Training Log Archive: Bash

Twenty years ago today, an impaired driver - a repeat offender - hit Richard's parents on a weekday afternoon. Richard's Mom spent a month in hospital and had a long, difficult recovery. Tragically, we lost his Dad.

Two decades later, we've been reflecting on the huge, continuing impact of one driver's decision to have two beers with lunch, which put him well above the blood alcohol limit.

Dr. Ehrlich only got to enjoy a few weeks of semi-retirement after dedicating many years to patients in his family medical practice. His family lost their loving husband, brother and father. Richard lost his mentor in health care. Many good friends have dearly missed his company. He and my mother-in-law never got to go hiking around the world or spend time together in retirement. He never met his grandchildren or their mother so they only know him through stories. His community lost a caring volunteer. He never got to use his new snowshoes, attend his younger son's wedding or grow old. The list goes on and on as we imagine an alternate universe where that driver chose a non-alcoholic beverage on a snowy day.

There is no neat conclusion to this post. I'd like society to keep moving toward taking impaired driving more seriously. Some people may think we're already there but we're not. If an impaired driver is not involved in a collision (the word "accident" is inaccurate), many people view that offence as less serious or less deserving of jail than other crimes, especially when the criminal is an otherwise respectable person. Many people find it difficult to speak up when a friend shouldn't drive. Some people have trouble limiting their own drinking before they drive. There is still a long way to go but we can make a difference for other families.

I've signed up for the CMTR Spring Scavenger Hunt, which runs from March 1 to April 30. This time, the 20 challenges were invented by participants in the Winter Scavenger Hunt. I know two Attackpointers who won free entries because their challenges were selected out of hundreds. Congrats!

"Our fundraising effort for the Spring Scavenger Hunt will be the same as our Winter event - a 50/50 split between BC Food Banks and our new CMTR Scholarship Fund. Our Scholarship Fund, supported by Salomon, provides under-represented and under-privileged people that want to start running with gear, training and event entries, with the aim of removing barriers to entry."

Rodney Yee - Yoga for Flexibility
Mmmmmmm. :)

I was surprisingly sore today. Spending hours XC skiing on bumpy, hilly backcountry trails uses every part of your body. Good!

I hadn't skied the Northwest Passage at Kolapore this season, and with the temperature climbing above zero next week and compressing our fluffy snow, I figured today might be the safest day for it.



Northwest Passage is a challenging 7.5 km trail that includes a 2.5 km steady downhill, some long, steep climbs and an often terrifying descent with a rocky creek in the middle of it that isn't always snow-covered or frozen. (Yeah, I fell.) The Bruce Trail shares the same route for short distances so there are always sections that have been stomped by hikers or snowshoers. To get there and back from our place adds another 7.5 km.

It was another spectacular ski day. This winter has been almost impossibly good for snow, temperatures and sunshine. It doesn't take the sting out of the pandemic but it does take our minds off it for hours at a time.



Following up on last week's totally unexpected discovery that I can earn Strava crowns by skiing at Kolapore, I got the crown for the Northwest Passage today, which is extra special for this reason.



I predict that will change by next weekend, given the terrific ski conditions.

Snowshoe with Mark and Jackie Tarno and 3 dogs.

Jackie’s first tour of Kolapore on another spectacular day. She has excellent skills from all her downhill and skate skiing experience but her borrowed classic skis were set up for a heavier person so she couldn’t get much grip. In spite of that, we had a fun catch-up on the Dhaulagiri Loop minus the climb. We were hit by snow squalls for a while, which made things extra amazing.

Darcie texted to see if we wanted to go out for a ski. We were tired but it was hard to say no on such a brilliant day. It’s great to see her enthusiasm for her new sport even though the ski hills have reopened, and she had already spent most of the day there. So ‘Bent and I joined her for the main loop in the late afternoon sun. We ran into Stephen Couchman twice! Otherwise, the trails were very quiet today.

'Bent and I went for a late afternoon ski around Kolapore, which has a *lot* of snow.



It's warming up though, and I'm getting nervous. I saw slush along the highway, which means spring skiing is coming, and I am *not* ready to give up winter yet. Coach LD and Goose are smart to go to Yellowknife next week. :)



But for today, it was still winter and we had a wonderful ski with lots of stops so 'Bent could take GoPro footage. (I deducted some time.)





He also put up a new sign to keep snowshoers off our connector route between the Bruce Trail and the ski trail network. Several groups of hikers have followed our bushwhacking tracks off the Bruce Trail, then they've walked on the ski trails. Ugh, guilt.





We ran into Mr. and Mrs. Gally! She was feeling off after getting her 2nd dose of Pfizer vaccine yesterday. Best reason ever to feel unwell.



'Bent flew down the western Wild Mouse trail. I'd hoped to take video but there was no time to set up the camera for that.







I recently discovered that I have the Strava QOM (Queen of the Mountain for non-Strava users) segment on the eastern Wild Mouse climb. Bob has the KOM. The first QOM happened by accident but today both of us gave it a good shot. 'Bent is still 2nd to Bob, as he was before - now by 7 seconds. I took a big chunk off my time though, extending my lead over the 2nd place woman to 2 minutes. Strava helpfully pointed out that I only need to cut out another 39 seconds to catch Bob, lol. I find this hilarious. Speed has *never* been my thing so it's weirdly fun to have the chance to think that way in this tiny corner of sport.

I met Tracy Roth for a tour of Hockleycrest. She's another avid snowboarder who has taken up cross-country skiing this winter. She has the right skills, and she got braver as we skied. We managed to get down most of the toughest hills in the trail network with no incidents. Weirdly, her Garmin measured 13.4 km while my Ambit measured 9 km. That seems low so hers may be right. My watch also measured 2400 m of elevation gain and said we went more than 900 m below sea level. Um, no.