Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Kicking Horse, Panorama and Fernie

Since the last blog we have had a bunch of snow so conditions are getting better. Visser and I went over to Kicking Horse for a day, then down to Panorama and finally to Fernie. We hit some great snow at the top of Fernie and Panorama. It was good stuff. The next few days I am planning on skiing Sunshine and Lake louise a couple more times. If it all works out correctly.

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Lake Louise

Another Day another ski Hill. Me and Visser skied Lake Louise today. It was a bit chilly, but sunny and the conditions were great (at least as good as it can get without any powder). Lake Louise is, in my humble opintion, way better than Sunshine. It actually had terrane that was challenging and hugely fun. If only it was poweder it would be amazing. huge bowls equals tons of fun. So after two days at Sunshine and one at Lake Louise and some less than sleepful nights in the rental car we are back in Calgary for the night and taking tomorrow as a day for recuperation and allowing some more snow to fall (hopefully).

Monday, December 20, 2004

The Car

If plans go as we are hoping they will. Me and Visser will be picking up our car this evening and heading out early on Tuesday morning. A bunch of snow is in the forcast which should help our skiing cause. We are thinking about heading up to Kicking horse first but will depend on where the snow falls today. I want it Steep and Deep.

Saturday, December 18, 2004

Sunshine

I skied Sunshine today. It was a beautiful day. Warm, sunny and good snow conditions. The hill could definitly use a lot more snow on some of the more challenging runs, but all the nice crusers are in great shape. I was planning on skiing Lake Louise on Saturday but hear that it has a lot of ice on it right now and needs some snow. So I deceided to spend another day in Calgary since I still have a lot of days left that I can ski it over the next couple weeks.

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Calgary

I'm in Calgray and I can see the Mountains. The weather is beautiful which is good, but I would have to say I would rather it be stormier so there would be more fresh snow. Right now I'm just chillen at my uncle and aunts place. Hopefully over the next few days all the plans will come together so me and Visser can head out to the Mts.

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

All Good

I just finished my last exam of the semester! I am currently packing for my flight in the morning. I am starting to get very excited. It doesn't feel like I am going tomorrow, but I am. I will try to keep my blog updated on my travels and how the skiing is this year in the Rockies. Have a Wonderful Christmas.

Saturday, December 11, 2004

Rental Car

Have you ever tried to get a rental car when you are under 25. It can be tough. I'm trying to get one for when I arrive in Calgary this week, but it is proving to be quite the challenge.

Have you Ever seen a treeplanter before? No, Well maybe you actually have and just didn't notice. OK, I don't know if that could actually happen by how planters look and smell. This was me in the middle of the Alberta Wilderness this past summer.

Thursday, December 09, 2004


Jet-B fuel. I was looking through my pictures from my Mistassibi trip and came across this one. I remember this because it bothered me. I was canoeing along and noticed something on shore. I was hoping it was a paddle we had lost earlier but it was just some garbage. since we were on shore I thought I would get out and stand up for a minute. When I did so I noticed this 50 gallan barrel of Fuel about 15 feet from the shore of the river. It looked like it had been sitting there about 10 years from the rust and how much it had sunk into the ground. We would have like to remove this but we hardly could roll it. So all we were able to do was to push it as far from the river as possible (which was only another 20ft) into a bit of a hollow so if it does start to leak it won't go directly into the river. Hopefully it would have time to evaporate first. I was thinking of how that barrell would have made it to this place. For the past few kilometers of the river there was a huge fire a number of years back and this barrell was close to the edge of the burn so I am guessing it was from the people fighting that fire dropped it by accident or forgot about it somehow. It's such a great river I would hate to see it polluted by that barrell of fuel.

I was traveling down this road to make it to the headwaters of the Mistassibi in August for a 7 day whitewater canoe trip. We blew a tire on our trailer so we got stranded right here. While we were waiting and looking up and down the road for help I took this shot.

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Travel Blogs

I wonder if there is a place (some web page) that shows blogs about people who are active bloggers while they are traveling. I imagine there must be something like that out there. It would be interesting to read blogs by those people. Especially if you were planning a trip to the same area that the person was traveling to. Give some good general ideas on what they liked and what they may not have liked as well. I was just thinking of this myself because blogging is a great way for travelers to keep in contact with people they know back home and along the way. Instead of writing 100 emails, simply blog it. Who knows, If I found a blog of someone who was traveling to PEI (who had done a lot of other traveling around the world) I would be at least interested in posting a comment to take them out for coffee or show them around the Island a bit so I could talk to them more about their other world travels. If the site was setup right it would do well. I wonder what sites I would get like that if I did a quick search on google.
Jon

Saturday, December 04, 2004

When are we really not busy

I always like it when people say things like "I can't wait till winter when things are not as busy as they are now". In all reality if you keep yourself that busy now, when it comes to winter you will most likely be just as busy. It is just that you cannot think that far ahead to see all that is going to be going on. I know for me the winter looks extremely busy. As busy as I am right now? I would say no, mainly because I am in Exam period at University so I am totally consumed with that for the next week. If we are people that are always busy we are always going to be busy no matter what time of year it is.
Jon

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Lets go Digital

Ever since the major price reduction of digital cameras and prints I would have to say they are a much better camera for any amateur or even semi-professional photographer. To get that great shot sometimes several pictures are needed and for the amateur such as myself on a 35mm I find it hard to take a shot of the same thing 4 times to get that perfect pict. I know for myself in 2003 when I was hiking Grose Morne National Park in NFLD we only had 4 rolls of film so had to be conservative, but there were so many amazing shots it was hard to resist taking the shots at the first to save a few picts for later along the trail. A digital camera could have fixed that problem. My camera (3.2MP) right now at best quality can take 350 picts or so on a 512mb card. In all reality that 350 picts could be more like 700 picts and only keep the best ones and delete the ones that don't turn out as desired. I know for my next trip traveling the US it was a huge advantage to have my digital camera were I did take almost 400 pictures (not all on best quality). In all reality I would have taken almost 1000 picts but many were not a good angle or otherwise so I deleted. All I have to say is Lets go Digital.
Jon