We left Vencouver in heavy rains but got to Callaghan with light snow. They had gotten quite a bit of fresh snow over night. The temperature was already up at 0C though. I really wanted to use my waxable skis with the grip tape but the tape already iced up on the first hill in all this fresh snow and not yet re-groomed trails on the black trails of the Olympic Cross-Country area. So I had to walk back to the car to switch skis. I already felt quite tired (didn’t sleep well all week) and my ankle was hurting (started earlier this week). Since I hadn’t used my crowns in a while I figured I leave the big hills till later and first warm up on the flats. Glide felt fine but I could always hear the crowns scratching along the snow – mentally that makes it tougher. On the other hand I had less grip in the tracks than I do with my grip tape. But once I got to the areas with fresh snow the crowns really shine. I finished “Porters Glide” with a lot of double poling but felt like I had no power, tried to find the route up to “Top of the World” and “Around the World” – big hill on that stretch too – before going down and then up again on Mountain View. The next part was the Olympic Cross-Country/Biathlon area which I really dreaded last year since we hit those trails near the end of the loppet. This time we would be doing those first. Which means up a big hill right off the start with 500 other skiers – good thing I am slow . I managed to get up the hill sweating buckets. On top I got lost in the maze of trails – most of them not even groomed never mind tracked. I stopped a lot to consult my map. It was not fun – even the sun breaking through the clouds for a bit didn’t make it any better. I finally found my way down through knee-deep snow – not fun - onto the biathlon trails only to get lost again. Frustrating – lots of ups and downs and turns and stop to check where I am!! But finally I found the “Madeley Creek” trail and actually skied for a bit. By this time my body and mind were tired. And even though “Madeley Creek Loop” went quick I only managed to do “Porters Glide” one more time before packing it in and dragging my sorry ass back up to the parking lot. Overall the grooming wasn’t great anywhere but that is mostly due to the warm temperatures which don’t only make my grip tape ice up but also their grooming machines. I was out there for 3hrs15min but only managed to cover 23 km – pretty bad. But hey, they always say if the last practice before the race is a grind the race will feel much easier. I am a firm believer.

Sunday, Jeff and I went for a paddle on Burnaby Lake. My usual paddling buddy Jodi had a weight competition yesterday and I told her to take a day off . I haven’t been in my K1 since late November!! Luckily the lake was flat calm. We did two laps up to the dam – the sun again made a bit of an appearance through the clouds. I felt okay and went at a steady pace – long ways away from a good paddling pace though. Can’t wait for spring.

So on race day the next morning I was much more relaxed knowing the course. We woke up to fog in Penticton but ended up above the clouds by the time we made it to the Nickelplate parking lot at ~1840m. Blue skies and temperatures above 0C - spring conditions really. I did a quick warm up and tested my skis again – glide and grip felt fine on the flats around the lodge. The course was 2 laps around the course. I figured I could swap skis after lap 1 if my grip tape ices up again in those mild condition – but when we were lined up on the start line with another 200 other skiers they announced that one would have to finish the race with the same skis one started with. Oh well – too late now. Off we went. I was in the back knowing that I would be one of the slower skiers out there. Start went reasonable well with 7 lanes turning into 3 after only 75m – means I didn’t crash and didn’t cause a crash. I even got to pass a couple of people right off the start. The first 4-5km was mostly flat which meant I could double pole or single leg kick a lot!! Using all those kayaking muscles – lats, core… So I was holding my own passed a couple of people only to be passed again on sections where we had to do diagonal stride up some small rises. I always had people in sight the whole race which made it a lot more fun. I managed to do most of the climbs in the tracks having good grip. And if I managed to put my weight on my heels when going downhill or on the flats I had good glide too. Really I had to focus on proper technique for most of the time to make the skis work but that also distracted me from getting tired and sore. I finished the 1st lap in good spirit trying to chase down this guy in front of me only to find out that he did the 15km only and was done after 1 lap. Being on my own all sudden for the 2nd time around the flats made me notice some tiredness in my legs and arms and I think I actually slowed down quite a bit. But when I started up on the Eaglenest climb I heard and saw another skier right behind me. She must have caught up to me on one of the downhill sections since I didn’t see her on the flats. So I gave it another push up the hill, used double poling whenever the grade was gentle enough to do so – focusing on using my core rather than just the lats and arms, swallowed my fear of crashing on the downhills and stayed in the track for maximum speed and managed to stay ahead of her. I even put on a real sprint at the end double poling to the finish line in “perfect” form and finished less than a minute ahead of her. I was not last!!! And my time was much better than I had hoped for, 2hrs40min rather than my estimated 3hrs. Well, according to my GPS the course was actually only 27+km long. But still I was happy – nevermind Jeff and John finished in under 2hrs (by less than 1 min appart) and the fastest female in my age class finished the course in 1hr43min – being an ex Olympian from the States and all. Having said that the girl behind me was second in her age class 30-39, while I would have been way out of the medals in the 50-59. I had fun though and that’s what counts!!

