Life Like the Pear

Who's the bad luck?

2009-01-26T21:14:00.000-08:00

For the past 2 weeks, I've sworn it was Jodie. The day she decided to come to Terrace, the snow turned to rain and then to cold clear days so that the skiing was terrible for her whole visit. Then the day she left, 20cm fell with more in the forecast all week.

But, today, on the first day of snow in weeks, I sprained my ankle and likely won't be enjoying this dump....

So the mystery continues: who's the bad luck? Me or Jodie?

Insights from English Literature

2009-01-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

From my english course this morning:

It doesn't take a Freudian analyst to see that childbirth and the evacuation of the bowels are intimately connected. Diarrhea, or loss of control over one's bowels, could be seen as Philomena's loss of control over her reproductive system, while constipation could signify her desire, having lost one child, to not let go of another one.

HOLY CRAP (no pun intended)! Are we not looking a little too deep here? I like to think I'm pretty insightful but I would NEVER have drawn that parallel. No, it doesn't take a Freudian, it takes an English major!

All pow'ed out!

2009-01-05T16:57:00.000-08:00

Tavis and I were disappointed not to get any skiing in while we were in FSJ and Prince George over the Christmas break. The weather was too cold and the conditions just weren't good enough to entice us to Powder King or the backcountry around Grizzly Den. But our patience paid off. The snow started to fall as we drove back into Terrace on New Year's eve and knowing it was going to be a powder day on the first, we were early to bed (ok, ok, and we just didn't have anything better to do!).

We started off the New Year with a bang - some of the best tree skiing I've ever had in the Shames backcountry. Four long laps left me completely but contentedly exhausted by the end of the day.

Two days later, we were back at the hill and with another 15cm of snow, the skiing was even better! This time I was beyond exhausted by the time we got back to the hill but grinning ear to ear and trying to re-live every turn in my head.

On Sunday, there was TOO MUCH snow in the backcountry so we settled for a day on the hill. I can't say that my legs were disappointed to be riding the lift although the turns weren't quite as rewarding. Still, it was pure powder and more falling from the sky all day!

What an incredible weekend! What an incredible place!

Girls Night Out!

2008-12-31T21:17:00.000-08:00

Last night I was treated to my first McDonald girl's night. Courtesy of Tavis, we were off to the spa for manicures and pedicures. The four of us (Tavis' Mom, sister, sister-in-law and I) got totally pampered with hand and foot massages, moisturizers and polishes. Being far more fashion savvy than I am (which is pretty much not at all), Tavis' sister Laura helped me pick my colors and I've now got silver finger nails and very sparkley red toe nails! I love the toes, but my fingers keep catching my eye and are harder to get used to.

Before the spa, I even got a new sweater and earrings and a haircut so I was feeling girlier than ever by the end of the evening.

Like proper girlies, we sipped champagne, wine and port until our supply ran dry (4 bottles later)... A true bonding experience :)

When is a tailwind not your friend?

2008-12-19T11:49:00.000-08:00

When you're out for a run at -17 with 50kph arctic outflow winds chasing you down, making it feel like -28 and all that is covering your 'tail' is a thin layer of spandex that, when you pull your tights of to surmise the damage once you get home, you realize has actually frozen to your skin!

BBBRRRRRRRR!

christine's christmas bake-a-thon

2008-12-19T08:15:00.000-08:00

the gingerbread was too sticky. when i tried to roll it out to cut out the cute little boy and girl shapes that i was planning, it stuck like glue to the cutting board (sucked up all the flour i had put down and kept sticking)so that even after i had scraped as much off as possible with a spatula, it took me forever to wash all the pasty flour and dough off the cutting board. i think i remember that flour and water make glue - yes, yes, they do!

not wanting to waste all that dough (it still tasted pretty good when i licked the spatula), i heaped it onto a baking sheet, rolled it out flat on there and stuck it in the oven.

now i have to tell you, and this isn't just an excuse for my poor baking, but our oven sucks. the seals around the door are just loose and flapping so the stupid thing is constantly having to adjust it's temperature to make up for the lost heat. the poor seal also means that the back of the over is much hotter than the front and i have to keep rotating the tray if i want things to bake evenely.

anyway, the ginger bread was dry and awful when it came out, but at least it wasn't as messy as before - the whole thing went cleanly into the trash in one toss.

next up were peanut butter cookies. perfect dough. MmmmmMmm! the first batch went in and then i got distracted folding laundry, forgot i had cookies in and burned them. they went into the trash on top of the gingerbread.

so at that point i was about 2 hours into my cookie-a-thon and had no surviving cookies to show for it.

the second batch of pb's worked out well - the only good cookies that i'd make all day.

last up were the ginger snaps (that i made in a hurry to replace the lost gingerbread). now these i know how to bake - they're my favorite and i bake them quite often. but this time, afraid of burning them (and having no cookies to give to corey for christmas! :) ) i actually undercooked them!

it's a good thing that i enjoy my more 'domestic' hobbies cause i'm definitely no good at them!!

The Misadventures of Tavis and Christine: Season 2, Episode 1

2008-12-14T09:14:00.000-08:00

The sun in the forecast enticed us into heading to the seven sisters instead of the ski hill on opening weekend. The sisters are almost always shrouded in clouds, only visible on the clearest days. The hike to the base of the glacier was high on our to-do list and the weather was perfect. How could we resist?!

Unfortunately, the snow wasn't perfect, and nor was the trail. We set off up the "road" which we were to follow for three kms before turning onto the trail. It was grown over with brush that we skied over, under and around and that smacked us in the face if we didn't keep our hands up.

With no way to judge distance, we passed the trail head and continued to thrash our way up the road for an hour beyond where we should have turned. Finally too frustrated to continue, we turned back and then found the trailhead...

On the trail, there was even less snow than on the road, and the skis were off several times to climb over large logs or walk through sections of trail where there was no snow at all.

We never did see the sisters (or the sun for that matter as we were in thick trees the whole time). We finally got to a creek crossing that looked sketchy and couldn't make out the trail on the other side and were afraid that by continuing, we'd just be asking to wreck our skis in the shallow snow. Besides, I'd already bailed several times when my skis got tangled in brush and had hurt my elbow and bent a pole. So we turned around and high-tailed it for home.

It was a good workout and worth a few good laughs at ourselves and at each other, but next time, I'll opt for the powder at Shames!

A lesson from Native American mythology

2008-12-11T12:25:00.000-08:00

I have to share this exerpt from a cree creation myth that I read for an English course(I think there's a great message in there):

And Grey Fox picked up his axe and cut Coyote in half, from head to asshole. Then he sang a song and brought the halves alive. The better half turned out to be Coyote Woman. "Now you are twice as smart," said Grey Fox. And Coyote Woman looked all around, then turned to Coyote, "Why don't you go catch some mice for dinner? And while you're out there, cut some firewood, too."

a confession

2008-12-11T07:26:00.000-08:00

to all the skiers in the northwest: i owe you an appology. it's my fault that the hill had to open late. that the early season powder just wasn't the same as the past few years. that rain has melted a lot of what little there was. it's all my fault and i'm sorry.

it happened on the bike trip. we'd been snowed on a couple times (and riding and camping in snow is cold and hard work) and we were worried that snow might close some of the high passes we had to cross and that we'd be stuck. so i said a prayer. jodie warned me not to, said it might screw up the whole winter, that ullr might get confused or angry if all of a sudden a skier was praying against snow. she knew better. and here's the confession: i did it anyway. i asked ullr to just hold off for a couple weeks or to only snow in the western hemisphere or something. i didn't mean for it to end up this way....

i'm sorry.

oh, and ullr, if you're reading this, please forgive me and send snow! if not for me, then for all of the innocent skiers in terrace!

an odd compliment

2008-12-10T21:48:00.000-08:00

i was just finishing my run today near the pool and had stopped to walk the last block. a man, just your average joe, not drunk or crazy looking or anything, sort of got in my way so that i couldn't go past, spread his arms out as if greeting an old friend and said, "well, i have to tell you, your results are looking amazing!" and then continued on his way. standing there in my 5-year-old spandex tights, bandana around my head and sweat dripping into my eyes (feeling anything but amazing), i wondered if he had mistaken me for someone else or if he was just imagining some awful fat "before" picture of me or something. not the best line i've heard, but i guess i'll take it as a compliment.

