The 11th Hour at 10 O' clock

Gotcha! The 52nd post that is. For some reason unbeknown to me (or anyone), I set myself little goals that I have to achieve - one of which was to get 52 posts on the blog this year - and this is the 52nd (a good two hours before the year is out - woo hoo, how we party on a New Year's Eve). If it wasn't for my curious obsession with meeting targets, I most certainly wouldn't be writing a blog right now - I would in fact be tucked up in bed, sound asleep, safe in the knowledge that although it's a New Year tomorrow, bugger all will be different and the calendar will also change every day from now until the end of time (so what's all the fuss about?). Brina and I went out for a New Year's Eve meal - yesterday... figuring it is always too busy and overpriced on New Year's Eve (and the days aren't that contrasting).
Today has seen a fun time out in the back country at Healy Creek on the split board with Brad (not on a split board - very wise!).

Here's a shot of Weible ski-ing out as the sun was setting. There was plenty of snow, and the trail back was narrow enough for some sharp turns in the trees (and a few close calls).

Not that I want to subject you to the horror of funny faced, oddly speaking Englishman in the cold, atop a mountain, here're a couple of videos from the top of Healy Pass - It was cloudy as sin and we couldn't see much, so you don't get the sense of the rather majestic mountains around us and you miss out on the notion that we have gained any major height up in the Rockies - and I'm sure it was the cold that made my face contort when I'm talking to look like I was holding in a bad un.

A quick flick back at one of September's posts shows Brina and I hiking up in the larches on Healy Pass (so that gives you and idea of what it's like up here).

After a good day out playing in the snow and a bite to eat and a drink at Brad and Julie's, it is most definitely now time for bed - I must be getting old if I can't even make it to 11pm on a New Year's (but I'll just be up earlier in 2009, to see how much everything has changed - maybe my bike will go even faster then!!!).

Happy New Year to you all,

say hello to midnight for me,

S&S.

Happy Festivus

Merry Christmas all... (a day late admittedly, but Brina and I both forgot yesterday morning that it was Christmas - seeing as though we'd impatiently opened our prezzies at Panorama four days earlier, and waking up in Golden on the 25th just didn't seem to have that 'Santa' factor).

Spending a few days at Panorama was great, and a really beautiful contrast to the summer (although we must both be getting old, as despite the wondrous winter scene of the Purcells and great boarding, we both seemed to have a preference for the summer time and warmth, rather than the brassic minus 20 kind of weather - I couldn't stop prattling on about nostalgic spots of the TransRockies "oh, this happened here", and "ah, that happened there", etc...) - although Brina got into the swing of things too - as the video attests...)

Thrashing around on the split board was good fun (the resort board got benched after a few runs of blunt edges and close to fractured wrists and ring piece). However, in my over exuberance of having a the split board up and running, I thought it would be a great idea to skin up to the top of Panorama the following evening (and by evening, I mean pitch black night time!). For some reason unbeknown to man (or wife), I don't always think things through clearly when I get an excitable idea going on. So, sticking on the skins outside a rowdy bar at the base of the slope at 8pm, I set off upslope. Once into the glades I couldn't see too much (the expected light from the snow wasn't the illuminating force that I had in fact expected - more like a vague glow to remind me that the ground was downwards). A couple of close calls with the night-time groomers (which I chased like a car maker after a handout, as they lit up the slopes like an atomic blast, but couldn't keep pace with for more than a minute), then I was at the summit, rather disorientated as to which runs I skinned up, in the pitch black, head torch at home, and then it dawned on me... "shit!, I have to put the split board together". Having struggled to fit the board together properly in the condo a couple of hours earlier, the feat of constructing it in the blind darkness, in the minus holycrap it's cold temps, wearing very un-nimble duck taped mittens, was certainly a challenge (and only then did I begin to think through the associated pitfalls of skinning up at night-time). Somehow it was all very simple!?! but then the final realization of stupidity hit me - going down hill is way faster than going up - and the ability to see no more than one metre ahead isn't worth much when the board is pointing downhill and you start cruising along - so here's a snippet of perhaps the most pointless video ever... (but you get the picture - or don't)..

An early rise the next morning saw for a repeat of the route so that I could get to the top for sunrise and sneak the first runs down before the lifts opened, and this is half way up showing what I should have seen;

A few days over at Golden to ski Kicking Horse was the next stop on the trip, and it was a rather pleasant surprise to see how good the mts are around Golden - (although it was still bloody freezing).

Brina was all tucked up in her downy for the day...

