7 Weeks To Go

Well, it’s been a while, but for the good of my parents who are not on facebook I thought it was about time I did a little photo update on the blog.

There are a lot of things I would like to write about, but to be honest I am too lazy.

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A shame we all share in

Like most people who were watching tv last night, I was intrigued to hear about the death of Bin Laden. The news broke in the middle of the Simpsons, and apparently was deemed more important than me finding out what happened in the marriage between Selma and Fat Tony. I will never know if the marriage was for real, or if Marge and Selma managed to repair the family bonds. However the Simpsons is not what I am blogging about, so it must have been the right decision to leave me hanging on that front and fill me in on the changing state of terrorism.

I didn’t really know how to react at first. My first thoughts were, that’s good, but surely there is another one just like him that will fill in his place and continue in the same manner. Does this actually make any difference in our daily life? Will I now be able to walk through airport security with my shoes on? Are those suffering under terrorist rule now free to live without fear? I doubt it.

As I watched though, I became more intrigued by the reaction of people than by the news itself. I began to feel embarrassed and ashamed to be part of a so called civilized society as I watched people dance around like Monty Python characters at a witch burning.

The world is probably safer without Bin Laden in it, and a part of me is relieved that he is no longer around, I even think it is probably the best realistic outcome. Am I pleased about it though, am I happy that this happened? Certainly not.

While this is being hailed as a huge success, to me this represents one of the greatest failures by mankind in my lifetime.I am not referring to the operation, but rather to the entire approach to terrorism.

Sept 11, 2001 I was at Chicago O’Hare airport waiting with some friends who were flying out that day. We were evacuated, and went back to my friends place to watch the events unfold. Like most people I was horrified, angry, confused.  I then watched as Bush declared war against no-one in particular and was saddened by each lost life in a war that could never be won.

The FBI has admited that the evidence linking Bin Laden to the 911 attacks was vague. I remember him sending a message that he was proud of the people who did it and was pleased about it, it then took him years to even say he had anything to do with it – a confession that could easily be pride or politics. Yet we have always been led to believe it was him and no-one else.

The ultimate goal in the fight against terrorism was always to see terrorists dead, to me, that is the ultimate failure, and to see people dancing in celebration when it happened is shameful.

Ezekiel 33:11 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.

As with most “holy”wars, I believe God would be ashamed of us, and even angry that we claimed his right for vengeance as our own.

Do I think Bin Laden was ever going to change? No. Do I think killing him is the best solution for the world? Yes. Do I take pleasure in it? May it never be. May we be saddened that it came to this, may we be embarrassed that negotiations and discussions were replaced by violence like a bully in a school yard who couldn’t think of a better way to answer the smart kid.

I don’t have solutions, and if I was in Obama’s situation, I probably would have done the same thing.

The world might be a marginally safer place, but is it a better place?

The cost of thousands of lives from both sides, more youth in the east growing up to resent the west, more anger, more violence, more sadness. What did we learn, where do we go from here? Now that goal is achieved, is the war now won, or do we just move on to the next guy on the list and kill him too?  What could be achieved if we threw those same billions of dollars we throw at war in to rebuilding broken relationships. What could be achieved if we supported counselors and diplomats to the extent we support soldiers and weapons manufacturers.

What of a child who has had his father killed by the US military, what does that child do? Too often, they will hold a resentment against the west and if you were ever looking for reasons why people would join the taliban – there it is. What if that same child was looked after, cared for, had his family house rebuilt and was helped in to a life of hope?

This event represents 10 years of failure in war, and an ongoing failure of the human race to reconcile religion in a non-violent manner. I know that we were never realistically going to reconcile things with Bin Laden, but we shouldn’t be proud that our failure has been “resolved” by a death.

Bin Laden did not face a trial, we all know he was guilty, but by denying him basic human rights, we lower ourselves to his standard and say to the world and to the taliban that it is o.k. to bypass human rights if you really believe in something. Bin Laden was murdered, and our peers were dancing in the street to celebrate it.

I hope that as the initial reaction dies down, people have had a chance to consider what this really means how much this reveals the depravity of our nature. When we dance in celebration at the murder of a murderer – what have we become?

We are better off without him, he was guilty, but let’s not feel like we have achieved anything until we actually have.

Best Run Ever

Since Christmas I have had more days on my split board than on my regular snowboard. It has become a bit of an addiction trying to find that perfect run that just makes me smile all the way down.