Christmas tree hunting

2008-12-10T14:39:00.000-08:00

We went to find a christmas tree today. Up north along the shore of Kalum Lake to Rosswood where old logging blocks and gravel pits are full of young pines. I wasn't sure about using a pine as a Christmas tree and seeing the scraggly specimens on offer up there didn't do much to convince me. I joked to Tavis that maybe if we tied 4 trees together, we'd get something full enough to call a tree. He didn't laugh. He's actually done that before.

The weather was overcast and wet, but there was enough snow to go over my boots with every step. After 2 fruitless tromps through the bush in different places, we adopted a new strategy. It was kind of like hunting deer out the truck window... We drove along slowly, pointing out possibilities and discussing their merits and limitations.

"No, too short"
"Branches aren't strong enough"
"We can do better than that!"

Ok, so it was mostly me pointing and Tavis objecting. Then he finally saw one that fit the bill. At the top of a un-hikably steep road cut. And on we went, necks craned and eyes peeled.

Finally, there it was. Standing amongst a hundred other trees that looked more or less the same, I don't think I'll ever understand what set that one apart. But I wasn't about to argue over the only tree we'd seen so far that Tavis liked!

Chop 'er down! I did the girlfriendly job of holding brush out of his way while he axed and nodding in understanding when he blamed the axe for being too dull. I did offer to help once, but then realized that maybe that wasn't very girlfriendly after all.

Back in the truck and pleased with our catch, we turned for home. And the gas gauge went "DING!". 25km to empty said the handy little info centre that we didn't bother to look at before leaving town. We were probably 40km from town at that point. We held our breath most of the way home, each with one eye on the road and one on the dwindling kms to empty. They were going down quick and when they finally hit zero, we more or less stopped breathing altogether and waited for the truck to sputter and die. It never did. We made it all the way to the nearest gas station, 13km past empty! We toyed with the idea of filling a jerry can then running it to empty just to see how far it would go, but in the end, filled it up and headed home to decorate the tree.

fighting fire in a rainforest

2007-07-31T09:01:00.001-07:00

we spent the past 10 days on a 220ha fire just north of mcbride - in an interior rainforest. it was the most unusual fire that i've ever been on. in some freak weather event, the fire raged downslope through cedar and hemlock (one of the least likely to burn fuel types that exist). our crew worked the bottom edge of the fire, often hiking up to 800m through unburned devil's club up to our eyeballs to get to spot fires that needed to be put out. we didn't use pumps or hose because of how spread out the spots were. instead, we carried around canvas pails so that we could use water from small streams where they existed. if there was no stream within 50m or so, we'd just use dirt to put the fire out, or if the fire was too hot for dirt, we'd buck up whatever was burning and pile it up to let it burn itself out over a day or two and then we'd go back to check on it. we got our fair share of rain on the fire, and spent a good chunk of our evenings picking devil's club thorns out of our skin and scratching mosquito bites (i guess they don't just live in the skeg), but all in all, it was a pretty fun fire, mostly for it's uniqueness.

NOT impressed by the devil's club!

a huge cedar stump. funny story...my squad noticed a sign for an "ancient forest" with 2000 yo cedars on the way down to the fire that we wanted to check out. so on our last morning, we got up extra early to make the drive and hike to see it and still meet everyone in pg on time. turns out the biggest tree in there was no bigger than what our fallers had been cutting (don't worry, they only cut the burning ones) on our fire!

rodeo weekend in the john

2007-07-11T23:06:00.000-07:00

...and we did it up in fine style. on saturday night, 18 of us headed to the rodeo dance in our best country digs and danced the night away to the music of a live country band. a lot of the guys are even saying it'll be tough to beat for the best night of the year!

just another weekend in the north

2007-07-05T21:35:00.000-07:00

paddling the pine river...one of the few good things about a wet summer is that this river actually has enough water in it to paddle. and a lot of log jams. which were no problem to get around in the canoe with paul, but a got a little scarier when i was negotiating them in a kayak by myself (having kayaked maybe 5 times before and not at all in the past 5 years)!

shootin' shit...i'm not very good at skeet shooting (or skeet throwing for that matter), but i can blow the smitherines out of a beer can with the .17! we were even environmentally friendly little rednecks and picked up all our shells before we left :)

and sleeping in the hay loft (after an amazing into-the-sunset horseback ride)

the action-packed canada day weekend also included a very boring sick day and camping, tequila and fire works at hart lake. oh northern canada!

beer drinking, sling-shot slinging and hot springing

2007-06-29T11:27:00.000-07:00

We had three days off following our first fire streak and Jodie, Doyle, Dean and I headed up to Liard hotsprings for a little bit of fun and relaxation (though, truth be told, I was far more tired when we got home than when we left!).

mostly because having doyle around was just like having a little brother there (and i guess i'd sort of forgotten what that was like).

he roped and tied me

shot his slingshot at me

jumped on me

and sat on me

but at least i wasn't the only one being harassed... the buffalo got a taste of his sling-shot, too!

we went for a big hike just south of the hotsprings, just choosing a nice long ridge from the highway and going for it.

it was the first time that dean had ever gone hiking for fun...and i'm still not sure just how much fun he actually had

but we made it, and at the top, we were all smiles :)

but after a long hike, a rainy descent and a million mosquito bites, bathing in the hotsprings felt very deserved

this time's for real

2007-06-22T15:12:00.000-07:00

yeah yeah, so i really am going to start blogging again now (just for you, ma!)

here's what the rhino's have been up to so far this year:

the first few weeks were pretty slow...and cold...
we almost got stuck on our way out to crying girl to check up on a 'make sure you're campfire is out' sign

but not long after, we finally had our first fire call - to a surprisingly big and steep fire near dinosaur lake that was a little tougher than what we normally have as a 'warm up' fire. on the first night, the fire actually burned over our hose lay (and some gear)

after a few more days of rain (with some snow chucked in), the weather warmed up again and we had two solid weeks of fires. by we, i mean the rhinos. for most of those two weeks, i was held back in FSJ for training. bah.

we had a really nice fire near chetwynd... there was some good fire behavior and a tanker show when we first arrived, it was dry and steep and we got to enjoy honey garlic chicken wings from Murray's Pub every night! the fire started because of a campfire that got away. when we got there, we found the fire ring and a bunch of empty beer cans laying around it. whoever was responsible must have been worried about an investigation or something, because they came back in the night a few days later, gathered all the beer cans and scattered the rocks used in the campfire ring!

the best part of this fire was watching dawley catch a mouse.

after missing out on a trip up to toad river (my favorite place to fight fires) because of training, 10 of us headed to a beautiful fire on the sikanni river, where we stayed in the hunting lodge.

and met peanut - not the prettiest dog i've ever seen (we actually nicknamed a guy on our crew after the little pug), but he certainly has a lot of character. if you got up and left your chair at dinner, he would hop right up on it and take your place.

on the sikanni fire, we were flown into one of the nicest heli-spots i've ever been dropped off at - we had to hike down a long ridge from the top of the mountain to get to our fire.

this fire was actually an overachievement by the MoE who were doing a wildlife burn. so the owners of the hunting camp didn't really want it out at all since it would create more hunting grounds for them. a good dose of rain took care of it just as well as we could have anyway.

first fire of the year

2007-05-04T00:24:00.000-07:00

We had to wade through ankle deep snow to get to a 10 ha fire, which grew another 4 ha overnight and burnt a bunch of our hose. It just doesn't make sense....

but I'll take it...giddy-up!!

The overtime has begun!

Been a While....

2007-04-20T14:53:00.000-07:00

My dad asked a very good question last night: what am i gonna blog about now?

