The Life and Times of Jolly J

PD#1

2009-12-10T19:54:00.014-04:00

Crabbe Mountain - Dec. 10, 2009

We got our first somewhat significant dump of the season. About half as much as we had hoped for. But most of the Maritimes got rain, we were spared the wet stuff.

First turn in mid way down the glades and I found this deep pocket to play in

Oh oh, skis aren't planing...

YIKES...somehow I skied out of it, but I was pretty bummed to wrecked the line

Not one to be out done, Stefan dropping in next run on the Flume

Click on the pic to see the shear terror look on his face as he knows what's coming

Ouch

Lower down on the Flume, things were a little more consistent and not as wind affected

Stefan enjoying life on the mountain

All work and no play, had to stop and chat with Big Larry who was out base building

Stefan finds the goods

Now that's what I'm talking about

Touring up Embrees

Lovin' Life on the Lower Flume

Good times, as long as you stayed light on your feet which I'm not good at, however, next to no damage inflicted on bodies and skis.

Someday Bigger

2009-11-17T19:43:00.010-04:00

Our last minute trip to Sunday River was cancelled at the last minute. So why not plan another last minute trip. We both had to work early on Monday so it was going to be an up and back trip so we decided to make the most of it and stay the night Saturday night. Right after Chair Evac training at Crabbe on Saturday, Denis and I bolted for the border to get in some early season turns. We booked a room at the Grand Summit on the drive down. When we hit Bangor that is when the skies opened up. Between Bangor and Newport we had a pretty big scare. We were being passed when our headlights picked up a large buck deer standing on the dotted white line. Both vehicles slammed on the brakes and swerved in either directions narrowly missing the deer. The driving got worse and worse the closer we got to SR. It was just so dark and raining so hard.

The plan was to hang out at the Sunday River Brewing Company but for some odd reason it was closed. We checked into the hotel and walked into our room which was sweltering. So we opened the window, cranked the AC and decided to just hang out at the bar in the hotel. It was a quiet night and unfortunately we were unable to watch the Flames beat the Leafs...but the beer was tasty, and being a quiet night had fun chatting with the waitress and the bartender. It's a been too many way to busy weeks in a row. It was nice just to kick back and relax.

We awoke to grey skis and drizzle. But miraculously SR somehow had 4 trails open. We took it easy, had breakfast and headed up to the Barker Base Lodge. Switched over to ski boots in the parking lot. The sun looked like it was trying to burn off the fog as we and made our way up to the Lifts.

The snow was incredible Hero Snow. Ohhhh it felt soo nice after a long summer...

Den

moi

It got nicer and nicer out...

Love the green under muddy skis

Eventually the crowd started to build and the line up got a little long for our liking so we bailed

Some strange birds in the line up.

This sign pretty much sums up the skiing below mid station. We still skied it twice. Some walking required? Bah

You can see what I'm talking about way down below

This guy has life figured out...love the beads.

Hoping for more snow soon.

1st Tracks 2009 - 2010

2009-10-24T09:27:00.006-03:00

1st Tracks 2009 - 2010 - Oct. 23, 2009

Stefan and I have been watching this "storm" coming for quite some time. Scheduled to arrive right smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic Ski Areas Associations Conference being held at Crabbe Mountain. It was going to take some intricate planning to both pull of the meeting and find the time to get in some turns.

We both carted our gear up to the mountain on Thursday. With both Environment Canada and the Weather Network calling for 10 - 15 cms of snow. Would today be the day, or would we have to plan a dawn patrol trip. Either way we were ready. Snow started on cue during our meetings. At the pace it was coming down we might have been able to sneak in some turns between the meetings and the reception. But then it stopped. We had freezing drizzle for a while but only about a cm or so of accumulation.

When we got to the reception, both forecasts re upped their predictions but it was raining pretty hard. I imagined what it was doing at Crabbe, the same thing, snowing...who knows. We stayed to the bitter end with a hodge podge crew from Marble, Martock, Ben Eion, Crabbe, Poley and even Gougeon and JLT. I don't think I've laughed so hard.

It had started snowing at the River Side Resort and Conference Center mid way through the receptions. When I left at 1:30am there was a dusting of snow. When I got home, 5 minutes away, nothing. Oh well, maybe next "storm"

I woke up around 5:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. So around 6, I hauled myself out of bed, showered and headed up to Crabbe to pick up a projection screen I had forgot to bring to the Riverside. As I drove by the hotel, no snow, I hit Keswick Ridge and there was several inches down. That is when I started thinking about the possibility of skiing again. Hit Zealand nothing, coming out Zealand, more snow. Took the shortcut it was snow packed. Things are looking up. Driving up the final few kms to Crabbe you could tell there was quite an ice storm over night as trees were bent right over, some out onto the road.

I pulled in the parking lot and got out of the truck. The "snow pack" as actually about an inch of ice, and ice pellots with a couple cms of snow on top. Too bad I have to back to the meetings for 8am. I picked up the projector and walked into my office and there were my skis starring back at me. I looked at my watch, I would have 15 minutes factoring in changing in and out of ski gear, to spare if I heading back to the Riverside now.

That's all I needed. Quickly got dressed, jumped in the truck, drove to the PH and banged off a run and a half on the top pitch of the flume.

View from Crabbe Mountain road near the Patrol Hut. You can see the lights in Fredericton off in the distance.

The ice layer was both a blessing and nuisance. While it coated the dirt and the rocks with a protective layer to protect my beater skis. It also reinforced the grass, hay and cut off bushes making linking turns next to impossible except on the path the boys had been using with the wheelers while doing chair maintenance.

There are tracks somewhere in that pic.

So there is was quick snappy ugly turns on an ATV path. Was it good skiing...no. Was it fun...HELLS YEAH! Would I do it again, in heart beat.

Lovin' life, now time to get to the meetings

Drove back on sketchy icy roads with bald tires and arrived at the Riverside at 8am, bang on.

During the break of our meetings, I lined up a trip to Sunday River with Denis. Talked to the Boss (Linder) and she was cool with it, then we checked the weather (100% chance of Heavy Rain and Thunderstorms) and balked. Oh well maybe next time.

Katahdin - Aug 22nd - 24th

2009-09-01T14:56:00.004-03:00

It's been a long summer for me. With poor weather, and busy when the weather was nice, plus a ton of renos, adventure has been hard to come by. Don't get me wrong I like doing renos, but I like adventure and playing outside better. Cole had contacted me about a month earlier asking if I wanted to climb Katahdin in Aug. I told him I didn't think I would have my passport on time, so we settled on Fundy. My passport was scheduled to arrive on Aug 21st, so the chances of getting it on time were pretty slim.

As we got closer to the date, we started making plans about who was bringing what and all that fun stuff. Then news reports of Hurricane Bill coming this way started to surface. On Thursday night I started reading the weather maps and reports a little closer and I was starting to get nervous. Friday morning I checked again and they talked about 100km/hr winds and 150mm of rain. I don't mind camping in the rain...but 150mm starts to push my rain camping acceptance boundaries a bit. On top of that we were planning in hiking 15k into the backcountry near the ocean. I also started to get nervous about the wind. There could be some major blow downs that we might be faced with for the hike out.

I called Cole and gave him my 2 cents. You feel the disappointment through the phone. Then my wife called to say my passport was in. Now this creates some options. Checked Big K's weather and it seemed like a normal weather weekend. Called the gate house, they said the same thing. I guess they felt they were far enough inland that they didn't have to worry. I called Cole back and Katahdin it is.

We met at Sobeys in Fredericton to get our last minute supplies (food & Jager) dropped off my truck at my house and headed down. We stopped at the Duty Free Shop and picked up a bottle of Sailor Jerry's. Got thought customs no problem. I was a little disappointed that they didn't stamp my passport. I thought that was the whole point. Oh well.

We arrived at the gatehouse and had trouble getting the spots we wanted. We were hoping for a tent platform at Chimney Pond. But they don't have Tent Platforms due to lightening danger, and on top of that they didn't have anything available. So we reserved space in the bunkhouse for the next night, and chose Abol Campground for tonight..

We got there and boredom set in quite quickly after setting up camp so we went up to the Ledges for swimming. This spot is awesome. It's like a natural water slide made out of granite. It was super fun.

Eventually we got back had supper and sipped on our booze around the camp fire. Next time remember to bring mix damn it.

It rained overnight, so we were a little slow getting up and driving breakfast into us. We made our way over to Roaring brook and set off to Chimney Pond.

When we got the Chimney we realized we still had a chance to make the climb today. The ranger gave us a deadline of noon, it was 11:30. So we checked in, headed to the bunk house and shoveled some lunch into us, got rid of excess weight from our backs and at noon we started up the Dudley Trail.

The Dudley trail is very steep and pretty much all car to house size boulders you have to figure your way up, down and around.

Eventually we topped out to Pamola Peak. Our next obstacle is to cross the infamous Knife Edge.

I really enjoyed the Knife Edge as I'm not really bothered much by exposed heights so I always tried to hike along the very top edge to play with my balance.

Eventually we made it to the true the summit.

Obligatory Summit Shot

Cole next to the Summit Sign

The hike back down wasn't much fun. I had some sort of cramp or pulled muscle near my knee that absolutely killed on the way down. That night we shared the Bunkhouse with 2 couples. I finished off the bottle Jager and read the winter activity guide for the park under the glow of my headlamp.

The hike back down from Chimney Pond was pretty uneventful but we did get to soak in the scenery.

We got to the car and hightailed it back to Canada. It was a great trip and Cole made a great trip partner. I wonder what mountain is next?

Janeville

2009-08-13T20:43:00.013-03:00

We were a little late (a day) arriving to Andrew and Martha's "BBQ Weekend". As we drove through Janeville, our directions said you will see two barns with Red Roof's and the andrewellis.ca sign and we're right across the street. As we spotted the barns and the sign we looked across the road and it looked like a camp ground. There were tents, campers, buses, you name it in the yard. We continued to the next driveway thinking that was a campground and we had the wrong spot. Turns out we had the right spot. As we pulled in the driveway, with Alex going bonkers to get out of the truck. We met up quickly with Andrew who was showing some customers around his parents Antique shop located in their house.

Eventually we learned the deal, that when they were younger. Andrew and his brother were living in Edmundston and in the summers would bring a few friends up for a week in the summer and build trails, camp and enjoy the good life. Every year more and more friends would show up and now it is kind of "out of control". Also this was the weekend that Andrew's father was hosting an office party which added to the volume of friends and family roaming the Ellis' property.

While we were waiting for Andrew to finish up with his customers we explored the orchard and found some trails. The trails were imaculatly mowed with stepping stones where ever their wasn't any grass. The trails winded up and down and around the woods between the Ellis' home and the beach. Thoughout the trail network there were spots cleared to pitch tents and sit and relax. We eventually found a lighthouse that Andrew's father is building/restoring. We then followed another trail that lead us to the cliffs along the ocean. Again, all along the trail were benches as well as spots cleared into the brush with tents pitched. Amazing.

A Bridge with a cool bench along the railing

We explored the beach with Alex who had a blast playing the in huge waves. She would swim right through them with the waves breaking well over her head, just to fetch sticks. She would then body surf (doggy surf?) back into shore.

Andrew gave us a tour of the property and showed off his fathers library. It's a cabin that overlooks the beach. Wood heat, and is as most library's are...full of books. The wood work and carving is amazing. It was so comfortable in there.

mmmm pizza

Venting the oven

The keg and oven...

We eventually gathered around the beer keg of Picaroon's Best Bitter and the outside pizzeria. I'm going to build one of these someday. It was awesome and the pizza was oh so good. Later in the night they cooked a 20 lb Salmon in it. After a few Bitters, one has to go relieve himself. No problem they have an outdoor bathroom. It's next to the homemade hot tub. The bathroom is a palace, a work of art. I can't even begin to discribe it.

Filling up Alex's Outward Hound water bowl. Yes that is all hand carved. The shells are the facets.

This is the shower...again all hand carved. Absolutely amazing

As darkness fell, we made our way to the beach for a bon fire and fireworks. Alex wasn't a big fan of the fire works and Martha put her in our truck. Soon after we picked up Alex and climbed into our tent and drifted off to sleep with the sounds of waves crashing below.