I don’t know if there is really any such thing as a perfect run, but today at Duffey Lake in a section of mountain range known as the Joffre Group, Chris and I managed to come as close as I have yet.

The Duffey area in north of Pemberton (near Whistler) and was the first place I ever tried my splitboard. I have been wanting to go back since, but for various reasons it hasn’t happened until now. The thought crossed my mind on Wednesday, so I e mailed Chris, who has proven to be as in to the whole thing as I am, and he didn’t need long to consider.

I had look at some maps and decided to try for Slalok Mountain in the Joffre Group of mountains. The access starts at about 1,300m elevation and slowly climbs through the forest, past waterfalls and over 2 lakes (Lower Joffre Lake, Middle Joffre Lake) until you reach a final lake surprisingly called Upper Joffre Lake.

At the other side of Upper Joffre Lake is the imposing Slalok Mountain. The lake is at 1,550m and the peak of Slalok is at 2,550m. For those of you good at math, that means there is a 1,000m vertical run waiting on us.

To give some perspective for those in Canada. Whistlers total vertical is 1,600m. For those in New Zealand, Turoa has a 722m vertical and is the largest in Australasia. So imagine taking 62% of the whole of Whistler, or 138% of Turoa but then compress it all down to a 40 degree slope.

The climb up was brutal! It was hot and I had to wake up at 5:30 to make it up there, so I was already tired. Any time the motivation lacked though, I could look over and see the slope we were heading to. Brutal as it was, the climb was interesting – through an icefield with beautiful blue ice outcrops and up to Matier glacier which is surrounded by fantastic peaks. There were some sections where skinning was not entirely comfortable and we had to tread carefully, but we made it.

Finally the ride down arrived. Standing on the summit, it looked like a cliff that we were about to head down, but getting to the edge and it rolls away to a perfect wide open slope with only 2 tracks through the nice spring powder. There was a smile on my face the whole way down, and at the first break we had Chris confirmed what I was thinking – best run ever!

Around this slope, there are several other smaller but just as fun looking slopes which are going to require many more trips, and you had better believe I will be riding this face again.

Splitboarding has been fun, but I am starting to feel like it might be done for the winter. I might try to get another day riding the lift and some spring slush, but I hear my bike and my climbing gear calling.

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90′s Music

On Friday afternoon at work, it tends to get a little quiet in regards to who is in the office. My department is always there and always busy, but not so true for other departments.

Working in the music industry, this means it is time to talk music memories. This Friday just gone was 90′s day, where the best and worst of the 90′s were pulled out to varying degrees of excitement, critique or mocking.

So I thought I would do a run through the decade, what are the songs of each year that define my memories of that year? I’m not going to try to be cool and pick songs that are still good now, but be honest – what was I listening to?

It has actually been a much harder task than I expected. I thought I had different phases where I like a style of music, and I would be able to pick that style. In reality though, there was a lot of crossover between say Pearl Jam and Boyz II Men – I find it a little hard to believe and it doesn’t seem right, but it’s true.

So in the end I think this is more just a list of songs that I enjoyed in days gone by and in some cases still do. Sorry that you tube makes you go to their site so often now and about all the stupid ads you tube puts on stuff now – but hey, they help me get paid, so I don’t mind too much.

1990 (The tail end of the great 80′s hair bands)

1991

1992 ( I think I started taking surfing a bit more seriously around about here)

1993 (Siamese Dreams is one of the greatest albums of all time, if you don’t agree, you’re wrong)

1994 (And yeah the white boy wanna be black phase was kicking in)

1995 (Seriously, I only knew one person that didn’t love this song (and man did he hate it))

1996 (I had left school, owned a car, these were happy times)

1997 (My first trip to work at camp in Wisconsin. I bought it there, got sick of it, came back to NZ just when it was released and felt like killing someone for it)

1998 (The beginning of the Dave Matthews phase)

1999 (I will let you know if the Dave Matthews phase ever ends)

So how was the 90′s for you?

Hut Trip

A month ago we were driving up to Whistler with a friend (Chris) on a beautiful clear night with a full moon, and as a passing comment I said we should plan a trip up to Russet Lake Hut (Actually called Himmelsbach hut) for the next full moon, the rest of the drive was spent blabbing about how cool it would be.