True, life back in Fort St. John doesn't seem quite as interesting as cycling around south america....but i'm hoping to keep things interesting enough to talk about. Even if no one is listening :)

I just got back to FSJ last night and am working on settling in and fighting the urge to throw everything in my car and run away. Actually, I couldn't afford enough gas to get much further than the city limit line so it looks like I'm in for yet another summer with the rhinos. Now if only the snow would melt and the water stop falling from the sky so that we could get some fires.....

back in 5....months, that is

2006-10-05T09:58:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I pedal off into the sun.... I'll be gone for about 5 months, biking through the US, Mexico, and South America. And I think an adventure like that is worthy of its own blog, so porbicicleta.blogspot.com is where I'll be posting from now on. And it'll be even more exciting than this blog (and you thought that wasn't possible!).

:)

a bartlett family adventure

2006-10-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

on my last weekend home with the family, mom and dad treated me to 2 days of quadding in the mountains around fort st. john. it was tons of fun, with amazing views and loads of wildlife...

coolest mom in the world....really, she's cool. honest. even in pink goggles.

dad enjoying the view of williston lake surrounded by fall colors.
and we never go anywhere without maverick.
mom and mav hiking up for a better look at the mountains near sikhanni.
a herd of caribou cruising through the alpine - one of three herds we saw that day.

nerdy, i know

2006-09-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

those who know me know that i'm a 'little notebook' nerd. i carry my little notebook with me everywhere to write down important and, more often, not-so-important things in so i don't forget them. i'm also a 'great quote' nerd - result being that i have a lot of good quotes in my nerdy little notebook. since it's time for a new notebook, i was going through the old one and thought i'd share some of the best quotes i read/heard this year:

"I looked at myself...as a monkey given my life to play with, prodding it, trying to stretch it into different shapes, dropping it and picking it up again, suspecting always that it must have some use and meaning, tantalized and frustrated by it but always unable to make sense of it."
- Ted Simon (in one of the best adventure/travel books ever, Jupiter's Travels)

"But I will walk the road, however hard it is, because only on the road can you see that yesterday lies behind you and tomorrow waits on the path ahead. The road measures life in distance. The further you travel, the longer you live."
- Ma Jian (a chinese political activist/journalist that walked across his country to learn more about life in it, and wrote about it in his book, Red Dust)

"Heaven's not a place where you go when you die, it's a moment in life when you actually feel alive"
- Spill Canvas (overall, not a great band, but damn, that's a good line)

lac-la-stupid

2006-09-26T21:28:00.000-07:00

i'm officially nominating lac-la-hache for the stupidest town in bc award. it calls itself the 'longest town in the cariboo'. Bah. all that means is that they put the stupid welcome to signs 20km on either side of town so that they can lower the speed limit to 80kph through 40km of cow pastures. stupid stupid long town.

that's the rant, now on to happier things...

i drove back home today from a wonderful (albeit a little rainy) 10 days in the kootenays - the beautiful, mountainous, full-of-outoodrsy-people kootenays that helped me recover from my summer in the john and that have convinced me that that is where i want to live when i finally decide to actually live somewhere. i did some hiking and biking and visiting (big thanks to Chris and Rob for putting me up [putting up with me?] for so long!) and relaxing and overall had a great little vacation.

that wonderful time of the year again

2006-09-15T22:31:00.000-07:00

Every time the seasons change, I find myself saying, "oh yay! ______ is here. _____ is my favorite season!" Now I think I've figured it out - I just love it when the seasons change.

Here's why I'm excited about fall:

~ because i knit about 5 new toques this summer and it's finally cold enough to wear them
~ i pulled my down vest out of the closet today and went for a long walk with it on
~ it's cool enough for cords
~ i love when the ground starts to freeze and the grass is all crunchy and dry when you walk on it
~ i love unexpected early snow falls and waking up to everything white
~ and, of course, i love school supplies. even though i don't have any reason to buy them this year, i love looking and touching and half-wishing that i had a reason to buy a nice new note-book.

meet the rhinos

2006-09-15T17:54:00.000-07:00

the death of a fire season

2006-09-15T17:45:00.000-07:00

First, I could see my breath.

Then there was frost on the ground.Next, it started to snow. And it kept on snowing until the entire fire was white.
So we lit a new one to keep warm. And that was the end of fire season 2006. For me anyway. Some hardcores are still at it for another 2 weeks but I'm headed somewhere sunny :)

chim-chimeny, chim-chimeny, chim chim cher-oo

2006-09-10T22:43:00.000-07:00

Tonight, we got back from 3 days and 2 nights on a fire and headed straight to the grocery store to get some more fire food. We went right from work, without stopping to shower or even taking the time to wash our faces, so I was more or less black from head to toe and smelt like a campfire. Nah, a forest fire.

I was standing alone near the check-out when a friendly looking lady with an irish accent asked me if I had been to a wedding.

Huh?

When I told her no, she said, "Oh, well some people believe that it is lucky to have a chimney-sweep kiss the bride at their wedding."

Maybe that's a business I ought to look into.

the 11-hour shopping marathon

2006-09-07T21:14:00.000-07:00

2 very tired fire girls
14 hours of driving
11 hours of shopping
3500 dollars spent

3 very productive, albeit not very relaxing, days off.

wonderful williston

2006-09-07T20:58:00.000-07:00

What we expected to be a weekend fire turned into our biggest money-maker of the season. We just got back from 10-days on a fire near Williston Lake. The first 5 days felt a little rough since we were camping and waking up to frosty tents and frozen hoses. The last half couldn't have been cushier - we were put up in a beautiful heli-ski lodge where we enjoyed comfy beds with down duvets and were fed gourmet dinners every night.

Alex watching the action from the lakeshore.

Who's that sexy fire chick ?!

Johnny lighting it up....trust me, this actually does help put the fire out.

Another frosty morning - every day it got harder to get out of our sleeping bags.

The most beautiful pump site in the world.

and the fires burn on....

2006-08-30T06:29:00.000-07:00

We're working on a fire near Hudson Hope right now - far enough in the middle of nowhere that we have to camp out. We just spent 3 nights, then they let us come back to town for one night for some more food and a shower and then we're back out for another three. You wouldn't believe how disgustingly dirty you get after four days on a fire without a shower! At least the hours are good (we're up over 1000 converted hours this season already!), and the setting is beautiful (in a steep, lush canyon), but man is it starting to get cold this late in the season! Yesterday morning, we all woke up to a thick layer of frost covering our gear. Brrr. Hard to believe that fires can burn in weather like that!

RIP: Rouge

2006-08-21T21:31:00.000-07:00

"He was a good fish"

Rouge was one of 4 fish that the guys bought on our way through Kamloops a couple weeks ago coming home from the fire in Golden. The first one quickly met it's demise when Cole ate it - whole and alive - in the restaurant where we had lunch. Rouge, shown here, was the next to go. He died of apparent overconsumption after going 3 days with no food at all. The other 2, miraculously, are still going strong.

why does biking make my bum hurt so much?

2006-08-13T16:33:00.000-07:00

I took my new wheels out for their first long ride - 100km along the Hudson Hope Road. The first half was beautiful. It was sunny and the riding seemed easy. Then I turned around and realized why the riding was so easy: I had a 20kph tail wind. Which meant that on the ride back, I had a 20kph headwind. Ugg. Still, it felt awesome to be out getting some exercise and training for my big bike trip this winter. I just have to do that, oh, 50 more times and I'll be in Mexico :)

20 raging rhinos and a kiddie pool full of pilsner (cont'd)

2006-08-13T16:21:00.000-07:00

20 raging rhinos and a kiddie pool full of pilsner

2006-08-13T16:14:00.000-07:00

rhinos in the rockies

2006-08-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

We just got home from an amazing 2 week fire near Golden, BC. The fire was at 6000 feet, right in the rockies so the terrain was steep and the views were spectacular. Pretty much my ideal fire, in fact, made all the better by the fact that we stayed in a beautiful log lodge and ate in restaurants every day.

