07.12.05
A Winter Sports Week
Well Winter has begun to set in here in Canada. Vancouver being near/on the Pacific Coast remains more temperate then the rest of the country so it tends to be warmer. However that didn’t stop it from getting cold enough to snow a few times last week. Early Tuesday morning it began snowing but later in the day it turned to rain and left the ground all slushy and wet. Not like the picture postcard stuff you see in photos.
Karl lives up the hill at the University. It’s about 4-5km from here. However it is up the hill. (About 100m elevation difference.) The freezing level must have been somewhere between sea level and Karl’s because on Thursday went i went to Karl’s to babysit Molly. I decided to get a run in and therefore ran up there. As i ran through the trails the higher i got the more snow and ice that was laying on the trails. Until it got to the stage where you were running on hard packed snow about an inch deep on the trail. A good novelty. In fact over a week later certain parts of the trails are still covered in and surrounded by ice, it certainly makes running fun. I have been running several times a week with Laura, one of the other employees at the store. The ice certainly adds a new dimension to a run.
Anyway up at the Uni the ground was covered in hard packed snow about 1-2 inches deep and all the roads were real icy. While i was babysitting Molly we got the Heiden’s toboggan out and went across the road to the ovals where there is a slope on the grass and played on the toboggan. Not a bad way to kill an hour and a bit with a nealry three year old.
With all the snow i was starting to get itchy about doing some skiing. One of the other staff at the store, Panda (read Adam) used to work in the snow business before joining Forerunners. So Panda and I hit up the ski shops on Friday looking for some bargains. About 4 hours later i was ready to go. Boots, Skis, Bindings, Poles, the whole kit for less than $660 Canadian. All good quality stuff too. The skis were the best bargain, originally $719, i got them for $199. Today i got the call from the store that they were about to mount the bindings to the skis and they will be ready to go. Just in time for Karl and I to head to Mt Baker in Washington State, USA for some skiing next Monday. So i am looking forward to that.
Then after the marathon ski shop effort, i went Ice skating with Laura from the shop and some of her friends. Lucky all that time spent on rollerblades earlier in life came in handy and i was not to shabby on the ice for an Australian. Todd the manager from the store also turned up and he was all excited that i could actually skate. He said i was already a better skater than one of the guys on his hockey team. Which at the end of the day isn’t that much considering that he is a 300 pound Australian. But it’s a start.
So winter here is underway, and i hope to get plenty of snow in now that i have my new skis. I already have a 3 day trip to Sun Peaks in February planned as well. So it’s looking good.
Game on…