Snowmobiles and Snowboards

Today we finally got to the ski run! It took 2 days of trail clearance on the snowmobiles last weekend and then another few hours this morning as we headed up again. This time I found some snowboard boots almost my size and a Prior Khyber board and some K2 bindings in the ski workshop. So I set those up and strapped them on the snowmobile.

Heading up the high trail was very tippy as an ATV had gone up and dug out trenches which were now rather hardened with crusty snow plus it was minus degrees with a horrid wind chill. Before too long I'd hit a rut and tipped over on the sled or rather the sled on top of me. From then on I had to stand with my weight on one side or the other just to stay upright.

Quite a few tipping incidents again today and lots of digging people out but Adam had some great techniques and skills to pass on which helped out a lot.

After clearing a few more trees we hit the bottom of the ski run, so we put on our snow shoes and strapped our snowboards on our backs and started following Cliff up through the trees as he skinned up. We went on for a long long time- well at least 40mins or so. The views were awesome and the trees are massively loaded with snow. Eventually we hit a massive windy bit and the snow in your face was like sand blasting!

Cold and tired we quickly tried to eject the snow shoes and don snowboards and put layers on.

Now... I have not snowboarded for 2 years almost and this was to be my first few turns on a challenging run! Adrenalin kicked in for sure. But as we took off in the deep powder it was awesome and I made my first few turns- all going well until Emily fell ahead of me and I managed to stay upright and traverse along to the treeline where I stopped but got dragged over by the deep snow. Then we descended into the trees- woah! Not great to be in tight trees on my first run of the season in deep snow! Lots of falling leaf through.

I emerged out with a few super sweet turns to the sleds at the base with everyone watching. I couldn't believe we were down already after such a long hike up! Ah well so great to have done some boarding at last.

We quickly mounted the sleds and headed down before it got dark as it was pretty cold now.

Great day- pretty tired and cold but happy!

Snowmobile Trail Clearance

After a week moving offices and driving a PC today I get to play in the snow again. My snowboard just arrived in whistler but I can't get it yet so....

I started out with an hour on the snow shoes this morning then we all went out on the snowmobiles to try and get to a ski run on Cinnabar. Cliff, Ron, Jeff and Rose and I headed up Friburg trail rather gingerly as there was no tracks there yet, but the snow was firmer than last week's trip.

We went about 50m before we found the first deadfall blocking the trail and out came the chainsaw. Another 50m and the next tree across the trail... and so it went on until we got to the Pearson trail and we climbed up to clear even bigger trees off the trail.

Eventually we got to the part of the trail that I remmeber from mountain biking and Quad biking is pretty eroded and just wide enough for an ATV to squeeze past, the eroded part is a steep fall straight down a hillside through trees- so you really don't want to fall!

Cliff was ahead of me and he slowed up, looked at it then went for it keeping way to the right and leaning all his weight on that side of the sled, he almost got through but hit a branch and the sled started to tip over to the left, he tried to get off the right but he was tipped with the sled as it flipped over and he rolled over the track on his back and carried on down with the sled as it flipped again and he disappeared down the hillside. I jumped off my sled and ran to check he was not under his sled but he was way down the hill and his sled had dug in higher up thankfully!

He was a little bruised and I started to giggle at him, as you do when you see something awful but awful funny and you don't know whether to be concerned or laugh!

Then we started to try and dig out his sled and upright it to get it back on the trail. This all took at least 30mins of digging, pushing, driving and digging, pushing driving.

Of course then we could not turn around so we had to dig and build a snow bridge to get all of us across. Yow! Scary!
We made it though but not much further til the next big deadfall, we cut this but it was now 3:30pm- just 1 more hour of daylight so we kept on up until we found a bit to turn around on and stopped and had a beer taking in the views of the mountains.

We turned around and headed back down this time much faster and finishing the trail in the light of our headlights. We'd been out for over 3hrs and no skiing today but a lot of fun and hard work on this adventure. My face was glowing with the thrill of being outdoors in the cold cold snow again and the fun I'm having living up here in the middle of nowhere!

Tonight hot tubbing outside in the snow! And tomorrow... back up on the sleds to get to the ski run this time!

Snow Shovelling, shoeing and mobiling!

Well it snowed and snowed and snowed this week. We must have had over 100cm fall and its now up to my knees when I try to walk in it!

Friday as the internet was down due to the snow storms overnight I could not do my work so I went out and shovelled snow for 4hrs until my shoulders could take no more. I cleared about 20cm depth off the whole deck, knowing of course it will be white again tomorrow!

Saturday we decided we'd better restock the fridge in case we get cut off here. So Kat and I drove my truck to Lillooet down some very icy compact snow roads!

It took 30mins to deice and dig out the truck. Then 2hrs to drive to Lillooet cautiously as its my first real drive in this truck in snowy conditions. In fact the muddy sections with deep pot holes were much worst than the smooth ploughed swnowy roads and hitting them at speed I fish tailed all over the road! At one point a logging truck was coming towards us, the road was narrowing so as I started to move to the exposed side of the road I braked sharply to ensure I didn't go on to the narrower section too soon and suddenly the mass of snow on my truck roof fell on the windscreen and all vision was obscured as I tried to remember where the wipers switch was! Kat gasped and I had a brief moment of fear as I could not tell where the sheer drop off the side of the road was either!

We spent 2.5hrs or so in Lillooet getting a meal at Dinas the greek place, then browsing in Fields, Voltz and the pharmacy then in to Buy Low Foods to fill my trolley with lots and lots of groceries to hopefully last me 3 weeks!

On the journey back I packed my frozen food into the snow in the truck bed so it did not defrost and fortunately it took just 1.5hrs coming back as the roads had melted and I was now more confident in how to drive my truck plus I was also getting to know the road a little better now.

7hrs for grocery shopping is a record for me and not one I want to repeat too often so I hope I can make these rations last. I have to say I don't think I have ever had such a full fridge or freezer, I'm more used to popping to the corner shop to buy today's meal 30 mins before I eat it!

Sunday was a bright blue sky day so first I went snow shoeing up the mountain bike trails from the beehive. Sinking deep in this soft soft snow with almost every step, I clambered over fallen trees in quite an ungainly manner with these big tennis rackets on my feet! It was a glorious day and this was great exercise for 2hrs.

When I got back it turned out everyone had been searching for me as someone (still a mystery) had called 911 from the lodge at 9am and when the police arrived (2hrs later from Lillooet) I was the only unaccounted for person! Quite a mystery!

It was also a stark reminder that help is a long way away!

This afternoon I went snow mobiling with Ron. At first it was so tough to turn the machine around tight corners, it has quite a wide turning circle but after a while I got used to the need to lean and to prepare for a wide corner. It's amazing how easy it is to get stuck in the soft deep snow we have right now, these machines are heavy especially at slow speeds, they need to go fast and it was fun to start speeding up on them.

Another great weekend full of adventures and new experiences!