Some winter snaps
Much of winter in Canada is devoted to huddling inside away from the well below zero temperatures and avoiding driving on the ice/snow encrusted roads. The rest of it, we go skiing. Snowboarding in Jasper, backcountry skiing wherever our fancy takes us or even just yo-yoing up the local Snow Valley ski hill for practise mid-week if we feel like it. It's the northern equivalent of dropping by the beach for a surf, except with a fair bit more organization and gear involved...
So a lot of what I missed writing about this winter while in hibernation was our awesome ski trips and some of the photos we took while on them (granted that by the end of the season we just gave up on taking a camera because you never remember to use it when there's fresh powder lying around waiting to be carved upon).
Without further ado:
These two were taken on an unfortunately foreshortened backcountry daytrip to Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park. It was -35C but a beautiful clear day and sadly the glue on my skins for skiing up the hill just couldn't handle the conditions, hence I couldn't get up the hill, so we had to go home. But it was a great little walk in the woods until that point...
Frostsicles...
Icelashes...
Another trip we did was snowboarding at Marmot (also in Jasper National Park) with Kate McCormack who was staying with us for a quick sojourn before making her way to the Netherlands to reunite with Bas. As you can see, she was well kitted out for the experience and having only boarded three or four days previously was amazingly good at it.
All geared up...
Only two photos taken all day...
The most intense backcountry trip was one I took with Ken, Mac and Andy to a little slice of remote backcountry heaven called the Shangrila Hut. This log cabin is tucked away in a valley about 3 hours trek in from the Maligne Lake Road and was just the most stunning place to base a long weekend of telemarking from. I had been sick with a bad stomach flu for the week before this trip and had only eaten solid food the night before we skiied in so the first day was insanely gruelling. When we stopped at the halfway point I thought I had given everything I had, but little did I know that there was a lot more work to do to get to the cabin. I don't think I've ever pushed myself that hard physically before, but it was well worth it as I think some of these photos show.
The long meadow on the way in (this was after halfway)...
I've never been so glad to see a hut before...
Mac cosy and relaxed inside the cabin...
Enjoying the sunshine at lunchtime...
And finally there was one other memorable trip to Hilda Ridge in not so great conditions, where we had another equipment failure and this was about the only piece of backup gear that Ken didn't have in his very well stocked pack. Once the binding snaps on you like this you either fix it or spend the rest of the day wading through hip deep powder down the hill to get out. Not a pleasant prospect by any means, so we fixed it, with a hose clamp and a bit of local materials. Not a bad job all things considered and good enough to get us back to the car in one piece.
Running repairs...
More winter photos and stories to come...
So a lot of what I missed writing about this winter while in hibernation was our awesome ski trips and some of the photos we took while on them (granted that by the end of the season we just gave up on taking a camera because you never remember to use it when there's fresh powder lying around waiting to be carved upon).
Without further ado:
These two were taken on an unfortunately foreshortened backcountry daytrip to Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park. It was -35C but a beautiful clear day and sadly the glue on my skins for skiing up the hill just couldn't handle the conditions, hence I couldn't get up the hill, so we had to go home. But it was a great little walk in the woods until that point...
Frostsicles...
Icelashes...
Another trip we did was snowboarding at Marmot (also in Jasper National Park) with Kate McCormack who was staying with us for a quick sojourn before making her way to the Netherlands to reunite with Bas. As you can see, she was well kitted out for the experience and having only boarded three or four days previously was amazingly good at it.
All geared up...
Only two photos taken all day...
The most intense backcountry trip was one I took with Ken, Mac and Andy to a little slice of remote backcountry heaven called the Shangrila Hut. This log cabin is tucked away in a valley about 3 hours trek in from the Maligne Lake Road and was just the most stunning place to base a long weekend of telemarking from. I had been sick with a bad stomach flu for the week before this trip and had only eaten solid food the night before we skiied in so the first day was insanely gruelling. When we stopped at the halfway point I thought I had given everything I had, but little did I know that there was a lot more work to do to get to the cabin. I don't think I've ever pushed myself that hard physically before, but it was well worth it as I think some of these photos show.
The long meadow on the way in (this was after halfway)...
I've never been so glad to see a hut before...
Mac cosy and relaxed inside the cabin...
Enjoying the sunshine at lunchtime...
And finally there was one other memorable trip to Hilda Ridge in not so great conditions, where we had another equipment failure and this was about the only piece of backup gear that Ken didn't have in his very well stocked pack. Once the binding snaps on you like this you either fix it or spend the rest of the day wading through hip deep powder down the hill to get out. Not a pleasant prospect by any means, so we fixed it, with a hose clamp and a bit of local materials. Not a bad job all things considered and good enough to get us back to the car in one piece.
Running repairs...
More winter photos and stories to come...
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