Still, it's nice to finally have some time off to relax and catch up on sleep and chores. Ok, and to party it up a bit. I'm sure there will be some great pics after our big rookie party slash year-ender tomorrow night.

Dustin and Alex hard at work

A burnt-out bear den...or so we figured

Working and enjoying the view of Kinbasket lake.

"Oh, please make the helicopter stop!" A hungover Jodie on the long flight to work at 7am.

Just another day at the office - John reading the morning paper on the way to work.

Cooling off after a long hot day on the fire.

the pump site

2006-07-27T08:10:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I've been in FSJ for 6 years and I've always complained that there's no lake to swim in. Of course there is. We call it the pump site. It ain't pretty, but it's got a dock and water and, hey, those are the most important components of the whole beach experience, right?

oh those rhinos (cont'd)

2006-07-19T13:44:00.000-07:00

After a few days off, we were back to work, this time about an hour up the Alaska Highway in Wonowon. The fire was pretty dead and we got a bit of rain, but it was still overtime and, like always, we managed to have a lot of fun:

Dustin and I worked our asses off one day trying to lay as much hose as we possibly could. Jake loaded us up with as much as we figured we could carry and off we went down the muddy cat guard. Dustin had 12 hoses (= 180 lbs) and I had 10 (= 150 lbs). We made it the full 800 meters to where we needed to go, but not without a lot of yelling and pushing each other on, in part to keep it fun, but also because it was excruciatingly painful

There is nothing more fun on a fire than to have a quad to rip around on, especially when it's really muddy out. I had a blast wowing the guys with how fast I ride and how I could get through the mud pits that they all got stuck in ;)

The only crappy thing about the fire was all the rain we got...rhinos hate the rain!

oh those rhinos

2006-07-19T13:11:00.000-07:00

The past three weeks have been insanely busy with fires all around northeastern BC.

First, we were sent out to Tumbler Ridge, where we worked on three different fires, one of which actually caused the town to be evacuated for a few days. The fire we spent the most time on was out the Wapiti Forest Service Road and in the mountains where I had done some hiking before.

We got a great smoke and flame show right from the camp where we were staying. The first night that we were sent out to the fire, we actually thought that we were helping to tear down the camp because they were worried about it burning over. It was a little unsettling to hear that we were actually going to stay and sleep in it instead!

This was the most impressive fire behavior that we've seen in a long time...which got us all pretty excited.

The perfect helipad - on a sandbar in the beautifully clear and cold Wapiti River.

You don't see this every day - a helicopter had a mechanical problem when it was flying right over where we were working and got his bucket caught in a tree and had to drop it. The pilot was pretty excited when he found out that we had found it and cut it down because I guess these things cost over $20,000. If this ever happens again, I think we'll sell it on eBay.

colored chalk

2006-07-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

I was out for coffee with Jodie the other night (ok, it was actually cheesecake, not coffee) and I she asked me what my plans were for the next few years and whether I'd be firefighting again next summer.

I told her that I hadn't really thought about my plans since Rob and I broke up, and that for now, I just look at my future and see a big blank chalk board.

She said, "yeah, just like an empty chalk board with a whole lot of brightly colored chalk at the bottom, just waiting for you to write on it".

I think that sounds pretty exciting.

a quick catch up on stuff too complicated to blog about

2006-07-13T23:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I've been avoiding my blog. There's just no funny way to write about bad news and so I've just not been writing at all. Well, it's finally time to get on with blogging so here's the quick and dirty about what's gone on over the past month:

~Rob and I broke up. Yup, big news after 5 years.
~I'm slowly shifting from sadness to excitement at the prospect of being on my own and making my own decisions for the next few years. On that note, I've found a travel buddy for the winter - Jodie, the rookie on our crew this year. We get along really well and she's super adventurous and into the biking idea. More on that later
~We've been incredibly busy with fires for the past 3 weeks - they say that the situation has been more complex than in Kelowna in 2003 with all the interface fires that we've had. It's slowed down a bit now, but we're still on fires around FSJ.

That was easy enough. And now that it's over with, we return to our regualarly scheduled blogging.

finally, the dry spell is over!

2006-06-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

Well, the dry spell is actually in full swing, but we actually got a fire today! Five weeks to the day since my last fire. That's one of the longest dry spells I've ever experienced....here's hoping the fires keep popping up so we get to work the long weekend :)

i heart slacklining

2006-06-18T21:50:00.000-07:00

Walking the line

Doubles slacklining - this only lasts about 5 seconds, but we're working on it.

Ooo, getting fancy

And getting rejected

Beavis getting up from sitting

Brett - the latest slacker

In Memory

2006-06-12T21:56:00.000-07:00

Fort St. John lost an amazing person last week. Joel Wuthrich, a high school friend, was killed in an accident with a drunk driver on his way home from work. Over 500 people attended his funeral today - a testament to how well-liked he was by everyone who was lucky enough to know him. No one could say enough good about him. He was always smiling, laughing, dancing, chatting - a truely happy person. He will be dearly missed.

big sky country

2006-06-07T17:58:00.000-07:00

last night on my marathon drive home from Victoria at around 2am, I saw the most intense skyscape that i could possibly imagine:

off to my left, the sun was just below the horizon and the sky was a beautiful bright blue with only the brightest stars still visible.

directly above me, the sky was clear and black with bright yellow stars and moon.

straight ahead and to the right, an intense electrical storm filled black clouds with bright flashes of orange light and chains of lightening.

and above the storm clouds, which were low to the horizon, vivid green northern lights danced across the sky.

it was everything that i love about the big sky in the peace country all at once. amazing.

oh, to inappropriate drunkeness

2006-06-07T17:46:00.000-07:00

I drove all night on Friday to get to Victoria for Rob's high school reunion on Saturday. Ok, I didn't really go for the reunion - I went just to see Rob, who was there for his reunion, and so I found myself all gussied up in fancy clothes at a fancy banquet at a fancy golf course. And I hadn't slept in almost 40 hours.

So while Rob re-uned with all his past classmates, I clung tightly to a beer mug and sipped it nervously, tying hard to listen (or at least pretend to listen) to a bunch of inside jokes that I didn't understand told by a bunch of people I didn't know. And I sipped and sipped, bought another beer, and kept on sipping.

After a few hours, my lack of sleep and all of my nervous nobody-to-talk-to beer drinking had me a few sips away from dancing topless on the speakers. Which I think would have been really funny. But Rob didn't, so I put the rest of my energy (which was really starting to lack about this time) into keeping both feet firmly planted on the floor and both eyes fixed on whoever was speaking. And I think I actually pulled it off.... or at least I managed to stay on my feet all night :)

adventures of the wooly marmot

2006-05-29T20:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Jodie (a rhino rookie) and I went hiking in Tumbler Ridge. It was a great day, although we were both soaked and freezing when we got back to the car because of both the hail and the fact that we couldn't resist playing in the snow on the ridge-top.

It's a three-hour drive back to Fort St. John from Tumbler. We got home around 9pm.

This morning, I went out and started my car and it was making an awful screeching noise so I figured it needed some oil. I drove down to the gas station and bought some, then popped the hood. Turns out it wasn't my engine screaming at all - it was a MARMOT! A big marmot! Under my hood!

As soon as it saw me open the hood, it scrambled way down into the middle of my car so that you could only see it's tail. I just stood there dumbly for a few minutes wondering how on earth I was going to get this marmot out of there. A few men that were filling their trucks noticed my confused look and came over to offer help. They thought I just didn't know where the oil went. They thought it was hilarious that there was a marmot under there and all wanted to help get it out so we spend 1/2 an hour in the shell parking lot, poking my marmot with a stick trying to scare it away. No luck. And I was going to be late for work.

So I closed the hood and drove out to base. It sounds cruel, I know, but the furry little guy survived a 3-hour drive in there yesterday.

When I got out to base, a few guys from the crew came out to help with the poking and the stupid thing still wouldn't leave.