Bon fire and glow sticks

Alex getting nervous about the fireworks. She looks like a puppy just growing into her ears. Too Funny.

We awoke the next morning and enjoyed a few beverages, got a tour of the Antique Shop and Andrew's Wood Shop.

He uses these tools often :-)

A bench outside the workshop and showroom

All in all, what a gem of a place. I can't wait to go back.

Old School bike racing

2009-08-03T10:50:00.005-03:00

Found this from The Adventure Life twitter feed Adventurevida. It's some really old school footage of bike racing the Giro back in the day.

Speaking of bikes, I pulled mine out of the back of my truck and the back tire is flat. Sounds like a huge hole. I wonder what happened there. It's pissed off at me for a lack of use. <>

Anywho, back to slingging gyproc around a crowded basement. NOT FUN!

Holy Crappers...just as I posted this, and this whitewater kayak trailer came through on the Twitter Feed...

Watch it in HQ on Full Screen. WOWSERS!

Inspirational

2009-07-30T22:04:00.002-03:00

Got sent this today. It's pretty awe inspiring. Man I'm jonesin' to go backcountry skiing right now. Even in the this heat. It's nice and cool in the basement where I was working on running some wires and terminating a bunch of stuff. It's now nice and cool outside where I started out checking updates and what not tonight, but the bugs have decided to come out. Buggers.

Anywho, back to the reason for this post. Rando Steve blogs on TetonAT and this is s slideshow of his season starting in October up until early July. Love the mellow Pearl Jam soundtrack as well

Play it HQ and Full Screen!

To learn more about Rando Steve, check out the Teton AT Blog. Or you can check out his updates at the side panel of this blog, under blogs I follow. Enjoy!

Now back to figuring out how to stay or cool or cool down at least.

Think Snow!

Shhhh

2009-07-28T15:28:00.003-03:00

It's been pretty quiet on the adventure front. Well that is not true, I've been having quite the adventure renovating the unfinished end of our basement. There is a lot of pipes, ducts, and wires to work around. So that has taken up most of my time. I got a few small things left to do until I run out of materials until this weekend, when I hope to start insulating and drywalling. I hate hanging drywall. Thankfully we are not doing the ceiling.

So in the mean time here is something different.

Cheers!

The Teaser Extravaganza

2009-07-18T09:57:00.007-03:00

I've been takin' a quick break as I've caught up on TR's from the past couple of years. In saying that, I found an old box of photographs, yeah real pictures, and an old photo album with trips back as far as 1988. I'm hoping to scan some of those soon. And do some really old TR's for the archives. I had a bunch of stuff I was going to add to this such as future trip planning and what not, but I think I save those for another entry when I can get a few more details nailed down.

So until then, lets start the Teaser Extravaganza!

Let's kick things off with Poor Boyz Productions - Everyday is Saturday

Next up is Meathead Films East Coast Thriller - Wild Stallions

How about Contrast by Nimbus Independent

Aestivation Teaser

This looks really good Neverland by Absinthe Films

This looks like a real gooder from France - Mad in France by SVP

And last but not least, here is TGR's - Re:Sessions

I hope you enjoyed watching these on what has been another rainy Saturday

South West Gulch Hut

2009-07-09T20:26:00.078-03:00

South West Gulch Hut - Gros Morne National Park - Newfoundland - April 20th - 23rd, 2009 - Day #114, 115, 116, 117

After yesterday's taste of the Tablelands, we couldn't wait to get back. We were up early, checked out, and hit the road back to Birchy Head.

But before that I'll go back in time a bit to some trip prep stuff.

First we had to go get groceries, but we were all pretty brain dead from the Marble Mountain Staff Party the night before so it took forever. Plus I drove to almost every gear shop in Cornerbrook looking for a drinking resevoir with no luck. In the end, we got our booze and food, then went clubbin' with Leslie and Mike.

That should get us through three days...or will it!

The next day we met up with Henry Brake to haul in our heavy gear. And then we headed up to Trout River Bowl.

We arrived at the trail head and got geared up and took group pic.

The trail climbed up from Bonne Bay and Birchy Head

Lines, lines, everywhere the lines. Drool!

On the tour in we crossed several small lakes & ponds

Blank Canvas...Got bored on the tour in and this looked like it needed tracks

So I laid some down

Mmm...fresh tracks

Southwest Gulch Hut

After we had a bite to eat, a beer and unpacked, we went out to explore our new base area.

Love the martian like soil

Stefan and I touring towards a wide open bowl

Andrew and I testing out the conditions

They passed!

Andrew getting in another lap

I love this shot

Me out getting another run in

Touring back to the hut, we left another dirty canvas

Prayer flags

Who knew Pizza Delight delivers

Santé!

Watching TV late into the night. Andrew and I stayed up and polished off a box of wine. I think Stefan was still feeling the night before at the club and needed to have a drying out night.

The next morning we got right at it and ended up climbing up a very deceptively steep slope

What the heck am I doing?

Taking a self portait of course

Andrew already topped out

Me topping out

Skiing back down, lots of stuff moving in the background, seemed more sketchy than it actually was.

Andrew carving down onto the apron as I look on

Me pondering life

Where's waldo. Stefan and Andrew are touring up the far ridge

Andrew ripping down in front of bluebird skies

Stefan watching on as Andrew and I bag one last run on the day

Another dirty canvas

A party wouldn't be complete without Ray's Good Liquor!

The next morning Andrew and I got up early and decided to spend the day on tour and our goal would be summit Green Hill in the distance.

The approach was much easier than planned and we hiked up the backside following a caribou trail

Andrew up top. Our hut is at the top of the ridge to his right somewhere in the trees.

View from the Summit of Green Hill. Endless lines...

Partway back down. Snow conditions weren't great but beggers can't be choosers.

One of the many ravines we had to cross to get back to the hut

Touring back to the hut with our completed project in the background.

After lunch I had a nap. Stefan and Andrew went out to get a run or two in.

They saw this cool little waterfall in one of the many ravines.

Always a good time for Jager!

Trees live a tough life up here

Stefan tuning in the TV

Andrew getting sauced...I mean spilling spagetti sauce on himself

Same thing on TV again tonight. Stefan spent the night drying out while Andrew and I consumed the remainder of our booze. He said we finished at 8:55pm and were both passed out by 9:09pm. Another beer or two would have been nice, but this is the best job we've done managing booze on a bc hut trip yet.

Ummm...Dinking water???

We woke up the next morning completely socked in.

Me with my small pack

Stefan with his medium sized pack

Andrew with his ginormous pack

These don't look the same as they did on the way in

Interesting skinning on ice with a couple cms of water over it.

This end of the lake was complete melted out

So we stuck to the sides for the rest of the tour out...just in case

Stefan happy to get back to Birchy Head

Andrew changing out of his rotten ski gear

Marble's snowpack has taken a bit of a hit since we were last here

We had a bunch of time to kill before catching the ferry so we took the scenic route throught the Blow-Me Downs. I love how this waterfall disappears under the snowpack

Another huge waterfall

Endless lines in the Blow-Me Downs too

I definately want to come back and check these out.

We stopped into Blomidon Cat Skiing but sadly there was no one around.

The By's

Trout River Bowl

2009-07-09T15:22:00.036-03:00

Trout River Bowl - Gros Morne National Park - Newfoundland April 19, 2009 - Day #113

We had been looking for some more ski time and had a day to kill before heading into South West Gulch Hut so we decided to hit up Trout River Bowl. It's about a half hour skin from the highway. Access is super easy and the skiing is amazing. Lots of lines in all directions.

On our way there, we stopped at Coyley's to pick up the keys to our hut so we could get Henry Brake to haul our gear into the hut. More on that in the next TR. But while we were there Jonathan Antsey spotted our truck packed with ski gear and figured we were heading that way.

By the time we finished our business with Henry we continued on up the road to Trout River Bowl. When we pulled in Jonathan was waiting for us. He figured he might as well wait around instead of heading up solo. Kind of funny to just walk up to someone in a province I've never been in before and instantly make friends and learn we even had friends in common. Jonathan works at Marble as a Patroller and Shannon had told me about one of his patrollers that spends way too much time up in the Tablelands. There we go...we have now met.

I had brought along my AT skis to Newfoundland for Leslie to use if needed. Mike Campbell had said he wasn't going to join us, so I figured Leslie wouldn't either and stupidly I left my AT skis at the Condo, but I did bring Leslie's resort skis. Ooops. So seeing that I made this error and I did want to get Leslie up in the bowl to experience backcountry skiing for the first time. I offered to carry her skis on my backpack while she hiked. This was no easy task in ski boots as she was sinking up to her knees for much of the hike in. I can't say my tour in was easy but it was easier than hers. I will say her skis are freakin' HEAVY! From here in, I'll let the pics do most of the talking.

Leslie hiking up towards the base of the bowl

Me skinning up with Leslie's skis on my back. That is Gros Morne Mountain in the backgound

Once we got to the bowl, Leslie took over and carried her own skis.

Blank Canvas

This is a chunk of cornice that fell from the top of the bowl. The locals carved out a snow shelter and would spend the night in it.

Jonathan getting first tracks

Andrew gets second tracks

Jonathan heading up for more

Jonathan marking a hidden crevasse

Jonathan and I booting the final bit of the climb

How stoked am I. You can see the Ocean behind me in the distance!

Jonathan getting back down to business

Andrew dropping in

Me finishing up my run

Leslie enjoying the April pow!

Stefan enjoying life

Best recovery by me ever...weight a little too far forward

Complete inverted

And into my next turn

Finishing up my run

Andrew dropping in again...you can see my head plant pics to the left

Me skiing back to the base of the bowl

Dirtied up

Group Photo - Andrew, Me, Leslie, and Stefan

Andrew skiing back down to the truck

Leslie finishing up the day

Stefan lovin' the pow pow

Mike picked us up and we enjoyed supper at Jungle Jims and Deer Lake. Dropped Mike and Leslie off at the airport and then we headed back to the condo for one last night in civilization.

Trout River Bowl made for an awesome day trip. We'll be back.

Blueberries, Zip Lines and Cat Skiing

2009-07-07T08:26:00.000-03:00

Marble Mountain - April 15th - 16th, 2009 - Day #112

I had to go away on a business trip to the Atlantic Ski Areas Association Spring Meetings. Stefan got to come along with me to the meeting and we also invited our friend Andrew along so we could go backcountry skiing after the meetings wrapped. I've been wanting to get here for a quite some time. With this business trip, the stars kind of aligned. For the most part I'll let the pics do the talking.

We'll start the trip off with a big @$$ blueberry & Stefan, Andrew and I, for no particular reason other than when you see a big @$$ blueberry, it's only right that you get out and take a picture.

It took us a somewhere around 24 hours to get there when you factor in the drive, the ferry and various farting around.

We stopped at the Big Stop in Canso for a bite to eat.

The by's on the boat. At this point the bar had closed but we were having fun, so we went back to the cabin and brought our own beer back to the bar.

There were a few people heading over to the Rock on the ferry

Looks like some awesome lines on the Table Mountains in Wreckhouse

We stopped at a Wilson's Esso as we arrived in Cornerbrook. Couldn't help but take a pic of this sign

Marble at first glimpse. Too bad they were closed

Near the base of Marble within walking distance is a Tim Hortons and Liquor Express...we spent a fair bit of time here...at both locations

The next morning a group of us from Crabbe, Wentworth, Martock as well as Sylvan, our consultant and Andrew headed off to check out Marble Zip Tours for some team building. You can see a Groomer parked up ahead. They have a cat track from Marble to Tim Hortons. Nice!

The by's already to go check out the Zip tour.

To get to the top they drove us up in this little buggy.

Dr. Shannon, a man of many talents. Risk Manager of Marble Mountain and also a guide at Marble Zip Tours. Those are just a few of his many talents...

First Zip for me.

Dr. Shannon catching Stefan.

Stefan's best Michael Jackson tribute.

Greg Pike one of our guides in front of the 200 foot waterfall in the background.

Steady Brook Falls...the zip lines go over this canyon

Group Shot, Mike (Wentworth), Leslie (Wentworth), Andy (Martock), Stefan, me, Amanda (Martock), Sylvan, and Andrew

Here is a promo video from Marble Zip Tours to give you a better idea of what it's like.

Marble Zip Tours from Martin Flynn on Vimeo.

