Squids

So in an effort to post something not related to telemark skiing I have found a blog entirely about Squids!!!


Here is a picture of a cuttlefish that attacked an 8 year old girl swimming in Chile. Brrrr, forget the shark attacks, I don't want to be eaten by a giant squid. So you ask, what is the difference between an squid and a cuttlefish? Something about a cuttlefish has part of a shell in it's back.

Seymour Mountain

I'm happy, this is the first big ski adventure since I've hurt my knee. We went up to First Pump on Seymour Mountain (why it's called that I have no idea). It was one of the first hikes in Vancouver I have ever done and it kicked my ass as much as it did the first time. I'm out of shape. But my knee didn't hurt for the entire trip. I had my telemark skis on, as well as my fantastic sunglasses. Here are almost all of us at the beginning of the trip showing off our equipment. I was the only one on skis.



We went up the side of the ski run and then eventually into more deserted terain. Well, apart from every other day hiker out for a Saturday time in the snow. Here's the girls again standing around right after lunch. It has clouded over somewhat so I am minus the incredibly cool sunglasses.



It was great to finally be 'backcountry' again after two seasons. I want to try a bit more before the season is finished but don't want to make the same mistake and push too hard and injure my knee even further.



So here's the picture looking at the mountains visible from first pump. Very pretty, it looks almost silver coloured. Wow, I can't wait till I can go back there more. Skiing through the fresh powder was also pretty fantastic.

Riding in the Spring

This photo is from last Saturday. Yeah, it's back to spring riding! Though I'm sure there is plenty more rain to come. The horse I am riding now is called Sam, he's really nice but takes a lot of leg to move. The young daughter of a lab mate was out to watch the lesson and later she said to her mom that when she grew up she wanted to be just like me because I take riding lessons *and* I own all the Harry Potter books. How awesome is that!

Sunday lessons on Grouse

After the party Marco, Danielle and I decided to try for Grouse on Sunday. Marco drove (woohoo!) and picked up telemark skis at MEC. I told him if he was better than me at the end of the day I would sulk in the car on the way home. We finally made it on the hill after lunch. Here I am eating my sandwich, looking rather zonked after the late night. Really, I don't find PB and J that boring.



We skied for a bit, I showed Marco how to teleski and Marco showed Danielle how to downhill ski. It was fun, but I was the only one with truly dramatic falls. Danielle didn't go very fast and Marco was just too good. We stopped for lunch,



and then continued skiing. Here's a shot of Marco on the hill with Vancouver in the background.



All in all, a very nice day with fantastic weather. At the end I was just too tired to sulk in the car anyway. ^_^

Cocktail Party

On Saturday we had a fun cocktail party/masquerade. There was lots of alcohol choice but I think we will have another party to drink the rest. We tried that before and ended up with more than we started with so next time we will not allow admittance unless you prove you aren't carrying alcohol. The masquerade was mainly a grad student party and therefore not very wild (at least these grad students usually aren't). All the housemates stayed up and cleaned at the end of the night and we were done in just under half an hour! Not bad.

Lab mates (I love the mask with no eyes).

More grad students/post docs.

Skiing at Grouse

So I went up to Grouse on the weekend as I try and do and skied most of the day with Marco. A great day for North Shore skiing, overcast and snowing so the lines were short and the snow didn't get slushy. Marco got this shot of me on the teleskis.


I took this action shot of Marco.


Not near as nice but that's the kind of action shot you get when I can't ski backwards down the hill (at least not intentionally). My best wipeout for the day was when my skis were entangled in my backpack. Just a few bruises, I can add them to the one I got on my knee the day before when I bumped the rail riding a little too close on the horse.