So, I got in and drove away again - this time to park in some long grass hoping that he might feel more comfortable getting out into the grass than onto pavement. I left the hood open and scattered some crumbs around. By noon, he'd made his escape - probably into another car that was parked nearby :)

A marmot in his natural habitat:

And the marmot in his not-so-natural habit:

chuck truck got stuck

2006-05-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

Oops! It looked like just another mud hole from a distance...
This happened on the drive home from the fire that we were on in Vanderhoof one night after a couple solid days of rain. We knew the roads were bad, but had no idea that they were this bad!

Ian - the proud driver.

and you thought fire fighters had to be tough

2006-05-14T22:10:00.000-07:00

it seemed like a good idea....

2006-05-14T14:04:00.000-07:00

...to load up our skis and snowmobiles and head into the mountains for some late-season skiing. Such a good idea, that we raced around packing at 8pm last night and headed out of town for the pine pass. There were 5 of us (Jeff, Brett, Eric, Cole and I) and we were determined to get in some turns while there was still snow up high. We drove the 2.5 hours to the pine pass, then up up up and old logging road until we came to a fork and decided to wait until morning so that we could see which way to go. We unloaded Cole's sled and all 5 of us cozied up on his deck for the night. It was a pretty restless night, but great to be out under the stars and full moon. We woke up at 6, giddy about skiing on such a bluebird day. But fate was against us. We headed further up the road to where the snow got too deep to continue and started to get the snowmobiles off and ready to go. Cole's, which ran just fine about 10 minutes earlier, wouldn't start. We (no, they, really) tried everything, and it just wouldn't go. We looked longingly at the snowy mountain and angrily at the snow machine and decided we might as well just head home while it was still early enough to do something else. But not before having a little fun trying to get Cole's truck stuck in the snow. When we finally got down to the highway in our truck, we found Cole parked on the side of the road and looking under the hood. First the snowmobile and then the truck....there was a big hole in his new radiator. A few minutes and a quick fix later and we were on our way again - driving home in snowpants and jackets, with ski goggles on our heads on what could have been the ultimate ski day :(

Pics will come later, I can't seem to get them to load right now.

knock on wood, but this fire season is HOT!

2006-05-09T20:22:00.000-07:00

We've been working more or less non-stop since I got back to FSJ. Since April 25, I haven't had a single day off and only 3 days without fires. It's been amazing - it's never been this hot and dry up here this early in the season.

This week, I'm acting as a squad boss because a few of the regular squad bosses are away doing courses. It's been a pretty steep learning curve. I had one day as a crew leader on a fire, and the next day, I was in charge of the whole fire. I definitely did a few things wrong, but learned from my mistakes. Overall, though, I think that it went pretty well. I've always been one to care about the quality of my work, but I never realized just how much more I would care when I actually had to sign my name to a fire and guarantee that it was out. Especially a really big, ugly fire that we spent way too little time on and with far too few resources. I'm pretty sure it's done with, but I've still got my fingers crossed that it won't come back to haunt me.

We haven't had much time for hanging out yet this year, because we've been leaving early for fires most mornings, but we did get together for quite a shin-dig on Friday night. We knew that we had to start work at 6:30 the next morning, but we were told we'd only be on the fire for a few hours and then we could sleep all afternoon. So, we partied hard. For some (not me this time, fortunately), way too hard. The next day, there were a lot of sorry looking rhinos on the fire line. And we were all even more sorry when we learned that there was way more work that we thought and that we'd be working for 16 hours that day. Ouch!

In any case, fire season is off to a record-breaking start and I can only hope that it keeps up its current pace for the next few months...

the good ole pump hose test

2006-05-03T20:05:00.000-07:00

Hooray! The fitness test is over! And not only did I pass, but I placed right up there with the guys for finish times. And then I barfed.

do the double bubble dance!

2006-04-28T20:53:00.000-07:00

There are fires burning all over the place, thanks to warm 40km winds that have been blasting FSJ all day. After one day at base to get things organized, it looks like we'll be right back out there for the weekend - on double time!

first day, first fire - oh yeah!

2006-04-26T22:08:00.000-07:00

Within 1/2 an hour of arriving at base for our first day of work yesterday, we were headed out to our first fire. Overtime on the first day - that's got to be a record-breaker. And on the second day. And again tomorrow morning. Three out of three ain't bad :)

ladies and gentlemen, let the burning begin!

2006-04-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

I just got a call to be on standby tonight and I don't even start work until tomorrow! I guess all the farmers are taking advantage of the 25 degree heat and high winds to burn their fields and the fires are getting away on them. Light 'em up, cowboys!!

geo-caching across america

2006-04-23T20:40:00.000-07:00

I made it! In a record-breaking 4 days (+ one to visit my grandparents), I made it from Montreal to Fort St. John AND managed to hit a few geo-caches along the way. I drove through the US, hoping to see the badlands in North Dakota, but I guess they're further south than the route I took. Still saw tons of ranch-land, antelopes, pheasants and horses that made the ride enjoyable. With the back of my car so full, I couldn't change my cd's for most of the ride and so I listened to country music on the radio more or less the whole way across, which was quite fitting. And depressing.

This little flower that Rob sent along with me made it the whole way out west (and across the border twice, tee hee).

Two very proud grandparents with their first little geo-cache. They had a great time 'treasure hunting' around Gore Bay.

Gas bar or brothel? Who came up with this name?!

There's a geo-cache hidden somewhere in these old dinos

Taa Daa!

The wide open spaces of North Dakota and Montana.

every end is a new beginning

2006-04-19T16:44:00.000-07:00

yesterday i drove away from montreal for the last time... sniff. i've got everything i own (and most of what rob owns) packed into my little subaru and i'm headed west. because i've been travelling so much over the past year, it's hard not to think of it as just another road trip - probably a good thing since it keeps the mood light. i'm going to go through the states because a) gas is cheaper and b) i've always wanted to see the badlands in north dakota. oh, and i'm going to geo-cache the whole way there. here we go....

oh to be a thirteenth century mongol...

2006-04-10T18:44:00.000-07:00

So I'm reading a book about Ghengis Khan right now (I don't really know what made me want to learn about him all of a sudden), and I just don't think there's any arguing the fact that the Mongols really had it going on back then. Sure they killed a lot of people and looted a lot of cities, but I find it fascinating:

~ that women ran the whole empire while the men where away at war.
~ that they enjoyed religious freedoms that even modern countries can only dream about and that they would organize religious debates in which christians, muslims, buddhists and animists would argue their point of view just for the sport of it. Anyone that dared to speak with contempt against another was killed.
~ that the khans (emperors) happily divided looted wealth among all the people of the empire rather than hoarding it for themselves and their families, and made sure that widows and orphans recieved the same share as soldiers.

Sounds like a pretty nice place to me!

should i be scared?

2006-04-07T07:16:00.000-07:00

Rob did the famous leader test (see last post) and he's most like Saddam Hussein. Eek.

bet you never knew this about me.....

2006-04-04T07:34:00.000-07:00

If I were a classic movie, I'd be:

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

And if I were a famous leader, I'd be:

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

sugarloafin'

2006-04-01T16:35:00.000-08:00

There wasn't much snow, and it rained most of the day, but being back at Sugarloaf (my family's favorite ski destination while we were living in NB) still felt great. I skied all our old favorites: Narrow Gauge, Tote Road, Gondi Line, White Nitro and Ramdown.

