Sunday, March 19, 2006
get your jam on
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
Yep, that's me twirling up a "tire" of maple syrup off the snow. Mmmm... Maple syrup season. Sugar Shacks. Stomach aches. Mmmmm.
Monday, March 13, 2006
the gunks
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.
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.
Friday, March 10, 2006
the ice is just starting to melt and the rock's already dry :)
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!
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
poke-o moonshine
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
so...fun...but....so....tired.......zzzzz
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!
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!
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