Ideal Cross Country Conditions at Blackjack

I got out on the trails today with Cindy Devine. I managed to get this one photo of her; in reality the camera was just an excuse to get her to stop. Cindy provided some good inspiration for me (definitely from a distance, as in she was always way way ahead).

It was a perfect day to be out. About minus 7 C, clear blue sky's, and about 8 people on the trails.

Spectacular Rockies Skiing

There is no question that the scenery in the Canadian Rockies is unbeatable. At Lake Louise we had the slopes and views to ourselves. The views are of Mount Temple and frozen Lake Louise. Showing outstanding early season form is big time CSIA guy Jason Simpson.

CSIA Course Conductor Training

Indoor Training today! It was a good day, the new thing the CSIA is getting into this year is leadership training. This makes sense to me as all Ski Instructors are leaders whenever they are teaching.

This exercise in the photo was a fun one. The goal of the group was to lower the pole without anyone losing contact. It was interesting to see the leadership scenarios evolve.

Day One: 2010 Season On

I am in Banff and skied at Sunshine today. We are having a great start in Canada. The skiing today was as good as mid winter. I did not hit a single rock with my new Fischer Skis and we skied all the way to the parking lot at the end of the day.

I am here for CSIA training. I basically followed the group around today. I am at about 50% in terms of my capabilities, due to my knee. I did well to keep up. But it was great to ski again and I can see that I will be able to get back to it.

Fischer Skis and Canadian Ski Quest

Make sure you are sitting down for this one: Mark Impey is switching from Ski Sponsors from Head to Fischer!!! The news is having a dramatic effect on the entire ski industry.

I have been with Head for the past 12 seasons in both Canada and Australia, and it has been a great run. I obviously continue to support the Head product which I truly believe in, but things change and it is time to move forward. I will be working with Robin McLeish who I used to work with at Head, and I am very happy to reestablish this working relationship.

I am off to Banff today to participate in the CSIA Level 4 Course Conductor Training. I am not teaching it this year as I want to see if my knee is up to the task first. I am skiing tomorrow so we will see how that test goes.

Still having difficulty with my picassa program so no photos of Rossland. But the snow has continued. 49 Degrees North is opening on Saturday, so hopefully Red is not to far behind.

White Rossland

We have snow! It has been snowing off and on continuously since Friday. This definitely will stick around up high and i am cautiously optimistic that it will stay in Rossland as well.

The Paulson Cross Country trails have been track set. A lot of jumps and rails have been constructed around town. Kids carrying skis on Columbia Avenue is the norm.

I have taken a pile of photos and video clips of the kids skiing in town, but I can't seem to get them off my camera for some reason.

Youtube Competition

My friend, Tag Danforth's, father, has won a chance to play in a million dollar poker tournament. He gets a chance to play against a famous pro Daniel NeGreanu IF his youtube video gets the most hits. All you have to do to help is to watch the 2 minute youtube video (link to follow)

It is actually quite entertaining.

My most memorable moment of Tags's dad was when working on Tag's house renovation with Tag and Len (the star of the video). After quite a long period of hamering and of no talking at all Len asks "So Mark" ........followed by a very long pause.........."are you the Man?" It might sound funnier after you see the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rltj9Od1K0

Remembrance Day in Rossland

We had good weather for Remembrance Day this year.

The most noticeable thing for me this year was the lack of World War 2 Veterans, their numbers are in decline it appears. The nice thing to see is how supportive Rossland population is of the occasion.

More Snow in Rossland

Well I may have to admit that the Mountain Biking and Waterskiing seasons are over! Fine with me. I was woken up this morning by the sweet sound of a snowpow scraping along Spokane Street, followed that silence that only 10 cm on snow can produce.

It was enough to inspire our 15 year old dog Jesse!

The Skiing is INCREDIBLE and it's November

I actually did not get to have a run personally, still due to my injury recovery (I swear there is no other reason I did not have a run) but Todd Larsen did! Yesterday Todd, Isabelle and myself went out. Todd made some inspiring turns!

