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.

Some fences tell a story...

More than anything else, Rossland is a ski town. One of the evidences of this is the number of ski fences.
Here is a pic of my place that was sent to me when I was thinking about buying it.

And here are a couple more from around town.

There are more, but I can't remember where they are.
I have one more for you though. It tells a story and gave me a great laugh.

I have been surprised at the number of deciduous trees here, and in particular the number of maples.

This is a pic of main street with colour in the leaves and new pavement on the ground.

I have a few random shoots for you. This is a picture taken from Trail. You can see Red Mountain ski runs on the left. All of the ridge that you see is part of the 7 Summits IMBA epic trail.
I have done it 5 times since arriving here. It is an awesome trail. Truly epic in many ways.
Long, technical, long climbs, fast descents, lots of sharp rocks, and more of them the further in you get.

My BC plates.

That's it for this one.

Summer is over...

Summer ended this week at 11 am on Tuesday, on the tail of a brisk and blustery north wind.
I started work in a T and shorts. By lunch I had to go home and put on jeans, sweater and jacket.

This was also the day that we were wrapping a garage in Tvek. What a gong show. We had just got the first run up and tacked when the out of nowhere the wind blew in.

The next day we were putting on metal roofing.

Here are few pic from the work-site.

It has been an interesting (read difficult) spring/summer for downtown Rossland and the local merchants.
The main sewers had to be replaced and that has meant tearing up main street and some side streets.
Getting around on foot or by vehicle has been frustrating - an ever changing maze hour by hour.
This is a pic taken earlier in the summer.

Construction has been from store door to store door. Everything: sidewalks, trees, entrance steps, torn up.
Paving was done last week. Here are a couple more pics from the same work-site.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I volunteered to be a rescue dog foster home.
I got my first foster Friday after work. Nickolas (Nic), a long tall lean Husky, German Shepard mix.

He is a gentle dog who only wants to please.He will get adopted quickly I think.
He does have separation anxiety, as I found out after I got home from a road ride.
I left him uncrated (my bad). Too funny in a way. The woman that runs the foster program was on the ride. We were discussing which was worse - the dog fouling the home or trashing the home.
Nic did both :-( Oh well. He was in the crate when I went to the after ride BBQ.

3 months today that I arrived in Rossland. Things are going well and I am enjoying the relaxed pace here.

The weather is changing and winter is on the way. Temperature is dropping, smoke from chimneys, and some colour in the maples.

Happy Thanksgiving!