I love that Bush got us into 2 wars (with one being completely unnecessary), showed poor leadership during 2 major catastrophes (9/11, Katrina), rose our national debt exponentially, allowed torture, misconstrued the Constitution, okayed domestic spying and all but destroyed our standing on the international stage…

And Obama is the bad guy for pushing Health care.

– Comment from a blog I read

Snow Tee

Hey Gang

It’s been a while since my last blog and a lot has changed. After months of struggling with bits and pieces of casual work (all of which I am extremely over-qualified for) I have landed a job with VANOC – The Vancouver Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic games. When I decided to move to Canada it was my dream to land a job with VANOC but more on that in a future blog.

Just after arriving in Vancouver, I received an email from Amelia, one of my couchsurfing (see previous blog – http://timhaynesproject.com/?p=63#more-63) buddies, asking me if I wanted to go snowbooting. I replied with `what is snowbooting?’ Amelia or better known to her friends as Amo, explained that snowshoes are shoes worn when hiking in snow. You know those things that look like tennis racquets?

The plan was for Amo her friends Brian, Nadine and I rent a small 4-wheel drive (there is always the possibility of bad road conditions due to ice), drive to Garibaldi Provincial Park (near Squamish for those who know the area), hike up the mountain to the Elfin Lakes hut where we stay overnight and then trek back down the mountain the following day.

This mission required some preparation as I was without snowshoes and boots (snowshoes kind of only strap to boots), a snow jacket and pants, thermal pants and a few other things. I was very fortunate that I was able to borrow much but I was excited to find a fantastic waterproof show jacket in a second hand sporting goods store. I was also introduced to Mountain Equipment Co-op which is a consumers’ cooperative. I don’t know exactly how it all works but I was fairly impressed. The following was taken from Wikipedia:

Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) is a Canadian consumers’ cooperative, which sells outdoor gear and clothing and has over 2.9 million members. MEC is notable for its commitment to environmental protection and other causes. As a co-op, MEC sells only to customers who hold a lifetime membership, which is technically a share, which can be purchased by anyone for $5 Canadian. MEC bills itself as Canada’s largest supplier of outdoor equipment.

I also noted that they recycle old equipment and clothing. Another one of their perks, if you rent something, e.g. the snowshoes I used, and within a certain time period decide to purchase a pair of snowshoes, you get the price of the rental (which was quite reasonable) off the cost of your purchase – basically you can rent for free if you choose to buy.

I think there should be more retails suppliers of this type for other consumables.

The only thing I was disappointed by, my snow shoes looked nothing like tennis racquets. I’m sure Edmund Hillary would have benefitted from the fairly significant developments in snow shoe design that have been made over time.

Due to my late night unemployed lifestyle, my body clock wouldn’t allow me get to sleep before about 2am and I had to be up around 6am – not an ideal start to a day of physical exercise. We arrived at Garibaldi Provincial Park fairly early in the morning as it was important to get to the hut fairly early as it was likely to fill up with hikers who would all be scrambling for the good spots.

It was an absolutely splendid sunny day. We kitted up and got moving but after a couple of hundred metres we had to stop to make some minor adjustments. I was mesmerised by the scenery and the snow. I was about 20 metres ahead of the group while the others were making adjustments and as I looked around and took in my surroundings I suddenly realised that now was a fantastic time to build my first snowball. I bunched some snow together, not too tightly so as not to hurt too much, and lobbed it down the hill and caught Amo front and square. I was particularly pleased with my first effort with the long bomb and wondered if there was a snowball throwing event at the Winter Olympics. Sadly there is not.

After weaving up the mountain through forest on a gentle incline for the first couple of kilometres, the trees disappeared and the open face of the mountain and snow presented itself. From this point my somewhat unfit lungs were put more to the test. We stopped briefly at a hut to have a snack and some friendly birds appeared around us. The Whisky Jacks (below) are not a very shy bird as Amo and Brian demonstrated they are happy to eat out of the hands of humans. While we were stopped, I removed my jacket.