We quickly headed back to the condo and changed into our ski gear.

Anne (Marble Mt. GM) hooked us up with some groomers to go check out the summit, might as well bring ski gear.

It was a little tight getting the groomers to fit up the access road to get to the true summit.

Group Shot at the Summit. Andrew, Stefan, Andy (Martock), me and Sylvan

The by's in front of the Doppler Radar.

The Governors Nuts at the Summit of Marble.

Andy enjoying some of the fluff

Andrew lovin' life

Stefan ripping the executive corduroy.

Marble's base lodge. A work of art.

Speaking of art, check out the washrooms!

All of the tables are made of Marble

When we got back, we changed quickly and then we were off the ASAA Spring Meetings (the real reason we were here)

Proof I was there to work. Hey I even got voted in as Vice President!

After the meetings, Marble treated us to a fabulus meal.

Who let the Riff Raff in.

While we were in our meetings, Andrew skinned back up to the summit and went on a bit of a tour.

Andrew's tracks on the way back down. Ski tracks on the left, skin tracks on the right.

Afterward we stuck around for Marble Mountain's Staff Party. The ASAA did our best to hold'er down.

Surprisingly things didn't get too messy. Mike, Leslie, Stefan, me and Andrew

Love that sign on the Ski Shop near the base of the mountain

The next day we had to do some shopping in Cornerbrook to pick up booze and groceries. Love the view of the Blow-me-down Mountains. Sadly we didn't ski there. Next time

All in all was had an awesome time at Marble. I wonder what other adventures we can have while we are in Newfoundland?

Teasers

2009-07-06T12:18:00.002-03:00

I've been working on some bigger TR's so in the mean time here are some more teasers.

The first is from Field Productions called Eyes Wide Open

EYES WIDE OPEN from Field Productions on Vimeo.

The next is by Voleurz called Outdoor Graduation

Outdoor Graduation Teaser from Voleurz on Vimeo.

And then for fun, I'm throwing in a Will It Blend video from Youtube.

So will the sun shine...that is that question

Surprise Wentworth Powder Day

2009-07-04T18:58:00.002-03:00

Ski Wentworth - March 24th, 2009 - Day #95

Dustin and I had been planning to head down to check out Martock and Wentworth for over a month. When we arrived to stay at Chateau Wentworth I chatted with Leslie on the phone and she told me about a big storm rolling in over the next two days. Schaweet...I love totally unexpected storms.

The next morning Dustin and I headed to Martock for a tour. We had a good trip, got to check things out down there. Pretty awesome little spot from a business volume point of view. They push through ridiculus volumes. I got to tour the new compressor building and garage and was very impressed. We finished it up with coffee meeting with the power that be.

The drive back to Wentworth wasn't all that much fun as it was rush hour and the storm had blown in. But the time we hit Truro we had driven through the storm and there was hardly a skiff of snow on the ground. We ate supper and then headed to Wentworth. As we got to Folly Lake that is when the weather changed and man was it was dumping.

The next morning we woke up to easily 30 cms of snow and it was still dumping. We headed down to the lodge and got a tour of the Rental Shop and stuff. We then headed up on the mountain. I skied with Thor, Charlie and Leslie for the most part. Thor and Charlie were on K2 Hellraisers and they put Leslie on a pair of Pontoons. Had a blast skiing deep powder all over the mountain. I need a pair of rocker tipped, reverse camber skis!

Eventually I had to head back to Crabbe so Dustin could make it to work in the morning. It was pretty tough to leave as it was still dumping when we left. Snapped these pics while we were there.

Leslie

My tracks back down to Chateau Wentworth.

Gotta love light and dry Spring Powder Days!

Busiest Powder Day Ever

2009-07-03T19:29:00.000-03:00

Busiest Powder Day Ever - Feb 23, 2009 - Day #68

After yesterday we knew today was going to busy. Lets face it. Most people spent the day salivating at all the new snow. Got the house and vehicle dug out and now it's time to hit the slope. We also had more time to dig out than usual as well.

Got to the mountain quickly in the am, although still tired from yesterday. You could tell right off the bat that it was going to be busy. Managed to get first chair but with the top of the mountain all plowed out, many people were dropping in early from above. There was a pretty big line up at the bottom waiting for the chair to start. Still managed to get first tracks on a few runs but had to be quick and creative to get em.

Here are some pics from the day.

Gotta love blue bird powder days. Maybe not the crowds, but bluebird = good times!

Happy Canader Day...eh!

2009-07-01T11:40:00.003-03:00

Canoeing on the Miramichi - June 27th, 2009

We finally got to go on a canoe trip this season. Yes we are a little late but hey, I was still skiing when the canoeing was really good. JY invited us to come for a day trip on the 'chi and then camp out at Alisa's parents place. We would BBQ some food, and lift some brown weights. Great plan. As we moved closer to the trip, I built a canoe rack for my trailer. Technically I can haul 4 canoes in a pinch. 3 comfortably. Got it all painted and ready to go. Installed the new seat backs that we finally got from Old Town for our boat and we were ready to rock for the weekend.

Simple plan. Saturday we were to drive to Lloyd and Diane's and pick up their boat, drive into Freddy Beach and pick up JY. Meet L & D along the way, pick up booze and groceries on the way, be on the river around noon, off around supper, back home the next day.

Seeing that JY was bringing Vince, and L & D were bringing Tia, we decided to bring Alex. We tried to put Alex in a canoe last year when we first got it, but she wasn't having it...not in the least bit. But this year was a bit different. She's a bit older, more comfortable around water and not just full on holy crap, MUST SWIM!!!!! To help this whole process out, Alex and I went mountain biking on Friday. Seeing that we have only been on the bike twice this year. I knew if I went hard on the bike ride she (and me for the most part) would be still feeling it the next morning. At least that was the plan.

We picked up the boat and socialized with L & D and then realized we were going to be late to pick up JY. I called JY and told him we would be about 45 minutes late. Ironically it only took a few minutes to get the L & D's boat loaded and we were off. We got to JY's about 15 minutes early and of course he had run off to do some last minute errands so he wasn't there. At that time L & D called to say they had problems with the Rover and were taking the Subi and would be further along the highway than we planned to meet.

Linder and Alex hopped in behind the seats of the truck and JY was in front and off we went. JY brought a bag of dulse. Alex really likes dulse who knew. Of course we were confused on where to meet L & D so we changed plans on the fly and decided to meet at McCluskey's General Store in Boiestown to pick up some snacks and booze. Saw an awesome pink shirt that said Reel Girls like Big Rods. Thought that was funny. The beer stock is weak at best, and the cold beer stock was even weaker. I picked up a warm 12 pack of Keith's Red and an 8 pack of cold cans of Schooner. (what the...I thought Schooler was a Moosehead product. Huh learn something new everyday) I figure I was the captain of the ship might as well get a boat themed beer. JY picked up Cracked Canoe using the same logic. Funny as I type this there is a Cracked Canoe commercial on the TV.

We arrived at Alisa's place in Storytown (Doaktown), I immediately setup the tent as it was looking like it was going to rain. I nearly got carried away by the mosquitoes, they are bad up here. After a bevy or two we headed to one of Alisa's relatives and loaded the canoe that JY and and Alisa were going to use on and away were went off to swinging bridge to the put in.

It downpoured on our way to the put in but we continued anyway. Alisa's father came along to drive my truck back to the take out. So thankful and shuttling is always a pain.

Swinging bridge is really cool. I wish I could have spent more time playing on the bridge but everyone wanted to get on the river or in the river in Alex's case. So we loaded up and off we went. Alex wanted no part in the canoe and immediately jumped overboard to go swimming. She swam along behind us, sometimes she would swim to shore and run along shore, only to jump back in and swim along beside us. Eventually she got the look in her eyes that she wanted in. So we pulled ashore, offered Alex some cheese and in the boat she came. Linda held onto her as she still wanted to jump back in or at the very least jump around in the Canoe. Alex cried and cried, I think she was annoyed that our three canoes were separated. Being a herder this is probably was was bothering her. That and there was water to swim in. As we caught up with the other boats, JY and Alisa with Tia, and Lloyd and Diane with Lilly. Lilly was crying because she doesn't like her life jacket, Tia was crying because she wanted in L & D's boat and Alex was crying...because she is a souk. Tia jumped overboard, and Alex followed. We soon got them back in our boats and continued on.

We eventually stopped on an island for a snack and stretch and let the dogs play. After a nice snack and break we loaded back up. Alex didn't want to get in so we let her swim. She swam for about 45 minutes or so, sometimes she would swim ahead, sometimes behind us, sometimes beside us. The only time she would touch land is if it got shallow. It was funny watching her race ahead and then swim through some rapids. Soon she was tired and we got her back in the boat. You could tell she was exhausted as we didn't need cheese to get her in. We also laid my thermorest on the floor of the boat and she laid down, eventually rest her head on the gunnels of the boat.

I love this pic.

We arrived at our take out sooner than we expected. With all the rain we've received, the water was moving pretty quickly for the stretch we were doing. Ironically there were no bugs on the river. The take out was where we got the JY and Alisa's boat. We tied our canoes back on my trailer and headed back to Alisa's parents place. We got a decent camp fire going, grilled some food, enjoyed some beverages. But as it got later, the mosquitoes, black flies and no-see-ems got unbearable, even for me. I don't like bug dope, and don't mind the odd bug bite. But I put bug dope on twice and was in quick agreement when Diane said lets move inside. L & D went down first with Lilly. JY's allergies were getting the best of him, so he headed off the bed soon after. Alisa sat up with Linder and I on the porch for a while but went to bed soon. I fell asleep on Linder's shoulder.

We then made our way out to the tent. This was going to be interesting as Alex has never been in a tent before, and we have Tia and Lilly in L & D's tent not far from us. I can picture it now, Lilly cried, Alex barks at the sound, Tia barks at Alex, Alex barks at Tia and on and one. But Alex was completely wrote off and figured things out quickly. We opened the tent up and in she went, plopped down on the air mattress, rested her head on Linda's pillow and I think she was out cold before Linda and I even got settled. Too funny.

Alex didn't move until around 2 am there was a hair raising scream outside our tent. It sounded like a Pterodactyl. It went on for about 10 minutes. Alex was having a fit, the fur on the back of neck was standing straight up. I have no idea what makes that sound but it was pretty creepy. Within minutes of the Pterodactyl buggering off, she put her head back on Linda's pillow and slept till morning. It was very nice.

In the morning JY and Alisa's mom cooked us the most amazing breakfast. Thank you so much. We enjoyed a beer and said our good byes and headed back to Freddy Beach.

It was a nice short adventure. We need to do more of these...Alex was wrote off for about 3 days.

The Video Update

2009-06-30T11:53:00.003-03:00

Been away and then busy for the past couple of days...so this will be the video update.

The first video is from Telluride it is a promo video and is pretty much the definition of winter to me...

Venture Out [4min cut] from felt soul on Vimeo.

Next up is the In Deep teaster from Matchstick Productions which looks awesome and I can't wait to pick this one up.

In deep trailer

And last but not least here is another cool one from Level One Productions called Refresh

More Ski >>

Enjoy the eye candy.

Too Much Snow???

2009-06-25T09:29:00.033-03:00

Put the finishing touches on my canoe rack yesterday. When I got home I finally got around to installing the seats in our Canoe so we are good to go for the weekend. Wow was yesterday ever humid. Humidity = The Suck! Today I'm working in town for a bit, running some errands, maybe having a meeting, picking up some Picaroons, and if it doesn't start raining again, getting out on the mountain bike and do some trim work in the basement.

So with all this humidity, it got me thinking about this past winter, and wondering, is there such a thing as Too Much Snow?

Too Much Snow??? - Feb 23rd, 2009 - Day #67

A storm rolled through over night/today. I got a call at 5:30am from Big Larry, one of my groomer operators, wondering if I was sure I was going to open the mountain today. I asked him why wouldn't I be opening the mountain. He told me that we were getting hurricane force winds. And wasn't sure we'd be able to run the chair. I'm renting Gregor's chalet just 2 clicks from the mountain, so I told him I'd get back to him. Checked the forecast looked out the window, no wind. That's strange, Larry is not one to exaggerate and it wouldn't really affect him one way or another if we opened or not. So I decided I needed to see this for myself. I had to work the door due to the snow built up a quarter the way up just to get out of the chalet. Light dry champagne powder. Oh yeah, today is going to be EPIC! Stefan hopped in the truck with me and we pulled out on the road, and that's when shit kinda hit the fan. Pretty much whiteout conditions. I made it about half a km, before spinning out in a snow drift. No biggy back up and hit her again, except I was now on the snowbank and pretty much stuck. I broke an avi shovel trying to free the truck. Stefan walked back to the chalet to post on the website we would have a late opening. I hoofed it to the mountain to get the tractor to pull myself out.