Before you give Todd too much credit, it was not that bad, the temperature was about 6 Celsius! The only thing frozen when we got back to Rossland was the smile on his face.

Very Early Turns

The Snow in Rossland has melted, although now it is quite cold, but it has remained up high. This is Kieren Gaul from Big Red Catskiing skiing last week

Cindy Devine Ball Exercise

Corrections from Britta and Christof Wieser

Some time ago I posted a blog about Britta and Christof Weiser, two heliskiers we met in New Zealand. Britta sent me this letter correcting a few points regarding their Heliski carear:

Hopefully we will run into them again next New Zealand winter; They are very nice people!


Hi everybody,
Thank you Mick - it was very nice to read the blog about ourselves:
"Christof and Britta Wieser: Legendary Heliskiers".
All the same, I would like to put three details right, because we do not
want to offend anybody.
1.) I am almost sure, that there are older "active" heliskiers around -
especially during the "Senior-weeks" at CMH. Therefore it seems
important to me to point out, that Christof's record reads as follows: "
Christof Wieser (Austria), born 19 September 1928 Heliskiis regularly
every year". The "REGULARLY" ment that GWR was asking for 50 (!) days of
heliskiing PER YEAR which is so very special about Christof.
2.) We have never been to TYAX, instead those 3 million feet we skied
with CMH, Canadian Mountain Holidays.
3.) Himalaya was with HHS former Himachal Helicopter Skiing, were we
achieved 2 million verts.
An other million feet we collected trying out different places, like
KAUKASUS (whilst it was still UDSSR), GREENLAND as well as different
places in CANADA.
We would very much appreciate if Mick could change these details in the
blog!!
Our greetings to Mike and Kevin and of course yourself - perhaps we are
going to run into each other at some other
heliskiing location, who knows?
Kindest regards,
Britta + Christof from Austria

Early season skiing in Rossland

Early snow=Early action at Rossland Secondary

Early Snow in Rossland

It started snowing last night and it has not stopped since. I guess we have had 20-25 cm so far. Could be a good omen for the season.

Inspiration by Peter Lees

My Friend Peter Lees just sent me this photo of himself skiing at Mt. Buller this season. Strong technique! I got to know Peter through the Masters Training Program at Mt. Buller, when he was in the "casual cruiser" group. His skiing has come a long way since then. This photo looks like it is out of the CSIA manual! Thanks for sporting the Canadian Ski Quest logo wear Peter, you are making us proud.

Mark

Ski Fit 2 with Cindy Devine

This is another great season preparation exercise demonstrated by Physiotherapist and professional trainer Cindy Devine. It works the quads and more importantly the core muscles.

Confidence Ride

On Sunday I went for my first real bike ride since my injury, it was so good for me. I went with my friend Pat Hinds. Pat ran, I rode! We were quite evenly matched. Pat is a 100 miler guy, seriously he races in 100 mile running races, solo. So yes we were evenly matched. Pat was faster than me up the hills but I caught up on the flats and of course left him behind on the decent. We went across the border out of Northport, new territory for both of us. We climbed for about 2.5 hours and were rewarded with thrilling decent into the valley. The scenery shot here was taken two thirds of the way up and we decended all the way to the river you can see (the Columbia).

For me this ride was just what I needed, I finally feel like I am getting my body back. That I am becoming able bodied.

Getting Ski Fit with Cindy Devine

I have been participating in an intensive fitness program to get my knee back into skiing shape for this winter. I am taking this program through worksafe with Cindy Devine. Cindy is very fit, a good inspiration for me. I have taken a few video clips of her doing the exercises she is putting me through. Cindy suggested she take the video of me, to which I suggested "nobody really wants to see me doing this".

I am doing three sets of 20 of this exercise. Cindy can do 60 at a time.

