Snowy Adventures - January 2013

Well the start of 2013 has been one full of learning, excitement, being scared and pushing myself out of my comfort zone repeatedly.

I had one week in particular that everything aligned and seemed to be my 'week of learning'!!!

I spent a weekend doing my Avalanche training course AST1+ which involved an evening of theory/lectures, then all day Saturday at Mt Seymour (one of our beautiful local north shore mountains) and all day Sunday at Whistler/Blackcomb, in the blackcomb backcountry.
There was so much to learn, to take in and to practise. What a course like this does is provide you with valuable training in your avi safety gear, a good grounding on the information you need to seek to avoid avlanches but most importantly that all of this comes with repeated practise, learning with groups of more experienced back country skiiers and essentially time......

 As the leader so aptly put it we have now moved from the unconsciously incompetent to the consciously incompetent back country skier.

This was my first out of bounds, back country skiing i have ever done on Blackcomb and was very nervous. Skinning up I coped fine with and we were so lucky to have clear blue skies most of the weekend, so the surrounding peaks were beautiful.  Coming back down which for most is normally the fun part, ended up seeing me teary and fearful.  The terrain was way beyond my current ability and the sharp rock turns just were not happening for me. In the end I had to side slip a large portion of it until I reached the glacier bowl then proceded to ski/fall ski/fall ski/fall rest my way back down. 

I have found I"ve really lost my confidence with my skiing right now. I feel my technique isn't there and I'm not sure whats going. I am very hard on myself, I know that much but I truely did struggle. 
I got a lot out of the course and feel ready to get out and practise but on more suitable hills....




I also took advantage of the great club I've joined called the ACC - Alpine club of Canada and did my crevasse rescue dry training evening after work, Where we used a small climbing wall to rig up self rescue pulley systems and team pulley systems to get someone safely out of a crevasse should they fall in when on a glacier.

That same week ended in a day training again with the ACC on Mt Seymour doing ski mountaineering  crevasse rescue practice.  I know my skiing is no where near the level to achieve this yet, however its one of my ultimate goals to be good enough and I thought having the training would still be invaluable.

 Skinning up is something I thought I was progressing well with but I had yet to encouter ice.... Again this day saw me way out of my comfort zone on the approach including losing my footing and sliding down an icy embankment, giving my ribs a good bang on the way down and breaking a buckle on my rented boot early in the day.  Thankfully the organiser Ben was very patient and encouraging not to mention resourceful and did a temporary fix to my boot so I could continue.  I had to boot pack up sections and contemplated turning around as felt once again I shouldn't have been there.  His encouragement that I would be fine once I got to the top helped me to push myself on and I'm glad I did. I learned loads and practised the THINX method of ski snow anchors as well as resuce systems over a snowy embankement.

I once again was really really worried and scared about how I was going to get back down what we had earlier come up and in the end thanks to friends Kyle and Mike patiently waiting for me and carrying my ski's I boot packed down a gully until i was able to put my skii's back on.  The weather once again had been amazing and well the sunset really was one of the prettiest I've seen in 2013 so far, so I was grateful for a lot this day and as I try to be everyday....

Wondering if I should just hang up my ski boots for a little bit to regroup from all the being out of my comfort zones, again the snow called. I had signed up to a beginner friendly day out with the ACC and I was keen as it was going to be Australia Day, Jan 26....
I'm really not one for drinking much these days and the thought of being in whistler (all too memorable from past years) was just not where I felt I wanted to be.... Yes Aussies you definetly  know how to give us a bad name up there.....

We were a group of 15, with Jay being the coordinator and having 2 others able to help him out. The skin up to the warming hut was at your own pace, so I went with others to start with chatting away then we all kind of just skinned up on our own which was nice just being surrounded by snowy trees....

I ended up in Jay's group of 5 and he had me breaking trail up some of the slopes  for practise trying to do a steep kick turn and I fell down, more pratise needed. Finally we reached  the ridge and I looked down and wasn't so scared. FINALLY!!!!  The powder ment falling didn't hurt, but happily I did not fall once on this slope though I'm aware I was definetly sitting 'in the backseat' too much. I had an absolute ball and loved it.  This is a slope I could definetly practse more and more on without being sick to the stomach with worry.

What a fabulous way to celebrate Australia Day all the way over here in Canada....

On a side note, my full marathon training is progressing well. I've signed up for the BMO Vancouver full marathon May 5th 2013. Lots of running, cycling for cross training and yoga for balance has been mixed into these weekend snowy adventures. Not to mention social things going on as always like a games night I hosted at my place which had us playing Cranium, cards and twister.  I really am happy and smiling in life, appreciative of all the good things and people I have in my life right now....

December Fun 2012

Live life to the fullest, tell those around you how much you love them as life is so precious never take it for granted. Live, laugh, love through life.......