Harrah for O'Hara

Not enough snow in Cochrane to make it feel like winter, so we went further afield from Alberta's sunny skies to BC (realize now that BC=Bloody Cloudy). Headed up the road to Lake O'Hara and was all very nice!

Getting the first shot of winter fixes me like a triple espresso with a hint of Jim Beam! We're all fired up for the rest of the season now, and were pleased to see the snow falling as we left the Lake O'Hara parking lot (always amazes me how much more snow they get just over the divide than here). Plenty of folk were kicking around Lake Louise as we passed through on the way home, as it's the start of the World Cup DownHill Ski-ing season there this weekend.

I took the video because I knew I would be in the "can't be arsed to write much" mode this evening - and lo and behold I was correct! So, that's that then!

Hoping you're all getting a good shot of something,

S&S.

Spwinter

Well waddya know? more weeks have idled by without me having made much of an impact upon the world in general (although this is very much not the case with the microcosm that is work, but I'm not really meant to discuss such matters, so that's the end of that conversation).
So..
a week or so back we did have a little bit of this...

A pre-going for a coffee on the weekend shovelling of the driveway had made me get rather excited and enthusiastic about snowboards, deep powder and avalanche dodging.
The resident Eskimo of Cochrane got all geared up....

and with the gearing up for a harsh winter, came balmy temperatures, a big melting of the snow, dry trails and a strange sense of "is this summer again?".

Even up on Nihani Ridge last weekend, the dusty trails were making it tempting to get out the mtb instead of the board, and looking west from the ridge, it doesn't really look like winter has even thought about visiting yet....

So apart from becoming all confused and distraught at the indecisive seasons, the mundanity of suburbia's 9-5 Monday to Friday thing continues to wear us down - but vigorous sessions on the rowers and falling off the rollers keep insanity at bay!!! Mrs. W is ticking off the days until Christmas, and then we're off to Panorama and Kicking Horse for a bit of resort ski-ing (just hope the bloody snow has come back by then, otherwise it'll be tennis and croquet on the green slopes). Brina was all keen to get the Christmas tree up this weekend, but it has officially been banned until Dec 1st - although the sneaky lass put up a load of Christmas decorations in the house when I nipped out for a ride at the weekend - so it reinforces my fear that my say in official bans in this house mean absolutely bugger all - so I've succumb to the early Christmas cheer (if you can't beat 'em, join 'em).

This is the time of year when the week long half term holiday is sorely missed, but we're trying to compensate for that by getting out into the hills every weekend. Looks like we will actually get the XC skis waxed up and running this Saturday out on the divide trail from Lake Louise to Field in BC, so that shoul be good fun!

Hoping that all the good stuff isn't melting away,

Get ready to untangle your baubles,

S&S.

Here we go!!!!!

So the much anticipated snowfall and ski resort openings are now fully underway (well, underway - it's hardly fully underway when only 3 out of 136 runs at Lake Louise are open). We had Tuesday off work (Remembrance Day Holiday), and headed out to Delta Lodge for a wee hike and lunch, to see if winter had touched K Country yet...

And it had - just... . We had planned to have more of a relaxing wander around K Country, the major intention was of the day was based primarily around sitting and drinking coffee, although all didn't go according quite to plan when we (I) thought it would be a good idea to take an infamous 'short cut' through the undergrowth to get back to Delta Lodge. Neglecting to observe the fact that we were on the wrong side of the river (well, just ignoring the fact due to my disdain for hiking back along the route you came), we ended up following deer and Elk through the trees on an extra 2 hour detour (well, we certainly earned ourselves the coffee and cake anyway).

The weekend saw a bit of Saturday sauntering the streets of Banff (the idea to go for a ride in the hills was thwarted by icy winds and flurries - I'm just getting soft in my old age), followed by Brina writing reports for school, and me having to read a shed load of teachers' reports to make sure they've not made any mistakes (Like I know!!!).

Sunday was a delight as we got a good couple of inches (at least) of snow, although it brings back the fun of sweeping down the car and scraping the windshield in order just to go for morning Lattes...

Other than that, work is same, although Brina seems to be enjoying the lovey dovies at Morley which is nice. The rollers have been getting a good spinning, and I have somehow become far too obsessed for an Englishman in the NFL (Throw a bit of razzmatazz, cheerleaders and pyrotechnics into a sport and it beats a dross Premiership game from rainy Hull anyday).

Fingers crossed that we'll be out ski-ing next weekend! We have finally booked our Christmas ski trip (knocked Whistler on the head as we needed a second mortgage to visit for just an afternoon, nearly booked Whitefish, but then plucked a 4 day pass for Panorama and Kicking Horse for a meagre $134 - so that was decision made, Pano and Golden here we come!).

Hopefully your snowfalls are light and fluffy,

Happy scraping,

S&S.

Funny Sky, shingles and where's the snow?

Hi all...When I'm posting the front cover of the local rag, rather than some funky shots from our very own Kodak, you know full well that we've been up to bugger all - again! I had insisted that the rather humorous dickhead learning to ride rollers video was coming up - but even my self depricating sarcasm doesn't go that deep (just have a look on youtube for knobs on rollers and you'll get the picture). However, on that note I have now notched up being able to ride the rollers for an hour without dabbing the wall or friction burning my face along the laminate floor.
As you can see from the front page of the Eagle, we had a really manic Chinook sky the other night - this is what it looked like out front of the house (minus the combine harvester), but things have gone back chilly again, we actually had some snow at last, and the mountains are slowly getting into shape for skis and boards!
The only bugger is that I have to go clambering around on the roof tomorrow to put some shingles back up there which have been whipped off by the aforementioned Chinooks - I suppose we should expect to consistently loose parts of our roof, being the edge of town wind stopper buffer houses for the rest of Cochrane. Bit of a pain that the roofing project is going to cut into my century ride time for the weekend - but a roof that works is most probably more important than a long ride (or so I've been told anyway; personally, I'm not so sure).
The rest of the week has been filled with busy crap and snoozing on the couch (when not skidding off rollers anyway). With the clocks going back last weekend, the evenings are still catching me out as I keep thinking it's about 9.30pm when in fact it's just gone 5pm - evening coffees are a must! The historical Obama trick was all rather exciting - who'd have guessed that those Yanks can make such impressive world changing decisions!?!?!?!
I'm really hoping that I've got something a little more exciting to prattle on about next week ('cos it'll mean I've gotten my arse off the couch and been out and about this weekend).
We're finalizing our next holiday plans (by "we", I mean "Brina") she is way better at doing all the booking and stuff (because she actually does it, rather than just turning up at a place and hoping for the best). We're looking at Whistler for Christmas (with a possible hint of Revelstoke).
May all your clocks go forward not back,
S&S.