One of my best childhood memories is chasing my dad down Narrow Gauge - after he told me not to - with my ski tips chattering, my helmet pulled back, wind-induced tears streaming down my face, totally out of control and scared to death but loving every minute of it. And especially loving it when I'd stop right beside him at the bottom and he'd look at me, only half suprised, smiling and shaking his head, no doubt glad that my mother wasn't watching.

ladies and gentlemen....the world's dearest little grandmother

2006-04-01T16:14:00.000-08:00

Why my grandma is the world's dearest little grandma:

1. Check out that sun hat!
2. Before all the breakfast dishes are cleared from the table, she's already shuffling the cards for a game of hand and foot - and she ALWAYS wins.
3. She's got 18 different angel figurines in her bedroom. I can't count high enough to figure out how many are in the whole apartment.
4. More wall space in her apartment is covered with pictures of her family than is left blank. About 80% of them are from when we were all little kids.
5. She puts on a long gown to have dinner, even when it's just the two of us.
6. She packed me a lunch for my trip home (homemade jam and applesauce with bread and fresh baked cookies) and actually put it in a wicker picnic basket.

get your jam on

2006-03-19T16:20:00.000-08:00

Last night was the McGill Outdoor Club's first (annual?) jam session at the house in Shawbridge. It was a huge success with about 30 people playing guitars, hand drums, pots and pans and (my instrument of choice) spoons well into the night. And when everyone's fingers and hands were sore (mine are actually bruised today from so much spooning!), we cleared the floor, turned on the stereo and danced until we were ready to drop. Another unforgettable night at the house!

happiest girl in the world

2006-03-19T16:17:00.000-08:00

Yep, that's me twirling up a "tire" of maple syrup off the snow. Mmmm... Maple syrup season. Sugar Shacks. Stomach aches. Mmmmm.

the gunks

2006-03-13T07:03:00.000-08:00

We thought that we were starting our climbing season really early by heading down to the Gunks in the middle of March, but apparently the locals even got a few sunny and warm days in January! I was still pretty pumped to pulling on rock so early in the season.... with our trip to West Virginia in the fall and Mexico in February, it doesn't even really feel like last season really ended!

Thumbs up for climbing at the Gunks!

The gang: Oliver, Rob, Nik and me.

Chilling out on a sunny ledge halfway up the cliff.

Rob taking over the lead for pitch two.

the ice is just starting to melt and the rock's already dry :)

2006-03-10T10:36:00.000-08:00

Yep, it's 15 degrees and sunny in the Gunks this weekend and I'm going rock climbing! Fancy that - skiing, ice climbing and rock climbing all in the same week! Life is good. Trying hard not to enjoy global warming too much.....but it's tough not to be pumped about climbing in mid-march!

poke-o moonshine

2006-03-08T19:50:00.000-08:00

So I managed to drag myself out of bed for another day of play before the rain settles in for the weekend. Nik and I went down to Poke O Moonshine in New York for a day of ice climbing. It was a perfect day - not too sunny, but not cold - and we did a few really fun climbs. Nik did one of his best leads today and I muscled my way up a couple climbs that were right at my limit physically (read: long, vertical, and pumpy). Now I'm even more beat than I was last night, if that's possible and I'm going to sleep away most of the day tomorrow (only taking my pj's off to go climbing in the evening).

A pic for Ma and Pa: here's me posing in front of two of the climbs that we did today (I've marked them in red). The picture totally doesn't do them justice - it looks much longer and steeper when you're actually standing underneath it.

so...fun...but....so....tired.......zzzzz

2006-03-07T14:17:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been on quite a roll as far as getting myself out of the house to play outside. Such a roll in fact, that I'm having a hard time saying 'no' even though I desperately need a rest day. I hear it's supposed to rain this weekend, though, so I've got to pack as much more winter fun in as I can before that.

This past weekend, I went on a 3-day snowshoeing and winter camping trip with a PE class from Dawson College. My friend Anthony teaches the course and recruited three of us from the MOC to be his assistants. It was tons of fun, not only to be outside ourselves, but also to watch the reactions of a bunch of city-kids that seemed to never have spent more than an hour outdoors. We're talking (for the most part, of course there were exceptions) full-on rich kids from Westmount that don't even know how to boil water for themselves and have never done so much as a minute of manual labour. Which is why it took them until 3 in the morning to finish building their snow shelters, when it should have been a 3-4 hour activity. Honestly, these kids would come up to us, with no mittens, hands in their coat sleeves, and jackets unzipped and complain that they were cold. Well, kid-o, you've got 3 options: go put on something warmer, start a fire, or jump around. And they would look at you like you were the meanest person they'd ever met and then sit down just as they were and sulk.

It wasn't all bad, though. As instructors, we had a great time and there were some kids that seemed really psyched to be there (I call them kids, but really they're only a year or two younger than me). And oh, the food! While the kids were choking down macaroni and sausage (they had to plan their own menus), we were gorging ourselves on bacon, pancakes, a cheese fondue, and fine swiss chocolate. It was heavenly!

Moi and the sea of blue foamies. These kids REALLY made me feel good about my fitness level on the hike in!

Yep, that's a bale of hay. There were three of them tagging along on the trip.

Nik whipping up a hearty breakfast of blueberry pancakes and bacon.

Getting home from winter camping on Sunday, we heard that Jay Peak in Vermont had gotten 2 feet of fresh snow over the weekend so Nik and I decided to head down there on Monday and see if there was any fresh snow left to be had. There wasn't a ton, but we still had a great day skiing the trees, with the exception of one run, that just might take the cake for the worst ski run ever, when we went down the wrong side of a ridge while we were out of bounds and had to bushwhack through alder bushes all the way down, only to find that we were a 1/2 hour hike from the lift. At least there were lots of other tracks in the same spot, so we weren't the first to make that stupid mistake!

And, as if I wasn't tired enough after 3 days of snowshoe camping and a day of skiing, I was on the slopes again today, this time slopes without a lift. Mike, Pat and I went to an abandoned ski hill in the eastern townships where we yo-yoed all day. I spend just about every last drop of energy I had trying to keep up with those two on the ascents. The skiing was too low angle to get in any really good turns but it was still great to be out in the sun and on the snow.

So now I'm utterly and completely spent and ready to spend the next 24 hours in bed with a good book, but I just got an email from Nik telling me that tomorrow's going to be the last nice day before a week of warm weather and rain moves in, so it looks like my day of rest will have be put on hold...one more time.

Oh, que j'aime l'hiver!

viva mexico :)

2006-02-28T05:44:00.000-08:00

Well, the 42-hour drive was actually a 52-hour drive after a kazillion pee breaks and a brutal ice storm in Arkansas. But the perfect climbing weather, cold cervezas, and huge routes made it completely worthwhile.

The first couple days we spent just cragging as a group so that we could get used to the rock. On the very first day, I easily soared up a 5.10 that had left me frustrated the last time I was in the Potrero. It was awesome to deal with the unfinished business and gave me enough of a confidence boost to get me through the whole week down there.

On the second day, Rob ditched me in favor of a stronger partner to try one of the Potrero's big routes, a 12-pitcher called Estrellita. Not to be outdone, Jojo and I teamed up a couple days later and easily repeated the same route. It was the first time that I've really climbed with another chick and it was great - it really felt like we climbed as a team, and not like I had to follow some guy up the hardest pitches. In fact, we each lead our very first 5.10b's on that route - 10 pitches off the ground! Of course, we celebrated with a few caguama's that night.

Evenings were spent slacklining, eating a rediculous amount of homemade guacamole and chips, and drinking cool caguamas (a caguama is a litre of beer and costs the equivalent of a $1.50).

Here are the pics:

Ochos locos gringos.

Approach? What approach? The climbing is an easy 5-minute walk down the road from the campground!

Any meal of the day, nothing beats 25 cent tacos.

Nik at the top of the world on Estrellita.

Jojo gettin' high on Estrellita.

Twelve pitches up - the highest I've ever climbed.

Happy climbers after a big day

Dos cervezas por favor!

2006-02-13T11:09:00.000-08:00

Yo voy a Mexico!!!

They say that once you've been to Potrero Chico, you'll always go back. I guess they're right. Rob and I and 8 friends from Montreal are piling into our cars this weekend for a marathon 42-hour drive due south to Mexico's famed sport-climbing destination, El Potrero Chico. We've got 1 week to conquor as many of the Potrero's huge multi-pitch climbs and consume as many cheap cervezas as possible.

Arriba! Arriba!

Canada through my windshield

2006-02-08T07:36:00.000-08:00

All of these pictures were taken from the driver's seat, at highway speed. Yes, it is perfectly safe to fiddle with your camera while driving in the prairies. It got a little sketchy in BC and Ontario.

