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!

Back, by popular demand

well, it's been 10 months or so... or maybe more since my last post.

what to say? I don't know. There is plenty to mention about my last year of life...

I'll try to fill you in using short sentences... If you want more detail; you should comment and ask about the specific situation.

So, my last post was that I was in Maui.

Maui was awesome!

Went home for Christmas

Flew back for the Holiday Party Season.

Had fun at the Banff Centre Christmas Gala as Mark's Date

Went skiing on Christmas, didn't get new snow for another 50 days :(

Went into the Back Country to the Bow Hut for a weekend

travelled to Panorama for a ski weekend

Travelled to Vancouver to drop a friend off as she left Canada

went backcountry skiing and looking to do more!

Climbed a few mountains

Learned to White Water Kayak

took 3rd place in the Softball League

Broke up with Ashley

Moved to Banff

Playing Curling

playing hockey - team is pretty strong this year.

Have a new girlfriend, her name is Kathryn and she's British, been dating a couple weeks now.

have tried to learn how to play the guitar, but haven't gotten very far with that.

Locked my keys in my car today, took 30 min to break into it because it was so dark this morning!

picked up a part time job making the outdoor hockey rink in Lake Louise.

well... that's all i can think of right now... I hope you are up to speed on the last year....

Cheerio

Michael

Maui

Hi Everyone..

So in case you haven't heard yet; i have made a sudden treck out of the country. It is somewhere i had hoped not to go quite yet, but here I am... In Maui.

I always said that i didn't want the USA as my first stamp in my passport, and i had hoped that they wouldn't stamp it... but they did.

But now that i am here, I don't really care.

so, long story short - Melissa and I had planned to go somewhere warm together this winter. We figured that we would take my Fairmont deals and her westjet deals and go somewhere and not have to spend a lot on the trip.

Turns out that Mels family decided to come to Maui for their vacation and because we had planned to go somewhere together she invited me along. I found out about this about a week before the trip. My next working day I requested the week and a half off! and it was granted to me (i don't know why!!!, like really - who would give me a week off with only a weeks notice?) but - I worked hard to pull it off and get 2 weeks work done in one.

I flew out at 7am from calgary on saturday and after a confusing trip through the vancouver airport, we managed to get on a flight bound for Maui. A measly 6 hour flight later and I was in +25 degree weather!

Now, i had talked about doing my scuba a little bit before and i decided to take advantage of being here in a tropical wonderland by getting that item scratched off my to-do list.

Walking into the dive shop on saturday, they laughed at me when i said i wanted to get it done before thursday! "it can't be done" well, someone how they managed to make it happen. It took a one day session with a guy named Kioni, and then 2 days with another lady named Rachel.

so, let me tell you about going under the water the first time.

See, i had put sunscreen on, and when i first put on my mask i tasted something well..., salty... I thought about my sunscreen and how i just got my face wet and thought that i was tasting my sunscreen... so - i started spitting!! but i could not get rid of the taste! it was gross... yukky.. goopy... but after all that spitting it was still there. I decided to just deal with it. I put my mask on and got ready for the decent under water.

I got myself "sorted" and decended under water. I couldn't do it - but i refused to go back up to the surface. I was trying to get on my knees on the bottom but i couldn't breath right! Kioni was looking at me wondering if i was going to get the hang of it. I knew all i had to do was calm down and take a nice breath and i'd be good. But... let's see you take it easy breathing out of some strange tube thing! really - it is not easy! well, it is... but it is quite the mental hurdle to get over!

Finally, after a few moments i managed to get my breathing under control and the rest was simple. Even clearing the mask was easy! well, not easy - but not nearly the challenge as getting myself to just breathe!

it's now been 3 days, and 5 dives and i'm feeling pretty comfortable under the water. Tomorrow I am going to Molokini, it's the remans of a volcano and it's just a cresent moon shaped island. Promises to be an interesting dive! I am pretty excited.

Oh, and i really hope to get the pics, but i saw a giant sea turtle today on my second dive... the turtle was a mere... 30cm from my face!!! ya... was about to high five it! but you aren't supposed to touch them! ($10,000 fine!)

hmm, what else... well, i'll tell you more when i see you this weekend! should be flying into Toronto friday afternoon around 5pm. (i know, traffic, but it's the earliest i can get there, and i'd rather wait in traffic then in the vancouver airport)

Cheerio!!

Michael

Oh.. that taste in my mouth... the "sunscreen"

i'll say these few words..

it tasted "salty"
this is "Maui" aka... Ocean...

ya... SMRT!!! :)

More on stanfields

Emily,

Yes I did know that stanfields was made in Nova Scotia, The bike tour actually took us past their factory and we peaked in as we biked by, but maybe a good tour would be fun if i can ever get out there for a visit!

So, In my last blog i mentioned that i was going out for halloween. I dressed up as Woody from toy story. I got really lucky with the value village i visited and found everything i needed for the outfit, save a good pair of cowboy boots and a vest at one store. I eventually found a vest, but ended up creating my own from an old white t-shirt. and Just before i headed to the pub i was looking up quotes for the "pull string" and realized that woody came with a guitar.... and guess what i had lurking in my closet... a $0.01 guitar i bought of e-bay! so i went to the pub and pulled off a 2nd place in the costume contest! i'll try to post some pics on facebook tomorrow so you can see!

I won dinner for 2 at the walliser Stube!!! Sweet!

oh, David. I wasn't home today - went to canmore to play volleyball.

ummm... let's see where this goes???

So i haven't been at a computer in a while, so this most likely will end up being another one of my long rants.

so, While you are all enjoying fall, taking pics of beautiful autumn colours; I am freezing my buns off in the cold. Well, not really... But winter has arrived in Lake louise and it's cold fingers have sunk their nail into the mountain... which mean ski season has arrived! if i was feeling energetic, which i may be feeling this afternoon. I could hike up to lake agnes and ski down. I just may do that today, or maybe up to saddleback pass. but that requires energy, which i am a little low on right now.

Last night I travelled into banff in a massive snow storm, joy. Is it weird that i enjoy driving in this horrible weather? it may be the car, emily, This car of yours is really good in snow - although, i am comparing it to the old dodge, which handled as well as a motorcycle in the snow.

anyway, as i was driving, and passing a line of cars, driving in that lane that isn't cleared because everyone is driving in one line making a track that doesn't really follow a lane so much as hopefully following the road... i was thinking about why i like driving in bad weather... Is it because it makes me think? Or is it because nothing will ever be quite as bad as that trip to Kingston in the Grand am with Dad going to a hockey game, in a white out when I could barely see the on coming trafic, let alone the lights of the transport truck that was right in front of me. And the only way i knew i was still on the road was that if i was still traveling at 8okm/h and i was sure that if i was in the ditch i wouldn't be traveling that fast! I also remember trying to slow down, but realized that as long as i could still see A taillight infront of me, i could assume i was still on the road. anyway, that day will always be worse than anything else i could face... except for that trip last year where i couldn't even see the side of the road until i was almost off the road, and i had no tail lights to follow. but that just reminded me of the previous story - so i kept going...

So, on the topic of winter and skiing, guess who is getting a free ski pass... well, hopefully... I have a pretty good idea that i will though! see, the ski hill has a number of event through the year that they need volunteer help with. Being the activities guy at the chateau means that i also communicate information like the above to the colleagues to help them get free passes, so in this process i was talking to a girl named Danielle about this and released the application form to the chateau colleagues, at the same time - Danielle made a surprise visit to my office on Friday to personally request my application! so, i think i should get a free pass! yaya ($800 saved!) I just have to help out with 8 events over the year! not too bad!

hmmm... on the topic of cold bums.

The underwear blog

(i've been planning this one for a while!heheh)

so, as a guy, we don't have much in the world of Underwear to choose from. We have Tighty whities, boxer breifs, boxers, and an assortment of interesting underwear the provides not much functional use, besides looking silly.

Each of these forms of under garments provides a different style of comfort and control, and non really excite me to purchase... I always dread purchasing underwear, it's always in a bag that looks like socks with this picture of a dude on the front, sporting said style of underwear. I am always embarrassed about the idea of purchasing such an item from a store, and having that awkward moment at the checkout when you drop the underwear on the conveyer belt thingy.

Well, as you can guess, i recently had an underwear purchasing experience. It had come time for me to purchase new under garments a few weeks back. (about the time i decided to write this blog) I seemed to have run low on garments of the under wear nature that didn't have holes in them or had enough material on them that they didn't look like a lace version of the underwear i had purchased.... about 2 years ago... (ya.. it's been that long).

I bit the bullet on a trip to calgary and stolled into Zellers looking for some underwear. there was some interesting items to choose from, but i couldn't find my size in the style i like, in the brand i like... so i ended up giving in and purchasing sume ugly blue coloured hanes undies. I wasn't really satisfied, so i only picked up a set of 3 to tide me over for a little longer 'til i could find the stanfields version. (they are made in Canada, i like to support things made in Canada, by Canadian Companies)

thank-fully, this store had that automatic check out stand! I didn't have to go to a check-out girl! yay (i was excited)

On this trip, I also stolled into Sears with a friend who was looking for boots or something. As we walked by the mens wear section, there they were! a whole rack of Stanfields Underwear, but odly, these were like twice the price of the Hanes? was it worth the $$ for these undies or was it just because we were in Sears??? I had to find out. So i picked up a bag of 2 (on sale too, so i was happy - i must be Dutch) and these undies didn't have that pic on the front!

I was content with this purchase, but little did i know that when i walked into Marks Work Wearhouse that I'd find another pair... by a brand that i had never seen make underwear before... I found out that dakota makes underwear, and these were twice the price of the sears pair! but check it out! these were made of that material that under armour uses! this both surprised me and excited me. I love my performance T's and now i could have non-cotton, performance oriented underwear! but, only 1 pair cost over $20!

Was it worth it... YES...

It is true, the more you spend, the better the gear. When i got home i had to try on these under garments and discover if i had made wise purchases or not.

the Hanes performed as expected - they covered me up...
the Stanfields, Oh the Fit! so nice, and I could feel that the matrial was much better than the Hanes...
the Dakota... well... Thankfully I live alone because i love wearing them!

so there you have it, and update on the world of underwear. Now you don't have to wonder what is out there for Men. there is choice!! and you don't have to go with underwear with a picture of a half naked guy on the front! and you can get excited to purchase cool, good quality underwear!!! hahaha...

ya.. i just needed to tell you that! Cause i wish someone told me about it.

well... what else to say...

Veggie Tales - Pirates who don't do anything is on TV right now... Not that i'm watching it.. but it's on...

Tonight is Halloween at the Pub. I am going as Woody from Toy Story! apparently i act like him??? I need to find cowboy boots.

oh.. no i don't have a phone yet... and i promise that this time i will start an address/phone book so the next time i lose my phone i can still call you and don't have to ask for your phone numbers!

Niblock!

I can still remember the first time i set eyes on lake louise, i thought it was so beautiful that i snapped a number of pictures in a failed attempt to get the full, panoramic view of the mountains. that day i was talking to a few guys on the bike tour, one of which had climbed Fairview and Temple. He inspired me to want to come back and make it to the top of these two mountains.

Temple and Fairview are the typical mountains that people go for, and after i have summited these two majestic peaks, my sights have turned to two more big and challenging mountains. One of these is Niblock, and i attacked it a few weeks ago.

Alright, So this story actually starts on teh Saturday that Ashley and I went Camping. The original plan was to go up Niblock on Saturday, and then go camping Saturday & Sunday nights. This is the tale of that fate full Saturday.

To Climb Niblock, one must first hike to Lake Agnes. From Lake Agnes the climb begins. first up the valley at the back of the lake (that i didn't know exsisted) and then up a cliff, and then.. well, more climbing.

this saturday, Ashley and I made it to Lake Agnes in record time.... record SLOW time that is. i don't know what we officially clocked in at, but it was a long trip to get what should take 45-50 min. See, About halfway up at mirror lake, Ashley started experienceing dizzy spells and wasn't feeling right, so we pushed ourselves to Lake Agnes before I made the decision that she just wasn't feeling good enough for the push up Niblock. we ended up chilling out on some rocks on teh shores of Lake Agnes.

It was a beautiful day, so it was nice to switch gears and just relax. It was probably a good thing that we didn't go for the peak of Niblock that day as it took us quite a while to get all the camping gear together, and had we gone for the peak we would never have left on time for camping (or maybe that would have been a good thing!)

so, plans had to be changed and we postponned our summit plans to the next week.

This time i made sure we were ready, i was ready to leave Ashley behind if I had to. I had been eyeing this peak for years and it was time for me to stand on top! So. the next Saturday we went for it again. This time we made it to lake agnes without incident and enjoyed the company of a ground squirrel at the back of lake agnes before going for the summit. Here are some pics of the... approach so to speak.

So it started... you can see the scree slope in the middle right above the green trees, with the shadow of Whyte on the left... at the top of this slope was a ridge that we had to navigate, it required some scrambling. But it wasn't too complicated. It was fun as we were climbing up beside a waterfall!

Once we were above this ridge, it was a slog to the next face, just over a whole load of big boulders that didn't require much skill, but a fair bit of determination. once we made it to the back of this i realized that I may have bitten off a bit more than i should be chewing. I was fairly comfortable with the obstacles that we were facing, but was Ashley?

The next obstacle was a steep steep! scree slope... this means that every step we took, we slid back 1/2 a step. Very Annoying, and it really slows down any progress! this is where Ashely started showing signs of being uncomfortable on this mountain. But we pushed on.

The next obstacle was the worst. We lost any sign of a defined trail and had to scramble straight up the side of this mountain. It was beyond steep, and with no trail - Ashley had doubts. It the guide books they said it was clearly marked - but this was NOT the case. I was alright with this section, but uncomfortable with the situation i was forcing ashley into. it's difficult knowing that i was putting her through something so uncomfortable.

eventually we made it to the Col between Whyte and Niblock. This is where things got really scary. See, the col between these two peaks is what they call a Knife edge... See, it's only about 2 metre's wide and it's a cliff on both sides. Somehow we had managed to climb up the cliff on the one side, but the other side looked all the more onimous! yikes.

From here we turned and went up what would have been the back side of Nibock. It was steep, and it was as if we were climbing a up this knife edge to the top. At some points the rock was less than 1 metre wide, and it was sheer cliff on either side. Ashley was not amused... (I was jovial!)

eventually we came to a point that Ashley dared not go farther, Sadly it was less than 25 m from the summit, but i commed her for pushing to this point. It wasn't easy, and she did not enjoy the heights. This really was the hardest climb i have done yet, and for her to push and make it this close to the peak, well, I was impressed.

Now, the worst part of the trip... I forgot to sign the ledger at the top of the mountain! see, there is always a pad of paper for people who summit to right a little something about making it to the peak... and I forgot about it until i was half way down! nuts!!!

so, now the way down.

Little do most people know, but the way down is always the worst! I will sum up this next 3 hours of my life very quickly. we had little water, little light, Ashley cried, but pushed on. I don't know why she still talks to me. We ran out of water - filled up camel back in the waterfall! Tasted great! made it to Lake Agnes as the sun went down! used a Camera LCD display to illumiated the path back to Lake Louise (approx 30 min of complete darkness) and we made it back to the front of the chateau ath 10pm, exhausted!

so ya... Now i can say i was up there! but i'm not sure if I'll ever go again!

crazy, unfortunate, untimely events involving bad camping decisions.

hmmm... So i've been away from the blogging world for a few weeks now... i guess it's been a month and as you can guess, i have a few stories to tell!

I guess i should start with why i haven't been able to blog for you! and possibly why you haven't been able to call me! heheh.. ya

so, lets go back to the weekend after my birthday.

it was a beautiful weekend. well, it started beautiful and i didn't check the forecast... mistake #1. I think i knew bad weather was coming in but may have refused to let it bother me or stop me from going on my first full weekend camping trip. It was all planned, Cheryl, Ashley and I were going to go to the saskatchewan crossing area and find a back country site for the weekend, and then Mark and Deb would join us on sunday.

it was a good plan, until Cheryl couldn't make it. So just ashley and I ventured off to find a campsite, but as it was the long weekend - all the prime sites were gone. but eventually we found one that offered us a nice view. but, we had to set up the tent on a sand bar. which wasn't so bad, camping on a beach sounds like fun right? ya... i think anyone with any camping experience knows where this is going.

the next day as we waited for mark and Deb to arrive (ha - bet you didn't see that one coming), Ashley and I went for a hike. As we were retuning from the hike we were crossing a river when a wind gust almost blew me right off the bridge. Now, I know you all are thinking that i'm pretty light and it isn't surprising that a wind gust might blow me off balance, but i was thinking - the tent!!! what is happening to the tent?

it was about 10 minutes later that we got back to the campsite to find...

yes. This would be the tent, snagged on something under the water, with the rushing water consuming the tent and ripping it to pieces. Inside this tent are 4 sleeping bags, 4 thermorest pads, a significant amount of clothing. and a blackberry.

and you can see my attempt to rescue it all. Actually, i think you can see my sleeping bag starting to get pulled out of the tent on the top of that picture...

anyway. it was an expensive weekend that ended in rain... but isn't it pretty?

now i just need to buy a new tent, blackberry and replace some clothing!

So, i always have more stories to tell than time to tell them, but hopefully i will get online soon to tell you all about climbing niblock, mountain biking and all the other exciting things going on in my life.

oh, and Hockey Starts tomorrow!!!!! yes... i am a little excited!

miss you all, i think matt's home phone line is 403-522-3682... or just call me at work at 403-522-1847, but not tomorrow, i'm going paragliding!