Yup, thats me eating again at the top of Mt. Baldwin. The only reason I go to the top is for Jen's Banana Bread. Its been a great month of multiventure here in Squamish. The weather has been awesome, clear skies, cool temperatures but not a lot of precipitation until this week. Here's a Recapadamonth.
Beginning of Feb had a great 25km ski tour into Callaghan Lodge, nordic site of the 2010 Olympics. Beautiful lodge in a beautiful location with great touring possibilities. It was just a quick in and out on this day. Managed to get up Mount Mulligan which is just north of where I was eating this banana bread. I took Big Sea, my dog, up and it turned into an epic with her. Reminder to myself to not take her touring off trail.
I was also back on my stand up paddle board and did a short tour out to Anvil Island in Howe Sound. Back on the skis with friends, Michelle and Michael, to have some of the best turns of the year off of Round Mountain in Garibaldi Park. Mt. Baldwin was another great tour and day with Jen. Started hiking the Chief this month, snow covered in areas but great training none the less. Managed to get on the bike as well a little bit of cross training, combined with some runs on the Cheekeye Trails(trails not quite ready yet). One of my best days was on the SUP again as I paddled from Furry Creek to Britannia Beach and back. I paddled back in a 20 knot wind that came up quickly and managed to surf a few downwind waves. I was also thrown from the board for the first time in the Sound on a particularly knarly section rounding a point. I was wearing my wetsuit so all was good and i had a big smile on my face. Finally I went back up to Paul Ridge for some deep powder turns after receiving 40-50cms of snow this week.
This weekend I am looking at doing the
Big Mountain Battle at Sun Peaks in Kamloops. It is basically a backcountry ski randonee race where you have to grab a bunch of checkpoints on the mountain. This should be a lot of fun and quite the challenge and would be my first ski race this year. The following weekend I am really excited to race in my first Stand Up paddleboard race in
Qualicum Beach.
For me, my season of coaching the women's basketball team is complete. This will now open up some weekends for more great adventures and fun in the outdoors.
Well not really but March 8th Jen and I headed to Qualicum Beach in hopes of competing in our first stand up paddleboard race. We awoke to a heavy snowfall and strong Northerly outflow winds in Nanaimo. I thought it was perfect conditions for the BC race. I was pretty excited and when we got to Qualicum Beach, well, it was really cold with choppy conditions and strong onshore winds. There was about 15 of us and the group consensus was that the conditions were a little tough for the first race. Most people had trouble standing on their boards but I had been training in some solid conditions in Howe Sound and it looked pretty fun to me. They decided to have the race at a later date when conditions were better for the general public. I decided to do the course anyways and it took me about 30 minutes. It was pretty wavy but I loved it. Instead the group all headed out and practiced some surfing right off the beach. Jen managed to catch some of her first waves and she had a huge smile on her face all day. She might be ready for Jaws now but we have to get to Hawaii first. It was fun playing around in the wind swell and always great prac
tice for balance and the core. Such an incredible workout. I guess we will just have to wait for the next race, hopefully in California where the normal people are paddling without wetsuits and toque's. It was great though to be with other SUPers and I know this sport will be taking off up here. Canadian SUPing at it's best.......cold, windy, wavy, numb fingers and other parts........and snow. Thanks a lot to Island Longboards and Todd for trying to se this up for us.
