Back in Action

The blog may hasnt seen much action of late and thats because we havent been up to much. You see, I had a mole removed from my leg (nothing serious) and that has put me out of action for the last month. Doctors orders were no hiking/biking for a few months. That seemed a little ridiculous so last weekend Aleisha and I escaped the confines of our house and went on a road trip to the wine region of Kelowna in BC. We were lucky enough to have Stefan and Claire drive in from Vancouver and join us for the trip. It was our first trip to the Okanagan region and I think we will be heading there again soon. The combination of sun, water and fine wine is tough to beat.

Not a bad view

The warmer weather in the region (technically Canada's only desert) gives rise to some diverse wildlife.

Admiring the fine wine.

While it was a long drive (~700 km) the scenery was never dull.

East End of Rundle - Second attempt

This year Aleisha and I are trying to make sure that we get into the mountains every weekend. However, as we are now in shoulder season there are limited mountain activities. While there is still plenty of snow about, it is all spring slop and no good for any type of skiing. This is currently limiting us to the few front range hikes that are clear of snow and avalanche danger.

This weekends hike was to East End of Rundle (Eeor to the locals), a short sharp slog of a peak right next door to Ha-Ling, the hike we did a couple weeks ago. I did the hike with my research group last year but managed to get lost trying to find the correct route to the summit so I was keen to make up for my previous failure. Much to my relief we did find the correct route but it was some what challenging and Aleisha decided to take the safe option and not climb the final 40 m. I ignored my better judgment and scrambled to the top to be rewarded with a rather impressive view.

Easter R & R

Unfortunately Canadians are a little stingy with their holidays so our Easter long weekend was only extended by one day. Despite the short long weekend we still managed to get out and about. On Friday we headed up to Sunshine for some downhill skiing and while the weather gods rewarded us with a recent dump of powder they also decided to punish us with poor visibility. On Sunday we decided to take a risk and try to get in a sneaky first hike of the season. The trip was a short and sharp slog up Ha Ling Peak. Its a pretty popular hike in summer but thankfully the snow/ice covered trail and howling winds kept the trail relatively quiet.

Aleisha making the final push to the top

View of the township of Canmore from the top.

We enjoyed the trip, honest!

San Francisco

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Spring American Chemical Society meeting in San Francisco. Im sure very few readers of this highly regarded blog care about chemistry so I wont bore you all with the details of the conference, suffice to say that it all went very well. Of course I also managed to squeeze in a couple days of sight seeing. Since I was in the city of cyclists I decided to shun motorised transport and hire a super nice road bike. Unfortunately San Francisco is a hilly city so my sightseeing proved to be quite tiring, but im sure I appreciated the views more.

The Golden Gate Bridge with the city in the background.

I also managed to sneak out of the conference early one day and check out Alcatraz.

On the last day I rode to the California Academy of Science. One of the coolest things was this pendulum that moves solely by the rotation of the earth and knocks down one of the pins ~30 min.

Every trip needs one artistic attempt.

Bryant Creek

Despite the lack of activity on the Blog, the last few weeks have been pretty action packed. Firstly and most importantly, Canada had a stunning victory over the USA in the Olympic hockey final, although it was closer than most Canadians would have liked! I actually think that Canadians are more fanatical about hockey than New Zealanders are about rugby.
This weekend we did an overnight back country trip into Bryant Creek. We obviously had the weather gods on our side as the day before it dumped 60 cm of powder then cleared to blue skies for the days that we were out. The trip was nothing short of truly spectacular! While the deep snow proved to be somewhat difficult to negotiate on cross country skies it did provide soft landings for our numerous spills.

The journey in

Unfortunately a majority of the trip was in trees so afforded limited views of the Mts. But we still managed to grab a glimpse of Mt. Assiniboine, I think.

The view of our accommodation as seen from the dunny.

Las Vegas

Last week Aleisha and I headed south of the boarder for a bit of a holiday. The main aim of the trip was to see the Rugby 7's tournament in Las Vegas, but we figured that while we were there we might as well see some of the sights. On the first day we met up Stefan and Claire in Vegas and drove out to the Grand Canyon. We timed the trip to perfection as a winter storm had just been through and dumped a foot of snow making for quite a surreal landscape. After a couple days exploring we headed back to Vegas for the 7's. The tournament had 44 games over 2 days so it was a non-stop rugby party which was a hell of a lot of fun. Unfortunately New Zealand lost to Samoa in the final but it was probably for the best as it keep the thousands of Samoan fans happy. After the rugby finished up we had a couple of days exploring the sights of Vegas, gambling and drinking $0.50 margaritas. The gambling worked out well for all of us as we all came home with more money than we spent. As a whole though Vegas left us with mixed feelings, its a fun place to be but in the end the excessiveness of it all becomes too much to bear and it was good to return to home.

Winter in the Grand Canyon

Team New Zealand exploring the worlds largest hole.

"The Strip" with the Eiffel tower in the background

Aleisha in Venice, well the fake Venice, complete with a canal system and fake ceiling all inside the Venetian hotel.

Samoa vs. New Zealand

Blueberry Hill

One of the most important lessons that we quickly learnt here is that just because its cold and miserable in Calgary doesnt mean there isnt blue sky 10 min down the road. So on Sunday when there was freezing fog and it was -15 C in Calgary we decided to head to the mountains. The move paid off and we were rewarded with blue sky and balmy -5 C temps.

