It's a white white world...

Well friends, its been a long while since my last post.

Lots has been going on, most of it to do with snow.

But before I get to that, let me get this out of the way.

What do you think of  "Lance - But I didn't call you Fat - Gee, I am sorry...... I got caught - Armstrong"

My last post was about opening day at Red.
I have been there a few times, trying to learn how to ski powder and trees.

I have a few pics to show what I call RNAFU... Rossland Normal All Fogged Up.

 

Red is often in the clouds, and there have been a few times we've had heinous freezing fog. That's usually when I call it a day.

I was in Ottawa for X-mas and had a great time seeing family and friends. I stayed with my dear brother and sister-in-law and their kids, Taylor, Seam, and Megan.
This what I left in Rossland.

Ottawa and region got a huge dump while I was in transit so I got to mix playing in the snow with visits.

Snowshoeing with Marc

XC skiing with Deb and Nancy

XC skiing with Ian and Marcie

Shortly after getting back to Rossland, a pile of wet snow slid off my roof onto the deck.
What a shovel job that was.

The slide on the other side of the house took out my new eavestrough :-(

Young mothers have to be tough to live in Rossland :-)

I have done a number of back-country trips and I took the AST 1 (Avalanche Training) course last weekend.

Here is a google earth shot of tracks of the trips I have done.

And some photos...

Craig in the snow pit. Snow depth 2.3 meters.

Finally, a backcountry trip that isn't in white-out conditions.

Old Glory, the local high point and former home of fire lookout and weather station.

Gerry and Gus the dog

I spent Sunday skiing at Red with Bob. I ask friends to do do charity runs with me!
We toured around the mountain and did a bunch of runs I had never done before.
We had a look only at some stuff I will never do. Hard to show how steep, but here is one
called 2nd cooler.

Its Monday morning and back to work.

Opening day at Red Mountain

Lots of excitement in town this week as a build up to today's opening of Red for 2012/2013.

We got 10cm of snow Friday, and there is 1.5 meters of snow at the top. However, there has been a crap load of rain this November, and there were rivers running down the mountain earlier this week.

I awoke to the sound of avalanche control explosions and a temp of -10C.

Bluebird skies and good, if somewhat crusty snow.

A great day all round. I am tired.

The edge of the Paradise side

In the trees - out of my element. 

Oh man, I am a chump skier in these parts.

I have my work cut out to get my skiing chops!!

Not a bad thing, It just means more time at the hill :-)

News bits.
I have a part time job at the hill shoveling snow. The calls will come at 5:10am!!
I have some bad carpal tunnel thing going on. Mostly due to bad ergonomics on the computer since I got to Rossland I think.

Tomorrow is slack-country out of the resort to Grey. Should be fun.

Time to ski...well sort of.

The weather in Rossland has been pretty bad for a while now.
Unusually wet. Lots of snow falling at right around freezing, which then melts as it rains.
Or it just rains.
We've had about 200 cm of snow rain in us!!
Fortunately, much of it has been snow at elevation.

The weather reports have been torture, advertising below freezing and lots of snow in Rossland.

This Saturday was really poor for XC skiing and I was awoken by the sound of rain drumming on the roof, so Tom and I decided to pull the bikes out once again and do a road ride.
It was a fine ride, with temps of +11C in the valley.

There is lots of snow at elevation though.
I got one of these (avalanche beacon) so I can go back country ski touring.

Here are some pics from outings over the last couple of weeks.

XC with Tom at Paulsen

Skinning up 7 Summits

Berry Ridge hut 

 Starting a back country tour to the top of Mount Elgood with Craig, Sunday Dec 2

Lunch in the trees

Getting into the alpine

Nick went to his new home a couple of days ago. Steve and Sarah live just around the corner. Here is a pic of them with a very tired Nick (he was out ski touring all day)

and a final shot

So many titles....