Sean Valentine THANKS

Long Time Red Mountain Racers Coach Sean Valentine has retired. Sean has been with the Race Club fo 32 years, I know he does not look old enough. The 32 years is as a racer and coach. Sean developed as a racer through his childhood to the National Team and World Cup Competitor. After his racing career he came back to Rossland, started a family and coached the club that he developed from, lucky for us!

I have had the pleasure of working with Sean with the race camps we used to run and most recently with the Red Mountain Academies where he was in charge of the Race Academy and me of the Freeski Academy. I will definitely miss this relationship. Thanks Sean for everything.

The photo is of Sean and Linda Schultz.

Christof and Britta Wieser: Legendary Heliskiers

While staying at the Beluga Lodge in Methven we had the honor of meeting Austrians Christof and Britta Wieser.

We noticed and elderly gentleman checking the weather conditions on the Internet with the obvious and familiar anticipation of a skier in need. Mick Fordham then noticed that the powder skiing photos adorning the Belugas walls featured Christof and Britta. He struck up a conversation. It turns out that they heliski in Methven for an extended period every summer, and that their passion for Heliskiing extends much further.

Christof is currently recorded by the Guinness World Record Book as the "Worlds oldest active Heliskier". Cristoff is 81. He and Britta were in New Zealand for six weeks this season, climbing aboard the Helicopter every possible day.

This is Christof and Britta's Heliski history.

Christof was in his mid sixties before he even tried Heliskiing:

New Zealand: Four Million Vertical

Last Frontier Heliski: Three Million Vertical

Tyax Lake Heliski: Three million Vertical

Himilaya: Three Million Vertical

In the Photo are Mike Manara, Myself, Christof, Britta, and Kevin Larkin

Steve Horrigan at Treble Cone

The skiing world is a small world, while hanging out in the lodge at Treble Cone I ran into Red Mountain skier Steve Horrigan. It was nice to have a coffee and catch up. I usually always see someone i know when I am at Treble Cone, it has become an expected circumstance.

Great to see you Steve, sorry we could not do a few turns.

FIRST SNOW...........in Colorado

On our way back from New York our flight was delayed by three hours causing a forced overnight in Denver. We landed in Denver at 8:00PM. It occurred to me that my friends Nigel and Pam from Winterpark were having a party that night (I am on Nigel's mailing list). So instead of booking into the airport hotel with Dawn and kids, I took advantage of the opportunity, rented a car and drove 1.5 hours to show up at the party. I love being in unexpected places and situations.

The bonus-it was raining in Denver and it actually started snowing on the way to Winterpark. This photo was taken from the highway the next morning.

Murray Dee Rest In Peace

My Friend Murray Dee passed away in a Bicycle-Truck accident last week. He was on the bike.

Murray was the first co worker I met in the Whistler Ski School in 1987. I was the typical nervous new guy from small BC ski resort, showing up for day one of work and training with the Whistler Ski School. I happened to get into the 4 person gondola with Murray and a couple others. Murray immediately put me at ease and made me feel welcome. I have had that exact feeling every time I have seen Murray since.

Murray was a career Ski Instructor. He was 49.

http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/pique/index.php?cat=C_News&content=Murray+dee+1638

ABC Nightline

After an overnight delay in Denver we are all back in Rossland, a world away from New York. What a great experience. Other than the expense, it was nothing like what I had expected. Service everywhere was great, people were polite, people were relaxed, it is a city I would love to go back to.

We did not have to do an interview for Good Morning America, which I am happy about as I think they over sensationalised the incident in the first clip. Another ABC show called Nightline wanted to interview us but we decided not to based on the Good Morning America segment. However, the Nightline segment was a much higher professional standard. Here is a link to it, sorry but you do have to go through advertising to see it.

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerindex?id=8553800

After we passed through Canada customs today, Simon commented that the officer did not recognise him. I guess his 15 minutes of fame are over. I think this topic has one more blog post in it and then I promise to get back to Canadian Ski Quest and Rossland life.

New York City

Well here we are, New York. The last place i expected to be last week. They could not interview us yesterday and today is 9/11. Just fine with us, we are having a great time, it is nice to see the kids out of their element.

