Birthday Smiles

Contrary to the rather pesimistic opinion aired on the last posting, being 31 is the business (that is so long as every day at this age consists of daydreamy skiing and boarding at Lake Louise, blue skies and fine hosteleries to finish off the evenings). Needless to say, the birthday bash weekend was a treat!

Saturday saw Brina don the skis for the first time in a good while too - after a stint of cajoling and some bullying tactics Brina hit the slopes in fine fettle of form. She's still fighting off the dratted lurgy, but had a blast on the slopes and was even coaxed down a number of the steeper runs.

Here she is zipping off the first lift of the day, a la Franz Klammer. It was great to be out in the snow, although the temps were still bloody cold. This was remedied however by the fine gift sent across the oceans by brother and sister (inlaw) - thanks Kidda and Luce. The big green jacket I was sporting all day is the perfect wear for winter days in the Rockies - a real toasty number, plus the most gadgets and pockets of any jacket ever made - pockets for goggles, pouches for phones (not that I own one), seceret holes for ipod headphones, stashed chamois for cleaning lenses - I'm sure there's even a toothbrush holder tucked away in one of the arms; but am yet to find it.

The evening was spent in this room in Lake Louise;

They even put the flag on top for us. What made it better was views like this below from the bedroom in the morning;

Saturday night was topped off with some fine apres ski in Lake Louise - hosted by Alexender Keith's finest Indian Pale Ale (actually real beer that tastes a treat- a rarity for North America), and eager chit chat about how this weeks predicted snow fall will top things up nicely for the first weekend ski of March! There were lots big smiles;

And we reckon there'll be a bit more of this white stuff too;

Hoping you all had a super weekend, and here's to being 31 (or whatever age you are)

Off to have another search for my toothbrush holder,

S&S.

Ageing Ungracefully

I thought I'd best pin up a posting as I lament the rolling on of the real thirties! It always seems much older when you see it written down, but with tomorrow comes the maturity laden 31st birthday. If only my brain would wake up from its teenage beliefs and irresponsible attitude. On the bright side however I have been told that 40 is the new 30, which makes me 21 tomorrow - an equation I much prefer to work with.

There are a lack of photos today - I had a memory card full of last weekend's trip to Sunshine with Brad (twas his second day on skis and I semi consciously thought it would be a good idea to hack down a few double black diamonds - oops) however, I have neglected to recall the precise location of my camera. I hope to find it before Saturday as Brina and I are off to Lake Louise for the weekend (and it's still snowing!!!).

I realised that I was becoming a little more accustomed to the winter this morning as, when stepping out the front door with just a jumper (yes N.American people that would be a sweater - not that it was sweaty) I felt rather at ease to leave my coat behind in the pre dawn light. It wasn't until I saw that it was still minus 13 that I got goose bumps and wished for the car to heat up faster.

I've put a link onto the blog to Portland Ken's blog site - he's one of the American fellows referred to in many postings, a more foul mouthed Yankie cock a doodle doo who berates anything and everything not made of limestone and covered in snow or ice - his main target of hatred being his great leader Bush - some of the stars and stripes waving loonies see the light. He has a rather entertaining account of forays around the Canadian Rockies - the blog is "oregoncanadian.blogspot.com", thought I'd best write it out as no doubt I'll be defeated by the technology when it comes to putting a link on here.

Well, don't want to bore the socks off you too much, will get interest of the weekend up here by Monday - Hopefully will spend Friday night in a haze of Guniness wishing myself happy 21st.

Bottoms up,

S&S.

Dig to Victory

Hi All!

The snow hasn't stopped for the past week or so, resulting in a tremendous amount of shovelling the driveway - alas, a hideously mundane topic for the veteran Canadians amongst you, but still a hilarious novelty for the fresh faced immigrants, who never had anything as remotely interesting to while away thier evenings during winter in their homelands (although I do note that the British equivalent of this would be me getting excited about mowing the lawn for the umpteenth time in a week). Keeping a tight ship in Cochrane means I have to crack the whip with the scivvy at times;

Although the scivvy soon promoted herself to Captain, tossed the shovel over her shoulder and demoted me to finish the job off myself "yee lazy landlubber". Unsurprisingly Brina wasn't as interested as I was that I'd cleared 4 inches of snow off the drive last night, and this dump was just from when we'd been out at work (the Canadian instinct in her kicks in to retreat indoors, light the fire, put the kettle on and keep fingers crossed for warmer weather). I was inclined to agree after 20 more minutes outside as the minus 28 wind chill had numbed my nose (again).

