Here’s a couple of new sets of skiing pictures. Enjoy! (click on pictures to go to albums)
Whislter
Lake Louise
Updates from April, 2008
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Andy -
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Amanda and I successfully completed our half marathon in Victoria. We are both extremely proud of ourselves for finishing the race, especially since we weren’t exactly “runners” in the past. I think we might qualify now.It was quite a family event with a total of 10 of us involved in the races. Congrats to Lauren and Caley for completing the half marathon, and Matt, Paul, Leslie, Cheryl and Larry for completing the 8 km. And finally, a special congratulations to Nana for completing the 8 km and finishing 2nd in her division! Of course, we also have to thank Boppa, Vic and Grandma Ivy for cheering us on from the sidelines. A great weekend was had by all and lots of turkey and pie after the race!
I’ve also posted links below to some hiking and camping trips that we did over the summer. With things being so busy, I didn’t get around to posting the photos until now. Enjoy!
Andy -
Amanda arranged a camping trip for my birthday weekend. We hiked into Forks Campground in Kananaskis the first night. The next morning, we woke up and climbed up to Three Isle Lake. Then we had the long hike back out to the parking lot.It was a great birthday weekend! All the pics are here.
Andy -
Another day hike with our friends Meredith and Justin. This time, we headed to Bourgeau Lake in Banff.You can see all the pictures here.
Andy -
We finally got out to do some hiking with our friends Meredith and Justin. We decided that we would climb Ha Ling in Canmore.To see all the pictures, click here.
Andy -
I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything. Now that I’m in my final year of med school, things are getting a bit busier and I’ve been away on some electives. Things are going well though – it’s just that there hasn’t been that much non-medical stuff to post about since that’s about all I’ve been up to lately.On a different note though, I’ve decided to run a half marathon in Victoria. It’s not until October but it will give me lots of time to get prepared. It also gives me an opportunity to visit my family out there over Thanksgiving weekend. I’ve never been much of a runner, so this is a big step for me. I’ve been trying to tell people so that there’s no giving up and turning back. I’ll try and post some updates as to how the training is going – but I have a feeling that a post saying ‘So, I ran again today…’ wouldn’t be that interesting!
If anyone else is interested in joining me, (Amanda has also said she will run), you can find out more information here.
Andy -
Last weekend, Amanda’s sister Lauren came out for a visit and on Saturday, we hit the slopes of Lake Louise. It was a clear and sunny day making both the scenery and company amazing!You can see all the photos here!
EDIT: I should have said thanks to Lauren for remembering to bring her camera and providing these photos!
Technorati Tags: lake louise, skiing
Andy -
Last weekend, Amanda and I decided to do some camping seeing as it was the long weekend and Amanda would be back teaching this week. We chose a really nice hike up past Elbow Lake and through the Elbow Valley to Tombstone Campground. After setting up our site, we headed up on another short hike to Tombstone Lakes.We didn’t see a cloud in the sky all weekend and it was a great way to relax before we both start to get a little bit busier. We’re hoping to still get out hiking some more this year and ski season will be here in no time!
You can see all the pictures here.
Andy -
On Sunday, Amanda and I ventured to Canmore for Mozart on the Mountain. It’s an outdoor concert put on by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. This year, the concert took place on the driving range of Stewart Creek Golf Course in the Three Sisters Mountain Village. It was a beautiful day and really warm. Over 7000 people were there for the concert and it was quite the experience to be listening to classical music in a mountain setting.You can see some more pictures here.
NOTE: These pictures are part of Amanda’s new flickr account. I’ve put a link to her photos in my sidebar as well!
Andy -
This past weekend was my 28th birthday and Amanda surprised me with a weekend away in the mountains. We spent Friday night in Canmore and then headed into Kananaskis Country on Saturday morning. We hiked about 6.5 km into Lillian Lake where we camped for the night. After setting up the tent, we proceeded up to the Galatea Lakes which was a steeper 1.5 km hike – it was nice not having to carry the big packs anymore though! The scenery was spectacular as you’ll see in the photos. We had a bit of rain on the trip, but nothing to make us get too wet – all in all, the weather cooperated quite well for us.On Sunday morning, we woke up to the sounds of a huge moose eating some of the plants and flowers about 10 feet from our tent which was pretty exciting! We then did the hike back out and returned to Calgary in time for dinner. Thanks to Amanda for a great birthday weekend!
You can see all the pictures here.
Andy -
On Sunday, we went hiking in Kananaskis Country with our friends Meredith and Justin. Both the day and the scenery were as good as you could ever ask for – very beautiful. It had been a while since we had been hiking in the mountains, so it was great to get out and enjoy the day! I should also say thanks to Meredith for bringing her camera since we forgot ours!You can see the pictures here.
Andy -
Sorry it’s taken me a week to finally get these posted. You can see the pictures from our trip to Golden, BC and Kicking Horse Ski Resort here. We had a great time with our friends Meredith and Justin and you can see us finishing off our fondue dinner in the later pictures. The skiing was also fantastic as they got LOTS of snow while we were there. I think all of our legs were toast by the end of the trip (except maybe for Justin – he seems to have endless energy!) All in all, a great trip that we’ll hopefully be able to do again next year. Our friends Kristen and Chris are coming from Ontario in a couple of weeks, so we’ll be out skiing Sunshine that weekend – looking forward to that as well.