It has been a while since my last post, and a number of topics/titles came to mind over that time.
"A new way to kill myself"
"You know you live on a hill when...."
"It will be an entertaining winter"

A week ago I did a ride with Tom into Sheep Creek Valley. It was a sunny warm day, afters weeks of overcast and rain.

The next day the snow started. Here is a shot of a snow overhang on my porch.

and a couple more:

I can see that it is going to be an entertaining winter. I have had 2 vehicles slide into my yard in the past 12 hours. I called city hall to tell them so they could send the plows around.

The pick-up slid further down after I took the pic and needed to get pulled off my lawn.

You know you live on a steep hill when......kids toboggan down it.

I went to the XC ski swap last weekend. I picked up a pair of "off-road" roller skis.

I haven't tried them yet. I hope I survive. They do have a drag brake that can be engaged at the top of a descent.
They are supposed to be ok on small gravel too!! Small pneumatic tires too.

I am busy doing a reno on the mudroom. More on that later.
It just keeps snowing here.......

Just realized that the BBQ has been on warming up the whole time I have been writing this.
Oh well - my memory hasn't got any better since getting here :-)

A weekend of skiing

Hi Folks,

Rossland has had early, albeit temporary snow this year. Enough that local trails at elevation were good for skiing this weekend.
There was a light snow/rain mix Friday night. Perfect for recording critter tracks.

Racoon

and bear. The post in the pic is at the front of my house.

These are pics from Saturdays ski on the NE side of the highway from Nancy Greene Summit.

It is a shame but a fact of life here. Big cut blocks from logging. There is one hut standing exposed in the middle of a cut block. ( Not in this pic)

I did a couple of skis on Sunday. The first was at Blackjack, the local XC club. Very organized, very good. They have been grooming already.

The second ski was on the SW side of the highway from Nancy Greene Summit. Breaking trail on a long climb.

Forecast for the week is warm so much of the snow will melt away, but it was a great intro to XC skiing in the area.

Winter came early...

Hi Folks,

Well, things changed in a hurry. I had an idea, an admittedly crazy idea, to ride the 7 Summits one more time this year. I even had one friend (Gerry) interested. Then we had a light dusting of snow on the ridge and we decided to do a modified ride on Saturday. Ride the first part of 7 Summits, then down Plewman, Larch, BS, Monte Cola, and Oasis.

Here is the parking lot at the beginning of the ride.

Travis, Gerry, and Ned. left to right. Frosty, with a skim of snow and ice on the pavement.
This is at Strawberry Pass/Nancy Greene Summit, the starting point of the 7 Summits.

The initial climb is long and technical, and these young fast guys had me suffering as they talked all the way.
It was great at first but things deteriorated quickly.

We did push-a-bike for almost an hour to get to Plewman.

The Plewman descent was a lot of work too. Peg legging down to keep the bike moving and stable.

Here is a profile of the ride.

Over 5000 feet of descent.

My plan for Sunday was to get my snow's on. Lube job, brake job, and snows as it light snow was falling.

And it is a good thing I did. Monday evening we got slammed by an early snow storm.

I now had to figure out how the hell to get out of my driveway. I am on a steep hill, and it was not plowed.
I tried to back out and up but that did not work, so I did a controlled slide down the hill.
Traffic was moving at 20 kph on the Trail hill.

This is my deck when I got home from work.

Most of the roofs here are steep metal to shed snow. It dumps on my deck. In the past snow has avalanched off the roof and taken out all the railings. Anyhow, I had to get the snow off since I am worried that the wet heavy snow would actually collapse the deck (Have I told you about  my rotten deck :-)
This is how we do that here.

The rail sections are bolted so that they can be undone and swung up and the snow can then be pushed off the deck. Rossland normal!

One more pic for you.
A view of my house (the bubble) with Roberts, Granite and Red (L to R) in the background.
Granite and Red are in the Red Mountain ski area.

I will try and get a pic today form the same spot, with all the snow.

I think I will be XC/BC skiing this weekend.