30/30 Peace

I had a slow hike up Red today, skiing seemed out of place on a day like today. It was almost like a summer day in Rossland. It was 17C at the mountain but everything was still fully covered. The torrents of water that were under the snow are now on top of the snow, I had to weave my way around them on the way up, seasons are changing fast. It was a very peaceful feeling at the top, I guess knowing that this is day 30 had something to do with it. This challenge was a good thing for me to do, it definitely expanded my horizons, happy to have done it. I am still looking at doing the Seven Summits trail next week. For tomorrow, I will be on my bike.

29/30 Think I am Going to Make It

Day 29: This daily skiing has become part of my routine. Tomorrow is the official last day, but I plan to continue because I want to finish with something big, like the Seven Summits Trail. I can not do this until Monday as I expect it will take about eight hours. The cross country at Black Jack is still good but many trails like the one below are starting to develop dead ends.

28/30 Going Fast

I took a short hike up Red yesterday, blogger seemed to be down so I am just getting it up now.

There is still full coverage on Red, but it is going fast. I could hear raging torrents of water under the snow pack.

27/30 Surprise Cabin

I went for the cardio workout today up at Strawberry Pass, I was one of two skiers out today. The cross country is really good at the right time of the day, which I hit. I had about 1 cm of soft snow over a firm base. This is about 15 minutes out of Rossland and it is a different world right now. Just about all of the snow has gone in town, grass is growing.

I went to the surprise cabin. It is called that because someone has installed a Grizzly bear head in the wood shed which is not noticable until you are in there.
The bear that left the tracks behind yesterday would have looked just like this one only with a worse attitude.

26/30 Grizzly Tracks

A bit of excitement for me today: on my hike up Mt. Kirkup I came across some grizzly bear tracks that must have been very recent. I assumed they were grizzly tracks due to the elevation I was at and because of the size of them. When I first saw them from about 20 meters away I assumed they were snowshoe tracks because of the size of them, and thought "cool someone else is up here". They must have been less than 10 hours old because they were still detailed and the snow was melting fast yesterday afternoon ( I was out quite early this morning). I confirmed that they were grizzly, not black bear, tracks from a tracking guide book that I have.

I had hiked up Mt. Kirkup for about 45 minutes when I came across them, I was right on the treeline. I took these photos, ripped the skins off my skis and got out of there. Thankfully, no sighting.

25/30 Mt. Crowe

I had a very pleasant and exhilarating afternoon ski on Mt. Crowe from Strawberry Pass. The snow was heavy but consistent and quite easy to ski. I was pretty happy with the tracks, unfortunately I could not get an angle with my camera to show them from the top. It was a good long run that I would have loved to have done a second and third time. Too bad Big Red Cats are not still operating.

24/30 Family Day

Mothers Day, we had a family day in Kootenay style, Snow shoeing in the morning, and golf in the afternoon, both were good. Dawn and the kids snowshoed while I skied. My guess is that the Paulson trails have another 3 weeks in them. The interesting thing about today it that I was not the only skier out there.

23/30 Sunspot Cabin

I Had connection problems yesterday so here is the blog from Saturday. It was raining all day in Rossland, a heavy Whistler type rain. I was definitely not inspired to go out, but had a hope that it would be snowing at Strawberry Pass. It definitely was, the road was covered with white, I had to get back into winter driving skills. There is still so much snow there.
The sun actually came out.This photo was taken on the way up.

Of course the sun came out at Sunspot cabin. This is the on the Seven Summits epic bike trail. It gave me an idea for the final day of me challenge, to ski the entire length of the seven summits. I am thinking about it.

22/30 Minimum Ski

No time! It is the life of a parent. I just ran out of time to do anything significant with my skiing. Today I did the minimum I set for myself which is the T-bar top. Too bad because the snow was quite nice. The hard ice surface I skied yesterday morning had turned to about 2 cm of corn snow on hard base. I was on my snowboard and really enjoyed it, the snow was forgiving enough that even I felt comfortable making short turns.

21/30 Early Morning Granite Mountain

I woke up this morning at about 6:30. It looked like it would rain soon. So Betsy and I decided we had better get it done right away.

I got just to the point where Main Run gets interesting before having to turn back to be in time to walk Isabelle and Simon to school.

Very consistent sheet ice all the way back to the car park.

20/30 Paulson Cross Country Ski Area

The Paulson Cross Country Ski Area is 30 km north of Rossland and is run by the Castlegar Cross Country Ski Club. I have live here for 14 years and I am somewhat embarrassed to say that today was my first time skiing there. This has been a bonus of taking on this challenge, exposure to new experiences. As I was skiing today the the thought that kept crossing my mind was "I just can't believe I have not been here before". I am discovering my own backyard.

The area is quite extensive, I skied about 15 km today and really only skied a small portion of the area. I got a bit more than I bargained for. I committed to a 15 km loop which is feasible for me, but the snow got softer and softer as the day warmed up and as I got further and further from the car. The skiing got a lot more difficult just when I was getting more tired. It was a big workout and I expect to sleep well tonight.

19/30 Red Mountain Night Ski

Today was a day that just got away from me. I forgot about a Rossland Skatepark association meeting at 6:45, so my planed evening ski turned into a night ski. I started hiking at 8:00 and reached the top of Red at 8:53. It was great to be up there at that time. The top photo is the lights of Trail, it did not come out of course, but it was quite beautiful.

I skied down War Eagle and lower Red Towers. I expanded my skiing horizons tonight. The snow conditions were definitely the most challenging I have ever skied. The crust was about 4 cm thick with little supporting snow underneath it. Jump turns all the way, and it was imperative to land each turn dead on center. I loved it! It took me 17 minutes to get down Red Mountain.

18/30 Strawberry Pass

The weather in Rossland deteriorated all day, it was quite nice in the morning but it steadily progressed to constant rain through the afternoon. 6:00 PM and I still had not been out. My best bet was to head up to Strawberry Pass, also known as Nancy Greene Pass, and hope for snow. I got it, it was snowing lightly up there and I stayed dry. I skied up for about an hour and got back to the car just as it was getting dark.
This photo is of Cookie Jar Cabin, no shortage of snow at all. We just have to find a way to get it to Australia.

17/30 The Last Skier in the World

Well today was the first day where I can say the mountain biking might have been better. I could not get out until 2:30, not a good time to start spring skiing. As I was heading out everyone it seemed was either doing yard work or they were on bikes. I am sure I was the only one going skiing. I felt as if I was the last skier to exist in the world.

I slogged up Mt. Kirkup and slogged back down it as well, it was so slow. Must try to get out earlier!