Here's Brina in happier times, just before the mutiny (I was reluctant to tell her about the bit she missed near the garage - that was my downfall - note: when wife is working, don't comment on progress - constructive criticism isn't advised).

As winter begins to really grab us by the short and curlies, occassional thoughts of that pool we had in Miami cross our minds (very briefly, before making backcountry boarding plans for the weekend - hurray!). And, just to get in the spirit of things, I have been driving a chuffing huge truck around for the past two weeks - it's a monster, and I feel the back of my neck getting redder by the minute - all I need now is a gun rack and a chequered hunting cap with ear flaps! A couple from work have lent us the truck while Brina is just working half days at school - the couple were going to be giving me a lift into work each day, and Brina was going to drive - but rather than give me a lift, they gave me their big fat 4x4 monster. I thought it was a really nice gesture, but on reflection it seems to be saying "I don't want to drive to work with you soooo much that I'm prepared to offload my shiney truck to you for as long as is necessary!?" Only kidding, it's been ideal;

It's all a bit like painting the Golden Gate Bridge, shovelling our driveway. The snow hasn't stopped, and by this time tomorrow it'll be out with the big yellow shovel again to make sure we don't get buried in, so it'll be more of this for Brina;whilst I put the kettle on and swab the decks. Aye aye me hearties,

Put your back into it (whatever it is),

Keep on truckin'

S&S.

Lets Split

How Do All! It's time to recant a few more tales from the chateau Williams:
Life has been speeding us by as we already race into February, lessons at work are being completed now which should really have been done in November and the winter is half gone (but in the optimistic sense at least there is still half the winter left!). The temps began to rise today as it reached the giddy heights of 9 degrees in Cochrane - I've not been privvy to such a balmy day for months - although it's back to normal tomorrow as the high is forecast at minus 13 with oodles of snow, followed by minus 17 for Wed, Thur and Friday highs - and snow every day!!!!!!!

Now it's down to the gritty stuff! Saturday was one of those priceless days where you think "bloody hell, it's great this place". Brad and I cruised up the Banff/Jasper highway (Icefield's Parkway) armed with split boards (snowboards that come in two pieces to be used as skis to slide uphill for those of you unfamiliar with winter accessories) and the usual avalanche regalia, searching for big mountains and deep powder. The southern flank of Cirque Peak was our just rewards - snow deep enough to drown in, no other tracks, no other people, clear blue sky, views across the vally to Bow glacier, Crowfoot glacier and the icefields. Skinning up the hill on the split boards was entertaining enough, and certainly well worth it for the decent:

In the glee of picking our own lines all day, I neglected to get the camera out apart from the shot above. Each hour or so skin up was well worth the ride down (even after becoming burried in a tree well for several minutes after a close call with one of the pines - snow way above my head as I tumbled down to the base of the tree only to be covered by more snow following me into the hole). I was thinking I was becoming a bit fitter, but playing around between 8 and 9000 feet makes you gasp like a steam engine - and calls for extra concentration when putting the board together at the top of the hill - you don't wont one half of the split to go skittering off downslope - it's a long walk to the bottom:

And that's just Saturday! Sunday saw a stint to Sunshine with Yankie Brad and Portland Ken. Being Brad's (different to Canuck Brad of Saturday) first day on skis at a big resort, we were expecting some serious wipeout humour - but alas, he hung onto the black diamonds rather well and the day was a treat! It was great fun to be riding the slopes with them both - even though they are skiers - and American. (I'll make the coffee stronger next time).

All in all, the weekend was ace and fuelled me well for the arduous week ahead - had a cancer check at hospital today and it would seem that my blood, chest, lungs, liver and testicle are all in good health (so there's even more to smile about),

Here's to the second half of winter,

Make every turn count,

Big smiles to you all,

S&S.