A little snow adventure.

Jaime and I both enjoy snow boarding and haven't been for quite a few years now. This year being back in BC for winter would have been our first chance but with baby on the way the prospect of a bad wipeout on the slope seemed like risk we didn't want to take. Still wanting to go and enjoy some of the great outdoors in the winter we thought we would try snow shoeing, neither of is has tried this before and as we planned to treat ourselves to a night away we chose to try at Whistler.

We started our trip Thursday morning heading towards Vancouver and then joining the 99 Highway also known as the Sea to Sky Highway for which is it is very aptly named. The road follows the rocky cliff and mountainous coastline north of Vancouver with views of mountains descending into the sea all the way to Squamish. The names of places and land marks in Canada takes a little getting used to. There are mixes of native, descriptive and British and European place names. Squamish or Sḵwxwú7mesh as its written natively (yes that is a 7 in there) is named after the aboriginal who lived in the area. The journey also took us through or near names such as The Chief, Furry Creek, Lion's Bay, Eagle Run and Daisy Lake to name but a few.

Thursday around lunch time we arrived and donned our snow shoes for the first time, the snow depth we walked on was around four to five feet and easily soft enough to sink in to the waist with conventional foot wear. Initially it all seems very easy and to be honest it doesn't take long to get used to walking with the big frames on your feet. However the start of the first trail was straight and a steady decent, when we tried the first real climbs and decent then the learning began. Jaime proving herself very confident from the off and I blame the back pack for my lack of balance.

We managed about 4 hours on our first day, finding some trails which were still fresh and enjoying every minute of it as almost as much as the dogs who were having an absolute blast. For about every kilometre we walked the dogs must have run, jumped, bounded and fell at least three.

After the first day the dogs were exhausted and didn't move from their mat in the hotel room for hours and needed to be woken for a short evening walk.

Whistler is very popular ski resort, and this is prime ski season we were both a little envious we couldn't take a few trips down the slopes but were content that we could get a little more snow shoeing in on day two.

The weather took a turn for the wet on Friday but we fastened the shoes on again and managed to squeeze in another couple of hours before we loaded up the car and headed home and the dogs slept the whole three hours back to Mission.

A busy new year ahead

Happy New Year one and all.

Just like for everyone else December was a busy month for us. Christmas has come and gone, but being here through the whole festive season has allowed us to catch up with faces we have not seen for quite sometime.

In amongst the family gatherings and celebrations, Jaime managed to arrange a visit to her work (Animal Insight) for myself and two of our friends. We got a lot closer to the animals than I expected, feeding a raccoon by mouth and even patting a bear on the head. We could see the wolves from a distance but they are very shy and most stayed well back.

The common perception of a lot of the people I talk with in the UK is that we must be experiencing mass amounts of snow and constant sub-zero temperatures. Other than rain its been another fairly mild winter in the Fraser Valley, no where near as much snow as back in the UK, we've had some chilly temperatures which has allowed for some fairly thick ice and it turns out our dogs see it as new addition to their play ground.

2011 is now well on its way. Jaime and baby are both well and everything is good. We hope to get some snow shoeing in at the end of the month. Jaime and I are both big fans of Snowboarding but with baby on the way its a bit to much of a risk so we decided to try snow shoeing for the first time up in Whistler. The dogs will be coming with us as they love the snow.