The perfect day !

Here in Canada, there is a commercial that was running on TV a few months ago. It's a car ad, where a guy is driving, and reaches his "perfect moment": the air is still, he is comfortably sitting in his car seat, driving a nice car, on a quiet road.

That's what I did today. I reached my perfect moment.

Barb, Camilla and I went skiing/boarding today, and, as we are well organized, we bought a 6pack of ciders before going up the gondola. In the afternoon we stopped, climbed up a small cliff to get away from the people view and find our own (view). Got our boots off, and crank the bottles open.

We stayed there, on top of our world, for 2 hours or so, talking about life, the next day, the boyfriends/husband, the sun, the whisky jacks (they don't like ciders), and whatever else girls can talk about.
And I felt like, yes, I reached the perfect moment: being there, with no worries to clog my mind, no stress, enjoying the sunshine and talking with the friends.

In the ad, the driver is spoiling his perfect moment by wondering what is for dinner tonight. We spoiled our perfect moment because we didn't want to stay stuck on the mountain all night (and we've got boyfriends and husband to feed ;)).

So here is my question. What is you perfect moment?? Have you ever felt like you reached it?

P.S: I also learned something new today: how to tune my skis and snowboard. Pretty easy, just need the right tools ;)

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Il y a quelques mois, une pub à la télé pour une compagnie de voiture montre un homme qui atteint son "moment parfait": le temps s'arrête, l'air se fige, tout est en suspens, le temps d'une seconde. Le moment parfait.

C'est ce que j'ai fait aujourd'hui. J'ai atteint mon moment parfait.

Le temps s'est arrêté, le vent aussi, et nous étions en haut de notre petite falaise avec Camilla et Barb, à boire gentiment nos ciders, à profiter du soleil, et à discuter de tout, de rien, et même du reste.

La vue qui s'étale de Green Lake à Alta Lake, les whisky jacks qui viennent nous faire une bise, et les copines pour délirer.

Comme a si bien dit Camilla, il est inutile de retenter l'expérience, cela ne sera pas aussi bien qu'aujourd'hui. Car c'était le moment parfait. Le mien en tout cas. Le nôtre, j'en suis sûre. Sans stress.

Bon, dans la pub, le gars détruit son moment parfait en se demandant ce qu'il y a au dîner. Nous, on a détruit notre moment parfait à 5 min de la fermeture des remontées mécaniques, histoire de ne pas rester coincées sur notre bout de caillou toute la nuit.

Mais, voilà ma question. Quel est votre moment parfait? Avez-vous déjà eu l'impression d'atteindre ce moment parfait?

P.S: j'ai aussi appris quelques chose aujourd'hui: à farter mes skis et mon snowboard. Plutôt facile, à condition d'avoir les bons outils ! ;)

Snow? Where? Baaah forget about it

For once in a long time (3 weeks), the snow report was announcing an optimistic 1cm of new snow. Actually yesterday night they had at least 4cm of snow in Whistler, I was sliding my way back to the car from the restaurant.

Anyway, today we didn't wake up early enough to enjoy this new snow. At 3pm everything was skied, even the trees. There are too many people on that mountain, even in the Double Black you en up in icy moguls... Disappointing. Dave told me a few years back you could enjoy the fresh snow for 2 or 3 days in a row. I only found one small run (2 turns) in the trees where only a few cinnamon rolls were there before me. Ouaouh !

Yesterday we were at 21 steps. In fact, I always try a new restaurant when I'm in Whistler, maybe I should start a category with my ratings of the restaurants in Whistler. But is it worth it? All these restaurants have to be the best, because if not they can't survive in the jungle of restaurants that Whistler is...

Okkk, I'll do it :D So here is a new category: restaurants.

Skiing, Snow Kiting and Snow viewing !

Looks like I've got my feet in the right boots this month !!

I've been skiing with a cowboy and a classy guy, then I have been jumping a few cornices to get in a few centimeters of powder. And to finish I went playing with my snow kite.

But it's better to see it, isn't it? So here's the movie.



Musics: (did you get them?)
Tchaikowski: The Nutcracker suit
Babylon Zoo: Space Man
The Caesars: Jerk it Out

Actors: (very famous!!)
the cowboy: Andy
the classy and cornice jumper (skis): Dave
the kite flyer and cornice jumper (snowboard) : Gord
the beginner and behind the camera: Pearl

Kiteboarding in the field

At last !! J'utilise ma voile !!

