Sk8r Boi?

I have a new hobby. Obviously I needed more hobbies... and the gear that goes with them. After a quite a lot of intention, but no action, I finally made it to the Hollyburn cross-country ski area on Monday night to be taught to skate ski by Dan. After an amusing amount of falling over and generally flailing around on the skinny, lightweight skis and funny slipper-like boots I got some kind of forward propulsion going on. Dan made a video of me (for instructional purposes) and kindly edited out all the parts where I fell on my face. Thanks Dan!

Functional, but not stylish.

Since Monday night I have managed to buy myself a complete set of skate ski gear for $100 and go skiing 4 times. I'm hooked... it's so much fun! I've got a lot faster (though not much more stylish) and think that skating around the forest will be a regular part of my life in the winter. Hopefully I will be able to avoid dressing like this.

Of course I haven't abandoned telemark skiing, which after all is still a Nordic style. Kala, Sarah and I headed out to Mt Zoa to enjoy the sunshine and some rather dubious snow conditions. We entertained ourselves by digging a very fine snow pit to do snow stability tests and practicing our beacon searches. The ski down had a few moments of fun skiing and rather more moments of wrestling through trees... but that's the backcountry for you, and the way it should be.

Beacon hunt.

Mountain lunchtime.

Sunshine... a rare January commodity in BC.