So after an extensive chain of planning e mails with Chris and Lori, to my surprise, it actually worked out and happened. We headed off on Friday with a plan to stay Friday night in the hut and Kirsty and I were considering Saturday night as well.

The weather forecast changed all week, sometimes it was looking great, other times not so great. It didn’t turn out as good as I hoped, mainly quite overcast conditions with some clear times, occasional snow and a bit more wind than I was hoping. This created white out moments which were never unsafe, but sometimes a little unsettling. It seemed that anytime we got somewhere a little tricky, the clouds rolled in.

I had a general idea where the hut was, but the way is not marked and due to the conditions it was a little difficult to pick a direct path, so we ended up going a bit off course for a while and having to climb over an extra ridge before seeing the joyful sight of the hut in the valley below.

After a slightly concerning few minutes of chipping ice away from the door, we managed to get in and, as rumored, it was at least as cold in the hut as it is outside. There is no heating, no power, no water, no bathrooms, just a couple of tables and a couple of sleeping platforms. The hut could sleep 8, but fortunately we were the only ones there.

After an early nights sleep which involved a few moments of reluctantly waking up to go outside in to the snow and wind to bear our butt cheeks to the elements obeying the call of nature, we woke the next morning to find the weather hadn’t improved. We decided we couldn’t do the slope we wanted to in these conditions and Kirsty and I decided against the extra night and headed back with the others.

There were a few things we learned from this trip, things that might be obvious, but I was surprised at the extent to which they were true.

1. Packs slow you down a lot. I was tired and sore after carrying a pack, it’s not only the weight, but the fact it messes with your balance while you are on skis.

2. It is a lot more difficult to hike in fresh snow. We were fortunate to have amazing snow conditions for riding. Unfortunately, it meant we had to cut our own path through quite deep snow. This is also exhausting.

3. Richmoor dehydrated spaghetti with meat and tomato sauce gives you bad gas.

The trip was enjoyable because we had good company and it is always nice to be out in the back country, but in better conditions the whole thing would have been a lot better.

Here are some pictures thanks to Chris.

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What are we learning – Part 2

If you have been reading my blog for a while you might remember this post from 6 months ago where I asked questions about what we are learning and how we are teaching.

Today my brother in law sent me a link to this video which to me seems completely brilliant and should be the future.

The general premise of this video is that this guy started making youtube lessons for his family and developed the concept further to the point where it can now be used in a classroom.

The advantage of a video lesson over a classroom lecture is that each kid can learn at their own pace. They can rewind if they don’t get something, they can pause and take time to consider things. Everyone can learn until they understand fully.

The benefit that I like about this the most was the idea that a teacher can set the you tube videos as homework, instead of running a lecture during classroom time. This then frees up classroom time to do problems, and work with the students in areas they are struggling.

A further benefit is that the kids who understand one topic, are freed up to help other kids that might be struggling in that area, This keeps kids engaged and instead of getting bored and drifting off, they take the time to develop life skills and real interaction.

The only potential downside I see to this is that some idiots might consider teachers as being superfluous in this system. I dearly hope this does not happen as the system seems to work best when combined with a teacher in a tutor type of relationship.

Teachers teaching kids, kids working with kids, no-one just sitting around listening to something they understood an hour ago. The whole system seems to be what I have been crying out for.

Quake – How to respond?

How does one begin to express sympathy for those in Christchurch right now? Usually when I am at a loss for meaningful words, I attempt to offer some practical help, but in this case even that is not possible.

The responses to disasters varies hugely depending on the location and nature of the event. The Thai tsunami was one of the most generous outpourings of cash I have witnessed which helped a country rebuild. The 911 tragedy resulted in a complete change in mindset on what freedom really means in the modern world, we saw Americans unite like never before in sadness and anger. The Haiti disaster produced more donations and pop songs of support.

What will happen in New Zealand?

I think New Zealand is seen as being a wealthy enough country to not receive sympathy in the form of finances to the extent of a Haiti or a Thailand. I don’t see Lady Gaga and Justin Timberlake getting together to produce a song for this one, and it’s not really something that seems to be New Zealands style.

The sad reality for me living in Canada is that once the final death toll has been completed, our news will probably include a summary and then we will never hear anything about it again. Meanwhile hundreds, maybe thousands will be without homes and jobs for months or years to come.

But what can I do to make it more meaningful – seriously, what? I am looking for answers and have no ability to provide any. My only hope is that my home country will step up to the task and make me proud.

It’s my hope that New Zealand will show how much we can care for each other. Those of you with homes left standing, open your doors to those who have lost theirs, those of you with food, make some extra. New Zealand is seen as being welcoming to those who visit, it is now time to be supportive of our own.

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, i was a stranger and you invited me in. . . I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did to me.

The world may forget this disaster, and while I hope we never forget those lost I hope those in Christchurch and move on too. But let’s make it so no-one forgets the open hearts shown in New Zealand.

Elfin Hut Experiment

One thing I am considering as part of this whole splitboard adventure is the opportunity for back country camping. Before I am willing to do that, I need to figure out what is involved and what the opportunities for this are like.

A spot that I heard frequently mentioned is the Elfin Lakes hut at the Squamish end of Garabaldi park. Last week the snow was looking quite average, so decided it would be a good opportunity to go do some exploring and we wouldn’t be missing much if we spent all our time hiking.

As it turns out that’s pretty much what we did. The entry is another k or so up an access road we use for mountain biking in summer, and from a very full parking lot there is a wide trail that winds it way at a nice consistent gradient up the mountain.

About 5k up, you get to the first shelter which is a day shelter not for overnight use. You can however camp in the snow and use the shelter for cooking in and staying warm until it is time for sleep.

After about another km up hill, you reach a ridge which is followed for about 5 k until you arrive at the Elfin Lake hut. I have seen pictures of what the views are like, unfortunately for us though it was so foggy our view was limited to about 50m. All up, getting to the hut took around 2 1/2 hours.

The hut itself is large and sleeps 33 people in a single bunk room upstairs, downstairs are a couple of large tables, some benches and a cooking area with an outhouse a few steps away.

This night I think the hut was probably going to be housing at least 40 people, with all the bunk beds fully occupied and more people arriving obviously intending to spend the night.

For me, it is not my idea of a pleasant trip. I enjoyed the hike, I can imagine the slopes in the surrounding area would be fun to ride (in conditions where you could see), and the hut itself was nice enough. It is the busyness that doesn’t appeal to me, if it was full that would be fine, but overflowing is too much for me and I think if we make use of this hut it won’t be on a Saturday night.

The way back was interesting. I was trying to maximize the downhill fun, so after consulting my map I decided on a route that required us leaving the trail. This route seemed fine and as long as we kept heading in a generally north (left) direction, then we would connect up again with the trail.

Good plan, except for 2 things. 1. the snow turned icy and chunky and 2. that annoying creek and cliff that was blocking our way from heading north. I have a 1:25,000 scale map. Unfortuately on a map of that scale, a 1m wide creek and a 10m high vertical cliff do not show up.

We were far enough down that retracing our tracks would have taken about 1 1/2 hours, so I decided to traverse across the ridge as much as possible and wind our way back to meet up with the track.

It was the first time I have ever had to use a compass in a real situation. I am quite pleased with my assessment of the direction and our location. I have to admit that I also remembered a GPS app I downloaded for my iphone which had the trail on it, it was a free app though so I was reluctant to trust it and was double checking everything.

Eventually after finding a few more cliffs, and some impassible terrain, I did manage to navigate us back to the trail. and back to the car before dark.

I actually quite enjoyed the challenge and as we always had headlamps and the ability to retrace our steps I was never concerned about our safety. It was nice to gain some confidence and experience in a no pressure situation.

It was a good trip, that achieved a lot from a discovery point of view. The riding was limited, but it was a valuable time.

On the flipside to that trip – here are some pictures from this weekend behind Blackcomb. This was a very relaxed and enjoyable trip with some great riding.

Why not ski?

When I tell people I am getting in to splitboarding, the expected response is, “sorry what-boarding”? This is followed by my now well  practiced response explaining how it is simply as it sounds – a snowboard cut from tip to tail down the middle. There is a usually a bit of a pause followed by “Why not just ski”?

Fair enough question I suppose, but it’s really quite simple; I like snowboarding better than skiing! I used to ski, then I switched to snowboarding because I enjoyed it more. If I wanted to be a skier, then I would be a skier.

There are however more reasons why spliboarding is better than skiing.

PROS TO SKIING COMPARED TO SPLITBOARDING:

- You don’t have to go through the hassle of reassembling a board when you want to ride.

- Your ski skills are better, so the more technical parts of the ascents are easier.

