Feels like spring has arrived – great sunny, warm weather (almost 10C while my hometown in Germany sits at -11C - very unusual). This week was a busy work week yet again. Trying to finally launch one of my projects which has been overdue for month and month while fighting fires on another project that is one of the most important ones for the company – actually they are all most important 
. I was supposed to be off Friday to go paddling with Jodi but had too much stuff to finish up. So I only went for the gym session – killer kettlebells, dips and lunges. Also this week I had my best ever night skiing at Cypress. We went twice this week – Monday was heavy wet snow but my grip tape performed fine. It was slow skiing though because of the fresh snow. Wednesday was the first of the warmer days and I was worried my skis would not perform well. But hey, I had good glide and the BEST grip ever. I made it up every single hill at Cypress without getting out of the tracks – well I had to take a quick rest up powerline but that was lack of fitness and not lack of grip. I did totally different laps that night than my usual ones and it was a lot of fun.
But back to the actual topic of the post. Typical Saturday – we went skiing at Callaghan. Not so typical were the warm temperatures and blue sky. Only clouds in the sky were from airplane exhausts. Also a bit unusual, there were 4 of us today: Jeff, John, Dan and I. Originally Dan’s wife Angela was supposed to come as well to keep me company but she bailed at the last minutes. So I was on my own again, but so was Dan who couldn’t keep up with Jeff and John any longer. I don’t blame him, those guys are skiing around the course like maniacs pushing each other on skates. Conditions were variable – warm slushy sections, shady icy sections and section with freshly groomed soft snow. For the most part my grip and glide were okay (using my grip tape again). Grip tape only iced up on my way up “How it goes” – one of the black trails I have to ski during the Payak loppet. It’s a steep up and I only do it when it is sunny like today – great views from up there!! I discovered another hilly trail with nice view though, “Brandywine View” - mind you it was marked as a green trail which I find odd given the considerable elevation changes, or maybe I was just tired. Nevertheless well worth the effort – awesome views over the mountain range to the south as well as towards Black Tusk. All in all 3hrs 20min, 27km total , 36km/hr max speed- that’s scary. But I was dead tired at the end – even the two Guinness at the pub couldn’t revive me. Enjoy some of the many pictures I took:
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- View from the parking lot – promise of a great day
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- Getting ready to Ski – Dan, Jeff and John
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- Up on “How it goes”
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- A perfect day – blue sky and nice snow
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- Meeting Jeff…
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- …and John up on the top
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- Nicely groomed trails
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- On the “Loon Lake” loop
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- Loon Lake – fog over the snow
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- “Brandywine View” trail – what a view and it goes down from here
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- Mountain views to the southwest
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- more montain views
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- Close up mountain
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- Black Tusk looming in the distance to the southeast
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- What comes down must go up – sigh!
It’s 9:35PM now and I am ready for bed. Did that last Saturday too