Once I got over the next rise, I got the full brunt of the wind. WOW! It knocked me over...twice. I had an ice mask starting to form over my forehead and eyes that I kept breaking whenever my eyes would freeze open or shut. This is some serious weather. Especially for not being dressed for it. But eventually I made it and called Stefan, the plows had been pulled off the road due to zero visibility so there was now no way we were going to be able to open for the day. I plowed the road back to the Chalet with the tractor to pick up Stefan. We stopped and got the truck. Of course it wouldn't start because the battery was dead from running the four ways. So we hooked the tow strap up and I plowed the road and towed my truck to the mountain. It was quite a bit of work to get it into the garage to thaw it out but somehow we managed to get it in.

This is what the buildings looked like after we had shovelled some paths to them.

The Lodge

Rental Shop

Admin entrance to the Ticket Office

Looking out of the lodge, the top of those ski racks are 8 feet high!

At this point with the plows were still off the road. We called it a day and posted that we were closed. The first time I closed the mountain this season...and it was because we had too much snow. Go figure. The phones were lighting up with people calling wondering why. Most of those people were staying at chalets on the mountain which were probably thinking the same thing I was when I got the call in the morning. But if you can't get staff and emergency vehicles to the hill, we can't open. It's as simple as that. I started plowing the parking lot with the groomer which was not as easy as it sounds when the snow is up over the blade! Big Larry showed up so he could get a head start on grooming some of the trails. He called me over the radio to ask if I had been up on the mountain yet, because it's quite a sight. He said it took him 3 tries to get up the Beginner Hill....In a GROOMER!

I picked up Stefan and we headed up to see what we could see, the groomer was working pretty hard going up, it just couldn't get much traction in the bottomless powder. These are terrible problems to have. :-) These are some shots at the top of the mountain.

A snow fence is pointless when the snow is deeper than the fence. That fence is 4 feet high.

You can see that snow is higher than the groomer blade. I'm parked on the groomed section.

On our way back we drove down the Flume. I lifted the blade up and the snow was coming up onto the windshield. Pretty cool stuff. I've never seen anything like it. It was quite a workout for the machine climbing back up the Dream

Eventually we made it out for a quick skin/ski...

The Young family out earning some turns

Sue and Tony were out for a snow shoe. The drifts at chairtop were bigger than Sue!

We continued over the top and skinned down Harolds to the Headwall. The snow was so deep it was pointless to take the skins off until here. We quickly removed the skins and dropped in.

Money Shot, thanks Stefan

Deeeep!

Ahhhhh

Breaking trail back up the headwall, was a little easier said than done.

I then snapped this beauty of Stefan

Niiice

Stefan slogging back up

Another run by yours truly

Stefan again

It's much easier once we got the skin tracked packed

It's like a highway now

Stefan taking some air in Slam Dunk

Deeeeep

Moi en Slam Dunk

This is my desktop right now...not because I love looking at myself, but I like reliving the moment

Cool snow in the trees

Sexay

It's way easier now

We then skinned back to the summit, I took a run down the Little Brave and SunValley on the way back to the office. We eventually packed up and headed back to the Chalet to start digging things out.

Back at Gregor's Chalet...Normally there is a step up there somewhere.

Lots O Sneigh

View from the the living room.

It's now time to get some rest because tomorrow is going to be HUGH!

The Private Ski Area Part 2

2009-06-24T08:29:00.000-03:00

I spent yesterday mostly doing research and starring outside wondering why can't it be nice out so I can go play. Then I guess I wouldn't get my research done. So c'est la vie. Today I'm heading back to Lloyd's, if the weather is good I'll paint my canoe rack, if it's not so good, I'll just work build some other projects. Here is part two of yesterday's post. Enjoy

Private Ski Area Part 2 - Feb. 20th, 2009 - Day #64

The lifts started an hour early due to the races going on the horn. Lucky for us, not so much for the race organizers, it was all hands on deck to re-fence the entire course. This left the entire mountain to a very small handful of us. I think we were on our third or fourth run at a leisurely pace before we hit someone elses tracks. We spent the morning picking up where we left off yesterday, ski a pitch, stop and take pics of our buddies, then they would ski down and do the same for us. Big day and so much fun. I even ended up doing the rock drop which was an epic knee eating failure as it had been almost 20 years since I last thought this was a good idea. Skied most of the morning with Stefan, Timmy and Stretch. Got first tracks on Harolds, Norms, Hot Dog, Tippy, Pugs, Pokerface and Whopper, not to bad for a Friday. Here are some pics from the day.

Re-fencing the course

Stefan enjoying the deep

Timmy on Harold's Headwall

Steves

Stefan takin' some air in Pugs.

Tippy

Self portrait with Stefan in the goggles.

Moments before an epic crumple on impact

Hotdog

Pow Pow

Pokerface

Two epic powders in a row to pretty much ourselves...nice

Think Snow!

The Private Ski Area Part 1

2009-06-23T08:14:00.000-03:00

Yesterday was a big debate, stay home and put up trim in the basement or go to Lloyd's and work on some other projects. With the forecast I didn't think I would be able to do much work on trim as I wanted to do all my cutting outside so I went into Lloyd's. He worked on his Rover while I built a canoe rack. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It still needs to be painted but that will have to wait for another day. Also realized I need to get my trailer inspected for this weekend, as we are heading to the Miramichi with for a quick day on the river, some bevies and camping. Should be fun, we haven't been on the water yet this year.

Private Ski Area Part 1 - Feb 19th, 2009 - Day #63

With speed week upon us this made one of the strangest and most laid back powder days I've experienced. And it was a two-fer. Two days in a row. Stefan and I headed out around noon in about 10 - 15 cms of pow. This was my first time teleing in powder and it was dumping. They called off racing shortly before we went out so at first we were competing with race kids and the odd parent from across the maritimes. But as the storm got worse (is it really worse when it snows harder), just doesn't sound right to say as the storm got better. Anyways. Stefan and I did lap upon lap on everything all day long. We did photo shoot after photo shoot and had an absolute blast. We ended up helping up with sweep. As we headed back to the office around dark, with plans of closing early due to a lack of customers, a convoy of cars started pulling in the parking lot. With what they drove through to get here, I didn't have the heart to shutter down. All in all it was a fun day with about 20 cms or so by the end of the day, but then again, it was still dumping. Here are a ton of pics from that day.

First run down Daves

Tippy

Pokerface

Norms

Tippy

Hot Dog

Harolds

Pugs

Lower Harolds

Steves

Stay tuned for Part Deux!

Think Snow

Thursday Pow Pow

2009-06-22T08:22:00.002-03:00

Thursday - January 29th, 2009 - Day #44

Another Epic Powder Day. Today I teamed up with Joel Bragdon who was on tele skis and we gunned it all morning. I had met Joel the weekend before while I was completing the Everest Challenge 2009 and rode the chair a bunch of times together. I was questioning him about his tele gear as I had picked up boots but still didn't have bindings as of yet.

I got and/or shared first tracks down the following:

Dave's Dream
Chairline
Kings Horn
Harold's Fun Run
Tippy Canoe
Slam Dunk
Steve's Drivethru
Whopper
Mayhem
Sun Valley
Embrees
Flume Terrain Park
Islands
Secret Line

Wow what a day...we seemed to be just ahead of the masses all morning things were pretty epic. Those 1st tracks runs didn't include the runs we made following other peoples tracks. Joel made a great partner as we travel at about the same speed so there was no waiting at the bottom for either of us. Good times. We finished the day with a couple of big glasses of Winter Warmer before heading off to respective jobs, pretty much spent.

This pic Stefan took sums up the day.

My First tracks on the Left, Stefan's 2nd tracks on the right.

Think Snow!

Monday Madness - Jan 2009

2009-06-21T09:16:00.001-03:00

Worked Fredrock yesterday in the rain and mud. And man did it rain. Special thanks to my North Face Shell for keeping me dry all day and night. By the end they still got a big crowd and for the most part, people seemed to behave themselves. My highlights were Ross Neilson and the Suffering Bastards and Matt Mays and El Torpedo. Walk in the Sun was my highlight. I stood a bout 30 feet back from the stage, in the pooring rain, bopping along drinking coffee. It was raining so hard, I would get a mouthful of cold rain water off the coffee lid each time I took a drink.

Today is Fathers Day and we're having the family over so I don't think I be making it down to Fredrock. I wouldn't mind seeing Live though so who knows.

Here is another Monday Pow day from this past season.

Random Monday Pow - Jan. 19th, 2009 - Day #36

Another Big Monday storm. This time we got just shy of a foot. Had a blast skiing with a ton of friends. Got first tracks on Chairline, Horn, Elgees, Norms, Sun Valley, Hot dog, Islands, and Pokerface. Great Day! Also got to ski with Cole, Johnny and Andrew McNair. But they didn't roll in until late and by then I was too tired to keep up and they were charging much like we did all morning.

Whew I'm spent!

Richard Willis ripping the Chairline. I believe I had first tracks on the right, Stefan got second tracks on the left. And Richard taking 3rd down the middle.

Think Snow!

Pre X-mas Pow - Dec 2008

2009-06-20T08:51:00.000-03:00

Today is big day in the big city. Fred Rock Festival kicks into full gear. I'm doing first aid today, so I'm hoping people play nice and I can sit back and relax and check out the bands. My skiing obsession has mellowed slightly as of late, to make way for other obsessions, some of which I've never done before. I'll get into more details soon. Don't get me wrong, it all comes back to skiing or ties into skiing one way or another. Like what could quite possibly be one of the great inventions of our times if you are backcountry type of person. Packable beer! Anywho, lets get onto todays TR, it's short and sweet as I have to head to Crabbe to pick up supplies, and install stair treads.

Pre X-mas Pow - Dec. 22nd, 2009 - Day #12

Got up early to 40 - 45 cms of fresh and headed to the mountain. Only problem was Crabbe Mountain Road was not plowed. I have a 4 wheel drive truck that I'm not afraid to abuse so nothing can stop me....or can it. Got to about Mike Davis's place and hit a snow drift that was over my hood and stopped me dead in my tracks. Hoofed it to the garage. Hopped in the tractor and grabbed a chain and headed out back to my truck. Plowed a strip down to the Hainesville Road and back. Towed my truck out and headed into the office. After and hour or so of digging and getting staff in we were open and ready to rock.

I got first tracks on Elgees, Norms, Tippy and Harolds. Amazing day. I think Stefan's video sums it up.

Oh yeah the plow didn't come by until 4 in the afternoon and I had to break trail for it as it couldn't get up Crabbe Mountain Road because there was too much snow. Too funny.

Think Snow!

Dawn Patrol #2 - 2008

2009-06-19T09:29:00.002-03:00

Lets kick off this post with a very cool video from Greg Hill.

Awesome stuff right there. I guess I'll give that a few more praises than my video I posted yesterday. ;-) One of these days (years) I'm going to have to take a trip to Chamonix. Got a packed weekend. Crabbe tonight, Fred Rock Festival tomorrow, Fathers day or should I say Jason's day on Sunday. That should keep me busy and out of trouble. Here is another TR from earlier this season. Enjoy

Dawn Patrol #2 - Dec. 9th, 2008 - Day #5

Two Dawn Patrols in two days. Yeah me!

Grrrrr

I was still bitter with Stefan over the day before, and was jonesin' to get in more turns in the pow. So up early again, this morning was -18 brrrr. -18 is pretty cold this time of the year but I was on a mission so the blood was pumping and keeping me warm. The Snowmakers did an amazing job last night and I got to enjoy an amazing sun rise.

I never get tired of these

I had a great time skiing.

Mmmm First Tracks!

I did two laps of the top three pitches of the Glades.

Two runs, plus my skin track way over on the right

My skin glue crapped out on me and made me abort my third trip.

