Jeff and our Accord at our Fraser launch beach just down the road from home
Overlooking the Fraser towards Burnaby/New Westminster
Back home in Vancouver – it’s cold, below freezing, but beautiful sunny. Jeff and I had to get rid of some Christmas calories and went for a run as well as a paddle on Thursday. It warmed up enough in the afternoon to make the ~15km paddle up the Fraser River in our Accord was really nice trip.
Today, fueled by seeing Sheila and Brent on their skis in Nelson, we decided to try out the local cross country skiing at Cypress Bowl. This was my 2nd time on skis. First time was in 1997 or 98 when I first arrived in Vancouver and my colleagues from UBC took me out. It sure entertained my colleagues but I obviously did not get hooked back then – maybe because we experienced a big storm up on the mountain, hail and not snow. Today the weather was much better – sunny and about -10C. I did remember that Cypress is pretty hilly and not flat which would be easier for a beginner. But I managed to get up the hill okay this time – am a bit fitter than 13 years ago and thought this may be a bit easier. The first downhill part though taught me my first lesson and I was getting really mad at myself for not being able to snow-plow. Nevertheless I got better and better over the 2.5hrs we spent skiing up and around the Hollyburn Lodge on the Spitzmark-LowerTelemark trails. I even completed some of my ~1.5-2km loops without a crash. It was FUN – dammit. Now Jeff is talking about to enter a Loppet this spring – a 30km cross-country race. Are we crazy or what?! 🙂
Unfortunately we didn’t take any pcitures while skiing but I DID do it!! We’ll take some next time.
After our 2.5hrs ski trip at the Nordic Base
Back at our dirty truck - since it is so cold we didn't want to wash it yet 🙂
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