My brand new ice tools were screaming out for me to stop and climb this, but alas, I had no partner :(

Pretty prairie sunset

My only source of sun on most days

Happy me in my new car. This is obviously in BC or Alberta because I look like I'm still having fun

Glad I'm not that guy. In northern Ontario, I saw 5 cars off the road in a 100km stretch. And the roads weren't even that bad!

Amish crossing

how NOT to drive across Canada

2006-02-08T07:18:00.000-08:00

1. time your trip so that you hit snowstorms in every province (except the prairies, but there really isn't much to see in the prairies anyway)

BC:

Alberta:

Ontario:

2. Let 'destination fever' take over you completely and refuse to stop for picture-taking, food, or pee breaks until you are out of gas.

3. Drive with the 'check engine' light on for 3000km because no one can fix it in a day. Stress out about it and let your imagination run wild with images of your new car exploding on the highway.

4. Have your CD player in the trunk under all of your gear so that you never bother to take the time to change the CDs. Listen to the same 6 CDs the entire way across Canada. Memorize them. Love them. Hate them. Swear that you will never listen to them again. But keep on singing them until you are hoarse and can barely talk.

5. Sleep in the back of your car, wedged between your skis and guitar, in -20 weather. To save money to make up for all the cash that you spent in the gear shops in Canmore.

i love big dumps

2006-01-30T20:51:00.000-08:00

Wow. 25cm of snow on saturday and 40cm monday. i couldn't have chosen a better time to visit my bro in whistler. my new skis felt inadequate beside all of the fatties in the lift line, but i still managed to ski some great lines and had tons of fun doing it. unfortunately, skiing in the east just won't be the same now.

here's jeff and liam's "cozy" apartment

beautiful lines in the alpine

fresh pow = happy jeff

the lost mitten

2006-01-26T08:42:00.000-08:00

Looking across the valley from where we were ice climbing in Tumbler Ridge last week, Philippe noticed a beautiful alpine route up a steep gulley on the other side of the valley. It was the first mountain that he had seen in the area, and he was convinced that a more aesthetic line could not exist. He had to climb it. Not being one to turn down an adventure and having dreamed about 'real mountaineering' for years, I quickly caught on to his enthusiasm and a couple days later, we were hiking into the fiercest wind I've ever expericed with huge packs on our backs. We didn't make it far the first day, but decided to camp about an hours hike from the base of the climb. The wind howled so loudly all night that I hardly slept a wink.

The climb the next day was beautiful but easy, but greatly intensified by the raging wind that blew snow and dust in our faces all day. Twenty-five mountain goats looked on as we climbed and hiked, no doubt wondering what on earth we were doing in their turf in the middle of winter.

We made it to the top of Bullmoose Mountain by 2:30 and started the trek down, which turned out to be far more eventful than the ascent. I tumbled end over end for a good chunk of the way, leaving me badly bruised and more than a little shaken.

It turns out that the route has never been climbed before and so we christened it "the lost mitten" after my poor little mitt that got blown off the top while I was fiddling with the rope.

work's over - let the fun begin!

2006-01-24T16:22:00.000-08:00

Ah, winter. My favorite season for playing outside.

The plan was to do some ski touring in the mountains around tumbler ridge with Robbie and Philippe but, alas, there wasn't enough snow so we decided to check out some of the waterfalls in the area. We had three great days of beautiful weather and gorgeous ice:

And we followed it up with a spectacular day of tree skiing at powder king, which totally lived up to it's name with a huge pile of new snow. We skied fresh lines through the trees all day!

what you've all been waiting for: snowmaking pics

2006-01-21T21:51:00.000-08:00

what is that bright ball of fire in the sky?

2006-01-17T16:26:00.000-08:00

It's been 2 months since I've seen the sun.

I've been working every night and sleeping for the few hours of daylight that we get so far north. But I'm done work for the year and I've got a pocket full of cash and a new pair of skis so things are looking brighter!

Pics of the fascinating world of snowbridge making to follow as soon as Robbie gets them off his camera.

And much more interesting blogging on the way since I'm going to Tumbler Ridge tomorrow for a week or so for some skiing and ice climbing!!

Let the fun begin!

dreaming of skiing

2005-12-26T17:40:00.000-08:00

I know I'm a few days early with my new year's resolution, but here it is. My goal for the next year (yup, only one and it should be an easy one to stick to) is to take every possible opportunity to get outside. Skiing, hiking, climbing, biking - it doesn't matter what it is as long as I'm outside.

But for now, I'm shopping for ski touring gear and dreaming of skiing. Here's this year's skiing wish list:

Mount Reesor, North eastern BC

The Chic Chocs, Northern Quebec

The volcanoes in Mount Edziza recreation area, Northwestern BC

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

2005-12-24T17:45:00.000-08:00

Ahh. Christmas eve. This is the first year in 6 that I've been at home with my family for Christmas. It's wonderful- so much food, a real christmas tree (heavy with decorations), visiting neighbors and family... This is what Christmas is all about!

Merry Night Before Christmas!

good thing i didn't know about this while i was in school!

2005-12-22T18:10:00.000-08:00

If I had to do it all over again - spending countless hours procrastinating in the McGill geography library - I'd play sudoku. Every day. All day. It's that good!

Check it out: www.websudoku.com

But don't blame me for any failed exams or term papers :)

oh the joys of a weather-dependent income

2005-12-13T02:19:00.000-08:00

All summer, I wait and hope for heat and I get cold, rainy weather. All winter I wait for freezing cold temperatures and I get balmy weather that would be much more appreciated during fire season than snow-making season.

If I were anywhere else, doing anything else, I'd be ecstatic that it's only -3 instead of -30. But now that my bank account depends on the cold....well, don't hate me for this, but "let the mercury drop!"

We've been on standby for the last 5 nights, driving out to our work site at 2 am to check the temperature in case it's cold enough to blow snow. So far, no such luck, though we have been fortunate enough to see lots of wildlife (fox, coyote, lynx, and the biggest rat I've ever seen) and a spectacular display of northern lights. So it's not all bad, but I'd still really like to get back to work already!

blowing snow

2005-12-08T23:20:00.000-08:00

Well, I think I've finally got the hang of this snowmaking thing, though it's definitely not the sit-in-the-truck-and-read-or-knit job that I expected. And for the better, really, because I would have gotten bored pretty quick had that turned out to be true. Quite to the contrary, Zeman and I have found ourselves running around almost constantly during our 16-18 hour shifts of snowblowing. The guns freeze up, the pumps die, the compressor needs more fuel, a bulldozer wants to cross the unfinished bridge...... and all these little problems are much harder to deal with at -30. At least that's as cold as it's been so far, but I'm expecting worse to come.

Our first couple bridges were tiny and we blew them in less than one shift with lots of help from my dad, who was training us. Our third bridge was also small and was the first one that we did more or less on our own. Problem after problem left us running around the whole time and we ended up with what should really get an award for the worst snow bridge ever made.

But dad must have figured that that bridge was enough of a lesson in how not to build a snow bridge that we should now know what we are doing. So, when we arrived at the shore of the Kantah river ( a 80 foot crossing with 12 foot banks on either side [= a very large snow bridge]) he explained where the bridge needed to go and left us to our own devices. Oh, and he told us that although this bridge normally takes four days of around-the-clock blowing to finish, the dozers wanted to cross it the next day at 2 pm. Yikes. The next day at 10 am, Robbie and I were panic-stricken. We had never even seen a properly-built snowbridge and so had no idea what it was supposed to look like before the bull-dozers flattened it out. So I called dad for some confimation:

"Hi dad. It's Chris. Um, I'm a little nervous about those cats trying to cross this thing today. What should the bridge look like when we're done blowing it?"

"Well, it sould be 30 feet wide and you should be able to drive your truck across. Could you drive across?"

"Um. I could...um...well, I might be able to ice climb up it..."

