Mid-Year Review of 2010: January 2010

Ah, where has the time gone? 2010 has been one busy year to say the least. Between recruiting students from around the world and reading applications back at the office, I have nonetheless still found some time to play in my Squamish backyard and also overseas. I figured the best way to catch up on my blog is to try and capture some highlights for each past month of 2010.

I suppose I should start with January! January 2010 included my first ski trip to Revelstoke, a town in the interior of British Columbia, roughly an 8hr drive east of Squamish. What used to be a sleepy mining town and railway hub has now turned into a mega ski resort. The resort has just been built up over the last few years and now boasts the longest vertical ski descents within North America. We went out to sample the record-breaking terrain, and were not disappointed, although my legs were definitely burning!

The Rad Boob Club was also out at Revelstoke selling their fabulous 2010-2011 Girls Freeskiing Calendar with 100% of the proceeds going towards breast cancer research. Although most of the sales took place before the new year, the girls were still selling their calendars into the new year like hotcakes! If you search hard, you can even find me hiding in the calendar! I was pretty honoured to be a part of this inspiring project.
Here’s more beta on how the project got started:

We are a group of female skiers that met in Golden, BC. While skiing together we realized that by combining our contacts and skills we could put together an amazing women’s ski calendar and raise a significant amount of money for Breast Cancer research. We are ski coaches, professional skiers, big mountain competitors, nurses, young professionals, students, and more. We are all passionate about mountains and live to ski. We are constantly inspired by the people around us and hope that as skiers we can still make a difference in this world by raising money for a great cause and inspire others to lead healthy and active lives. Check us out at www.radboob.com

Another reason we had gone out to Revelstoke this particular weekend was to check out the 2nd stop of the 2010 Subaru World Freeskiing Championships. This was the first time Revelstoke had been used as a venue for the championships and the final venue took place in a backcountry area which involved all skiers being flown to the top of the run by helicopter. The terrain looked incredible, and based on the skiers’ reviews, it sounded like a pretty enjoyable run, especially for a freeskiing competition where conditions can often be less than ideal.

Here's a video from the competition:

Revelstoke - 2010 Freeskiing World Tour Stop #2 from Doglotion on Vimeo.

January 2010 also saw the 5th Annual Deep Winter Photo Challenge held up at Whistler. The competition was tough, but without a doubt, Jordan Manley, reigning champion “King of Storms”, stole the show once again. Here are a few of his pics: