Mount Washington Photos

The next day after the Yeti, Kim and I did some downhilling on Mount Washington before heading back to Victoria. It was an absolutely gorgeous day with unlimited visibility in almost any direction. Here's a taste of what you missed!

Kim at the summit with Albert Edward in background (top right)

Looking out at Strathcona Park (Albert Edward top right)

The Golden Hinde is the Tallest Mountain on Vancouver Island

You can see it just left of centre in the background

More views of Strathcona

The dome summit of Mount Washinton


The mainland Coast Mountains
From mountain, to valley, to ocean, to mountains!

TNO

Pushing It At The Yeti - Mount Washington Race Report

Lining up for my first ever snowshoe race, and the first Yeti of the year, was a bit stressful. I was just not looking forward to redlining it for two 5km laps in the snow. After a race the previous weekend, and a week that included some ultimate frisbee and a hard speed workout, my body was tired of pushing it. I was actually feeling pretty good and had I been lined up for a 40km event or a long outing for fun, I would have been more than up for it. I tried my best to do a little warmup and before I knew it, it was all go.



The Yeti's are great winter events put on by Marc Campbell. Dave Howells was the course designer who packed down some sweet singletrack through the deep white stuff up on Mt. Washington. I was pleasently surprised to see so much singletrack as, being my first race, I envisioned much more groomed trails.

While you all race individually in the Yeti, there all also team categories where the top five team members times (including at least one female) are averaged to get a team score. My adventure racing teammate and friend Gary Robbins recruited me to join Team North Shore Athletics (NSA) to try and beat out the strong Team Helly Hansen Vancouver Island. This was going to be a close battle.

The 5km loop consisted of alternating short and doubletrack trails with a steep doubletrack close to the beginning in order to spread out the competitors. Close to the end, you hit a nice windy singletrack climb that than descended in long switchbacks down to an open finish line sprint. Read this a super fast and fun. What a sweet day too!

Downhill to the finish

I had been warned before the race to slow it down on the first lap as snowshoeing will really take it out of you and, if you're not careful, you might bonk hard on the the second lap. I took the advice wisely and just went hard enough to hold on to my spot. I had Justin Mark and Jeff Riemer of Helly Hansen Vancouver Island in my sights and waited for the open double track of the start of the second lap to close the gap. I caught both runners and held on to Justin until the first climb of the second lap started. This is when the Yeti started to hurt. That neon Team NSA vest/dress hurt as well!

Starting to hurt - 2nd Lap

When we hit some doubletrack, Jeff Reimer put on some steam and ended up passing me for the next long singletrack section up on the plateau. Shortly in, I pulled out a gel and tried to recoupe some energy. The gel really helped and suddenly I was feeling really good. I was right behind Jeff, who was going a bit slower than I would have been otherwise, but there was no way that I could have passed in the soft snow on the outside of the track. This would be my only complaint for this race. Tasaka, you should sponsor a MOMAR passing lane! I held on until the last doubletrack came before the downhill. I made my move, and caught up to Justin. I was still feeling good at this point and when we hit the downhill, I kept making sure that I didn't go too hard and bail.

A sweet shot of the final downhill

Just before we hit the bottom of the run, Justin took a hard faceplant into the snow. I slowed up to see if he was ok when he told me to go. I pushed to the finish and came in behind Gary in a solid 6th place overall.

After much anticipation, the team results came through. It was extremely close but our Team, NSA, managed to beat HH Vancouver Island by 2 seconds!!!

This was a great event that had a fun course and was enjoyed by all. Some awesome costumes out for this event as well. I you happen to be over in North Van over the next couple months, definitely check these out!

Special thanks to Kim for moving all over the course and taking some awesome photos!

TNO

PIH Pioneer 8km Road Race

This past Sunday, I attended the first road race in the Frontrunners Island Race Series. These are well put together events put on by various clubs on the island. The first race was put on by the Prairie Inn Harriers (PIH) of which I am a member and do regular training sessions with. Held in Central Saanich, the weather was overcast with sunny patches and the temperature was perfect for an 8km sprint.

While these short distance races are definitely not my focus, I'm starting to see why so many people get into them; they gauge your fitness over time and allow for a fair comparison. In trail runs, courses get changed, and the weather can greatly affect the times due to excessive mud or slippery rocks. Also, time is less important than placement. On the road, time is the important factor and road conditions are only minor issues as times will not vary greatly because of them.

Last year, with limited training, I pulled off a 30:00 time in the same race. I was happy with my result but I knew that I could easily beat that time this year. It was time to find out.

With over 500 people at the line, the race started without a hitch and soon I was red-lining it through Brentwood Bay. As the course is slightly downhill for the first kilometer, it is easy to get ahead of yourself and before you know it, you're running way faster than you should be. Knowing this, I went out strong but really tried to gauge myself once the course levelled out. I was with a small pack of runners at this point which was being separated by a larger group ahead. This gap between the groups was getting larger and I soon realized that the pack I was in was just not going at the speed I needed to go. I pulled away and tried to catch them. Unfortunately for me, the distance had grown too much and I was now in no man's land running into a headwind. In hindsight, I should have pushed the pace sooner and caught the group. Always in hindsight.

Pushing for the next Pack

I ran by myself for the rest of the race with only of couple of positions being exchanged. The last position change hurt the most. The finish is slightly uphill to the finish shoot. I had a racer on my back (who had been there for the last few kms) and a racer just in front of me. The racer behind put on a sprint, I soon followed and we both passed the guy in front. I didn't have enough left and ended up losing the sprint by 1 second. However, it just so happend that he was in my age category and I was dropped out of third place to fourth!

I came away with a decent time of 28:30; 1 1/2 minutes faster than last year and exactly where I was aiming. While my back half was slower than the front half, I still felt that I had a solid race and am looking forward to beating (no, crushing!) this PB next year!

Now, I just need to find out how to take another four minutes off to rival the leaders! ;)

TNO

Forbidden Snowshoeing

Holy Shhhhhhheeeeeettttttt!!!!! Look at that snow!!!!

I haven't experienced snow like this in a long time. With over three meters of white stuff and with more than one meter dumped in the last three days, it was hard not to be steller conditions.


Kim and I had a 'plan' for the weekend which was basically to go up island and find snow. We weren't disappointed. After the road up to Mount Washington was closed due to too much snow, yes, that's right, way too much snow, we headed up to the Forbidden Plateau which is an old ski hill that has been shut down for years. With snoeshoes on, we headed out on both Saturday and Sunday for some hard work and great fun. I now completley understand how dangerous tree wells can be (as heard in the recent story about the skier who died in Revelstoke). We not only fell in some (only up to our chest) but found some that were easily three meters deep! Go in the wrong way with no one to help you out can prove to be deadly. So, get out but go with someone.

Look at the snow cover!!! There's a two meter snowsicle on top of that one tree!

It's been dumping heaps of powder all over the place so if you haven't been out yet, do not hesitate and get out there! Check out Gary's blog for some great videos of some backcountry ski touring he's been doing.

TNO

New Years on Pender Island

I usually don't do too much for New Year's but this year was super fun. Kim and I rented a house with several other friends on North Pender Island for four days up until New Year's day. Our plan was to kayak over so we loaded our gear up and set out from the Swartz Bay ferry terminal area. However, once we hit the crossing to Portland Island, the wind was foul, there were white caps everywhere and the forecast was for gale force winds in several hours. We had checked out the weather but figured we'd still have enough time to make it across before the weather got too bad. Since we were both just not having fun and didn't want to encounter and serious problems, we quickly decided to turn around, load up, return home, swap our paddle gear for bike gear, and make it back to catch the Pender ferry. It was a bit of a rush but we managed to catch it with no problems. On the ferry ride over, the winds had actually dimished substantially but we were still both happy that we made the decision as it could have really turned nasty. On the coast, you really can't take chances when it comes to the water.

