Malakwa

Forgot the camera! Is it worth posting? Is it even worth skiing? :)

We were at Malakwa on Saturday for the first time this season with Fred, Steve, and Junko. Brenda and I spent Friday night camping in the van where we tested our new catalytic heater. It worked well except when Brenda tried to light it. There was a bit of a flair-up and she singed all the hair off the back of her hand. She has a similar effect on the camp stove. It's a real skill.

Did I ever mention the time she tried to burn down the Sapphire Col hut? Remind me to tell you that story one day.

We also ran out of propane in both the van and in the backup stove. To steal a phrase from our friend Louis, say the following with a thick Quebecois accent...

"Catastrophe!"

There wasn't an single flake of snow at the start of the logging road but by the time we reached kilometer 17 the snowbanks were a few feet high. There isn't as much snow as last year but good enough for us!

We made a few runs and had a good time. We also met Steve's dog Jasper, a young German Shepherd. This was her first ski trip but she quickly got the hang of things by learning not to step on the tails of your skis when she was behind you and to keep moving when she was in the lead. I wish I had some photos of her "porpoising" through the deep snow. She was one tired pooch at the end of the day.

The word is that the logging road will be plowed until Christmas and we'll try to get a few more trips here before the road becomes impassable.

Asulkan Cabin

Last weekend was the third annual November 11th trip to the Asulkan Cabin. This year there wasn't space available in the cabin on Saturday so we spent Saturday night at the Wheeler Hut and then skied up to the Asulkan on Sunday morning.

The Wheeler Hut is fully 1km from the road so it's very important to pack the necessary supplies with you.



We arrived to find the hut overrun with 4 families from Canmore with a total of 9 children. Thankfully it's a big hut. Both the parents and the kids were a lot of fun though. We got cake.

The highlight of the evening came when all of the kids were lining up at the door to go to the outhouse. They were all a little nervous of the dark and must have figured that there was safety in numbers. We overheard one little girl whisper advice to a sibling...

"Don't be the first one out and don't be the last one back".

Smart kid. Here are Brenda and Steve at the Wheeler...





The Asulkan hut is equipped with propane for lighting, heating, and cooking. It's pretty swank -- when there's propane. A couple of years ago we were at the hut when the propane ran out. It got a little miserable in the dark and cold with nothing to eat and nothing to drink. This time we'd been warned in advance that there was no propane so we packed fuel, stoves, candles, and warm sleeping bags. In the end there was propane and only the furnace didn't work. Oh well.



It's always windy at the Asulkan but this weekend took the cake. It was seriously, seriously windy. The hut, built with enormous 18" beams, actually shuddered on it's foundations. It was like experiencing airplane turbulence. Everything just kind of shakes and then you give your neighbour a little nervous smile. When we got home we learned that there had been power failures over much of southern BC.

Other than that it was yer typical weekend at the hut -- clagged in, tons of snow, and a bit of decent skiing.

Here's a video of the stormy weather (the audio is worth hearing).

Apex

Only about twenty turns but after five months without skiing it still counts!

Anyway it was a worthy outing because it's now been exactly one year since the very first post on this blog.

We were at Apex near Penticton for the ACC Okanagan Section's annual general meeting. There's much less snow than there was this time last year but it was above freezing so what little snow that there was actually made for some decent skiing.

Here are a few photos of Brenda. Check out the early season hazard in the first one.