Warm weekend, Valentines day

It's warmer out this weekend, which brought a group of 11 to Cadence on Saturday for a ride. I did a 2h work meeting first just for warmup, then was ready to see the sun. Shawn and I ended up riding most of the way together (and home) due to mutual time interests where stopping as much wasn't working for us.

Sunday was great. Maybe stayed up a little too late on Saturday, but did a ride with a future mountain biker. Some people just have it... and this was one. I'll try to do whatever I can within reason to coax it out as long as the drive is there. From 6" wide bumpy snowpack to glare ice, some people don't feel daunted, even if this is sort of a "first" bike ride.

Valentines day at an investment bank currently consists of turn 14 of a pitchbook started last week, 9 dudes at the office on various projects at 8:30pm as it stands, and our night assistant who gets to listen to banter.

Welcome to Wicked Pummel

Wicked Pummel isn't so much a place as it is an occurrence... an event that has an increased chance of happening when Keith, Craig, Dallas, Chris Hooper, Mani and I go riding.

Talk about a great day... Ok weather, nice roads, good coffee and lunch, and good pace.

I can only speak for myself, but I think I hit the pop point two dozen times (and once for 20 mins after lunch when it didn't want to fuel me right away). Dallas, Chris, Keith and Craig slayed (hey Dallas, why doesn't that 20kph cold north headwind slow you down even a tiny bit?). Some photographer for a Cochrane newspaper thought we were novel enough to take some photos on the back roads. At the end Dallas and Chris rode off into the sunset up Old Banff Coach road, and I just b-lined it home to make it back before my energy got too low for the temperature. I spent less time off the back than prior weeks which feels nice.

That was some serious effort, I love riding with you guys. Refuel for tomorrow!

West Coast

A taste of west coast on the weekend - skiing a snowy Whistler (actually mostly Blackcomb) Saturday was super fun. Lots of terrain, great snow, certainly not cold by this side of the Rockies' standards, fun meeting new people, watching a skier improve. Even found a few ankle deep fresh tracks. It's funny - I have these virtually new Fischer bigstix, but I haven't really skiied on them in 3 years. Good thing I sorta remember how they work ; )

Sunday we snowshoed to the top of Hollyburn mountain from the Cypress parking lot. Good excuse to burn off some steam on the upper half - a few stops and half the climb at a pinning it pace yielded under an hour up. Cutting loose from the parking lot probably would have been 45 minutes. Great workout, fun times, sunny warm day. Steve, Tania, Tara and Cindy shared the afternoon smiles.

This North Vancouver recreation is awesome when it's not pouring rain (like Saturday when leaving for/driving to Whistler). I make an effort to do fun stuff in Calgary, but its different being right on the mountains. Having said that, it's a big choice to endure the tax burden out there - talk about a way to milk an economy dry.

My track record of skipping the "tougher" weather in Calgary is pretty lucky so far this year ; )

African Speedster

"The point isn't just getting from A to B.  It's putting the hammer down along the way."

Emptying my little tank

Today was a great group ride for the group of us who set out on cross bikes from Devin's house for adventure. No surprises - Pat Dodge has one speed, Lachlan, Keith, Devin and Craig are fast, Shawn likes whip cream on his cookies, I chased Thomas around.

Super fun day, but that caps off a big week for me and right after a big day yesterday, plus work this weekend, so I'm bagged.

Let's hope I can expand the endurance before being bagged before its Portugal time.

And then there were two

Shawn, Craig, Bill, Keith, Sonia, Cyrus and I met at Cadence before going hog wild on the Bowness/Tuscany ravine coulee. Craig turned off first (for once!) as he had been under the weather and had an appointment that afternoon. As we made it past Church Ranches Sonia also turned off.

Half hour later Cyrus' derailleur bit the dust with his big ring/big cog combo so he had to call in evac procedures from his wife. The rest of us continued on the beautiful day up Symons Valley on the hardpack snow on gravel.

Coming back the turns of events let Bill and I ride into the northwest on our own. Great 4.5 hours of riding, followed up by straight to the office for me.

Caught up with Devin and Shannon later in the day for a 9pm dinner... so tired by then. Fun day, I like it when biking fits in before work.

ski life

You know those days when you wake up at 3:30 am to drive 300km to chase down epic snow a few hundred km away, then ski all day, then après, then hot tub with beers, then massage, then 3 course meal, then hit the lodge where ukranian pool gives way to people dancing on the pool table while whitesnake is playing and the shot-ski is doing triple duty and the google employee vs. Sudbury champ are eyeing each other over the ping pong showdown from two years ago and “fireball” the chef is who you know has earned that name through some serious stories is drinking beers in chugging contests against the guests then someone rings the cowbell and shouts "it's snowing" and orders a round for everyone in the place and you dare not look at your watch cause you’ve been up a long long time, but you think that drinking from the glass of life is as good right now as drinking that ice cold kokannee that’s the “beer out here”?