Stunned Husband

Our cougar incident has made "Good Morning America". Here is the link that describes Dawn's heroics and her "stunned husband". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBMVucssnWY&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Frosslandtelegraph%2Ecom%2Fnode%2F3186&feature=player_embedded WARNING: American sensationalism at work.

Here is some news: "Good Morning America" is flying the family to New York City tomorrow, if you can believe that? It is for a possible further interview on Thursday morning. We are somewhat amazed, and grateful for the invite, but we are going. Why not? I thought it would be good for the family.

Simon's Progress

Simon is doing very well in his recovery. He is actually at a friends house at the moment on a play date. His main problem now is that he is self concious of his skinhead hairstyle. It does not seem to help when people say he looks just like his dad.

He is asking questions about cougars and is revealing what he remembers. He has told us that they have long whiskers. When his friend Harmon ask about it, Simon replied by simply saying "it was yellow" they then went back to playing with thier cars. His best statement was when he told Dawn "I think you hurt the cougar more than it hurt me" When Dawn asked why he thought so, he showed her how the cougar was cowering when she hit it. So innocent he is.

Back to the Scene

I went back to the scene of the attack on Thursday with Washington State Wildlife officers and a team of cougar hound dogs. The photos below are of the scene of the attack and of the water bottle Dawn used to beat off the cougar (which was still there). Dawn was at the place where the officer is, I was about the same distance up the trail again from where the photo was taken, and this is about the place where i was when the cat released Simon. You can see that we were basically in the alpine. One scary thing is that the Houndmen determined that the cougar followed us all the way back to the car. they made this determination as the cougars scent was most powerful near the carpark and progressively got weaker as we went up. There were also tracks going down along the trail.

Dawn Manning Cougar Fighter

We as a family, as many people have already heard, have just gone through a very traumatic experience. Everything will be OK! I would like to say thanks for all the well wishes and offers of help. I feel it will be helpful to talk about it, so here it is.

On Wednesday Sept 2. We were on a family hike up Mt. Abercrombie which is just over the border in Washington State. This is an easy hike, ideal for kids.

We were in the sub alpine near the top, two hours from the trail head when Simon was attacked by a cougar. Dawn and Simon were about 50 meters behind Isabelle and I and our two dogs. Simon was immediately behind Dawn. The cat pounced on Simon and dragged him off the trail (holding him by the head), Dawn started screaming and was bashing the thing repeatedly with her water bottle. I heard the screams, I assumed it was a wasps nest they had stepped in, when we realised what was happening, we ran screaming towards the cougar. It had dropped Simon, and was standing about 3 meters away and then disappeared into the bush. Simon's face and Dawns hands were covered in blood. We wrapped a shirt around Simon's head and hiked full speed to the car, it took just over an hour. I carried Simon. He did not cry or complain once, he has been amazingly brave.

Dawn beat a cougar off with only a water bottle, amazing!

We then drove to Trail hospital where Simon was treated.

We are all traumatised by the experience, we seem fine until we talk about it. We breakdown when we do.

Night Powder at Broken River

By Mike Manara

After the Canadian Ski Quest group departed on Saturday I made my way back to Broken River, where I ended up skiing the next 5 days, and I was quite fortunate to have hit a storm cycle which brought close to a meter of snow over the last 3 days (it still snowing, as I left after turns this AM) The snow was unbelivable, as good as any powder day in Canada. Yesterday the hill was closed due to high winds, but they opened for night Powder skiing. Here is Mike Manara at Broken River in New Zealand under the lights

Treble Cone

By Mike Manara

I believe our theory worked (see post on snow reporting in NZ)....The resort called for chains at the base..... the photo says it all.... Andrei Kostka getting what he came for in Saddle Basin

Snow reporting

By Mike Mullet Manara

We have come up with our own system of snow reporting in New Zealand. You need to look at 2 things. The first is the snow the resort has forecasted. For example "we have received 25 cm of fresh snow!". This can cause some initial excitement, however You then need to look at whether or not the resort is requiring chains. If they require chains at the base that is a good sign as it means the freezing level is below the base of the resort and it is most likely snowing. If not it probably means that it is raining at the base and there "was" snow at the top so bring your rain gear......it is 8:3o am and Treble cone has reported 20 cms of snow and THEY ARE requiring chains.....I will report back later to see if this theory is true or not....

