FIRST SKI TOUR OF THE SEASON

Up at 5:30am today to get out for the first ski tour of the season. It has been a late season for the snow but we finally got some overnight and it was snowing heavily this morning. Today I headed up for a quick blast to Red Heather. We were able to ski right from the parking lot and the snow was pretty good up by the hut and on the ridge. It felt great to be back on the skis and I am looking forward to a great season. Tomorrow I am thinking about Baker backcountry or Duffy Lake, leaning towards Baker since they might have gotten more snow from this last storm system. It will be another early rise and Big Sea will be along for the ride. I will have to tell her to get some good rest tonight.

MILEAGE ON THE SUP

Well my first ski tour last winter was November 12 and with the late arrival of the snow here on the coast i have been putting in a lot of time on my stand up paddleboard. It has been awesome. In the last month I have paddled from Porteau Cove to Lion's Bay here on Howe sound. I made it out to Tofino and had an incredible surf session with it. It is a pretty amazing feeling picking up the waves long before anyone else is able to get onto them. I was the only SUPer out there as well which felt pretty cool to be doing something not a lot of people are doing yet. I also got a taste of the open coast paddling from North Chestermans to Mackenzie Beach in decent swell and current. It is very energizing paddling the outer coast and it fuels me to want to do more and bigger trips. The alone time is great and the focus on the now is the way we should be living. After Tofino I made a trip down to Washington and paddled some great lakes down there as you can see from the picture. My paddling power is developing and the body is becoming adapted to moving this board efficiently. Last week I paddled the Sound again and headed over to Woodfibre, a wood processing plant that has recently shut down. The plant opened in 1912 and provided years of work for the people of Squamish and area. It was an interesting historical paddled. At the height of the plant there was 500 plus people and now there is nobody, pretty much a ghost town with a few companies dismantling the plant. I did realize how there is zero sea life around there due to the heavy contaminants that have been dumped into the sound for decades. After a bunch of training paddles on Alice Lake and a few more in the sound i was getting ready for some ski touring to balance out the lower body with the upper. The stand up paddle boarding is a ton of fun, a great workout and gives you the chance to explore and feel the freedom that being on the water can provide.