Half Nelson

Squamish welcomed a new mountain bike trail this past spring. "Half Nelson" is basically a 3km downhill pumptrack which can be ridden as fast or as hard as you like. Although it's rated difficult, intermediate and beginner riders will enjoy this trail just as much as an expert rider would.

You can find the trailhead just off the Ring Creek FSR, up the hill from Quest!

Here's a clip of the ride:

Half Nelson - Squamish May 2, 2010 from Lee Lau on Vimeo.

March 2010: Skiing

In March 2010 a group of friends managed to pull off a weekend of catskiing with Backcountry Snowcats once again up on the Hurley Pass, an hour snowmobile ride north of Pemberton. The snow conditions were a little firm to start, but a storm system came through the same time that we did bringing us some incredible snow. Here’s a little video from our trip:

Sweet Cat-Skiing at Backcountry Snowcats, Pemberton, BC from Doglotion on Vimeo.

A few of us girls have been riding on some new Rossignol skis this year – the Voodoo Pro BC 110. They are so incredibly easy to ski, I almost feel like I'm cheating. If you haven't tried them yet, you should! They ski well in all conditions and I recommend them 100%. But this recommendation comes with a warning - once you've tried them, there's no turning back! Here’s a little video of us testing them out on the west coast powder this past ski season:

Ski Review - Rossignol Voodoo Pro BC 110 from Doglotion on Vimeo.

February 2010: India and the Olympics

Three weeks in India made for an action-packed February 2010. Although my blog focuses more on the Squamish area, I thought I might as well throw in a few words about India since it’s a pretty incredible place you don’t get to visit all that often. Quest joined a 10-day Education Tour, which involved visiting schools in Mumbai, Pune and New Delhi. We had a successful recruiting trip visiting a wide range of schools and meeting some wonderful students along the way. I was also fortunate enough to visit the beautiful Mahindra United World College just outside of Pune.

A very warm welcome at Starex International School, New Delhi

What a beautiful country! I wish I had more time to explore the different cities, but instead, decided to finish off the trip with a vacation up in Northern India – in Kashmir of all places. Vacationing in Kashmir does indeed sound like a bit of an oxymoron, but that is indeed how I decided to spend my time off. My husband and I joined a group of friends who were spending the entire winter in Kashmir at a tiny resort called Gulmarg, documenting the skiing in the area along with life in Kashmir (www.b4apres.com). Unfortunately, an enormous avalanche had just come down a few days prior to my arrival killing 17 army men at an army base nearby leaving me a little frantic upon arrival in Srinigar. Luckily they had just cleared the roads the morning I had flown in, making my trip from Srinigar to Gulmarg fairly seamless. The drive up the mountain pass did however involve a few tea stops, a car tune-up and a chain-up stop, but that’s really about as seamless as you can get in this area!

Gulmarg, India

Gulmarg is a small Himalayan ski resort that lies on the border of India and Pakistan. It was just recently developed in the late 90’s and only has one gondola, which is divided in two stages: Stage 1 was completed back in 1998 and takes you up to an elevation of 2600 meters, while Stage 2 was only completed in 2005, bringing you to an elevation of 4000m (13,000ft) – making it the highest gondola in the world as far as I understand. Stage 2 was unfortunately closed for the entire length of my stay, with the exception of one day. The line-ups were of course a little hectic with everybody wanting to get at the untouched powder, but I finally made it up to the top, bringing myself to the highest elevation I have ever experienced. I couldn’t tell if my breath was short due to the altitude or due to the breathtaking views at the top! The skiing was incredible and well-worth the wait. With the alpine not being open the rest of our trip, we instead earned our turns in the backcountry hiking up to nearby hills, and then skiing down to various villages, running into monkeys and army men along the way. In the villages, we would stop for tea and then work our way on finding a ride back to Gulmarg which always turned into an adventure in itself (and often took longer than the actual skiing did). Every night we looked forward to our never-ending dinners of daal, paneer, butter chicken, korma, garlic naan, gulab jamun, just to name a few of my favourites. Mmmm, take me back to India for the food alone!

Phase 2, Gulmarg Gondola

Before flying out of Srinigar, we decided to explore the city a little and stayed on a houseboat for a night on Dal Lake. After checking into our floating hotel for the night, we enjoyed a late afternoon shikara boat tour which took us out onto the open lake looking straight up at the Himalayas, and continued through to the floating markets. Kashmir is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited and I feel blessed having had the chance to experience it. With the Kashmir conflict still present, it may still be some time until the flocks of tourists come to explore this area. But in due time it will happen – no doubt.

