Winter Sports

We’ve had quite a few things on locally over the weekends in February/early March, keeping a bit closer to home for a while. So here's a bit of a summary, grouped by 'sport'.



SNOWSHOEING

A local outdoor shop put on a Snowshoe Scavenger Hunt event at the local Nordic ski area – awesome fun :-) We had to bring a digital camera and had about 20 items to either collect or take a photo of while out on a supposed 2km loop. I say supposed because we, as well as many more teams, ended walking way beyond the bounds of the loop accidently (possibly because there was no definition of that bounds :-P ) We still came in second in our category, and don’t you dare say that’s likely because there were only two teams in our category – we’ll never admit it! Got ourselves a free bike tune-up, free day’s X-country skiing and free snowshoes rentals.


Our team was Neil, Frances and Linda –first foray on snowshoes for Neil and Linda, with Linda keen to try a snowshoe experience before being simply too pregnant! All good fun :-)

Linda and Neil at the start by the Day Lodge

On our list: get a photo of your teammate sliding down the toboggan hill.

So Neil prepares himself........

And he's off.......

Next on the list: Snow angel

Turned out surprisingly angelic like!!

A couple of weeks later, there was another snowshoe outing, this time with the husband of one of Neil's workmate, and of course, Zoe, the yellow lab :-)

Zoe leading the way....

X-COUNTRY SKIING

The weekend following the Snowshoe Scavenger Hunt, the N+F and Linda returned to the Nordic ski area with skis this time. Another thing Linda was keen to try, and let’s say our rubber arms didn’t need too much twisting.

Heading off on That Damn Trail (yes, it does involve an old beaver dam)

As this blog is being typed, they have stopped grooming the X-country ski trails for the season, a bit of an early end unfortunately. But we got out for a mission last weekend, knowing it was our last chance to get to the outlying Panorama Trail that we had been eyeing up all winter.

On ungroomed trail, at the start of the Panorama Trail

The Panorama Trail has been described as not really a X-country ski trail, but a flimsy excuse to go find a view. The trail is steep and you practice your herring bone style constantly. But the views at the top were lovely - we looked over at Big White, the local ski hill, and the rest of the McCullough Plateau. Only problem then was the getting back down the hill bit. Well, some hard bomb outs later, not helped by laughing too hard, we were down and back on the main trails for the ski back to the Day Lodge.

Our lunch spot in the sun at the top of Panorama

WANDERINGS

We've also been out exploring on foot, with such little snow having fallen in the valley floor all winter. This time last year we had ice and snow around still!

Icicles along a rock band

The quirky, gnarled shape of an old pine tree

DOWNHILL SKIING

We had a day downhill skiing up at Big White - the morning started off beautiful with blue sky and fresh powder.

Frances amongst the ‘snow ghosts’ at the top of Big White

Neil’s in there somewhere – nice view too :-)

Unfortunately the afternoon turned to the other version of ‘big white’ in the form of big white clouds fogging in the hill, particularly about the tops. However, we used it as an excuse to go explore other areas of the ski hill, because, let’s face it, we were struggling to tear ourselves away from the lovely snow of the top basins.

Plans are for one more day out on the downhill skis, then the bikes are coming out to play :-)