Category: canada

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canada general moosling

Polaroid success

I got a Polaroid 420 Land Camera for Christmas – and so far it’s been a very gradual process of getting the power supply to the shutter working properly, getting things cleaned, and then working out how long things have to be exposed for at what temperature, and the best method for pulling out the photo from the camera without ending up with chemical stains on the final photo.

But we (the Moosling and I) wandered down to the river the other day, and I took a photo. We got back home, and I let the camera warm up, and eventually remembered to develop it, hours later. Which resulted in this:

Hurrah! Polaroid success. Now to improve my strike-rate…

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canada general

Some random January adventures

Because somehow yet again, another month has passed. They keep doing that now. Whoosh, and all these things I’d meant to do are still un-done – but on the plus side, at least the days are quickly getting longer again.

We went for a wander up Grotto Canyon, just because. And then wished we’d taken our climbing gear (ice, not rock, it wasn’t that warm).

grotto canyon

We skied, and there were mountains, and clear blue skies.

views from sunshine

And then, the weather decided to make up for the super mild winter by dropping down to the minus 25-30oC range, just for a bit. A few days later it was back up to 4oC. VERY CONFUSING. Also leading to all of the nice river paths being covered in acres of ice. I tried to go for a run with the Chariot, without any cleats on my shoes (it had been ok a couple of days before), and had a very interesting backwards slide down an icy hill, Chariot slithering down after me.

cold spell

And we had meme-cake for Alex’s birthday (EAT ALL THE CAKE!)

eat ALL the cake

More happened that wasn’t photographed, it seems my camera has been in hibernation for the month of January. February is looking good so far, and if this weather keeps up, the mountain biking/hiking season will start nice and early.

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canada general

Boxing Day, Canadian style

Skating out on the pond on Boxing Day – there’d been recent snow though, so it was hard work.

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canada general moosling snow

Christmas again! Already? Surely not.

For the first time since we’ve been in Canada, we got a real, genuine, not-made-out-of-newspaper-or-a-stack-of-old-tins Christmas tree. It smells of tree and has covered the house in pine needles, even if it is only sparsely decorated with home-made cinnamon stars (although now we have a rock-climbing Santa and a telemarking Santa to fill in the gaps a little).

We spent the traditional morning at the ski hill – and it snowed! And it was really warm, continuing the trend of this winter.

Unfortunately just as the flakes were getting lovely at fat and soft, I had to head home to get some cooking done. The offspring thinks the gondola ride is pretty cool though.

Christmas dinner was tasty, and silly hats were worn.

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canada general moosling snow trip reports

Skiing Skogan Pass

This was another of the “really local but never done it before” outings. Earlier in the year, in Spring, we’d try to bike up Skogan Pass from Canmore but got turned back by snow near the top. This time we were approaching from the Nakiska side on skis.

Once we skied through Nakiska and gained a little elevation the snow was in great condition, and almost untouched. It’s a really gradual climb up to the pass, no steep hills, just lots of weaving back and forth through the trees, then under the powerlines. We saw some cat tracks crossing the path at one point near the summit (maybe a lynx?)

After a really late lunch at the summit, we realised our late start was about to get the better of us – if we didn’t hurry the sun would be gone soon. And although we did have one headlamp between us, it would be dark and cold, and there were wolves.

Luckily the ski back down was just that (it went down), so we were back at the car in just an hour – barely managing the last section through the trees without a headlight.

We weren’t eaten by any wolves either.

Distance: 24km (I think?)
Elevation gain: 200m
Chariot skiability: Perfect for towing a Chariot up
We started at Ribbon Creek trailhead, although it would have been easy enough to park at Nakiska too. Full trail description here.