriate front light. Your 100 lumen headlamp set on strobe mode isn’t doing anyone any favors. Not only have you blinded oncoming traffic, you’re destroying your own night vision.I should be able to see you from a reasonable distance, but I don’t need to be able to see you from Mars.

2. Red Blinky goes on the back. Once again with the ultrabright rear blinky. Not necessary, and almost more of a hazard than a help. Think of it like a car. White light up front, red light in the rear.

3.Get a bell and use it. Not only are you legally required to have a noise maker of some variety, it decreases your chances of some surprised biker or pedestrian swerving into you.

4.  Stay on the right hand side. This goes for pedestrians as well. Treat the trail like a road. Stay on your own side.

5. Dogs. Keep them on a leash! walk them on the outside of the trail. Put yourself between your dog and people trying to pass. I get that you have the right to walk your dog or whatever, but for god’s sake don’t compromise everyone else’s safety for it.

It’s not difficult to get along and share the trail as long as we don’t ride like idiots. Lets stay safe and stay happy.

2011 Ski supplement

After too many late nights and hours spend organizing and editing, The 2011 Gauntlet ski supplement is out (ok, it was out a couple weeks ago…i’m a little behind)I helped edit last year’s supplement, and I picked it up again this year.

Despite the amount of work, it’s a lot of fun, with the added bonus of copping some free ski days. I got out to fernie on comped tickets this year.

Ski Supp is one of teh few opportunities I get to use really big photos, so my inner photo nerd really enjoys making the photos the focus of the page. Words are great, but when it comes right down to it, I’m a pictures sort of person. Even though I was given most of the colour pages in the paper, I still had an unfortunate amount of Black and white. Nevertheless, I think it looks pretty good.

I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. It would have been nice to get a few more pages of content, but when you have to rely on volunteers, I’ll take what I can get. The supp pdf can be found here. Enjoy! A lot of people put a lot of time and effort into this.

Back on the Wall

It’s nice to be back in classes if only for the easy access to climbing. I slacked off pretty serious over the Christmas break climbing-wise, so it’s been a bit of a pain fest getting back into it. I went to the gym once, which was a bit of a flail-fest. It’s been ages since I’ve done anything except boulder, and it’s taken a very serious toll on my endurance. I’m hoping to get on the proper wall on a more regular basis over winter semester. My plans for the summer don’t allow for a lack of endurance.  The Bouldering wall at the Uni has  started to gather a good sized crowd. It’s nice to see so many people enjoying the wall, it’s a great resource to have from a training standpoint, and it’s a good social environment to meet climbing partners.

One of the courses I’m taking this semester is a training theory class with an emphasis on resistance training. I think it will be a good resource for my training. I have some big plans, and I wan tot make sure that I’ll be in good enough shape come summer that I can pull them off.

I’m hoping head out the bugaboos this summer and get up some of the classic trad routes in the area. I have a potential job opportunity in the Invermere area, and one of my friends/climbing partners also works out there in the summer. If things go my way, it’ll be a summer of serious rock.

Citrus Spiced Chai

A lovely, delicious spiced chai that will make your tummy warm and your kitchen smell delicious.

~fill a medium sized pot half full of water.

~ boil water and add 3 bags of black tea.

~ reduce heat but keep water and tea bags boiling for several minutes.

~ add spices. I used allspice, masala blend, whole cloves and a cinnamon stick. around half a teaspoon of each loose spice and cloves.   (more if you like a spicy chai)

~boil tea mixture for another few minutes, add orange and lemon zest.

~ boil for a few more minutes, strain tea, or pour into a french press.(the french press filter is fine enough to get out most of the spices.

Depending on how long the mixture is boiled, it can get pretty strong.  if it’s too strong for your taste, add some boiling water or hot milk.

mmmmmm… delish

Shiny Things: New Shoes

Oh man. . . new shoes!

I picked up a pair of La Sportiva Katana’s from MEC with some christmas money this past week. I took them to the gym for the first time today. My last pair of shoes were 5.10 Sirens, which I still adore, but they’ve been shifted to my big wall shoes, as they have become far too comfortable for bouldering.

This is my first set of velcro shoes, and i’m loving them already. Not to say my toes won’t be pleased when they stretch out a little (it’s a pretty serious hammer toe fit.) They seem pretty solid, even on the outside edges, which is a marked difference from the Sirens. I guess time will tell how they turn out, but I’ve heard pretty good reviews and despite a little pain they performed pretty well at the gym.

127 hrs.

I had the chance to go to a screener of Danny Boyle’s latest film, 127 hours yesterday. I was a little surprised to see James Franco cast in the lead role. Considering the last role I saw Franco play was Allen Ginsberg in “Howl” the character of doomed climber Aron Ralston seemed like a bit of a departure.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Ralston is the famed climber who ended up with his hand trapped between a chockstone and a cliff wall in Canyonlands Utah.  With extremely limited resources, and having told no one where he was headed for the weekend, Ralston spends 127 hrs (hence the title) trapped with no hope of escape. Once he ran out of water, Ralston hacked off his own arm (about midway up the forearm) with a dull multi tool and escaped.

Ralston wrote a book about his experience, entitles “Between a Rock and a Hard Place”, and he’s still an avid climber. There’s a shot at the end of  the film of real-life Ralston mountaineering with an ice axe head for a prosthetic arm. Certainly he was shortsighted in not telling anyone where he was going, and he certainly took a lot of unecessary risks, but the fact that he survived, makes him pretty frickin badass.

There are very real risks in climbing, no matter how good a climber you are, no matter how you prepare, things can go wrong. It’s up to each of us as individuals to limit these risks. What I got out of this? As morbid as it seems. . . always have a knife.

I love climbing, and I am aware of the risks that go along with the sport. My hope is that this film doesn’t discourage anyone from getting outside, but acts as a reminder that we don’t always hold the cards.

The Bike Root

The Bike Root is a community bike shop on the U of C campus. I started going down there last spring when I was building my current street bike.  The Root has been on campus for a few years now, and until this summer, it was inhabiting an unused loading dock in the law building. Unfortunately, this was never meant to be a permanent location, and when the Uni decided that they needed the loading dock back, the Root was out of a home.  They are currently operating a repair tent and there is a shipping container acting as a storage facility. It’s less than Ideal. Especially considering that the short daylight hours associated with this time of year is forcing them to shut down their services earlier in the day. The container is unlit and very cold.  This week was their last week of operation. Until a more user-friendly space is obtained, they are in a sort of limbo.

What’s truly unfortunate about this situation is that when the group was first given use of the loading dock, they were given the understanding that when the Uni needed the dock again, an alternate space would be provided. No such space was given. What with the University’s current strive to be as environmentally friendly as possible, it seems contradictory that they would overlook an organization as important and influential to the student body as the Bike Root.

For students (and most other people actually) biking is a great way to get around with minimal cost, and the fact that the Root offers people a way to build, maintain and learn about bikes, for little or no cost is extremely helpful.  When I first came down to the workshop with a box of bike parts, I didn’t know the first thing about bikes. Every time I touch my bike, I learn something new. The Root gave me a place to experiment, to learn, and to seek guidance from people who, although not professional mechanics, knew their way around a workshop.

There’s a petition going around to show support for the Root. If you want to help these guys out in any capacity, please sign it.
More info on the Bike Root can be found at their website www.bikeroot.ca