PS. New Zealand has done wonders for my hair as you can see by the photo......Mark has not been so lucky.......

Canadian Ski Quest New Zealand Mystery Tour

So far the group is four days skiing out of a possible four. We are doing very well considering the weather conditions. This morning did not look promising, Lake Ohau and every other area north was closed today due to winds of up to 195 kmh. We made the call to drive south to Wanaka and Treble Cone, we had a late start but were rewarded with 25 cms of fresh at Treble Cone. If you are skiing in New Zealand, I think flexibility is a must, it definitely has been paying off this week.

Cheers,
Mark

Lake Ohau

By Mike Manara

As you could tell from Marks post we a precipitation enhanced second day in Lake Ohau.....that being said our first day on the mountain was fantastic. There was 15 cm of fresh snow and the upper hiking area had just opened which lead to some fantastic turns in the Upper mountain. Lake Ohau is situated near (possibly in) Mt Cook national park and is truely a unique and beautiful place.

Ohau I love to ski- In Rain

Ohau, pronounced O-How, is another New Zealand classic. We have been here for two days now. It turns out it was the place to be as Ohau was the only Ski Field in the area (everywhere north of Queenstown) that was open. Gale force winds have kept the other mountains from turning their lifts. Mick said it best today in his ever present optimistic outlook "the ski conditions here are far better than the conditions in my office"! Thanks for putting it into perspective Mick! Yes, it did rain today, but the tour could still ski. Mike did his best to keep keep the vibe high with his outstanding instructional capabilities.

Porter Ski Resort

Our acsess to internet has been limited so we will try to catch up today.

Day One at Porters Ski Resort was a nice warm up. Only three T bars here but with a bit of traversing effort great pitch and vertical can be had.

No Skiing for Mark

Well I guess this photo shows what my role in New Zealand this year will be. I tried skiing yesterday at Porters Ski Field. Not much luck. Although I felt no pain leading up to my skiing attempt, I definitely did on my first turn. I only skied one run, on the beginner slop. The first turn put me in my place, my knee is no where near ready to ski. Oh well, I am just happy to be back in NZ anyway. Since 2004, being here has become part of my annual routine.

Everything is going well, the people on tour are just excellent people to spend time with. Mike is skiing with everyone, so they do have somewhat of an inspiration on the slopes.

We should be able to post some photos tonight.

cheers,
Mark

Rope Tow

From Mike Manara

I also had my first experience with a Nut Cracker rope tow.....you will see from Mark's commentary in the video below that I am quite the rookie.......Mark is considering recommending that the opreation of a Nut Craker be added to the Level 4 standard!

Great Skiing in New Zealand

From: Mike Manara

We arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand on the 19th of August and rented a car. From There we headed to Broken River Ski club for our first turns of 2009! The conditions were great. We spent the night in Broken river and caught up with some friends from Red Mt. Yesterday we skied Porters....Here Is Jason of the NONSTOP in NZ.

Mark and I have just arrived in NZ. It is 5 am in Auckland and we have just landed from a great flight from San Francisco.....First class was alright, considering we are just a couple of ski instructors! The flight was amazing and the service even better......I never new airlines could actually serve tasty food! We will board a flight to Christchurch for the final leg of our journey, and Jason Collins for a day or two who runs one of the Non Stop programs in NZ. Looking forward to the first turns of 2009-10 or the last turns of 2008-09.....it all depends on whether your a class half full or class half empty type of person! Stay tuned for further posts
mike

Eccentric dressing in Richmond

Sorry, no photo of this one:

Going from summer to winter is tricky in terms of packing, I try to go as lightly as possible. This means one pair of shoes, good for everything, a shoe that goes with everything-except athletic apparel!

