Trophy Cabin 2011

A week in the mountains with friends, good times, broken skis, fixed skis, couloirs, craters, sunshine, and snow. I'll write something better than that eventually, but for now here are Tom's photos, Chuck's photos, My photos, and Lina's photos.

Me, just moments before eating snow, losing a ski, and sliding down the hill on my ass.
Still... it was fun while it lasted, and I got my ski back.

Up the Duffey

This weekend I had an unexpected experience - I got the chance to stay at McEwan`s Farm in Pemberton, which I now know I`ll have to come back to in the summer to sample excellent U-pick strawberries. I met the horses, cows, calves, and cats... and ate part of a 300lbs Elk, and some apple crisp. We visited the Blackbird Bakery in Pemberton, which produced one of the finest croissants my ongoing search has found in North America. Amongst all this wholesome farmyard activity and gluttony.. we went skiing too. Excellent.

Despite an alarming number of my skiing friends choosing to attach their heels to their skis these days, we had a strong tele-turnout this weekend and were rewarded with fine snow. We climbed to Mt Chief Pascal on Saturday in hot sun and worked our way across to the shady spots to find the good snow before the sun cooked it into a crusty feast. After numerous attempts in the past, I think we found the "right way" down this time through cuts in the forest and a fun run back down to the road. Sunday brought some clouds and flurries, but joined by SJ and Alex we got a couple of great long runs in under Mt Cayoosh.

More photos here. Thank you to Jason, his family, and the farmyard animals for a fantastic weekend!

Climbing Mt Chief Pascal on Saturday

Luisa riding the line between light and darkness

Three Colours Bike

These days I have 3 mountain bikes again. This is a very happy situation for a mountain biker to find themselves in... so much so that I feel I have reached a state of enlightenment in bicycle ownership. I never find myself wishing I had a different kind of bike, and each bike is particularly good at some specific thing which gives it an identity. How many and what kinds of bike someone needs is a perennial topic of discussion, to which I think the only honest answer is: you don't "need" any bikes at all. Ignoring that conclusion... I have 6. I think 5 would be a better number but I always seem to eventually end up with 6. Three mountain bikes, a touring bike, a BMX, and a utilitarian beast of burden.

Whilst moving my mountain bikes around at lunchtime I found they stack quite neatly against each other. I'm sure this is very significant, so I took a photo of it. Now I'd better eat some lunch and get some work done if I'm going to go for a ride later.

From right to left: The Orange Bike, my new bike, and the White Elephant.