Categories
canada general

pine marten

pinemarten
This little beastie was one of a few that’s been trapped around work recently, living in the nice warm buildings. It’s really an American Marten, rather than a Pine Marten, and it was surprisingly placid compared to some of the others that are trapped. Rather than snarling and biting, he just sat there licking the cage.

They’re little omnivores, and according to wikipedia, they catch and eat squirrels (I stand by my belief that Canadian wildlife is much more alarming than Australian wildlife). As well as frogs and fish and fruit and whatever else they can find laying about.

And the random fact I always think of when I see one [SPOILER WARNING]: if you’ve read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, a pine marten is what Lyra’s daemon ends up becoming as his final form.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Categories
canada climbing

chronologically speaking

A visual diary of my afternoon/evening:

 

I am at work. I look at Mount Bourgeau.

 

 

I am at Mount Bourgeau. I look at work.

 

 

I go from Mount Bourgeau back down to work.

 

In between, I look around at the mountains and the yellow aspen, and listen to the wind blowing through the trees, and I climb and do not fall despite the strange slanting of the rock which gives the disconcerting sensation that the mountain is casually shrugging you off.

Categories
canada general snow

80th annual slush cup at sunshine village

The Slush Cup – the idea is to ski or snowboard down this slope and launch yourself at the pond of freezing cold water.
 

 

Prizes go to those who do it in the best style. Some even make it across.
 

 

Getting more speed at the start was helpful. But even with speed, the majority of the attempts ended like this:
 

 

Categories
canada general snow

new years day 2008

8:30am at work, as the sun desperately tries to rise.

Categories
canada general snow

hurrah for the pineapple express

Over the last week or so, a nice big flow of warm moist air has been sweeping over here from Hawaii – the particular weather pattern is referred to as the Pineapple Express, and is renowned for bringing large dumps of snow. We got 50 or 60 cm over a few days, and the snow has kept trickling in since. Today was the first day with much blue sky since all the snow arrived to cover the diminishing base…

 

Heading up to the top of Lookout Mountain

 

Not a bad view to ski to