Brian with a Whisky Jack

The next kilometre was the most difficult of the trip. Where the snow is heavily walked, the snow is compacted into almost ice which is very easy to walk on. The face leading up to the top of one of the peaks had a number of different approaches and we decided to take a path less travelled. The snow was over a foot deep in parts, slowing our progress. A couple of times, when hacking my way up some small faces, I fell forward into the snow. At this point I learnt a lesson about snow. In addition to my fingers swelling up, my hands felt very dry and chalky. The feeling in my hands was as though I had been working with cement of chlorine. The group informed me that the snow is actually very dry and as such the moisture had been sucked out of my hands.

After navigating through the thicker snow, a better beaten but very steep path to the first summit appeared. Amo, who is a recreational tri-athlete and in much better shape than the rest of us, took off up the path while the rest of us laboured up the next 100 or so meters. Motivated by the need to relieve my puffing and panting and to also take in the first of the truly magnificent views, I desperately wanted to stop and have a break but thoughts of `the little red engine who could’ came into my mind. With my legs burning with lactic acid I kept telling myself `I think I can, I think I can, I think I can’. I looked up at Amo ahead of me who was with some other trekkers, marvelling at the view. I put my head down and my thoughts turned to `I know I can, I know I can, I know I can’. As I toughed the final 20 metres I looked up and saw Amo, who I think had some idea of the mind over matter that I was experiencing, and she took a magnificent photo (below) of me as I approached her.

The little engine who could

It was a magnificent reward to resist the temptation to stop and look around during the climb. This was a truly amazing experience. I got a very small taste of what those climbing serious mountains must feel as they reach a summit.

At the top of this peak I found myself very warm and I took off another layer of clothing. At this point I had a bit of chuckle to myself that I was in Canada, in the middle of winter, surrounded by snow, on top of a mountain and wearing a t-shirt. I was actually thinking that packing some sunscreen wouldn’t have been a bad idea.

The next few kilometres were a little easier as we walked along a series of smaller peaks and troughs of a couple of different mountains. We arrived at the Elfin Lakes Hut. The hut is simple a two-storey heated dwelling with a couple of dining tables and stoves downstairs and about 25 wooden bunks upstairs. Visitors are asked to shovel some snow to assist with heating and to keep the hut from being buried.
We were all lucky to find a bunk as plenty of other trekkers had already settled in. Many others arrived just after us and, although the floor offers the same level of comfort to the bunks, it was nice to have my own space. After having a snack and using the outhouse, I had a short snooze on my top bunk.

When I got up I put on just my boot inners as I couldn’t be bothered with the effort of putting on my boots. Mistake. I went outside to go use the outhouse and spent a few minutes staring at the amazing view of the mountains. More amazing was the silence. When in the great outdoors in Australia there is always the sound of birds, or leaves blowing in the wind. I cannot recall such absolute silence ever before – it was truly deafening.

When I returned I slipped a little when I got to the snow/ice just in front of the cabin. I didn’t manage to notice the condition of the ground when I left (and I don’t know how I managed to walk it without falling over) but when I returned I realised that it was very icy and the boot inners offered absolutely no traction at all. To make matters worse there were a bunch of people outside of the hut who could do nothing but watch in amazement as I slid around as though I was walking on a couple of bars of soap whilst trying to conquer the meter of ice, complete with very modest incline, between the hut and I. I still don’t know how I made it without falling over but nonetheless I exemplified a snow virgin.

Meal/evening time was great. Before cooking up my beans and chunky soup I made up a packet of Jello (yes that’s North American for Jelly) in a Frisbee (a must for camping as they are fun and also make a perfect dinner plate as the rims prevent spillage) I had packed and put it out in the snow to set overnight. We sat at one of the large dining tables with some other guys and played cards. We shared boxed wine, which was actually not bad, and I broke out a large Toblerone.

I had a really great sleep and woke up a little after the rest of my group. We were in no rush but I could see from my perch above that most of the other people sharing the hut were busy packing their belongings. After a couple of minutes of pondering I started to climb down the ladder and at some point I caught my foot on the ladder, fell backwards with my full weight hitting the floor, rolled backwards over my head and onto my feet and walked two paces to my bag.

