Christmas in the Valhalla Mountains, December 21 - 28

After four years of sampling other back country ski places we are back at Valhalla Mountain Touring as a special Christmas present to ourselves. A group of Calgary skiers allowed us to join them for a ski week and their excellent Christmas dinner.




VMT Lodge


Pete's catching up with the grey in the beard


Pete receiving B-day wishes from the Wise Guy ( much better than last year - avoid Mexican B-day traditions that involve eating cake with your hands behind you back)

Snow took its time to show up this year and the pack was still below average. But the Valhalla Mountains provided plenty of Pow. When we arrived there was over a meter at the lodge – enough for fun skiing. Good thing tree skiing at VMT is fine and plentiful as the alpine slopes were somewhat wind affected.


My line


Pete sampling the steeps of Emerald Trees


Keith in the Little Sister trees


Dave


Lars - Ruby Trees


Pete looks concerned - where is the second ski?


Must have missed that line!




The 'A'


More trees over there!


Ruby and Emerald Trees and the VMT Lodge (in the notch between the trees just left of midline)


Looking NE from the ridge to Little Sister



The promised snow arrived on the last day of our week – about 30 cm fresh and continued falling all day. More tree skiing!

The ski-out was good fun, thanks to tracks of a couple of snowmobiles and some skiers that compacted the 50 cm of fresh that had accumulated (and thanks to hooking up with the cat in the flat sections).




I’m sure we parked the cars somewhere around here!?

Finally! SNOW! Mt Baker, December 14

Snow levels were dismally low this year, but finally a good dump at Baker gets the base to around 50 inch and the ski season begins. We don’t take part in the official opening. Instead we explore the Baker BC. Excellent weather, temps a bit on the cool side (especially after just being back from Mexico) and great knee-deep pow! Definitely ‘Best First Day of the Season’, possibly even ‘Best Baker Day, Ever’. Big grins and the occasional face-shots.

Huasteca - Mexico Map

Huasteca Map in Google Maps


View Larger Map

Go to "View Larger Map" and from there to "View in Google Earth" (if you have it installed) for more detail.

Huasteca, Mexico - Paddling in Waterfall Disneyland, December 1 - 6

Your truly on the Micos (D. Elliot photo)
If you are looking for care-free waterfalls without scrambling slimy cliffs for portages or difficult approach and departure moves – Huasteca is the ticket. Hardcore BC boaters may find the water too warm, the weather too nice and the runs without carnage a bit boring.

The playland is in NE Mexico, near to Ciudad de Valles. Its easy: fly into Tampico, get picked up by the resort staff, drive to the put-in, get in the kayaks provided by Leland and Andrea from Brushy Mountain/River Gypsies, do your run, drop a few falls, stop at the bar at the take-out, celebrate with a cerveza (or a paloma, margarita, etc). Oh yeah, don’t eat too much at the bar – the multi-course dinner at the Huasteca Secreta Resort is coming soon.

The runs are pool-drop to the extreme. Travertine deposits form ledges and falls between clear turquoise calm pools. We did the Ojo Frio with tons of ledges and boofs and a couple of bigger drops (10-15 ft), the classic Micos with seven falls from 10 to 20 ft (most an easy walk-up for more runs) and El Salto with Leland’s all time favored, La Luminosa.

We liked Huasteca paddling so much last year, we had to do it again - this time with a bit more water.

(Unfortunately the trip wasn’t quite so relaxing for one paddler when his kayak decided to disappear behind a waterfall for a couple of days…)

Paddlespots in Google Maps


That's how its done!


Canadian's eh~!



