Mercury Rising

Hi All,
just a brief thing. I know I keep yapping on about how cold it is and all that, but here's the weather report for midweek;
Environment Canada's Official Weather Warnings
Warnings
Airdrie - Cochrane - Olds - Sundre3:46 PM MST Tuesday 28 November 2006
Wind chill warning forAirdrie - Cochrane - Olds - Sundre continued Extreme wind chill continues.
The stationary Yukon high which brought frigid conditions to much of Alberta remains entrenched over western Canada. Northwesterly outflow winds from this high over central and southern Alberta are expected to produce extreme wind chill values after sunset and into Wednesday morning. Wind chill values of minus 40 to minus 45 are forecast for the above mentioned warning regions.

So there we have it. Minus 45 with the wind chill. School shut down because no buses would start and it was feared that the little kidlings would perish on the journey! I must admit to having never felt cold like it. There was definitely no hanging around outside, just a rapid dash through the snow from car to indoors.
Tis all a far cry from the scorching outback of Dubbo. Here's what a view out of the rear window of the car used to look like on the way to work;

Not that I prefer the outback! No boarding or ski-ing to be had there! (No frostbite either - just heat stroke). Another snag about these car journeys was the locusts - they used to wreak havoc to the radiator;

Give me this snow and minus 45 any day! It's awesome!!!!

Thermals at the ready,

S&S.

Brass Monkey Skiers

The result of a 5 hour cross country ski in minus 25, results in the above! Saturday saw a more than refreshing ski stint in Kananaskis. We tracked up a rather sizeable hill called Blueberry which sits in the middle of an enormous valley surrounded by glacier clad peaks. The views are impeccable - if it isn't snowy like billio, causing visibility to stretch no further than the next tree (which, if you didn't get it, it was!). Having set out mid morning, we weren't getting off the mountain until it was getting dark - and much, much colder. Brina skied the last 2 hours with about sixteen layers on and a down jacket - and still her eyelids froze too.

Hopefully next week will be more suitable for hitting the resorts to ski. As keen as I am, sitting on a chairlift in somewhere near minus 30 doesn't do it for me (add an extra 10 or so for wind chill on the way down and you'll realise why sunshine was pretty quiet this weekend). The first World Cup ski race is at Lake Louise next week, so maybe we'll head up there and see how the real fast guys do it - in lycra!!!

The crazy Albertan weather continues, there's more snow and ball droppingly chilly weather for the next few days, but by Thursday we'll have a high of one degree - the temps vary by 25 degrees or so for highs from day to day. It's great!

Nothing much else to really, work (yawn), we've got a Christmas party to go to tonight - MEC invite all old staff to their bash - and some bash it is too, so that'll be fun. In the meantime, I've got to dash off now as Utd v's Chelsea is firing up in ten minutes.

Wrap up,

S&S.

p.s. Squeezing four people, skis and poles into a VW Golf makes for a rather cramped dirve home.

So this is Canada eh?

Hi All,
For anyone reading this brief post who is Canadian, the following isn't really a big deal. But for all you other non Arctic dwellers, here's a glimpse of the forecast for the next four days (and we're still in November!).

Wednesday 22 Nov: High -10°C Low -14°C
Thursday 23 Nov: HIgh -5°C Low - 20°C
Friday 24 Nov: High - 20°C Low - 24°C
Saturday 25 Nov: High -24°C Low -28°C
Sunday 26 Nov: High -22 Low -27

Bloomin' eck, this Satuday seems like it's going to be an extra thermals day - don't think we'll be out rafting the river this weekend! Best go and plug the car in.
Hope you're all keeping warm,
S&S.

Lazy River

The middle of November might not be the typical month to be associated with rafting in the Rockies, but that's what Sunday provided. Forget the great snow and ice all over the region, today was the day for navigating ice flows in a surreal a la Shakleton experience.

Having spent the previous two days at a Science teachers' conference, it was an immense relief to escape into the big outdoors. Despite school having funded our conference in Kananaskis, two days milling around with 400 other Science teachers (I say 'other' rather loosely seeing as though I am not actually a bonefide Scientist) is more than I can take before brain meltdown. Luckily Brina was in the same frame of mind so we averted as much social interaction with the other geeks and made the most of being out in the hills. Imagine 400 of the energizer bunnies banging on their bloody annoying drums 24/7 all stuck in the same room, each trying to outdo the other with some incredibly boring yet highly audiable drumming - well this course was the science equivalent of bunny drum banging.

Although Brina had to head home on Saturday, I left the conference and ventured out to finish an Outdoor Ed course I've been doing at the Uni. It was a weekend in Canmore, and the piece de resistance was the rafting trip from Banff to Canmore on the ice choked Bow River. The piccie at the top shows us drifting beneath Mt Rundle with the rather infamous ice route 'Terminator' hanging to the mountainside up above. The piccie below shows a bit more of the ice in the water, it was more akin to paddling in a big old slush puppie (that would be 'Slurpie' in Canadian speak).

That's about the fill of it all for this weekend. Another short week at work is coming up, Thursday and Friday are parent teacher days (sure beats the parent evenings we used to have), so no kids are in school then (phew). The house is shaking as I type (quite literally, the lamp on my desk is going like one of those nodding dogs in the back of a red neck's car) as we're getting hammered by the Chinook of all Chinooks. At least more snow is falling high up even if it is getting obliterated here. Although it's only Sunday eve - roll on next weekend!!!!

Battening down the hatches

S&S.

It's Back

Hi All,
The good news is that IT's back (IT being a super snowy Canadian winter - although I suppose it is still 'fall'). The bad news is my muscles forgot how to ski and are currently spasming with anger that I honed up my cycling legs for what - for ski-ing!!! The transition from bike to skis wasn't as simple as my little legs had been hoping!

We started off the season on the sticks with a moderate 28km jaunt from Lake Louise to Moraine lake and back. With oodles of the white stuff it made for a great November day. There must be two to three feet up there already. This time last year I was running around Upper Kananaskis lake (albeit in the snow, post holing) but it certainly wasn't ski-ing weather. So hopefully the season will continue with the vigor in which it has begun. The board gets a run out next week and hopefully wont need to be put away for the next six months!!!!!! Brina was taking it easy buying orchids today in the balmy temperatures of Calgary (I think it almost reached zero!), but the two of us are off to Kananaskis for two nights at the end of the week (courtesy of work - there's a science conference on and fortunately for us it is held at a hotel at a ski resort!!!).

I need to go and soak my aching limbs and reassure them that they wont ache this much every time I go out (bloody well hope not anyway).

And as many posts have ended with a sunset, heres a moon rise from the back window;

I hope you are all getting your fix!

Bring on the powder,

S&S.

Wax Lyrical

Five days and counting... that's how long it is until the ski resort of Sunshine opens!! In the excitment of the forthcoming vertical fun Brina got kitted out with a set of new shiney skis - and as can be seen from the piccie she couldn't wait until next Saturday to try them out, I found her all kitted out in dressing gown and ski boots this morning It's fun to be waxing the board again (which is way easier and less messy than waxing cross country skis) and getting reading to hit the slopes. We've opted for a multi resort discount pass this year - fancy going to a few different slopes over the course of the winter rather than just having the season pass for one place.
Luckily all school reports are due in this Friday, so the weekend will be free to get the first runs of the year in!!!!
I imagine you're all knee deep in adventure where ever you dwell,
Keep on carving,
S&S.