Where skin tracks meet

Cool frozen crystals on ice

As I got to the ticket office, Stefan wanted me to pose for some shots for him so he put them on the website and blog, so I grabbed my skis and hiked back up. Why waste a perfectly good hike?

Me and big pile o sneigh

I then ripped GS turns down Upper Daves before heading back to the office.

I love my job

Think Snow!

Dawn Patrol #1 - 2008

2009-06-18T08:00:00.000-03:00

Last night was a pretty good night, met Linder at Sobey's then headed to Boston Pizza for Thunder Mugs and Cactus Nachos. Got home and built two cedar rail fences and installed a hook for a hanging basket. Then spent the night researching website stuff. Good times, here is a TR from the beginning of the season.

Dawn Patrol #1 - Dec. 8th, 2008 - Day #4

Woke up to 20 - 25cms of Fresh this morning. Up and at the mountain early waiting for Stefan. Ended up skinning up the mountain to the patrol hut. And waited....and waited...and waited. After 45 minutes he showed and we quickly dropped in on the Flume. Ahhhhh powder skiing in Early Dec. As we got to the bottom of the Flume Terrain Park we switched back to tour mode. I started to head to the office as payroll was due. I asked Stefan where he was going, he said to do more runs, it's a powder day. I had a few choice words for him under my breath as I had sat and waited for him while he took is good ol' time getting to the mountain and then he stays out bagging a bunch more runs, while I go and submit payroll...which included his pay cheque. There are no friends on a powder day and I just got burned by my own rule.

Here are some pics that Stefan took.

Stefan's skin track and ski tracks on Upper Daves

Our Tracks on mid Flume

A quick video of two clips Stefan shot of me that I put together into a short video.

Yeah I know, the credits are longer than the meat of the video but hey...

Think Snow!

Ski Patrol Year End Party

2009-06-17T08:20:00.003-03:00

This past Saturday June 13th, 2009 and Sunday (for some) was the Season End Party for the Crabbe Mountain Ski Patrol hosted by Yvette and patroller Les Jones. The Season End Party is aways a good time. Usually involves a keg of beer, good food, prizes, awards and most of all fun.

Me upon arrival

Soon more and more people showed up and Girth got things cookin'

Girth checkin' to see if the oil is hot enough for the deep fried turkey and home made onion rings

Whoa...maybe a little too hot

The funny thing about this grease fire, even without the propane burner on it kept getting hotter and hotter.

mmm grease fires

Eventually it warped the lid so Les ran and got a fire extinguisher from the neighbours.

Take that ya greasy bastard

There that should do it.

Maybe not

Alright we got it now

Or not

How about now?

Got'er...best bug repellent ever

Alrighty...lets try this again with a bigger pot and even more oil!

Red, Red, Red and Kam

Doughboy and Carrie get ready to present awards

Me getting my 10 year pin (even though I've been in a few more years but whos counting), it's basically a Participation Award but don't tell anyone...I was the award winning Jolly J tonight!

Les receives the Outstanding First Aid Award.

Linder accepts a Certificate of Appreciation for the Thirsty Boot Lounge

Matt gets a Certificate of Appreciation

As does Ben

Kam gets both and Certificate of Appreciations as well as the FUBAR award

Girth gets Rookie of the Year

Timmy gets the Patrol Leader Appreciation Award

Niles is presented with his retirement plaque from Atlantic West Division from Division Prez Coffin. Niles also got an Appreciation Certificate

Ryan being awarded Patroller of the Year!

Even Gord watched the Award Show via Skype from Australia. That's him on the laptop on Les's Lap.

Awesome pic of Patrol Leader Carrie Sewell...beer in hand, cigar in mouth

Mmmmm Deep Fried Turkey

All in all, a great time was had by all. Thank you Les and Yvette for allow use to party at your place. I'll get you a new Rockband drumstick ASAP. Sorry 'bout that. Also thanks to Johnny and Carrie Sewell for all the pics.

Now for something completely different and completely incredible. Click this Link!

All I have to say is WOW and I don't want to attempt that.

First Tracks - 2008

2009-06-16T08:27:00.002-03:00

I didn't type up many TR's this year but I do log my ski days in the Snowbook App on Facebook. Pretty impressive when I go back and look at it. I've logged 230 ski days in the past two years. Wow. So between that resource, Crabbe's official blog I'm able to piece together some TR's from this year. I've also found a log book I used to keep of my backcountry days starting back in 1997. Between the log book and old photo albums, yes photo albums, because I didn't have a digital camera back then. Were they even invented back then? I'm going to scan a bunch of those pics and make TR' s out of them. Man I'm excited. So here we go kicking off the the 2009 season rightly or wrongly...First Tracks - 2008/2009

October 22, 2009 - Day #1 on the Season

I had been studying weather reports non stop for the past month hoping to get a day of October skiing in this year. It's not every year you can ski at Crabbe in October. Usually those years are few and far between. This was my second attempt at skiing in October this year. The first one was just a little two bony for my liking.

I watched this cold front coming for about a week. Stefan was in the same boat. Refreshing Environment Canada and the Weather Network, every morning, noon and night watching things develop. We set a plan Tuesday and kept our mouths shut all night at Ski Patrol class again at the Snooty Fox. As I drove home I could see snow in the air. Things were looking good.

I woke up in the morning no snow on the ground. Checked the webcam anyway. It was on. As I drove to the mountain there was only a little bit of snow on the ridge. Things started to shape up as I pulled onto Crabbe Mountain Rd. And there was more and more snow the higher you climbed. Stopped at the office and grabbed the beaters. I met Stefan at the top and we scored first tracks.

Not great first tracks. It was weird snow. The grass was dry underneath and the snow was supported up on top of the grass. Weird. So it was a lot of stop and go skiing, with skis sticking to the grass, then sliding on the snow, sticking on the grass. It was still fun though.

Stefan

Moi

Happy

As you can see...no snow down below

Says it all

Here is a write up Stefan put together for the Crabbe Mountain Official Blog.

Think Snow!

Dazed and Confused

2009-06-15T09:16:00.003-03:00

What a weekend, with the Stanley Cup game 7 on Friday night (read 12 beers and two bottles of wine) and then I don't know how much draft and beers at Ski Patrol Party on Saturday evening. Jolly was a tired boy yesterday. Got home around noon, set the kegerator back up, loaded in a fresh keg of Dooryard. And went straight to bed. Got up around 4 or 4:30ish had a few beers, read a book for a bit, soaked in the hot tub while it started to rain and listening to what sounded like an epic ball game at the Park behind our house. Ended up still crashing pretty early.

I forgot my camera so I don't have any pics from the Ski Patrol Party. Waiting for someone to put them up and I'll do up post after that.

In the meantime here is some comic relieve for you...

You'll love my nuts...too funny.

How about some ski related comic relief...vintage Warren Miller

I had a hard enough time trying to explain why I needed an Avalanche course, Beacon, Probe and a shovel to Linder. How am I going to explain the need for a Helium tank? She is going to axe that idea right off the bat because she knows I'll be walking around the house talking in a high pitched voice all day. Linder's idea of avalanche safety...don't go where there is avalanches. There is probably a lot of truth to that.

Now to some more recent backcountry ski content courtesy of Doglotion Magazine's Twitter Feed..

With that...time for another coffee and continuing to watch software install. yeee haaaww

Cheers

Claim

2009-06-13T10:56:00.003-03:00

Yesterday was crappy weather wise so I curled up on the couch with Alex and watched Matchstick Productions - Claim - The greatest ski movie...ever. I know it came out in the fall but I just got it, so I'm reviewing it now. It's got most of the big guns in the ski flick business in it. Although no Seth Morrison or Sage Cattabriga-Alosa but I think those guys are on TGR. I didn't get the whole Claim thing but they get that settled right off the bad. It's to claim your mark. To claim a run. To celebrate if you will. Things get started off with some sick deep powder in the Monashee's. Then we get everything you want to see in a ski movie drops, jumps, humor, you name it.

Here are some of my favorite clips that I could find on the tubes:

Colby West - It's Not Unusual - Pretty funny stuff

One of the craziest segments was of Kaj Zackrisson (The Flying Squirell) This guy reminds me of Carole, because he is always hooping and hollering when he is skiing. All I could find was his big crash which is absolutely amazing

More Ski >>

Ingrid's segment is awesome as usual. I really enjoyed Chris Davenport's segment as he was earning his turns. I like that. And his segment also had Sylvan Saudan in it which is just cool in itself.

Shane McConkey's segment is both awesome yet creepy at the same time.

RIP Shane Mcconkey Claim Segment from Eric Cantor on Vimeo.

So here is the trailer...enjoy it...go buy it.

matchstick productions claim trailer from www.getoutdoors.com on Vimeo.

Ski Patrol season end party tonight.

Cheers

Alex vs Deer

2009-06-12T10:07:00.010-03:00

Last night I rented a tiller to till up all the stuff in our garden before we plant it on the weekend. I did one pass on the garden to loosen things up and came inside for a beer and a bite to eat. As I got up to head back outside I noticed there was a deer in the backyard. And I realized Alex was still outside. Hmmm this could get interesting. Alex is quite funny around deer. We get deer in our yard all the time. And I can perch Alex on my shoulders with her front paws on the window sill and she will sit and watch them for as long as I can hold her up.

As it turns out Alex was under my truck sleeping. So we watched the deer, then Alex woke up and sniffed around the trailer. And then climbed up on the trailer. The deer continued munching on what I think are the thorn bushes...who knew. Neither of them noticing each other. Then Alex spys the deer. It was like she froze. Just starring at it, like her and I do through the windows when we watch them eating apples from our apple trees. This went on for about 10 minutes or so, until the deer disappeared into the bushes. Alex then takes off across the yard, her tags jingling all the way. But she couldn't remember where the deer went in so back and forth she sniffed along the woods. Then the deer jumped out right in front of her and the chase was on. Ironically Alex only ran to the edge of our property and came right back. The deer didn't. It will probably be back again today.

The Deer

Alex as viewed through the screen

The Deer and Alex with the window frame in the way

The deer disappears, Alex goes to find it

The Deer jumps out in front of Alex and she tries to herd it

The deer didn't want to be herded.

This reminds me of what could be quite possibly Alex's dream job

I found these online from and Extreme Skiing Event (they still have these) in Verbier and thought they were quite entertaining

Xtreme Verbier from Reine Barkered on Vimeo.

Cheers

When you can't ski - might as well drink

2009-06-11T08:46:00.007-03:00

From a family life point of view, it's probably best that I didn't head up to ski X. Believe it or not I did have some safety concerns so maybe it's for the best. Plus this still gives me a goal for next season. I guess this means I'll be heading up there again next year. C'est la vie. :-)

So the fact that I'm not going skiing this weekend means I get to revert back to the original plan of heading to the Ski Patrol's year end keg party. Pretty stoked about that. Yesterday I also got invited to the Big Brew in SJ. The Big Brew is a bunch of amateur (A lot of these guys can put the big breweries to shame) brewers that all get together for a big brewing party. Thursday and Friday they brew. Saturday they sample each others products. This is probably the 4th or 5th time I've been invited but unfortunately once again, I won't be able to make it. Ski Patrol party it is. Linder is excited. I'm excited.

Speaking of kegs, today I'm returning all of Crabbe's Moosehead kegs to Armour and all our Picaroons kegs back to Picaroons. Kind of fun driving around with the truck loaded to the gills with beer kegs. Too bad they are all empty.

With that, time to post some oldies. Let's throw in a Chic Chocs trip and a late patch skiing day at Crabbe.

This was my first backcountry ski trip where I got to use my skins and touring gear. It really opened my eyes to what is possible. Life changing...pretty much.

Front door bowl featuring the epic S Couloir (Gregor and I skied that in 2007)

I love this short that Gregor took of me. Pretty much run of the year.

Approaching Couloir D'Aigle

I really like this shot of Gregor

Couloir D'Aigle

Chic Chocs - April 3rd - 7th, 2006

The next TR is from a patch skiing day at Crabbe Mountain. No pics only a video that the Youtube police caught, so Stefan took it down. Still a very fun way to finish off a season

The Patch - May 20th, 2007

Off to go deliver kegs then too Lloyd's to help build a giant water tank.