PROS TO SPLITBOARDING OVER SKIING

- You get to snowboard down.

- You get to wear snowboard boots (much more comfortable than ski boots).

- It is a lot cheaper. Touring bindings are about $500, touring boots are at least $600 skis are another $300 + Skins for $150.

- Snowboarding is better for your health! True story. (I have had problems with my knees, and boarding is a lot easier on knees than skiing).

- I know how to snowboard. Yes, I can ski well enough to enjoy it, but in order for me to get good enough to feel safe in backcountry terrain I would need to practice a lot first, with a snowboard I can just go do it.

So there it is, simple math means that splitboarding wins, for me at least. If you already have ski boots you like, already are a confident skier, then the numbers would switch around the other way.

Splitboarding has been around for about 15 years. I first saw one in Wellington (NZ) about 7 years ago and couldn’t figure out why anyone would want one. At the time, I had never heard of ski touring, and was completely oblivious to skins which allow you to ski up a hill, so to me it seemed like an expensive toy for someone who couldn’t decide if they wanted to ski or board.

Since getting in to it, I have noticed how much awareness has grown, and how many people are getting in to it. There is a part of me that would like to keep it as quiet as possible and minimize the number of people on my precious slopes.

On the other hand, I think there is certainly room for improvement in splitboard design and with the increase in interest, comes the improvement in development ideas and hopefully an increase in market competition. At the moment, there are a handful of people who make the boards one main company who has a majority market share on binding hardware, and a couple of others who are competing on a smaller scale (arguably with better designs).

Why not just ski? Well, there are the pros and cons listed above that answer the majority of that question, but also because the whole thing interests me. I am interested to be part of this sport and see it develop. While not in the baby stages, I feel like it is in its infancy and I will have an opportunity to look back in 10 years and say “I remember when our boards used to be like (insert description here)”.

Splitboardings fun to be part of – that’s why!

Converted

After my second back country splitboarding trip, I am now fully converted.I have never been much in to hiking for the purpose of hiking, but hiking for the purpose of finding new and exciting areas to ride – now that makes me happy!

This trip, we went in behind Whistler. They sell back country passes for a reduced cost which are intended for people who are just going to use the lifts as access to the back country. In order to get them, you have to show proper safety gear and write down your plans, emergency contacts etc. The tickets are still not cheap, but it is worth it to save the 1400m elevation gain the lifts give you.

From the top of Symphony chair, we went across the Musical Bumps trail to the top of Flute bowl, then carried on to the top of Oboe. From there we went down, up and down the other side to the bottom of Cowboy Ridge.

These pictures are a sampling of why it is so good.

It is just so beautiful back there, trekking through you just feel like you are the only one out there. You see people from time to time, which is nice from a safety point of view, but it is also very much a feeling as if you have the whole area to yourself and you are getting away with something that is too good to be true.

There are some interesting realities to face, primarily for me it is the reality that you really do have to earn your ride down. Even with the lift help, I still figure we did a total of about 1000m of elevation gain during the day (combined ups, after the downs). I also figured that the ratio of downhill to uphill time is about 120:1 an hour hike uphill gave you an amazing 30 second ride down.

However, this work was thoroughly enjoyable. Unlike my younger days, I am able to enjoy the beauty of what is around me and marvel at God’s handiwork. I also enjoyed the efficiency of the splitboard and the uphill time really seemed to go by quite fast with the anticipation of what was to come.

It really is a surreal feeling being out there. Heading back later in the day and being struck by the beauty of the sun setting on the snow of the next peak over, then cascading to the next peak on the horizon as it got lower. As I was watching this awestruck, I was also painfully aware of the fact that the sun was setting and we were fast running out of light.

As you can see from one of those photos, it had just gotten dark by the time we arrived back. We were prepared with headlamps, a compass and a map if things were to go wrong, but ironically it was actually in bounds at the end of the day where we got a little lost and ended up with an extra 1/2 hour hike.

Kirsty loved it as well and her splitboard (handmade by me) survived the day well and performed nicely. I need to make a couple of minor adjustments, but overall I am pleased and consider it a success.

I have another friend currently building a board, my brother in law bought one and sister in law is going to buy one, and there are at least 4 other friends we have that have shown interest, so I am hopeful that soon we will have our own happy little band of back country enthusiasts.

I can’t wait to get back there. So much exploring to do and fun to be had.