After arriving at the house, we were in for a weekend of fun.

Disc Golf!

Pender has one of the best disc golf courses out there with 27 holes, technical terrain and lots of trees and obstacles. Beer on the course wasn't mandatory but preferred by most players. The player with the worst tee shot also had to down some fireball. Good stuff.

Sailing in Swanson Channel

A bunch of us went for a nice sail to drop off a friend in Swartz Bay. The wind was blowing through Swanson Channel allowing for some good upwind speed with minor jibes and tacks. The return sailing allowed us to put out the spinnaker and cruise at a solid 8 knots. Was a good time.

When I wasn't drinking, playing disc golf or rocking out on some guitar hero 3, I was out running. I got in two solid runs with the second one covering a good 25km over both North and South Pender Island. The highlight was definitely Mount Norman Park as the view from the top of the grind was great and the singletrack down the backside was well worth the climb. There was another trail that I hit up called the William-Wallace trail (I'm pretty sure it was this but maybe I got Braveheart in my head for some reason). Anyway, this trail was sweet. Nice twisty singletrack with a good amount of elevation. Well worth it.

My Reward - View from Mount Norman

For New Year's Eve, Pender Island held a Latern Festival that was filled with fire twirlers, giant puppets, some shows, a kayak ballet, and lots of characters on tall stilts. It was a neat event.

Pender New Year's Latern Festival

The 'Old Year' Puppet

This last puppet symbolized the old year. He walked out to a dock on the water which was released to float away from the shore. As this happened, paper latern 'balloons' were released into the air and ascended into the sky. The old year was over and 2008 had begun.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

TNO

Day of Four Peaks

Ok, theses weren't huge peaks but a fun day nonetheless. It was Christmas Eve day and Kim and I wanted to get in some good hiking. We didn't have a plan but ended up moving from peak to peak and covering some good ground. We started with Mount Douglas, headed to the Observatory hill (which I had never gone up before), Lone Tree Hill, and finished with Jocelyn Peak in Gowland Tod Provincial Park overlooking Finlayson Arm. What a gorgeous day too; Christmas Eve day and almost could have been in shorts.

View from Lone Tree Hill - Mount Doug centre with Observatory Hill to the left

Gowland Tod Trail - Mount Finlayson in Background

Jocelyn Peak - Malahat in Background

Joceyln Peak - Looking Down Finlayson Arm

If you've never been to Gowland Tod Park, I would highly recommend it.

Cheers,

TNO

Party Time!

Whew! It's been awhile since I last gave an update as I've been too busy having fun over the holidays, new years and into 2008. Here's some updates.


Kim and I held a Christmas party just before the actual 'Christmas' and had a number of friends and co-workers over to celebrate. Lots of good food went around and we had tons of fun playing recycled secret santa, charades, and the infamous 'box' game. I'm not sure what the last game is officially called but here's how it works. There's a present that's wrapped in several boxes and wrapping paper. Everyone gets in a big circle and a pair of dice is rolled in a clockwise direction around the group (we used large foam block dice). Whoever rolls a double gets to put on a santa hat, put on some oven mitts, and try to hack, stab, and unwrap their way into the present using only prescribed tools; we used a bike pedal wrench and some flip-grip pliers although some other favourites are barbaque utensils or a pizza cutter. Basically, the cruder the tools the better and the person cannot use their hands in any other way (ie: they can't hold the box with one hand). While the person is hacking away, the dice are continually rolled by the group and the next person to get doubles gets to take over. Sometimes you get to really work at the present while othertimes a double is rolled very soon after and you lose your turn before you even start. It's a pretty fun game and brings a lot of energy to the group. The person who gets at the gift first gets to keep it.

Mike Sanborn - Winner of the 'box' game