Buzz Kill

2009-06-10T07:54:00.008-03:00

I have been thinking pretty much non stop about hitting up X in the Chic Chocs this weekend pretty much since we left there two weeks ago. I got a vague message from Stefan cancelling on the Chic Chocs for this weekend. I'm pretty bummed. I was fighting and working hard for this trip. Sooo...anyone interested in bagging a remote North facing couloir this weekend? Need a trip partner! Interested! email me at gm at crabbemountain dot com ASAP.

Gotta be quick, heading to Lloyd's today then Crabbe tonight and I don't want to be late.

Today I'm bringing forward a hiking TR and a non ski Crabbe TR.

I was unemployed a few summers ago and had Katahdin on my mind. Linda didn't want me to do it solo so I asked around and Timmy wanted to join me. He had already done Katahdin but had never actually summited Mount Washington. Neither had I, I had skied all over the Tucks side, the East Snowfields. Attempted Great Gulf but didn't get there in time, but the one time I was at the summit, we drove. Sooo...lets go to climb Mount Washington.

Me trying to look cool

As you can see, it was pretty cloudy that day, our trip to the summit was in and out of the clouds.

Pretty nice of them to name the trail to the summit after me. Me and my big bag of sunflower seeds were stoked.

Timmy's obligitory summit shot

My obligitory summit shot

Mount Washington - June 29, 2005

The next TR is a pretty strange couple of days preseason at Crabbe, where I dealt with pissed off Rottweilers and horses. Strange days indeed.

Saddly no pics from this one. But if you want to donate to the SPCA, click here.

Party Animals - Oct. 2008

Well I'm off to try not to burn myself.

Obsessed

2009-06-09T08:25:00.013-03:00

I've been so obsessed about skiing lately. Linda says she has never seen me so badly obsessed. I think it has a lot to do with X calling. Either way, I think this peice summed up a lot of what goes on in my head. Well except that part about snow cover peaks...I can't see them, I can only picture them in my head.

Last evening, I noticed coldfront weather had skiffed a layer of white over what had been the summer’s dirty snow, up on Mount Sopris above our town. It’s been brown up there for so long, I’d forgotten how new nieve on a summer mountain glows and beckons like the bright windows of your home when you pull in at night after a long day on the road, and know your loved one is up waiting for you.
Yeah, that mountain up there is calling my name. I know she’s friendly most of the time, even sexy. But she’s cold and dangerous too. Sometimes, the thought of her up there without me is too much to bear. Who’s she with? What are they doing? Is the snow good? How was it climbing in that wind before the storm broke? Every-detail-please.
No matter where I am in the world, if a cliff rises above, I think about climbing it. No, actually, I’ll WANT to climb it. I’ll want it bad. I will pick out routes, wonder who’s been up there, try to guess where the legend lines go if it’s a famous rock. Likewwise, when a mountain lofts in the distance, in a nanosecond I’m studying the ridges and walls like a college student cramming for finals. My thoughts go hyper, figuring which line goes; which is the classic alpine, which is the hardman’s wont.
And if something up there is glowing white? Oh boy, the skiing mind wilds like a teenager at Copacabana checking out the latest fashions (or lack thereof). Sometimes, it is torture that even Dick Cheney would approve of. And never mind keeping the eyes on the road.
That’s our lot as alpinists. We’re in love, but our paramour is so often out of reach. When we’re not with her, we rage on about about conservation, preservation, global warming, muscle power vs petrol, bad sleds, crowding and all that junk like a bunch of worn out and barstool perched cowboys breaking down their past fifty years of wives. We even wallow in guilt, and try to balm our itchy emotions with big important sounding things like “social activism.” Or, jealousy? We hear about friends getting the goods on the alpine, and who cares who is flirting with whom down here on the ground!
Yeah, set all the blogging and yammering aside for a moment. For most of us, when you get down to it, we just want to get close to to the one we love. Her windows, they are glowing

I think that pretty much sums a bunch of stuff up in my head. Here is the link to where I found it.

We've been doing a lot of work around the house lately. Here is the window boxes I made for Linda and the Shutters we installed to complement them.

Before

During

After

Now we just have to let the plants and flowers fill in and they should look quite nice. I'm happy with them. They were fun to build.

Here are some TR's from back in the day and not so back in the day.

The first is one is from one of Timmy and Stefan's Sugarloaf Trips. I love Sugarloaf. It's had a special spot in my heart since I became a Sugarloafer in 1988. I got engaged there at the Bag. It's a special place. I think this may have been my last Sugarloaf trip. I've got to get back there sometime soon.

Red

Stefan

Rein

Wet Hippy

Moi

Moi Aussi

Group Shot: Wet Hippy, Rein, Red, Moi and Gregor

Sugarloaf - Nov. 25th - 28th, 2005

The Next TR has a bunch of TR's in one. I'll break them out later. But for now to keep things simple and rolling here it is in raw form. Chic Chocs 2008

Group Shot: Pierre, Joel, Stefan, Me, Carole, Andrew, and Rob

Carole and Pierre Climbing

Me in Mousekateer Couloir

Chic Chocs April 13th - 19th, 2008

With that I'm off to the bank

Monday Morning Blahzzz

2009-06-08T09:25:00.010-03:00

I couldn't sleep last night. After working hard all day finishing up the Stage. Then mowing the lawn and whipper snipping. This included the ditch in front of the house. For some odd reason Linder likes the ditch to look tidy. I didn't do it on the first mow this year because quite honestly, it didn't need to be done. I usually do it every other time because it's a lot of work and a pain in the ass. The last time I mowed the lawn just as I was finishing mowing, it started to downpour. So last night after mowing I tackled the ditch. It took 1 and half tanks of gas to git-er-done and it was pretty much dark when I finished. When I came in the house I was covered in grass from head to toe and my hands were numb from the vibrations of the whipper snipper. I think next time I'll wear gloves. So I ate a row or two of Mr. Freezies and had a shower. Hands still numb. So I went to the fridge and low and behold there was one more Dooryard starring back at me. 4 hours later, I'm still surfing the web looking at ice axes, crampons, and ski bindings. So yeah two o'clock this morning I went to bed. Dumbah.

Today's update was supposed to be pictures of Linders Window boxes (Linder's Winder Baxes) but I forgot to bring my camera with me.

Soooooo....content....yeah...No problem. I added a couple more blogs to Blogs I follow list on the right hand side of this page. I added the Crabbe Mountain Official Blog as it's always nice to know what is going on at Crabbe. I don't expect many updates on it for a while. Maybe I should get Stefan to resend me the coordinates or make me a contributor and I can do some updates on it. I then found 14 erskiers blog by mistake looking for Chris Davenport's skithe 14 ers website so I could see where I could buy his book. Turns out 14 erskiers works in my Blogs I Update while Chris Davenport's Blog doesn't. 14 erskiers is updated by Brittany Walker and Frank Konsella who are pretty dedicated skiers. I also tried to add As the Snow Falls but it wouldn't work either.

Anywho, where am I going with this...I checked my updates this morning and I found this a quick blurb about a bunch of people who carried a hot tub up to the summit of mountain.

You can read the quick blurb at 14 erskiers .com's blog

So here are some oldie TR's. One is the last in my western TR series and the other is my next ski day after breaking my clavical.

Ever since I read my first Ski Canada Magazine I've wanted to ski Fernie. There was a picture of this massive cliff face at the top and talks of all this snow. I was sold. Turns out we hit after one of the worst rain storms in their history which closed most of the ski areas around Fernie. Never thought I would be skiing manmade snow mid winter at Fernie. Go figure.

Stefan and a BFSS (Big F****** Stop Sign)

Me and a BFT (Big F****** Truck)

One of the Alpine Bowls

Lack of Snow. There is not supposed to be bushes!

Fun on the way home

Damn I'm sexy

Fernie - Feb. 23rd, 2005

Next up is one for the Epic Days at Crabbe Dept. This was me going stir crazy after breaking my clavicle. The good Doctor told me 6 weeks, no physical activity period. I lasted 9 days. Within a week or two after that, I was skiing powder, glades, trees (not glades, trees) and moguls. Not the smartest thing I've ever done but I survived.

This pic was taken I think the second day I went out skiing after the injury. I can tell because I'm on touring gear and my skins are binered to my sling. I was nervous of sitting down fast on the chair so I would tour. Ski down, skin up.

I'm getting a little braver here. Skiing bumps with a broken clavicle still in the sling. Great for balance and learning how to suck up the bumps as smoothly as possible.

This was my first day with poles. I was annoyed because I kept getting the sling tangled up in the branches so I started using a pole as a beating stick. This is not a glade run...it's full on woods skiing. Thinking back...I don't think this was a good idea...but it was pretty fun and better than sitting at a desk all day.

Mental Health - March 5, 2008

It's a beautiful day out there, go enjoy it.

New Interesting Content

2009-06-07T09:39:00.012-03:00

One of the main reasons for this blog is kind of a one stop shop for me to get to information from past TR's quickly and easily. It's also a cool resource to find out and stay up to date on some some cool info. I started working on this last night and added Other Blogs I follow down the right hand side.

I added Greg Hill. He is a ski mountaineer and film maker from the Revelstoke area. Last year one of his films made the Finals for the Banff Film Festival. I discovered Greg's blog through Andrew MacLean's blog, straight chuter. Andrew is one of the top if not the top ski mountaineers in the world. He is a tremendous athlete with a cool sense of humor. I got Andrew's blog from Gregor, who told me it was a great info resource. The other two Lou Dawson's Wildsnow is a great resource, except Lou can be biased on a lot of topics like Dynafit and AT over Tele. But he has a lot of knowledge and keeps the blog updated almost daily. And last but not least is Powderwhores. I love their stuff so now I follow their blog. It's pretty cool because you are basically following them making a ski movie.

The cool thing about the gadget is it's kind of like an RSS feed and tells you if they have been updated and reshuffles the deck and puts the most recently updated on top. Do you have any blogs I should be following? I must say there were a few others that I wanted to add but if they didn't have the auto update feature working I didn't add them as it would kind of screw up the gadget.

So here we go...more TR's from the past. On is a TR to Poley Mountain of all places when I broke my clavicle. You might find some humor in it. The other is a continuation of the Calgary Trip back in 2005. This stop Golden.

Ever since I first saw the plans for Kicking Horse, I've wanted to go there and now was my chance. I was there with Stefan and Denis and we were joined by Dan. Good times had by all, except the people that live between the bars and Mary's Motel.

We partied pretty hard on this trip

Crystal Bowl

Fuez Bowl

Bowl Over

Backside. Love the skin track/boot pack along the ridge.

Moguls

Denis and Dan heading across Redemption Ridge. We also dropped in directly in front of Dan.

The view

Man what a trip, someday I'd like to head back, maybe a big tour on a big snow year. Kicking Horse, Revelstoke, Red, Whitewater, Fernie (on a good snow year), many, many more and of course some backcountry skiing in Rogers Pass and elsewhere in between

Kicking Horse - Feb 20th - 22nd, 2005

The next TR will probably make you chuckle if you like kickin' a feller when he's down. Poley Mountain Ouchie trip.

Believe it or not I'm in a lot of pain in this pic. Come to think of it...so is Jamie.

Poley Mountain - Feb 25, 2008

With that time to go finish the railing on the stage, haul some compost and top soil and mow the lawn. Oh yeah, and finish off some Cracked Canoe's along the way.

Cheers

Lots to do

2009-06-06T09:19:00.006-03:00

Last night after work I had a beer with the Award Winning Carrie Sewell at McGinnis Landing. Just as we were wrapping up Gregor called to see I wanted to join in for a beer. We went to the Garrison District Ale House. I had a couple of Dooryards and Gregor had a Pumphouse Maple Ale and a Man's Best Friend. I'm really starting to like that place. Awesome selection of quality beers. I then hit the reject LC in the Superstore and headed home with some more Dooryards and some wine to go home and hang out with Linder. Great way to spend the end of a long week!

Today we got a lot on the list to do. I have to design a railing for the stage, then buy said materials for said railing. Finish laying the screws to the Linder's Window Boxes. Get some top soil for Linders garden and mow the lawn.

So here we go, two blasts from the past....

The first one is another TR from the out west trip of 2005, and the other is Big Wednesday. Straight up one of the best powder days ever at Crabbe Mountain.