I decided to go for a walk this morning, it was too hot to wear jeans so i used my running shorts, which I brought along for hot tub opportunities. Great short for hot tubs, but they do not go so fashionably with dress shoes, especially with black socks. I know this thanks to passersby. I had a great walk and I think provided some entertainment to Richmond residents.

Canadian Ski Quest New Zealand 2009

Well finally something to write about. Mike Manara and I are off to New Zealand for the annual Canadian Ski Quest tour. I am in Richmond now, staying here overnight en route to Christchurch. I am at the moment in no mans land. I am staying at one of those airport hotels in an area that is totally designed around the car. There is a heap of traffic and thousands of people around, but there is literally nothing here. Unless you count bland hotel restaurants. Life in this placed must be bland bland bland. I am actually looking forward to spending time at the Vancouver airport tomorrow.

I am pretty happy to be going to New Zealand even if I will not be able to ski, I love the country. Mike and I meet tomorrow and we fly through San Francisco to Auckland and then on to Christchurch. I am hoping our stopover in San Fran is long enough to give us a chance to experience it.

Some Mid Summer Inspiration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B95Eq-5xCC8

Spinal Neutral

The coaches from the Red Mountain Academy got together last week with Academy advisers Damien Moroney and Delia Roberts. One of our goals is to get the Academy athletes moving properly in terms of efficiency and injury prevention. Damien is training us in how to detect correct body position and on how to develop awareness of this within the athletes we are working with.

Acupuncture with Joe Ranallo

In addition to Scenar therapy and Physiotherapy I have been seeing local Acupuncturist Joe Ranallo for treatment of my knee. This has been a fascinating and effective experience and something that I do not understand. Joe focuses on the ear to treat all parts of the body. I am just amazed at how he can Analise my body, he correctly identified most of my past injuries. Yesterday I arrived in pain with a limp and I left with no pain and no limp. I am also sleeping better (Joe also correctly identified that I have sleep problems) and I attribute this to my visits with Joe.

Close Call

To some my life in Rossland through summer looks quite relaxing. However it is not completely stress free. I had a close call with a potential tenant last week who had moved some of his things into my rental house. In the process of being the good landlord and ensuring the move for the tenant went smoothly, I discovered him moving in a marijuana grow op, about 10 plants! This could have been disastrous for me. It is a situation where he is at no risk (the RCMP did a "no charge seizure" of his plants), but where I am at risk of losing my house. If an insurance company discovers that there has been a grow op in a house, they immediately cancel the policy, which in turn means the bank has no security which results in them foreclosing on the mortgage on the house. This fucking asshole put my life savings and the security of my family at risk just to support his habit. He asked me for a second chance....... The real piss off is that he came across to me as the victim of the ordeal.

I went through an emotional roller coaster with this one, going from livid anger, though confrontation, with the final result thankfully being happy relief.

SCENAR TREATMENT

For the past two months I have been undertaking SCENAR treatment on my ruptured Patella tendon. Peter Stuart and Canadian Ski Quest particpant Kimberly Pegg from Rossland are the Canadian distributors of the devices. I have found the treatment to be highly and immediately effective. I have been seeing Peter and Kimberley twice a week and believe this treatment has really speeded my recovery along. Visiting Rossland this week is Helen Gracie from Australia. Helen is the CEO of Scenar Health. More info can be found on their website. In the photo are myself, Peter Stuart (crouching), and Helen Gracie.


http://www.scenarhealth.com/

Christina Lake Triathalon

The "Fashion Hearts" team entered their first triathlon at Christina Lake over the weekend. Maddie Kinghorn (7), Maya Power (7), and Isabelle Impey (7) comprised the youngest team to compete in this prestigious event. Kinghorn swam 100 meters, Power bicycled six kilometers, and Impey ran 2 kilometers.