Shikara on Dal Lake, Srinigar

After an action-packed three weeks in India and looking forward to some quiet time back in Canada, we instead returned to the madness of the Olympics! We jumped right into the action and attended a number of hockey games in Vancouver as well as 4-man bobsled up at Whistler. Having lived in Vancouver my entire life, I have never experienced the city so alive. People had come from the entire world to check out the Games. Admittedly, I was not all that excited about the Games after they had made the bid a few years back, especially since I had to deal with the never-ending construction on the Sea-to-Sky Highway almost on a daily basis. But now looking back at it, it was definitely worth it.

February was anything but a month lacking boredom (and people)!

Taj Mahal

Here are a few clips from India:

Kashmir Skiing Recon Mission – Part 1 from Doglotion on Vimeo.

Assault on the Senses - POV from India + Kashmir from Doglotion on Vimeo.

Here’s a quick little video highlighting the spirit of Vancouver during the Olympics:

Insane Crowd POV - 2010 Olympics Hockey from Doglotion on Vimeo.

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:

Over 9.6 meters of snow (31 feet) this season!

See it to believe it! Check out some of the videos below:

Bringing in the New Year at Great Canadian Heli Skiing from Jordan Manley Photography on Vimeo.

An Early Winter Surprise!

November is usually a great month for watching movies, catching up on crafts, reading good books and trying out those new recipes you've been saving for a rainy day - all in anticipation for the ski season to start. Sure enough, Mother Nature called for an early winter this year. It's only mid-November, and the mountains already have the snow coverage you would expect to see in January! Whistler-Blackcomb opened this past weekend, two weeks early with a record early season base. That recipe is just going to have to wait.

Even the backcountry in the Squamish is good to go. But we weren't the only ones to realize that - Remembrance Day saw a full parking lot at Garibaldi Provincial Park, just up the road from Quest. But that didn't stop us from reaping the goods! The clouds parted and the sun peeked out, exposing a marvelous winter wonderland totally unexpected for this time of year.

And it ain't stopping! Check out the Whistler forecast below:

Whistler Alpine Recreation Forecast

Alpine recreation forecast for the South Coast Mountains issued by Environment Canada at 2 PM PST Monday 16 November 2009. The next mountain forecast will be issued at 5 AM Tuesday. Synopsis.. A very intense front will remain stationary over the South Coast giving heavy snow and strong winds through Tuesday morning.

Whistler - Blackcomb.

Tonight..Snow heavy at times. Blowing snow. Alpine low minus 5. Snowfall accumulation 20 to 30 cm. Freezing level lowering to 1000 metres. Mountain top winds southeast 60 km/h gusting to 90 increasing to southwest 90 gusting to 120 around midnight giving near zero visibilities in snow and blowing snow.

Tuesday..Periods of snow. Alpine temperature falling to minus 7. Snowfall accumulation 5 to 10 cm. Freezing level 900 metres. Mountain top winds southwest 90 km/h gusting to 120 giving near zero visibilities in snow and blowing snow. Winds diminishing in the afternoon to southwest 30.

5 Day Trend.. A series of frontal systems will move across the South Coast through Friday.

Extended forecast for Whistler - Blackcomb. Wednesday.. Cloudy with flurries. Snow beginning late in the day. Snowfall accumulation 15 to 25 cm. Freezing level 1200 metres. Thursday.. Periods of snow. Snowfall accumulation 25 to 35 cm. Freezing level 1200 metres. Friday.. Snow. Snowfall accumulation 15 to 25 cm. Freezing level 900 metres.

Copyright 2009 Environment Canada.

How the time flies!

view from the top of Joffre Lakes

Time flies when you're having fun... I guess that explains where the summer went (and why I haven't updated my blog in ages)!

Looking back, this past summer all seems to be a blur of mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking, gardening, visiting the farmer's market, swimming at the local lakes, BBQing and away on island weekends and friends' lake cabins (...plus getting ready for the 100 students we welcomed in the Fall!). Not a bad way to spend a summer!

Squamish town center

East Indian festival in Squamish - celebrating Guru Arjun De Ji with loads of free, tasty food.

Quest summer students enjoying dinner on the residence balcony.

Nothing beats a summer weekend at Savary Island, BC!

Savary is also known as "BC's Hawaii"

Climbing at the base of the Grand Wall on the Chief

at the top of the Chief

kite boarding at the Spit in Squamish

Mountain biking in Squamish (kiting and biking photos courtesy of Sabrina Horak - thanks Sabrina!)

Squamish was also just featured in the New York Times last week: http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/near-whistler-a-place-to-play-for-less/?ref=travel. Uh oh - the secret's out!