We spent the afternoon and evening with Keith, a good kayaking buddy who moved to Peachland after he retired. His wife Mary was on a trip to the Bahamas for 2 weeks so he was glad to have some company. And we had a place to stay for free.

Unfortunately I woke up with a bad headache the next morning. We drove back to the ski hill once more after a nice breakfast with Keith but while Jeff and John went for another ski – putting on their skate skis – I slept in the car for another hour. Apparently the guys found the hills and had to do a lot more climbing than they had hoped for.

Before that devastating defeat I had a great paddle again with Jodi in Deep Cove. An “easy” 1hr 20min in our surfskis. Jodi is training for this big kettle bell competition and has to take it easy in the boat – and I still feel like I am working hard to keep up with her in my boat:-)

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:

It’s 9:35PM now and I am ready for bed. Did that last Saturday too

Know what this does to your skiing? Read on....

Well, we made it to Callaghan again today, even though the roads were covered in snow past Squamish. It snowed lightly when we got there and never stopped snowing all day – really beautiful day actually. Last night Jeff put grip tape onto my waxable skis, I just don’t trust my waxing skills one bit and combined with my limited skills in skiing I always seem to slip and slide when using grip wax. When I bought those skis they has grip tape on them and I loved it. Only used them in the Cariboo Loppet last year though where I had a good race. I didn’t use them in Salmon Arm 2 weeks ago because I would have had to use grip wax. And crowns will never be fast skis -and they are heavier. So for the next loppet I want to use my waxable skis again – hence the grip tape and me trying them out today at Callaghan. I started off going down to Porters Glide and was able to double pole a lot of it. So glide seemed okay even though it didn’t feel fast. But the tracks were full of fresh snow so seemed reasonable. I worked my way up Madeley Road and even though I had a couple slips I never had to get out of the tracks once. If I did focus on my weight transfer I really had fantastic grip. After a quick rest at Madeley Lake I headed back down Norwegian Woods and back onto Porters Glide. And even though I was getting tired I was still able to double pole as much as on the first lap. I actually felt okay and thought maybe I can do the Biathlon track even after I finish my backwards Mountain View. But here is where the story changed. This part of the trail is a bit lower than the Madeley Lake loop and it wasn’t as freshly groomed but still in good shape. It did not take long though and I thought what the heck is going on - I had no glide. I push and push until I almost did a perfect face plant since my feet/skis stopped dead – and I mean dead. I had to lift my feet to move forward on the flat. I took the skis off and saw a whole bunch of snow stuck to the grip tape. I tried to brush it off but it took the edge on my ski poles to get rid of that snow – it was so caked on. Oh well, I figured, now that they are clean again I can keep going. Yeah, for about 10m – rats. I tried stomping them on the ground and it helped a bit but then stopped dead again. I actually ended up walking all the way up Mountain View. Had a spectacular crash when I tried to take a picture of the bottom of my skis while they were still on my feet – luckily nobody saw me I could even walk downhill not slipping at all – well except for the cople times when all sudden the whole blob of snow came off unexpectedly and I slid down for a meter only to be stopped dead again in my tracks. What a nightmare!!!

I made it back to the car with an hour left in our 4hrs of skiing based on what Jeff said, him and John were going for. Even though I had my crowns in the car I just about had enough of classic skiing. So I borrowed Jeff’s skates skis for an easy lap around Nevermind. Him and John did one lap of skating first and than one lap of classic. It took a bit longer since this was only my second time on skates skis ever and there is nothing easy about skating. But I made it back to the car right on time. Apparently the boys had been back for 30min already thinking I probably won’t be out for that long. Honestly I had not planned on it - brought my book to kill time in front of the fireplace in the lodge :-)  Nevertheless, I was happy I went for that last loop – never end on a bad note. Mind you, I was tired. Not even the Guinness and Pulled Pork Sandwich at the Shady Tree in Squamish could revive me. Now I am looking forward to an early night and a nice paddle tomorrow.