It was an epic first day of kiteboarding, mostly because the wind wasn't consistent neither strong enough.

But I managed to get my wing going up a couple of times, and all the other times it was going left. I didn't really take care when I plugged the lines in, but they were messed up. Beginner's mistake.

Now they are not messed up anymore, and I learned that I don't need to unplug them everytime, just leave them on.

The tip of the day: to fold the lines back, fold them in 8 around the bar. That way you don't have any knots next time !!

Merci Renée pour les conseils, du coup t'es sur la photo !:D

Yes, this is my kite on the ground, not the flying one!

Backcountry Skiing

Ca y est, j'ai etrenné mes nouvelles peaux "de phoque" pour le backcountry. C'est un long morceau que vous accrochez/collez sous vos skis et qui vous permet d'accrocher sur la neige dans un sens (et de glisser dans l'autre). Vous inquiétez pas, c'est du synthétique...

Up at 6:45 am to be at the Pony (le restaurant du coin) at 7:30, the day started well. The objective: get to Lizzie Lake, hiking/skiing up a closed logging road. To get there: from Pemberton you leave on Highway 99 north. After 20 min, and just before you start the ascension of the "Duffy Lake Road", you'll see a dirt road starting on the right, with plenty of nice signs (Lillooet Lake Lodge, Kiewit). 18 kms on this road. After crossing the Lizzie Creek (small one way bridge), you'll see a road starting on your left.

Park the car here, that's where the fun starts. Walking up on the road is easy, the funny part is coming with the new trail in the forest, because the bridge has been washed out last summer. The forest trail is cut on a steep hill, with a few creeks to cross.

Pas facile avec des boots de ski! En sachant qu'en plus il faut porter ses skis sur les épaules... On a du faire 700 m sur ce bout de chemin pas large du tout et super pentu (tu tombes, tu te fais mal. Très mal). Après avoir traversé deux creeks, on s'est dit que ça devenait décidément dangereux, il valait mieux faire demi-tour.

So, my first day out with my backcountry gear was ok for the gear, but not ok for the skiing. We didn't make it far, and I managed to fall at the main obstacle on the road: a small passageway between two trees with small stupid branches and a rock in the middle of the passageway...

Faut que je continue à m'entraîner en ski je présume :)

Day 2, forget about it

30 cms de neige fraîche entre hier soir et ce midi !!

And with 30 cms of snow, no way to miss it! Dave has the motivation to go up the hill this morning, waking up at 7o'clock and pushing me out of the bed.

The trip out was the most exciting (scary) part of the day. On a eu de la chance, the snowplow machine was right in front of us, mais... it was going at a steady 30km/h. So it took us almost forever to get to Whistler (in one piece).

At 9:00 am we were at the gondola, just in time to see that... nothing but the two lowest chairs were open.

The snow turned into rain before we got to the gondola, and it was really foggy, which (I think) explains why Whistler-Blackcomb was (more or less) closed. So we did a run, avec des grêlons qui vous martèlent le visage, and... decided not to do any others for today.

A la place, on est rentrés, and I went to pay the phone bill, the rent and buy a medical insurance. Encore une journée où j'ai dépensé plus de sous que ce que je gagne...

Day 1 on the mountain

Yes, I'm back on the mountain !

Today was my first day of the season. The snow was pretty good (10cms from yesterday), the sun was here, and even if it was a bit cold (especially for the hands when getting out of the gloves for the pictures), it was a very good first day !!

I played in the moguls (les bosses) a lot, and now my legs are sore, but that was fun !!

Today was also the first time I showed up at the library at 6pm for a scrabble drop-in session, and that wasn't an as good experience. I was the only one to show up, which makes it difficult to play ;) I'll try to drag my friends along next week, they were all busy tonight.

Sinon, demain je vais aller à Whistler, probablement m'acheter un voile pour faire du snow kite. On en reparle dans pas longtemps !! :D

14 Nov: The first snow in the valley !

The first snow of the winter in Pemberton happened this wednesday!! And I was lucky enough to be outside when it started :)

I was out on a bike ride to my "Pemberton Beach" (I'll talk about it another time), when at 2pm it just started snowing !! The snow lasted two days, but it's been raining, the snow is gone.

La photo: vue depuis ma fenêtre sur le "jardin" et le champ. Au premier plan c'est notre barbecue :)