Having lunch on Blueberry Hill, not a bad spot.

This cheeky bugger tried to steal my sandwich out of my hand.

The view from the top looking over the Kananaskis Lakes

Cross country madness

This weekends adventure was a couple of cross country ski trips to some new locations. The first was to the Mt. Shark area. The trip in was made a little more exciting when our car failed to make a corner and we ended up in a snow bank. Thankfully a friendly ranger passed by and gave us a tow out, hopefully the rental company will be none the wiser. The skiing was pretty good and we will certainly be heading back again soon, possibly for an overnight trip as we learnt that there is a hut further down the trail.
Sundays trip was to Lake Minnewanka and the Cascade Fire trail just out of Banff. After a few false starts and wrong turns we finally managed to find the trail head and start the day. While it was -15 C and snowing in Calgary it turned out to be a balmy -5 C with sun on the trail, perfect for cross country skiing. So all and all it was a pretty good weekend, although I think we will be a bit sore getting out of bed tomorrow.

A nice spot for lunch with Cone Mt. in the background.

Canadians

Weekend in Fernie

This weekend was livened up with our first trip to Fernie. The infamous powder that Fernie is renowned for was unfortunately unable to be present for the weekend but on the whole it was great just to get out and about. Staying on the ski hill in a place with a hot tub was not too shabby either...

Team Kiwi (right) and team Canada (left)

No trip out to Fernie would be complete without stopping at Sparwood to marvel at one of the man-made wonders of the world, the Worlds Largest Truck. It indeed was a rather large truck.

This little thing?

Lake O'Hara cross country skiing

Aleisha and I have really taken a liking to cross country skiing, so much so we went out and bought our own gear. Unfortunately there was a a bit of a stuff up with the shop we got our gear from and they ended up losing my boots. To compensate us they decided to give us the gear for FREE!
Our first trip out on our new kit was an overnighter to Lake O'Hara. The conditions were amazing with temperatures around -5 C and a foot of fresh powder on the ground.

Aleisha leading the expedition team on the 11km trip to the hut.

I think it will take us a while to get sick of the scenery here.

Our accommodation for the night, the Elizabeth Parker Hut.

Skiing across the lake.

The team

Stefan and Claire come to visit

The reason why we were so busy over Christmas was because Stefan and Claire came to visit. Since they love the outdoors just as much as we do, we tried to cram as many outdoor activities as possible into a week long holiday.

Riding the lift at Sunshine (our local ski hill). This was also our first experience in skiing when its -15 C.

Happy faces at the end of a hard days skiing.

Stefan and Claire trying out some cross country skiing.

Snow shoeing at Chester Lake.

Christmas catch up

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year (better late than never)

The Christmas break was pretty busy for Aleisha and myself so we didnt have a chance to update the blog. I had all four of my wisdom teeth out yesterday so I now have some free time to do some updates.

Stuck in Calgary

Over the last few weeks the winter weather has defeated our attempts to escape the city limits. We tried valiantly this weekend, but with the temperatures topping out at -30 C and our rental car doing doughnuts at the sight of corners, we gave up. So with the thought of spending another weekend indoors being too much to handle I decided to be brave (stupid) and go for a bike ride. Thankfully, due to fitting studded tyres, my bike handles the ice and snow better than most American built cars and for some reason I seemed to have the entire bike path system all to myself.

A steaming Bow River with Calgary CBD in the background.

Winter clothing from the serial killer fashion line.

Brrrr

I dont think this one needs much explaining, its f'ing cold.

Cross Country Skiing

This weekend Aleisha and I tried out one of the iconic Canadian winter sports, cross country skiing. Despite our complete lack of experience our friends decided to take us on a rather advanced trail. While there were a few moments of sheer terror and a few long strings of expletives we survived relatively unscathed, in fact we really enjoyed the day.

Winter wonderland.

Aleisha getting her glide on.

One of the truly amazing aspects of the whole sport is that its free. Some poor sucker drives around in a groomer all night, smoothing out the trail and setting the tracks and we don't have to pay a cent. God bless living in a socialist country!

Preparing for winter

For once we didn’t manage to get into the mountains this weekend. Instead we were finding, trying, buying and fixing ski gear. In the end Aleisha managed to get a pair of Salomon X-Screams and I got some Elan Fusion S12's, best of all they were both super cheap. We also had our first lesson in our eight week indoor climbing class and I think that I am now reasonably confident hanging off a knot that I tied myself.

Plain of Six Glaciers

The Plain of Six Glaciers hike in Lake Louise is normally swarming with tourists but with chilly temperatures and fresh snow on the ground we basically had the trail to ourselves.

Unfortunately the weather was not quite perfect so we couldn't quite see all six glaciers

Some famous ugly hotel on Lake Louise with the Lake Louise ski field in the background.

A Clark's Nutcracker - not much wildlife on the trails at the moment

Happy hikers

Ptarmigan Cirque

I dont know if you can really call Ptarmigan Cirque a hike, at only 5km its more like a brisk stroll in the mountains. But with rather ominous clouds and sloppy conditions under foot we didnt dare try anything longer. In the end it turned out to be a good trip as on the way there we spotted 6 Moose and a rather large Grizzly.

Moose

My finely tuned instincts and outstanding outdoor survival skills make me wonder if bad weather was on its way.

Anyone fancy some postholing?