Technorati Tags: kicking horse, skiing
Andy -
We’re off to Kicking Horse this weekend. Looking forward to a nice weekend away with some friends from school. We haven’t been out skiing in a couple weeks though, so I’m hoping that my legs are up for the challenge of two days in a row, on new trails that are supposed to be a little tougher than we’re used to. If my legs feel like Jello on Monday, then mission accomplished. Have a great weekend – I’ll post photos when we’re back!Technorati Tags: kicking horse, skiing
Andy -
For those of you that were having problems with the video from our day on the slopes last weekend, it should now be working. It may take a bit to load, but once it does, you should be able to view it. Let me know if you have any more problems. Scroll down to take a look!
Andy -
We had an awesome day skiing at Sunshine Village yesterday. I’ve put up a photo album and as you can see, there was not a cloud in the sky all day.We also got some movie clips from our camera and I’m in the process of putting together a short video clip with pictures and video highlighting our day. I’ll post the details about it here when I get it up on the site.
It’s supposed to be another nice day in Calgary today, but the forecast is looking to get cold by the end of the week. There’s always hope that the weather people will be wrong, but the winter has been so mild to this point that I think we can handle a couple days of colder temperatures.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
UPDATE: The video is now posted below!
Andy -
As I mentioned in the last post, I was working on a video with highlights from our day of skiing. You can watch by clicking below. Enjoy!
Andy -
Finally, a company with some outstanding customer service!Without going into too much detail, we’ve been having a terrible time with customer service lately. The streak seems to have come to an end with Columbia Sportswear. 2 weeks ago, I was getting ready to wash my old ski jacket, but after removing the zip-out liner, I noticed that the waterproof lining of the shell was disintegrating and looked like it was completely falling apart. The jacket is a few years old, but I knew that Columbia has a great warranty. So, after calling Customer Service, they gave me a return authorization and I sent it back for them to have a look.
Yesterday, when I got home, there was a brand new jacket waiting for me at the door. The turn around was only 2 weeks and I now have new ski gear! Can I really expect anymore?!
Thanks Columbia! It’s always nice to get such exceptional service! I’ll be testing out the new jacket tomorrow on the slopes!
Andy -
I was going to write about my New Year’s Resolutions, but considering one of them would be to update this site more often, and seeing as it’s been nearly a month since my last post, it doesn’t seem like the right thing to do.
Instead, I’ll just give a quick update on what’s been happening here in Calgary over the past couple weeks – in reality, not much! I’ve been busy with school and getting ready for another exam. We went skiing once more since we’ve been back – we hope to get out this weekend and the mountains have been getting a ton of snow. I will do everything I can to remember to bring my camera this time.
We also got a new TV (a 20″ Philips – steal of a deal from Costco) and
DVD Player. Unfortunately, we haven’t had that much time to actually test them out yet, but what we’ve seen so far is great. I know most people have a TV and DVD player, but I was using an old 13″ TV that I’ve had since grade 4 and did not have a DVD player. If you are in the market for a DVD Player and have lots of Divx or Xvid movies (if you don’t know what these are, then you probably don’t have any), then this is the player for you – it plays them all and they look pretty good!Apple released a bunch of new products last week. I ordered the new iLife ‘06 which could have some great new tools and features to help with the recording of The Skinny on Sports. I’ll try and keep everyone posted on what I like and don’t like about it when it arrives and I start playing around with it.
I’ve discovered a new website that is quickly becoming something that I can’t live without. It’s called Pandora and it’s a streaming music recommendation service. Simply put, you go to their site, enter a song or artist that you like, and it plays you other songs that it thinks you will like based on 400 different criteria for each song. They rate each song in person and individually so it’s pretty accurate to your tastes. It gets even better at knowing what you like since you can tell it whether you like or don’t like each song – so it learns from you! You can set up multiple channels with different types of songs depending on your mood. After using it for a couple of weeks and rating some songs that it recommends, it has a pretty good idea of what I want to hear now. I just leave it on while working around the house or studying and I’m discovering a bunch of great new music. Everyone should definitely give it a try!
Alright… back to the books! I’ll try for the New Years Resolution I mentioned at the top – but no promises!
Andy -
From the Sunshine Website:“Sunshine Village is officially open!! With 8 cms of new snow and a snow base already at 75 cms this is the best opening we have had in 16 years! 8 lifts are running and there are over 40 runs to ski and ride on.”
The picture to the left is from the website and was taken on October 31st. I usually don’t even think about going skiing on opening day since it’s usually pretty rocky. While I don’t expect the conditions to be perfect, the snow report and the picture are making me start to get the skiing itch! We have season’s passes again this year. I think we’ll have to try and get out in a couple of weeks following my next exam at school. Hopefully the snow keeps falling out in Banff and we get good conditions all year.
Andy -
Amanda and I, along with some friends from med school, headed out to the mountains today for a rock scramble. We went to the summit of Mount Yamnuska. We had a great day as far as weather was concerned and the scenery and company was outstanding.You can catch all the pictures here.
Andy