"Oh shit"

"Oh shit"

But thanks to the very understanding and talented dozer operators, we were able to turn our two monsterous mounds of ice and snow into a decent-looking bridge that we actually could drive our truck across. Phew. And now I really do think that we've got it figured out. Now, if only this stupid chinook would end so that the temperature would drop again so we could get back to work.

put me in coach

2005-12-02T19:00:00.000-08:00

16 hour over-night shifts
40 degrees below zero
3 pumps
3 snow guns
500 kilometers from town
1 crazy red-headed partner

sign me up! i'll be back at christmas!

i take it back! make it stop!

2005-12-01T17:06:00.000-08:00

wow. i can't even put into words how hectic it is getting all of the crews ready to go to work. my dad had an expression for it: "i'm as busy as a one-handed paper-hanger." but i guess that you have to have hung wall paper at some point to really appreciate that one. i've got nothing. now i'm really looking forward to being out at camp because then at least i only have to worry about 2 of us and not 22.

whaaaa! poor me :(

2005-11-28T12:04:00.000-08:00

I'm bored. Oh so very bored. And oh so very broke. And it's oh so very dark and cold up here in FSJ. So boring and cold and dark that I don't really have anything to blog about.

But things are starting to look up: the temperature has been dropping steadily (never thought that would be something to excite me!) and some crews have already gone out so it's only a matter of time. And then at least I'll be getting paid for my bordom.

oh, those rednecks

2005-11-23T21:14:00.000-08:00

I'm definitely feeling some culture shock. Two nights ago, I was wining and dining at L'Academie and watching Sarah Harmer in concert at the Lion D'or downtown and today I was learning how to stay safe from H2S gas and rescue fallen workers in the oil fields with a class-room full of diesel-drivin', tobacco-chewin', gun-shootin' rednecks.

Try as I may not to be judgemental, it's hard to ignore the twenty-something guy in a plaid shirt and cowboy boots with a big wad of chew in his mouth when he ends up with the only black Annie doll to practice CPR on say "Oh, no. I've got African Annie. This one's got AIDS. I better use two face shields."

WTF!?!?! Did that guy really just say that? If we were in Montreal, he'd get beaten!

But they weren't all bad. I had lunch with a 65 year-old man that had spent his whole life doing labour work (and was still hard at it), who looked as rough as they come in an old, oil-stained mack jacket and torn jeans. He had spent 3 years in Kazakhstan working in the oil industry and told me all about how he had learned russian (though many foreigners didn't) so that he could shop at the local markets and travelled all over the country on his time off. He said that now he has a "little lady" in Nakusp and thinks he'll save enough this winter to go down there and "play hippy for a little while."

I'm always fascinated by the different view people have of the world up here, but I've never seen such extremes in the same day! Someone should really do an anthropological study on the redneck worldview. I'd read it! But for now I'll just sit back and gawk and think about how crazy my life is that I can go back and forth between both worlds.

My brother really summed up the way it feels to come back to FSJ after spending so much time somewhere else. He said, "I'm the biggest redneck in Whistler and then when I come home, I'm the biggest tree-hugger in Fort St. John".

it's 8 am and still pitch black. wonder when the sun comes up.

2005-11-23T06:49:00.000-08:00

I made it to FSJ. 5 hours late and without any luggage, but I'm here. And off to a course with 4.5 hours sleep. More news once I'm a little more coherent.

'tis (almost) the season

2005-11-21T05:07:00.000-08:00

Since Rob and I won't be together for the holidays (for the first time since we've been dating - sniff!) we decided to celebrate early while I'm still in Montreal. So last night we feasted on turkey dinner (ok, it was really roast chicken), potatoes, veggies, gravy (yup, from a can), cranberry sauce, cake (oh, can i even admit it? it was mccain's deep and delicious!) and white wine, then exchanged gifts. Rob's rockin' out right now on his new mp3 player and I'm digging through my yarn box to figure out the first thing that I'll knit with my new denise kit (the most incredible set of all-you'll-ever-need knitting needles that you can get). Merry early Christmas!

i should have been packing, but how could i resist?

2005-11-20T14:46:00.000-08:00

Here's today's creation - a wonderfully warm 100% wool toque, knit with super-chunky yarn on the biggest needles I've ever used. It only took an hour and a half!

well butter my butt and call me a biscuit!

2005-11-17T14:55:00.000-08:00

I just read that expression for the first time a couple days ago and I don't really know what it means, but it seemed like the author was using it to express happiness so I thought I'd try it out.
Today I found heaven. It's at 2270 Mont Royal. It's the most incredibly wonderfully delectable knitting store that you could ever possibly imagine. You choose the kind of yarn, the weight and the color combo and they spin it for you right there. And it's cheaper than walmart yarn!

I bought two spools (1 pure wool and one wool/acrylic blend) and 2 bags of odds and ends for a grand total of $15. I actually thought that he had the total wrong at first. I'm so excited about it that I think I might go back tomorrow and stock up even more for the long months of boring work in the John.

chris and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

2005-11-16T11:42:00.000-08:00

Maybe I just should have stayed in bed this morning.

I was off bright and early on my bike to pick up a parcel at UPS way out in industrial-ville. I was cruising along the Lachine Canal, enjoying the warm weather after yesterday's snow. I made it about 6km from home before I got a flat tire. Hmph. No metro nearby. Hmph. So I bitterly walked home, without the package that I set out to get. It took 2 hours. At least I got some excersize, I suppose.

Home and bitter about my failed morning mission, I put some veggie soup on the stove to warm up and ran across the street to get some pitas, locking myself out of the apartment. Big hmph. I called Rob at school and he raced home to let me in to a smoke-filled apartment where my veggie soup was burnt to a crisp in the bottom of the pot.

After that, there really wasn't much I could do but put on my PJ's and call it a day. It's just not worth the risk of going outside again when my luck's this bad.

a new blog

2005-11-16T08:41:00.000-08:00

So I obviously haven't figured out how to line up pictures and text yet, but it'll come. For now, I'm just happy to have a new home for my blog. Big boo to Myblogsite for kicking me out! Anyway, welcome to my new blog, which will be very much the same as my old blog, but hopefully will last a little longer!

Climb faster, I hear banjo music!

2005-11-16T07:22:00.000-08:00

Well, we never got to hear a local tell Rob that he had purdy lips, but we heard more than enough hillbilly-speak to keep us entertained while we were climbing. "Git 'r dun" was the motto of the trip and we had a very friendly gas-station attendant ask if we wuz from real far away when she heard our accents. My favorite moment was in Charlie's pub, Fayetteville's only drinking establishment, when Charlie himself handed us 2 Buds each for $2 and said, "drink easy, boys - i ain't countin".

And the climbing was pretty good, too, even though there were more beers drunk on the trip than climbs climbed.

First stop: the Gunks near New Paltz, New York.

This is me getting ready for my first trad climb ever. Yikes. Actually, I didn't really get scared until I was about half way up, then I got really scared. But the different thing about trad climbing is that once you start up a climb, there's no turning back unless you want to leave a $100 piece of gear on the cliff. Or worse yet, ask a guy to finish the climb for you. So up I went.

Here's Rob leading the second pitch on Easy O. It's a Gunks 5.2 and a good example of how CRAZY the Gunks grading system is. Anywhere else in the world, this would be a 5.6 and an exciting one at that.

Hardcores that we are (tee-hee), we always found ourselves rapping down from our last climb in the dark. Though we balanced our hardcore evening climbing with very softcore mornings, waking up at 9:00 and moseying to the cliff sometime around 11:00.

Next stop: New River Gorge near Fayetteville, West Virginia

Home of the Western Hemisphere's largest arch bridge

Trying out a chimney climb at NRG. Being in a chimney is like climbing in 3D because you use holds on both/all the walls, not just the one in front of you. Very fun.

Oliver checks out some of the cool features in the rock at New River Gorge.

Last stop: Senenca Rocks in Seneca Rocks, West Viriginia.

Scared spitless at the crumbly top of Seneca Rocks. Just as I was nervously making my way back down from my little perch on the top, a 50 year-old man with a bandana around his neck and a chalk-bag around his waist wandered past us, having just finished a free-solo (ie. no ropes) of the moutain. On a much harder route than we just finished. Humbling.