Category: canada

Boxing Day ski

Boxing Day dawned a bit grey and dreary, but at least it wasn’t terribly cold or windy, so we headed to Mount Shark for a ski. It was surprisingly quiet as we set off, with very few other cars or people to be seen.

Somehow I ended up being talked into skiing out to the Spray River bridge, despite being on my skate skis, which were totally unsuited to the trail. I think this largely ended up happening as I had no idea what I was agreeing to.

But it worked out to be a nice little 16km jaunt. As I wasn’t towing the Chariot, I was still feeling fresh though. So I convinced myself it would be a good idea to get Alex to drop me off at the Nordic Centre on the way back to Canmore so I could ski another 34km, thus bringing my total for the day up to 50km.

The only pitfall to this idea was that I decided to ski a whole lot of the harder trails I’d never skied before, so it took quite a while, and without a headlamp I had some fun making my way home in the dark. Nevertheless, the mission was a success! The crazy plan for January is to ski all of the Nordic Centre trails in a day. What could possibly go wrong?

Tags chariot, k-country, kananaskis, mount shark

canada general moosling snow

Christmas

Post author By megan
Post date 25.12.2013
No Comments on Christmas

Christmas Day followed the by now fairly traditional pattern of Alex being at work, and the Moosling and I hanging out at home opening a few presents. The difference this year being that no-one was sick, and the boy was actually keen on the whole presents thing. Although when I told him that the Ho Ho had brought some presents, he was a little dubious. On arriving upstairs he declared: “Where is the Ho Ho? Ho Ho gone! *points out window* No, was Mama. Mama did presents.” So that didn’t last long.

So there was the donning of the festive apparel (new Toy Story t-shirts, amongst others), and the eating of the chocolate frog, followed by the running-around-getting-ready-to-go-skiing. After driving in with others, we caught the gondola up to Sunshine Village, and the Moosling went to hang out in daycare for a couple of hours (quite happily, as there was scary wind outside). I got a couple of hours skiing in, and was not terribly sad to have to stop at midday, as it really was a bit windy and miserable despite being theoretically fairly warm.

The afternoon was spent cooking, and being sprayed with the water pistol which the unthinking Mama had gifted the small child. And then came the eating of the tasty food, the setting fire to the pudding, and the going home early to bed, as it had been quite a long day.

The next day brought about the testing of the full body climbing harness, and the discovery that it certainly works quite well for swinging at any rate.

Tags christmas, gondola

canada general hiking

Five Dames and a Dog: Winter Solstice Expedition

Post author By megan
Post date 22.12.2013
No Comments on Five Dames and a Dog: Winter Solstice Expedition

The expedition was planned to ascend Ha Ling Peak, meeting in town at 6.15am, loading the crates of champagne into our cars, and setting off from there.

The trail was well packed, but it was still slow going, so we didn’t make it to the summit for sunrise. At least we were at treeline as all the clouds turned brilliant shades of pink though.

It was a glorious morning for it, calm and crisp, and the views were wonderful once we made it to the summit.

And now the sun is returning! Thank you sun!

Darkly through the trees we set off

Melissa at sunrise

Lulu and Sarah at sunrise

Kat, bringing her sister Michelle along for her first mountain ascent

Making our way up the snowy scree slope

Sleepy looking Canmore

Morning light on Ha Ling Peak summit

Sarah on her way to the summit

Summit!

On the way down, I realised how late it was getting, so I ended up running Lulu back down to the car, before running myself back down to town.

Tags solstice, winter solstice

canada general snow trail running

This is what it looks like when you go running when it’s -26oC outside

Post author By megan
Post date 6.12.2013
No Comments on This is what it looks like when you go running when it’s -26oC outside

The sky is gorgeous, clear and blue, and everything sparkles, even the air (sadly not captured at all well by a slightly foggy phone camera, but you’ll have to take my word for it).

Your lens fogs up, so you can’t properly capture the misty river, steaming in the cold air, and flowing sludgily with ice.

And your breath freezes on everything it touches.

During this cold spell we also tried the famous “throw a container full of freshly boiled water into the air and watch it vaporise”. And it really does work!

canada general moosling

Before it got cold – where we find a Christmas tree, and go for a walk

Post author By megan
Post date 1.12.2013
No Comments on Before it got cold – where we find a Christmas tree, and go for a walk

The Christmas Tree gang

The enthusiasm when the walk begins – keen to carry the backpack

Out along the Bow River, it’s snowy, but not too cold. The sun never gets very high in the sky this time of year, spending most of the time skirting the mountains and peeping out at us.