Typical ledges on the Ojo Frio

More Ojo Frio (D. Elliot photo)

Ojo Frio, too



Dave dropping the first of the Micos falls


Group below the big one on the Micos (D. Elliot photo)

Pete - La Luminosa

Kansas Dave - El Salto


Tony - El Trampolin (P. Spear photo)


Michelle - El Trampolin (P. Spear photo)

More Scenic Views


El Tamul Falls


Natural swimming pool on top of the falls - don't swimm out too far. 100 meter drop just beyond the grass in the back, just on top of the falls in the previous picture (P. Spear photo)


Man-made swimming pool at Huasteca Secreta resort (D. Elliot photo)


Shuttle


Yoga with Andria


No Comment

Huasteca Secreta Resort at El Meco


Andria, Leland, Scott, Tony, Michelle, Dave, Pete, Claudia, Kansas Dave (D. Elliot photo)

Another Day of PARAWAITING – November 22

For some reason optimism prevailed and we drove up to Mt Wood side, only to be greeted by +40 km/h winds. The only man-made object flying was a model plane – quite impressive!


But the day was not lost. On the way back we watched Bald Eagle soar at Harrison River – must have been 40 or 50 of them!


We also picked up some mushrooms.

SIV Clinic – October 19

Harrison Lake

SIV is the abbreviation of “Simulation d’Incident en Vol” – French for “Simulation of Incidence in Flight” (an indication that much of paragliding was developed in France). A SIV course is about learning how to deal with problematic situations and is conducted over water (much safer than over ground) and under the supervision of an instructor.


Random Flying Picture

Our course with Tom took place at Harrison Lake, using a boat tow to get up to altitude. I found the towing experience quite exciting. One minute you stand on the beach of a beautiful lake surrounded by high wooded mountain ridges. Less than 10 minutes later you are 1000 meters up in the air; see the snow-covered peaks all around and the tow boat and landing beach are very tiny far below.

I was almost sorry that I couldn’t take in the stunning scenery any longer, but this was the point when the real adventure started! Tom came in over the radio and gave commands for the maneuvers. Starting of with a few wing-overs, then a nice spiral and on the second flight search for stall and spin, another baby spiral and a few other tricks. Even with one less flight than originally planned and a tow in the dark back to Harrison Hotsprings (we ran out of gas in the middle of the lake) - this was an excellent day!


Alex executing a Full Stall

Paragliding (waiting?) Thanksgiving in Oregon - October 10-13, 2008

Oregon road trip over Thanksgiving weekend. We checked out the central Washington paragliding sites Saddle Mountain and the Silos on Friday, but the only wing in the air was Ryan’s kite (until after some spectacular acro one of the steering lines broke). Very strong N gusting to 45 km/h.

Still blown out at Skull Hollow (good camping near Smith Rocks) on Saturday, so we did some shopping in Bend and climbing at Smith – Andrew and Pete easily remembering how to lead on the big bucket holds on Zebra Wall and the climbing didn’t even bother my shoulder.

Sunday was the day to fly! Wade showed us first the way up to Juniper Ridge’s south-facing launch, but it was still too windy from the N. On we went to Pine Ridge and were rewarded with spectacular ridge soaring. This site is north facing, just north of the Skull Hollow camp site and a 300 ft hike-up. After all the hiking everybody was ready for the excellent turkey dinner, prepared by Gab, Brian, Ryan, their significant others and the Metolius crew.

Monday it finally warmed up and the winds had died. Back to Juniper Ridge with Tim who showed us how the Oregonians ridge soar at Pine yesterday. Pete found good lift, tricking him and Andrew into looking for more – after lots of scratching (Andrew set a new record) they got to practice their side hill landing. The rest of the crew was satisfied with extended sledders and avoided the side hill. Andrei got one more flight than everybody else (to retrieve his GPS from launch). After a few hikes up we went back to Pine Ridge, but at 4 PM even the locals gave up hope and left.

Great weekend in the sun, excellent party and a taste of Central Oregon air that makes us want to come back for more!



Parawaiting at the Silos


Wind 45 km/h. Pete’s hair makes a good windmeter too!


Para-photoshopping. Click for full image.


Andrew landing, the Sisters in the background


Pilot and Smith Rocks


Bucket holds on Zebra Wall