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

Yes I know… I suck…

I haven’t blogged in forever…and there actually has been a lot going on with me…not much I can discuss right now but I will get in to it later.

I will be making an effort to blog more about the things I can talk about…

For those of you who don’t know I have an addiction to America’s Next Top Model….and I am enjoying this cycle and I haven’t enjoyed it in a while… I’m upset that Talia was sent home but I’m glad Fo is still around because she is FoINE.

But I have to run…headed to Roller Derby…I’ll blog about that soon…

Vancouver poking its head above the fog

I know I have been slack with the blogging to which there is no excuse, I have had plenty of time on my hands as I am still unemployed. Last Friday marked a quarter of a year since I last worked!

If someone had told me before leaving Australia that I would be at least three months before finding full time employment, I would probably have reconsidered relocating. Couchsurfing has been an absolute saviour as I have managed a couple of months rent free so far.

Obviously it is a very difficult time to be moving to a new country and finding employment. Canada has a higher unemployment rate than Australia but there seems to be lots of jobs being advertised. I guess the field is more competitive than usual due to unemployment rates. I have gotten past the second round of interviews a couple of times so I am confident that full time employment is just around the corner. All that aside, I haven’t written much about what Vancouver is actually like and it’s probably about time.

Firstly, the tap water here tastes fantastic. If there was ever a place that didn’t need bottled water it’s here. Before leaving Perth all I was thinking about was how cold it would be, making sure I had thermal underwear and gloves etc. It is actually nowhere near as cold as I thought it would be. The weather actually reminds me a lot of Melbourne. Having said that, there have been times when I have been out at night and thought `this is as cold as I can ever remember being’ – and it probably is. My condition improved as soon as I purchased a proper waterproof winter coat for snowshoeing (more on snowshoeing in another blog).

When I first arrived there was a lot of snow on the street from a blizzard in December that provided the most snow in about 20 years. The snow was a problem as the people and businesses just weren’t prepared. I am told that every shop sold out of snow salt (applied to the street to aid the melting process) and snow shovels. No one was to blame, but people are always looking for a scapegoat and the front page of the papers had sensational headlines like ‘WHY YOUR STREET DIDN’T GET SWEPT’. Many streets were undrivable and some Mexicans I stayed with said that they had to trudge through 30 minutes of snow to get to a bus stop each day as their usual bus route was unable to operate in their part of the city.

I have been lucky enough to see it snow a couple of times but nothing more than enough to coat the trees and grass with a layer of beautiful white. It does rain a lot in Vancouver but it’s generally light and falls straight down so you can get away with having a waterproof coat with a hood on it. There is also the odd really lovely day of sunshine and despite it being maybe 7 degrees it still feels like T-shirt weather.

Shortly after I arrived, for a week and a half straight there was a fog that descended over the city which was very dreamy and eerie. It wasn’t until going to a standup comedy show that I was informed that all the fog that had descended on the city was actually quite strange and that most Vancouver residents were also surprised by it. The very impressive photo that you can see was taken (not by me) from a nearby mountain which I can actually see from where I am staying (it is particularly cool at night when you can see the lights on for the night skiers.

The city itself is incredibly picturesque. It is set between the different bits of the ocean and mountain. My second day in Vancouver I got a bit of a shock when I saw a mountain for the first time – I have seen `mountains’ before but these are the sort that look really sharp and rocky and have snow on top not like the ones in Australia that are kind of round and are covered with trees.

There is lots of construction everywhere in anticipation of the Winter Olympics (under 12 months away). In addition to construction, they are ripping up the streets everywhere. When I first arrived the streets were in place but all the trees had been cut down (and I later found out they were saved) which was puzzling until they started pulling the street apart. Most of the tree stumps had funny graffiti written on them such as `insert tree here’

While I am on the subject of the Olympics, I have been applying for a number of jobs with VANOC (the Olympic committee), there seems to be a lot of resistance to the Olympics. It’s not surprising given the cost and the risks associated given the economic crisis. Costs have blown out by epic proportions and the average tax payer is growing impatient. I think many people are also worried about low numbers attending the games (again the economic crisis).

Graffiti can be seen around Vancouver that says `fuck vanoc’ and `no Olympics on stolen land’ but I seem to remember the same sentiment leading up to Sydney 2000.

It’s been a long time between blogs…

In my last blog I mentioned the need for me to keep my eyes on the ball. There was however one more luxury that I had promised myself I would indulge when I got to Canada.
The hostel sells cheap tickets to Canucks games. What is a Canuck? Well a Canuck is what Canadians refer to themselves as (e.g. Australians are Aussies). The Canucks is also the name of the Vancouver ice hockey team that plays in the National Hockey League or NHL (North American pro league, what NBA is to basketball, NHL is to ice hockey). I’m not sure that ironic is the word but I’ve always thought it silly that there are the Vancouver `Canucks’ and the Montreal `Canadians’ that play in the same league.