This part of the trip we hit up Lake Louise. I've been told the Lake is awesome but we hit it on a bad day. This day included the biggest crash of my life.

As you can see, the light was rather flat which made the fun terrain...not fun

More Flat Light at the drop in

Big Holiday Crowd

The view

Lake Louise - Feb. 19th, 2005

The next was Big Wednesday. BIG WEDNESDAY. Wow what a day on so many levels.

Tis the Season to be Jolly!

Fa La La La La...

La La...La....Laaaa

mmmmm Big Wednesday!

Big Wednesday - Jan. 2nd, 2008

Cheers

Beer Hydrates Better Than Water

2009-06-05T13:52:00.011-03:00

It's been quite a week emotionally, from a high of skiing on the weekend to the low of learning of Edwin's death. It's been quite a roller coaster ride. I'm looking forward to some brown weights this weekend, that's for sure. It might even be a Corona weekend if the weather holds true. Who knows.

After all Beer does Hydrate Better than Water. That explains a lot I guess. I got that one from Backcountry's Twitter feed.

Had a surprise coffee and bagel this morning with the G-Man. It was nice catching up on stuff and planning some future trips. Although we kinda got side tracked....a lot. But I'm pretty sure there will be some pretty sweet TR's coming in the future.

Other than that, it will be a big working on projects around the house type of weekend. Hoping to put the finishing touches on Linder's Window Boxes, put a railing on the stage and hopefully getting closer to finishing the stairs and maybe even start trimming out the basement...wait a minute, that's too much for one weekend. I do hope to get on the bike or maybe go for a run though...well maybe not that latter.

Now here are some blasts from the past. Sunshine Village Feb 2005 and some of the Holiday Storms between Xmas and New Years 2007 at Crabbe.

This is a continuation of the trip, where Stefan and I met up with Denis and hit up a bunch of resorts out west. This was Day 2 at Sunshine Village. Definitely a fun ski day. My two favorite memories were right off the bat hitting the wide open snowfields a mock loonie and not realizing how fast we were going until we went to stop. The other was the steep and deep trees under (well almost) the chair. Too much fun.

The entrance to Delirium Dive. I would be able to go beyond the gate now that I have Avi gear.

Denis rippin' it up. Love the skiable terrain here

Me all smiles!

The view...it's like looking out at Burtt Lake from the top of Crabbe...well maybe not quite the same

Sunshine Village - Feb 18th, 2005

The next TR is not much of a TR as an update. This is when we got pounded by storm after storm during the holidays in 2007.

Yours truly trying to outrun the camera

Timmy in Pugs

Mmmm - Pow!

That would be sooo nice right now.

Timmy...knee deep...crappy job...:-)

Holiday Pow - 2007

It's almost beer o'clock

Cheers!

BDB - CDA May 2009

2009-06-03T11:47:00.041-03:00

Finally managed to get a Chic Chocs trip this season. I was hoping to get up there earlier but our Gros Morne trip kind of got in the way. Don't get me wrong. Gros Morne rocked and I would go back in a second. It just meant I had to put off heading up the Chics until what I thought, might be too late.

I tried to get a big group to go but everyone had excuses from good ones to lame ones. In the end Stefan, Terry and I headed up in the rain.

Is this a sign of things to come?

We had some fun along the way.

Me working on my french txt skills and confusing the crap out of Terry and Stefan

Eventually we had everything we needed. A truck full of skis, snowboard, climbing gear and beer.

Skis - check, board - check, axe and pons - check, beer - check, good times ahead...

We woke up the next morning, and checked in, kind of strange doing that the after the fact, but we needed to make sure we had our paperwork in case we needed it. Which we did the next morning.

We eventually headed up to the MM area and were quite surprised to find this...

A paved road going all the way to MM Hut.

We drove around for a while looking to see what we could see for snow. There was snow...but it was hard to tell how much through the fog and clouds. Eventually we listened to Stefan's idea and followed a HQ road that looked like it was going the wrong way. Eventually it skirted around a mountain and we began to climb until we reached the snowline. At this point we decided to start hiking. We gave ourselves a time limit of 45 minutes, if things didn't look promising, we would turn around and head somewheres else.

Terry, Moi, et Stefan ready to climb

Within a matter of minutes the road was filled in and I was skinning. Whoo hoo day 124! Things were indeed looking good!

Oh la la

Soon I found myself in the middle of a Caribou herd

Caribou

There were about 10 - 14 by our counts and this represents about 10% of this particular herd that lives in the Gaspe. It's quite remarkable and we felt quite blessed to have experienced this.

Great big bugger of a Caribou

Eventually we all made our way to the summit of PMSA. Hung out in the thick clouds or fog for a bit and then made our way down to BDB.

Terry ready to rock

Me diggin' it

Terry and Stefan riding through the fog

In all we did 3 runs in the BDB remaining snowfields.

Me climbing for more runs

Terry and Stefan climbing up the sketchy rocks.

We decided to take a quick and dirty way up over the ridge. Probably not the best idea as the rocks were very loose and tricky. We then skied back down the road to the truck.

On the way back to our hut we did some exploring and saw this little guy

Baby Moose

The next morning we were awoken by Andrew and sunny skys. We had a few beers and then headed up for todays project.

CDA (the diagonal couloir in the middle)

On they way up we ran into more Caribou

Check out the size of their feet.

Soon we were geared up and ready to hike towards our goal

Moi, Tery, Andrew and Stefan

We soon arrived at the base of CDA

Looking up CDA

And began the climb

Me climbing. It's pretty steep in here

Soon we topped out and did some exploring around the summit of MDLT and found this

Me getting a closer look at X!

Soon we headed back into CDA for our decent.

Terry

Andrew (I love this shot)

Andrew

Andrew crashed into the bushes at the bottom

Which gave him the idea of taking a shortcut through the bushes below

Andrew up to his knees in a pond...yes he is still wearing his teleboots.

Stefan crossing a brook...yup still wearing ski boots

I don't know if I'm stupid or smart...I 'swacked the whole way without wading in water or getting my boots wet. But I did quite a bit a cursing and swearing

And I did cross a mud flat lake

Trying to be artsy...tele boot prints in the mud

Walking back from cleaning my boots in the snow trying to look all cool and stuff

We then enjoyed some cigars as a tribute to RR

Terry

Stefan

Moi

Andrew

Andrew had to leave early, while we stuck around for an apres ski party

And a parting shot. You would think we planned this...sunglasses on, beer in right hand, left hand in pocket.

The drive home was pretty much miserable as it downpoured for 3 - 4 hours of the 6 hour drive home. I still arrived home super stoked about a new project (X) and I managed to hit my goal.

This was ski day number 125 on the season for me. Couldn't have happened in a better place with a better group of friends.

Cheers

Giggles

2009-06-02T09:58:00.005-03:00

After a weekend of earning turns. I found I was stronger than earlier this season at Gros Morne. That is because I've adapted the Shane McConkey's "Getting Fit With The Pros" work out plan (make sure you zoom in and read, really good stuff here) that was published in Powder Magazine back in October 2007. I want to thank Powder's Twitter feed for bringing this to my attention.

Hoping to get Stefan's pics from the weekend before I post the new TR. I expect this to happen tonight, so tomorrow should be the brand spankin' new TR. I'm pumped!

Until then enjoy these blasts from the past. A hiking trip with Linder and Josh on the Maliseet Trail back in 2005 and a Pre Christmas Powder Day at Crabbe from 2007.

I remember it was a beautiful day and we were bored and looking for something to do. I had mentioned wanted to do this hike for quite some time and I think it was Linder that brought it up and said lets do it today. We talked Josh into joining us, and headed off for a small family day hike.

Mother and Son

Hayes Falls

Maliseet Trail - July 17, 2005

The next was in the BIG season of 2007 - 2008. We got our second storm of the season before Christmas.

Je suis un happy garçon

I love seeing the steps buried this time of year

Maxin' and Relaxin'

Pre-Christmas Pow Day - Dec. 17, 2007

Chat atcha tomorrow!

Thinking of Edwin.

Thinking of Edwin

2009-06-01T12:08:00.006-03:00

As many of you know, I was away skiing for the weekend. I had an absolute blast. I was pumped to write a Trip Report today, but after hearing about Edwin's passing over the weekend. I don't have it in me.

Edwin was a great person. He had a heart of gold. Words can't begin to discribe how I feel right now. I'm thinkin' about ya buddy. I'm going to leave it at that.

Here are some more TR's for the Archive.

Another Canoe TR from the Restigouche River back in July 2005. The other is a big pre-season pow day from Dec 2007.

The Restigouche is a beautiful river that I was introduced to by my neighbours Martin and Danielle.

Restigouche River - July 16th - 18th, 2005

The next TR was an early season pow day on Dec. 4, 2007. Really good skiing.

Drifts out in front of the Lodge

Hiking over to put skins back on to tour up for more runs.

Pre-Season Pow Day - Dec. 4th, 2007

Rest well Edwin...

Way to go Carrie!

2009-05-28T11:25:00.008-03:00

Today is the big award day for Unsung Hero, Carrie Sewell. I'm pretty stoked for her. I think she is kind of embarrassed about the attention but I think it's great. Congrats Carrie..."Did you ever know that your my Heeeroooo" (inside joke).

One of these things...is not like the others. :-) Eric, Counciller David Kelly, Unsung Hero Carrie Sewell, Niles, et moi.

Carrie showing off her award

I have to hurry up and get some work done at home so here goes more importing Trip Reports for my Archives.

The first is from a trip Stefan and I went on out west to visit our friend Denis and to do some skiing. The next is another TR in under the First Tracks trend.

When we headed out west, we knew Denis was going to be busy so we rented a car and hit up the closest mountain to Calgary, Nakiska.

Me in the Parking Lot of Nakiska

Stefan hanging out at the patrol hut at the top of the gold chair

Boo trying not to be violated!

Nakiska - February 17, 2005

Once again, another first tracks day at Crabbe. I never get tired of these. It's usually (not always) garbage snow but it's fun to get back on the boards!

Me rippin' up the pow pow....errrr....cutting the grass

First Tracks - November 13, 2007

I'm getting really stoked to jump on the boards this weekend. Cheers

edit: Just turned comments on. Feel free to leave comments. They are sent to my email so it might take some time for them to show up. Or I be a bugger and moderate them.

The Stairs are coming together

2009-05-27T07:31:00.012-03:00

Yesterday was an interesting day. Just started putting trim on Linder's window boxes when Nicholson's showed up. That wasn't much of an ordeal and was very happy with the service and the results...as always. Then finished up the window boxes and had lunch.

After lunch I started tackling the stairs. We removed the carpet from the stairs and they are ugly. We had already put laminate in the basement so we knew we didn't want to put carpet back. That would just look stupid. So we are going to refinish them ourselves. First step was to sand down the sizes so new paint would both adhere to it and look half decent. That was a work out in it self as the paint that is on there kept gumming up the sand paper making progress slow and extremely frustrating at times. Next was to cut some bats to act as anchors. Then cut the kick boards which was a bigger job than I thought. There isn't one stair that is the same size height or width. While I did this I also cut the stair treads. Last but not least I attached the kick boards and countersunk the screws. Next up is painting the sides and kick plates. Sanding and staining the treads and then attaching them. Fun project, but it took me quite a while to wrap my head around it.

Before looking down

Before looking up

End of day 1 looking down

End of day 1 looking up

Last weekend for the first time in my life I saw a Bluebird. Not a Blue Jay, a Bluebird. Today one crashed into our picture window. I think he's going to make it. He contorted himself into some pretty messed up positions. Then he laid beak down on the concrete, can't be a good thing. Next time I looked out he was standing up but just starring off into space. Now he is standing up looking around. Hopefully he is just really concussed and will be alright. I know Alex would really like to go out and play with him.

I've been dabbling with Twitter as of late and this came down the pipe yesterday and cracked me up.

Aspen Extreme - 2009 (Meathead Films - Ski The East)

Today's trip reports from the past are as follows.

Paddling on the Nashwaak River with my good buddy Derek (Chico) and another Chic Chocs trip.

Derek and I have paddled the Nashwaak River from Taymouth down to Fredericton in kayaks, one spring. That water was fast and cold that day. It was still in flood stage. I can say the rapids through Marysville that day were a blast. This day we paddled from just above Stanley down to Taymouth. This day was more on the mellow just to get out and away from the world.