As I started looking through my bag I realised that everyone in the room had stopped what they were doing and stared at me with their jaws open. A bunch of people ran up the stairs to find out what had shaken the cabin and actually knocked some fixtures from the wall downstairs before someone asked if I was ok. I had managed to dismount from the bed in disgraceful fashion and performed a half pike and gotten to my bag all in one motion. By the looks on the judge’s faces I must have scored well. I have no idea how I escaped without even a bruise. Perhaps I can work on this for an event in the upcoming Winter Games.
I went outside (boots on) and fetched some ice (to melt into water for the journey back down the hill) and my Jello which the group enjoyed with breakfast. A number of people commented on what a great idea it was and vowed to take a Frisbee and a packet of Jello with them next time they went camping. I proudly announced “this is my legacy to the Canadian camping/outdoors culture. In a few years campers across the nation will be making bush Jello”.

We got some photos and were the last to leave the hut. The weather was perhaps the exact opposite of the previous day as there was plenty of snow coming in which was absolutely perfect as it was really good to experience two completely different sets of mountain weather.

As we came down the mountain, Nadine commented that watching me in the snow was like watching a 5 year old. I guess if might be the equivelant of having someone from a landlocked country see the beach for the first time. She said it was fantastic to see and that it made her realise how lucky she is to have the snow. Obviously none of our group remembers seeing snow for the first time.

Despite the way I might have behaved, the snow felt very familiar, as though I was a mountain wolf (or perhaps goat) in another life. Without trying to sound like I am putting any blame on my parents (I never expressed any interest in seeing snow), if I have children I don’t think I will let them reach 28 before experiencing snow.

I’ve managed to write over two-thousand words and I need to go to bed so proof-reeding is out the window on this one. Please leave your complaints in the comments section. There are photos of this expedition on Facebook.

Thanks for reading.

More soon

-Tee

Greetings friends, family, randoms

A while back I was sitting on facebook (I don’t remember exactly the frame of mind I was in but I must have been feeling either fruity or bored) and I decided to locate other ‘Tim Haynes’ on Facebook. I added a heap and there are currently around 20 of us from memory. One of the other blokes decided to do something interesting and the result is The Tim Haynes Project – a site for various Tim Hayneses around the world to keep in touch and blog.

I haven’t really blogged before but as most of you know I have recently packed up my life in Perth (Western Australia) to move to Vancouver – a city where I am have no friends, nowhere to live and no job (it might sound daunting but I wouldn’t have had it any other way). Anyway I figure now might be a good time to start blogging as there are some that will be interested in my progress.

I am currently sitting in Seattle airport but I should probably start at the start. For those who don’t know me all that well or haven’t seen me in a while, my contract at the Department of Sport and Recreation (DSR) ran out on December 19. I have been talking about moving overseas for some time but there has always been something keeping me in Perth, like a new contract at DSR for some exciting (or at least interesting) work. By about August it became clear to me that I had probably learnt as much as I could from the work that I had been doing at DSR and it would be fairly hard to move up in the organisation without moving sideways and upwards which wasn’t of particular interest to me (apologies to anyone from the Programs and Services division at DSR who might be reading this). (more…)

The Obama tax cuts are supposed to cut taxes to put money in our pockets to stimulate spending.  Ummm really…

Over the weekend, Obama officials announced that they would like Congress to direct 40 percent of the stimulus bill toward tax breaks aimed at businesses and middle-class workers. Most workers would receive a $500 payroll credit…

A $500 payroll credit means that I’ll get an extra $9.62.  So let me get this straight…an extra $9.62 is supposed to make me feel comfortable enough to start spending money all willy nilly.  (more…)

I brought in 2009 at home alone….by choice.  I made lasagne, watched movies and played a little WoW and wished my guildies a Happy New Year.

I wanted to bring in it alone so I could take the time to focus and reflect on 2008 and what changes I needed to make in 2009.  2008 has to be the first year I can say that I didn’t have a good year.  The only positive thing in my opinion was with my career… (more…)