Turnaround point at Madeley Lake - skis were still working well

Lots of snow at Callaghan not like other places across the province/country

 By the way, they canceled my favourite loppet, the Cariboo Loppet in 100 Mile, because of too little snow. This was the one loppet I was really looking forward to since I had so much fun last year. There are a few loppets on our list so missing out on one isn’t the end of the world but I would have rather had the Payak canceled. Two main reasons: First, the Payak is a Freestyle event and only few people do classic while the Cariboo is Classic only -  the later makes for better classics trail conditions. Secondly, the participants in the Payak are all damn near Pro Athletes while in the Cariboo I get to race with Mom and Pap, people my speed :-)

Last but not least, I was sick Monday/Tuesday this week. Just a cold with a  runny nose but my head was plugged up completely. I made it into work but didn’t really get much accomplished. Made for long hours again the rest of the week. And I had to bail out on my swim with Krista Tuesday – sorry – and my weight workout with Jodi Friday – sorry – the later because of trying to catch up on work.

Lots of snow up at Cypress

I was ready to curl up on the sofa for the rest of the day but we of course had another curling match that night. We played the top team of the league – they never lost a game yet. But they almost lost against us last night :-) We were leading them 7 to 4 in the 8th end – they had the hammer – and missed the roll into the centre behind our guards which could have been the winning shot. At the end we finished in a tie.  We are still the only team ever taking points from them – twice now :-) Otherwise our record is rather average – still impressive giving my non-existing curling skills.  http://www.deltathistle.ca/index.php/our_league/sunday_mixed

It's still doing well and looks even prettier with snow on it (last weekends snow that is)

Nevertheless, today was to be a long ski-day at Callaghan except that we didn’t make it. It started off with that we overslept for an hour – although that was kind off on purpose. So we didn’t get going till 9AM. Maybe that`s why we never made it. The drive along the Ski-to-Sky HWY was already slower than usual – 3 cars in the ditch and another further down slowed down traffic. We made it to Squamish okay. But all the rain yesterday came down as snow north of Squamish - sounds great, doesn`t it? Well except that today it was raining onto that compact snow layer which turned the roads into ice. Traffic slowed down to snail pace – cars ahead of us were slipping and sliding. Once we passed a snow plow with an de-icing trailer who was stuck on the hill almost blocking both lanes I knew we were in trouble. Shortly after traffic complete stopped and we hardly moved for 20min. And we were still about 45min out of Callaghan and nowhere near yet the top of the hill. So we did the smart thing believe it or not and turned around.

We could have gone to Cypress instead on the way back but of course neither Jeff nor I had bought our ski passes. Why would you when you would go to Callaghan for skiing. Rats! So we talked about trying again the next day. But now we were home at just after 1pm – lots of time in the car for nothing – and didn’t know what to do. Since the weather was warmer than it had been in over a week and the rain actually had stopped I suggested to go for paddle. But Jeff’s back was too sore from sitting in the car. So I emailed my friend Jodi to tell her that I had to change my plans - we were supposed to go for a paddle tomorrow. And YEAH Jodi – she called m,e shortly after I send the email and said “Let’s go today”. So we went to Deep Cove for an easy 1hr25 paddle, it was flat calm, the sun made some minor appearnces – it was great. But see for yourself – we took lots of pictures today:

When I got home Jeff stood already in the door waiting for the car to go skiing at Cypress - we could have planned that a bit better rather than driving over to the North Shore for the 3rd time of the day – well luckily we have our Golf Diesel and get over 800km on a tank.

While in the gym yesterday the TV was running in the background – the guys at work left it on. When I am on the elliptical trainer I prefer to read a book, while doing weights I usually don’t even notice it but when stretching my eyes always get caught by the screen. And guess what – they are already putting on commercial for Easter Eggs!!! Christmas is barely over. Can’t they give us a break? I will not spend any money on Easter eggs this year – that’s it. I can have my chocolate in a plain bar