So...

Two months later, is that an appropriate amount of time between blogs?

I thought maybe now would be a good time to write something down. I realized today that a lot has happened in the last month that is a little interesting.

So this past Friday I ran a rather large event. You may wonder what I do for work, as many people do. Well, last friday was the culmination of about 4 months of work. yes... it took that long to pull this event off! I've done similar events before and found that you truly need a number of months to properly prepare for a charity auction. And all that planning really did pay off.

anyway, the end result was an event that took place on February 4, It was a special event in that all of Lake Louise was invited to attend. (there is a big rift between villagers and the chateau staff in Lake Louise, so this was quite odd) we chose to support the local hospital for the purchase of an infant warmer. that piece of equipment is worth $30,000+, so setting such a goal was quite high.

When donations started arriving, I thought we would make around $13,000-$15,000. But, in good fashion, the people who attended the event were very generous and bid high on all the items until we had made $25,000!!! (that's after all of our expenses!) I can't believe how much we made!

Sadly, in the time that it took us to plan this event, the Alberta Government decided to fund the infant warmer - but, 3 days after the Auction, the Heart Monitor for the emergency ward broke. A Heart Monitor just so happens to cost around $25,000... so if any of you end up in emerg at the Banff Mineral Springs Hospital, you will be hooked up to a machine that I raised the funds for. :)

what else,

Back Country Skiing.

As you can guess, venturing into the land of avalanches is quite dangerous. It just so happens that the best skiing happens on slopes that are 30-45 degrees, which also happens to be the prime angle for avalanches! any more steep and the hill will shed regularly and won't build up enough to avalanche. Any less of an angle and it won't really move at all.

so, recognizing this, and the thought that I really like being alive - but also recognizing that it really is awesome skiing, I have decided to get as much training as possible so that I can do this activity safely.

This year I picked joined the Alpine Club of Canada to take part in their BIT course. It's Back Country In Training.... this course helps bridge the gap between classroom training and real life experience. The sad fact is that this past weekend when we went to go for a ski - we had hoped to get up into the alpine region for some turns - but on the tour in we realized that the avalanche risk was too great! I couldn't see the mountain as it was the cloud cover was to low, but during the 2 hour tour in we heard 4 avalanches! so we decided to stick to where tree's are and that meant that we didn't get to do any turns. :( maybe next week.

oh, if you are wondering - avalanche danger runs in cycles. typically you get snow, then a cold night which will create hoar frost on the snow, (this will become a weak layer) then you get new snow (aka Loading) when the loading builds up you get a trigger - be it more loading, heavy wind, or maybe a skier cutting through the top layer to the weak layer... that's when an avalanche happens. thing is, it works in cycles. so you get a load of snow, then it will shed and stabilize and build up new snow again.

the trick is knowing where that weak layer is, and how likely it is to shed. so it's fun trying to figure that out. but it also means that the avalanche danger will change from day to day and week to week depending on what is happening with the weather.

hmm.. well that's all for tonight.

I'll try to get on her a bit more often this week. There is more to let you know about!