A nice drive home on silent roads through the mts was had on Christmas morning (stopping at Lake Louise for breakfast - which was set at over $60 in the hotel, so a second cup muffin and coffee was opted for instead!). Just plotting a few more days out for the coming week, and am about to relieve the itch of not having cycled for five days with a good few hours on the windtrainer (hope there's a good movie on tv). Brina is about to go and get involved with the Boxing day riots in the sales at Market Mall (she's brave! but has got the feisty 'I want a bargain' attitude going on, so I pity for any unsuspecting shopper who crosses her path at the sales rack).

Hope you all feasted well on big bird,

May your festivus poles be shiny aluminium,

S&S.

Five Oh, and Unhappy Endings

Just thought that a brief 'how do' was in order before we cruise off to Panorama and Kicking Horse for the next few days. Work ended today with fireworks and the usual craziness (I was ducking and diving all the way to the carpark, but seem to have escaped unscathed and now I hope the next 2 weeks will get me fully charged to attack the nonsense head-on in 2009). Another thing to get me fully charged was a massage that Brina had booked me in for - I was hoping to get my legs pummelled after a couple of very hard weeks training and meeting up with the Speed Theory team. Having informed the masseuse that my quads, hamstrings and hip flexors needed some good work, she asked do I want a relaxation massage? I repeated my concern about her need to have a go on my legs, she agreed, then proceeded to rub me down with mint oil, avoid my legs and give the whole 'relaxation massage' thingy! Holy Smokes, I was expecting a Happy Ending at one stage, but alas, it was not to be - perhaps the Pink Pussycat Massage Parlour is more my style... I went in with sore legs, and have come out with nothing but a buggered up neck - so much for relaxation and recovery, I can't turn my head more than 15 degrees either way and feel like I've got whiplash from serious overuse of a pneumatic drill.
The weather continues to bomb down on Alberta, the temps haven't been out of the minus 20s during the daytime all week (god only knows how bloody cold the night-time windchill is, and so long as our heating system continues to work, I have absolutely no interest in finding out). It hasn't really stopped snowing either, so Panorama and Kicking Horse seem to be in great condition and all is good for the next few days. We've got four nights in Pano, and two in Golden, so get back after Christmas (so.. Merry Christmas).
We should have a bucket load of piccies to post before the New Year (and I'm gunning for that obsessed 52 posts per year - we're on 50 right now), so we should make it!
Hope Santa brings everything you asked for,
May your relaxations not be a pain in the neck,
S&S.

GO!!!!!!

So it's all go now! Winter's on!! Hurray!!!

But... the only snag with the big dumps we've had this past week, is the accompanying temperature, which has plummeted to proper brass monkey level - ie: you'll really freeze your brass monkies off (monkey for some of us) if you spend more than 0.5 seconds outside dashing to your car (it's a full on expedition for us to go and check the mail at the moment). -it's minus 30 as I write this late Sunday morning.

Winter had been holding back for November, and even allowed me to get one last kick of the mountain bike in K - Country (however, the mountain bike has clearly had enough for this season, as on this final ride it decided to spit its dummy out and give up.....)

Fortunately, the rear mech decided to wrap itself around my cassette whilst breaking the chain at the top of the first greulling climb, so that I could freewheel most of the way back to the parking lot. That'll teach me to be greedy and try to get one last hit of the trails. Since then however, the snow has really flown and so there's nowt by skis and boards to be hitting the trails now! So I'm resigned to the wind trainer and rollers for a good while (but having hooked up with the Speed Theory bike Team, am getting hellish workouts with them on Mondays and Wednesdays - which is awesome! and should have me in good shape for the next race season - when I'll be hitting the asphalt to race as well as the dirt).

This Saturday was going to see a first stint into the backcountry up on the Icefields Parkway - although neither I or Brad fancied running the gauntlet of the natural avalanches which are falling as easy as French speedos on a nudist beach, or the thought of minus 45 degree windchill - as much as I love the boarding, I also value keeping my extremities too!
Even shovelling the driveway created an agonizing surge of the good old screaming barfies;

As usual the photo doesn't quite sell the story as it should, but I wasn't going to hang around getting a good photo of the bloody driveway and the snow - a 2 second dash to the edge of the garage was all I could muster before I began to weep and had to run back inside.

Mrs. W. is nearly set for the holidays - they break up on Wednesday, so she's been getting all the kids into the festive season and when your lesson plan looks like this...

then no wonder Brina's having a good time teaching this year - although I think maybe she had to eat all the gingerbread men in order to grade them!!!

We're off to Panorama next weekend for a few days ski-ing/boarding, and with all this new snow it should be great! I missed posting something last week, but my OCD compels me to meet the 52 posts a year mark, so no doubt I'll have some more inane prattling on posted up here pretty soon - as time is running short for 2008.

Crank up the heat,

S&S.