As I have always followed the NHL somewhat, it was very exciting to go to my first NHL or any other North American pro sporting match. Before the match the people from the hostel met and had a quick bite to eat while a girl from the hostel explained the rules of hockey for the benefit of those new to the game.

There was some hoo-har surrounding this match as it was the first home game for newly acquired player Mats Sundin who was a legend with the Toronto Maple Leafs (yes I agree it should be Toronto Maple LEAVES).

The Canucks ended up losing a close match that had some questionable officiating in the finals minutes and there were some very irate fans. This game also started a very large losing streak for the Canucks (including about 9 in a row at home) from which they have since recovered.

The highlight of the match came at the end of the match. As we (and the entire stadium) got up to leave, an Australian girl next to me asked “where are you going” as if we were all heading for a hot dog or some other gross arena `food’. I told her that some people were heading out for a drink but that I was heading back to the hostel. She then asked “What about the fourth quarter?”

In case you didn’t get that last joke, ice hockey is probably the only sport in the world that has three periods of play. You are forgiven if you didn’t know this.

Another blog soon crew. Plenty of time still on my hands…

-Tee

Just writing this because it all looks a bit quite in here. That’s more than can be said for my workplace.

For one day only – and the public have been queuing round the block – we have U2 playing on the roof of one of our buildings to promote their new album. This is good for the radio shows they’re playing for. But, their PA is set up directly opposite our building in which we produce two channels of TV News.

So one of the channels has moved its bulletins out of one of the studios on that side of the building lest our puzzled viewers find their news being shouted by Bono - and the other channel is taking part of the gig live into a conveniently placed Rock segment. My part in this is helping get the live gig into the rock segment.

UPDATE: much later it went pretty well the good people of Iran and Afghanistan had a first (possibly) bite of U2 live  - phew – thus is history made:)

With Valentine’s Day on the horizon I just wanted to take the time to give a little advice to the guys out there.  Stop waiting until February 14th every year to buy something for your wife or significant other that you wouldn’t normally buy for them.

Why???  You are being price gouged.

Those $60 roses you buy….guess what….they aren’t $60 the rest of the year.

SURPRISE!!!!

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Before I get started I should probably explain that I have been pacing myself with this blog. I write notes about my experiences often but only blog around once a week as I don’t want to bombard people with it, I would prefer people to read it periodically. I guess I treat it a little like an e-mailout… I’m sure most people have experienced this, you sign up for updates from a website that you find interesting only to find out that they send you an email whenever something remotely uninteresting has happened and you soon find yourself hitting the `unsubscribe’ link. What this means is that I am posting about something that happened weeks ago, using the aid of my notes, but my writing would lead you to believe that it has only just happened.

This morning (actually three or so weeks ago) I left the Hostel to spend the weekend with a new friend from the website – couchsurfing.com. Couchsurfing is a not for profit website that connects travellers with people who might have a couch (or a spare room) available on their travels. You set up a profile that lists your interests/philosophies/special skills etc. A traveller makes a search that you can base on age/sex/location etc. and can then make requests to those who the search returns.

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In my last blog I told of seeing snow for the first time. Although I didn’t fall to the ground and make a snow angel, make a snowball or have a play right there on the tarmac, it was snow and it was special to see for the first time.

I was very quick to get through customs thanks to an express line at Vancouver International that allows new workers through. I actually got my working visa and was the first person from the flight to get to the baggage carousel.

It was a moderately bleak evening in Vancouver, not quite as wet as Seattle but chillier. I left the airport and jumped on a bus to the hostel on Granville St. I had been warned by some people that I had been speaking to on couchsurfing.com (more on that later) that the city was a slushy mess (there was an unusual amount of snow in Vancouver in December). What was white, cute and pretty on the tarmac was perhaps the opposite in the city streets. The unmelted snow found on every sidewalk was about a foot high and resembled giant piles of steaming turd.

The hostel is nice and warm, in fact sometimes too warm. The dorm that I am in has four beds in a very small room but I can’t complain. The showers are immaculate and there is a free breakfast which includes bagels and cream cheese each morning.

The hostel also has free wireless internet which has complimented my new laptop tremendously as I have spent much time on a couch in the common area (along with a number of other people in similar situations to mine) sending off resumes.

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A lot has happened since my initial blog (which I wrote while delayed in Seattle), including: arriving in Vancouver, first snow, first snowball, first ice hockey match and first time seeing it snow. But I’ll get to most of that in another blog. In the meantime, the flight from Seattle to Vancouver (and yes, dudes who came on the Vietnam-Cambodia-Thailand trip in 07, it was sketchier than the flight from Perth to Singapore with the phantom toilet cigarette smoker and the crazy woman that tried to open the door of the plane whilst in flight). Read the rest of this entry »

I was poking around Blockbuster yesterday and adjusting my queue.  Well I can across the best category ever and for this reason….I know LOVE Blockbuster.

What is the category you may ask….WOMEN WITH WEAPONS

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