Derek and I

A cool waterfall along the way

Nashwaak River - June 4, 2005

Next TR from the Archives is one of the big Chic Chocs trip. This year Gregor and I decided to rent the whole hut and then fill the beds with friends. We almost got burned as a bunch of people dropped out last minute and we had to post the vacancies on different websites. Turned out to be a blessing as we met some new friends who we still ski with today. Good times!

Stefan, Gregor, et moi

Rob (Mass), Pierre (Edmundston), Me, Caroline (Rimouski), Pierre (Bathurst), Andrew (Bathurst), Gregor, and Stefan.

Chic Chocs -April 2007

And with that I just checked on the Bluebird and got to watch him fly away!

Off to work, cheers!

The Shit Wagon

2009-05-26T08:30:00.009-03:00

Today we are getting a visit from Nicholson's to come pump out our septic system. I've been involved (not really) with this at Crabbe but this will be the first time at home. Kinda looking forward to it, kinda not. While I'm waiting for them to show up. I'm going to finally finish putting the trim on Linder's window boxes and start rebuilding our stairs down to the basement. Linda and I looked at this project this morning. It's going to be a lot more work than I had originally hoped. I don't think it is going to be a one day project.

Yesterday I worked at Lloyd's for the day...well afternoon really, and I rebuilt a wood stove. Pretty fun but dirty project. I learned quite a bit. Including filling in holes that you burn through the metal you are trying to weld when you screw up.

Seeing that I have a lot of work to get done today and I would actually like to finish a project around the house today, here are some old Trip Reports to add to the Archives.

I think this was my last trip to ski Tuckerman Ravine. We used to go down a couple times a year. But after I discovered the Chic Chocs. I haven't really made it down. Kind of a shame, kind of not. I'd still like to do a Tucks trip mid winter as there are next to no crowds which I prefer now. It's seems to be hard to get away from Crabbe mid winter though. If I was to do a spring trip I think I would like to head over and do some stuff over in Great Gulf. Maybe next year.

My gear at the top of the Ravine

Looking across the towards the Lip and Right Gully. Check out the bumps in the Lip!

Looking down the Chute, my route back down

Stefan climbing up into Left Gully

The Little Headwall

Tuckerman Ravine - April 19, 2005

Here is another Epic Day from Crabbe. This was a week after we closed due to lack of customers. It was Good Friday, no seriously it was actually Good Friday, the holiday. And man was it a good Friday. All my ski buddies were off for an epic weekend at Sugarloaf. It was still one of the best ski experiences I've had a Crabbe. It's a shame I didn't have anyone other than Alex to share it with. But then again she makes an awesome ski partner!

Good Friday - April 6, 2007

Well there it is. Time to go get dirty.

Chic Chocs this weekend

2009-05-25T07:42:00.004-03:00

Stefan and I are heading to the Chic Chocs this weekend on the cheap if anyone is interested. Plan is to leave Friday, come back on Sunday. Should be a bunch of fun. Let me know if you're interested and I can fill you in on the details. I'm pretty stoked to get back on snow. I set a goal of 125 ski days this year and am currently stuck at 123. Don't get me wrong, I love summer, and still think of this as summer, even thought it is still spring. This is really just skiing at warmer temps and with black flies. We're gonna try and bag some North facing Couloirs. Gonna make this quick this morning as I'm heading to Lloyd's to give him a hand in his shop.

Here is a TR following the First Tracks theme of things. On the forum T4T we used to have a contest to see who could get first tracks of the season. This particular year I won. You don't really win anything but it was pretty fun no less. It was also my first time skiing at Crabbe with Gregor and Farley.

First Tracks - November 2004

And here is another Dawn Patrol TR from Feb. 2007 at Crabbe. This was a funny one, because I skied it pretty much in the dark as I had my old headlamp on and thought it was tricky but pretty good. Timmy called me later in the morning saying it was garbage, and then 10 minutes later Gregor emailed me an update on what I was missing. I'm not sure who was right, but the pics Gregor sent look pretty good.

Dawn Patrol #3 - February 2007

I off to try not to burn myself again with welding equipment, then pick up some more trim, finish Linda's window boxes and hopefully go for a bike ride.

Think Snow!

Christmas in May?

2009-05-24T10:26:00.003-03:00

We went into town to pick up some building supplies. I'm going to have a little bitch session here so bare with me. I'm not going to call out the store by name but I can assure you it was NOT Johnny B's store downtown. It always boggles my mind how during the week when it's not as busy, they have knowable staff on. But on the weekends when it's a gong show, they have high school kids that don't know sh!t about sh!t. I was extremely disappointed the contractors desk was closed and knowing full well I was in for a treat at the project desk. The kid (actually there was two of them) screwed up our order, which I didn't realize until I got out in the yard to pick up my lumber. He put 1 X 8's on the slip instead of 1 X 10's even though he had asked me 3 times which size of board I was looking for. So I went back in to get him to change it to 1 X 10's. He wrote up a whole new order. I asked if I could get a copy of the credit for the original order. He said don't worry they would do that later. But I didn't trust him, because I had already signed for two orders saying I received them. There would be now way in hell I would be able to go back and say I only received one order when I get invoiced for two. He then couldn't figure out how to credit it. Off we go to customer service. They had a hard to producing a credit. That is when I realized my second bill was $25 more on the second order. Now I'm pissed...I've been waiting for 20 minutes to change a line from 1 X 8 to 1 X 10, there are other building supply stores in the city, I tell them never mind, cancel them both. But I don't want to walk out, because I already signed that I received both orders. Magically they are able to credit both orders, and re-enter a third order with the correct pricing on them. That is the last time I go here on a weekend or when the contractor desk is not open. I can't wait to get invoiced for all these. Three invoices, Two credit notes, all because the guy at the project desk doesn't know the difference between 1 X 8's and 1 X 10's.

We get home and Josh has already checked the mail and low and behold...this is what was there for me! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Claim, NWD 7, There's Something about McConkey and a Pray for Snow T-Shirt

I've been trying to find Something about McConkey for a few years now. I had seen it when it first came out, but when Stefan lent me the Seth Morrison Chronicles, I was hooked. And want a copy of McConkey. Now the McConkey has tragically passed on, I've been looking everywhere for a copy to have as a sort of tribute. MSP has re-released it with proceeds going to McConkey's family. I know there has been a lot of debate on what McConkey does for a living. But he did what he loved, died doing what he loved...I'm sure he didn't want to die and leave his family behind...but what can you say. My heart goes out to them and those that loved him. I believe in following your dreams and follow adventures, isn't that what life is all about. So if you want a good laugh, pick up this DVD and press play. Saucer boy lives on. I've also heard they are going to make a sequel of footage from 2000 (when the DVD came out) until his death. I'm sure it will be an instant classic. I do a review of NWD7 and Claim as I watch them.

Now for TR update blasts from the past. Here is one of my favorite runs of all time. Denis and I were enjoying some Margs at Mexis and decided that lets drive to Tuckerman Ravine and back in a day. All in all a couple hours of sleep to sober up, 13 hours of driving, one run...One of my favorite runs of all times.

Tucks - May 1st, 2001, sorry no pics...this wasn't the most well planned trip.

Here is another Dawn Patrol TR from back in Jan. 2007 at good ol' Sunny Crabbe Mountain. This time it was with Gregor.

Gregor skinning across T2 bottom

Dawn Patrol #2 - January 20th, 2007

And with that, I'm off to go pick up screws I forgot to buy yesterday, build some window boxes and hopefully go check out the Woolastook 5 event.

TNT!

2009-05-23T10:01:00.007-03:00

Had some Chris Brothers TNT Pepperoni last night. That coupled with a lot of draft, I'm feeling it this morning. Today I 'm hoping to check a bunch of stuff off my honey do list. So I'll keep this short and sweet.

Here is an old T4T hiking TR from a car camping trip to Mount Carleton in August 2004. Here are a couple of my favorites pics from that trip.

View from the top of Mount Carleton

Dusk from the Campground

Brook on the hike back down

Really cool tree gripping a rock on the hike into Williams Falls

Mount Carleton - August 2004

The next TR is from the old blog which will be filed under the Epic Days @ Crabbe. This was Big Friday...partially because after Big Wednesday last year, every big dump is now called ...Big Xday. We had gone quite a few years without a serious pow day and finally we got nailed. I remember having to work that morning at the day job but was able to get off at noon to head up to play while it was still puking. I believe I worked the night shift that night. I skied with Gregor and Timmy.

Timmy lovin' every minute of it!

Big Friday - January 2007

Gotta go head into town to pick up some building supplies...cheers

Chics

2009-05-22T07:20:00.003-03:00

Another beautiful day in the city today. We had a nice evening last night. Pretty mellow for b-day standards. When I got home, neither one of us felt like BBQ, so we ordered takeout from the Acorn Restaurant. It's nice living outside the city but still having the options of delicious food close by. Eventually Lloyd, Diane, Lilly and Tia swung by. They had some margs, I wasn't really feeling it. I'm not a big lime marg fan. I'm more of pansy and prefer Strawberry/Banana Margs. So I settled for beers. The black flies came out in droves for the first time this year. But we still sat out past dark. The Maurey's left and we headed inside and hung out with Josh. We had some stimulating conversations which somehow turned to, "What are Sea Monkeys?" Now you know, in case you didn't. Like I said, mellow for Linder's B-Day standards, but nice no less.

Stefan and I are planning a ski trip to the Chic Chocs for next weekend. Leave Freddy Beach after work on Friday stay at the "rustic cabins" (Scroll down to Mont Albert Camping). These are pretty sweet cabins, 8 beds, wood stove, cooking area, shared bathroom facilities and best of all dirt cheap. Word on the street many of the summer roads have melted out so we can get pretty deep into the park quite easily for come couloir skiing. Let me know if you are interested in joining us. More details soon as we learn more on who is interested and who is not.

I'm posting two blasts from the past today. One from T4T and one from the old blog.

Lets start with T4T cause it's older (April 2004). This was my first trip to the Chic Chocs. Stefan had been there a couple of times in the summer at this point. We planned on camping a couple nights in the tent and doing some skiing. Back then, we were dumb and hiked for our turns with our gear on with our Alpine gear on our back. At that point we knew very little about touring gear other than it existed. Well that's not true, a month earlier I had taken my Avi Course Level 1 AIARE from Chauvin Guides. I introduced myself to Red Bull that morning and I think I made record time keeping up as they slowly and relaxingly toured their way up to the bowl, while I raced and humped my gear up on my back. This is when I was totally sold on getting touring gear. But still, it wouldn't be for a couple of years before I got some.

Hmmm...can't seem to find any pics of this trip. Next rainy day, I'll see if I can find the HD out of my old PC.

Chic Chocs Recon Mission - April 19, 2004

The next TR is from the old blog and a little more current (January 2007). I was working as an Accountant by day, and Ski Patroller by night and weekend. Two full time jobs makes for a busy winter. It had been a while since I got to ski powder and I knew I wasn't going to get the day off from the day job so I did what any sane person would do. Picked up a mountain bike headlamp (way better light and battery power than a standard head lamp). Grabbed Alex, jumped in the truck at some ungodly hour, drove the unplowed roads to Crabbe and went skiing.

Dawn Patrol - January 16, 2007

Happy B-Day Linder!

2009-05-21T16:42:00.003-03:00

Today is Linder's Birthday. I'm pretty stoked about it, not nearly as stoked as she is because she celebrates not only her birthday, but her birthday week and her birthday month. But I do like celebrating! Tonight we'll be kickin' back BBQing some food and sampling some Margs and Beers. Later we may do some star gazing or hang out in the hot tub. Too bad I have to work tomorrow. I also pretty pumped that she got a nice hot day to celebrate.

Speaking of hot. It's funny how many people are bitchin' that it's too hot out? I can understand if they are people like me who love winter. We are allowed to bitch if we want. It's our right for putting up the rest of the worlds whining all winter long. But most of these people are the same people that bitched about the snow and the cold in the winter. Get over it people. It's the weather, it changes...wear a helmet!

Here is my first blast from the past as I start to pull old TR's from the old blog over to the Links Section of this on.

First Tracks - 2007.

Cheers!