Snow Days

 It snowed yesterday.

We got about 6 inches at home.

Our world is beautiful again.

It was beginning to look like the early signs of spring,

the meadow had a lot of bare ground showing.

Yesterday when I got home there were roughly 10 deer

hanging out in around the yard.

This is what I saw this moring.

There were 3 of them sleeping out under the trees.

They didn't even budge when I shovelled the path.

 I wish I could capture that blue morning glow.

This will have to do.

Use your imagination.

That first morning light on new snow is SO gorgeous!

And I love how the snow outlines this wonderful piece of garden art my friend, Michael, made for me.

I think I take a foto of it every year. I just can't help it.

Day 6!

Yep! That's right! Day 6 of sunshine!
Temps are in the teens at night and the sun warms our hearts
enough to believe it is warm during the day.
The ice gets the lightest sheen of water on it
during the sun times and then freezes smoother than
evah at night.....
It is amazingly wonderful ice right now.
And the Moon is Huge and lights the night with
these glorious blue tints to the snow and shadows.
(and ice on the driveway, OH MY, the ice on the driveway!
'tis treacherous out there.)
Winter Wonderland defined.

Saturday

 Friday night brought us the teensiest bit of really dry snow.

This much, enough to skate through and make angels.

 B and I drove to the south end of the Lake to try out the ice there,

since we couldn't skate down and check it out.

 Bad medicine as seen from mid Lake.

 Twirl around and see the Rod and Gun Club.

 Ibex Mountain.

The sun shone a bit here and there and the temps increased dramatically as we played.

By the time we departed, the ice was mostly cleared of snow and lovely still.

Friday the 13th

 Bull Lake.

The ice here is fabulous, even beter than Savage Lake

AND the sun is shining!

 This is a natural spring area. It usually freezes though.

This open water impeded us from skating to the south end of the Lake.

 This is the usual compression fracture at the north end of the Lake.

The ice crystals here were amazing.

Actually, they were amazing everywhere.

In places it looked like we were skating on labradorite!

 Mike arrived a bit later from working.

Upped the entertainment factor a few notches!

 And they skated off into the sunset!

Al Fantozzi came out with his axe and chopped the ice to check depth, 7 inches, he says.

Then he went for a hike in the woods.

Note: there is no snow. It is SO weird!

 Speaking of weird!

Playing with the self timer a bit!

Yes, and sadly, there was a murder on the ice.

They left a lot of forensic evidence...

coors light drinkers, they were, go figure!

shotgun shells were also left on the ice.

The broken bottles and shotgun shells were encased in the ice.

We put this guys head back on for him!

Late 2011 Sk8ing

 Welcome to Shannon Lake.

This little lake is tucked up in the low mountains above Old US Hwy 2

and the Kootenai River.

 You have to hike in.

It is a short, steep hike.

Slippery too, on this day.

 Jim skating from north to south.

 The sun was trying to burn through.

It didn't quite make while we were here.

 A veiw of the Kootenai on the hike out.

 If you squint and use your imagination, you can visualize

the town of Troy in the above foto.

 Here is the steepest part of one of the routes in.

 This is the trail.....really!

We skated here in late November or early December

I cannot remember which.

I tried to post on the blog then but it wouldn't let me.

I just found these again and love them....

So better late than never!

Newbies

 This year we have a few brand new ski patrollers,

so we did a bit of tobaggon training late in the day

to break them in.

It was great fun, and they did really well, naturals!

It is always great to have fresh enthusiasm on the mountain!

Happy New Year!

 I started my new year at one of my favorite places:

Turner Mountain!

I took this shot while I was sitting my shift in the top shack.

gorgeous day! Those are the Canadian Rockies in the way back!

Gorgeous smiley skiers all day too!

Bright in the Blizzard

So, yeah!

How do you like my outfit?

I won first place in the costume contest for this "get-up".

I was in charge of Crazy Days, I kept hearing people say,

"if Michelle is on charge, why isn't she here today"?

Then I would speak and they would recognize my voice....

it was hilarious.

We had a snaffu with lift operations late in the day and had to evacuate the passengers, I was wearing this while belaying people from the chairlift!

Noone seemed concerned.

Anyone out there recognize where this fine ensemble may have come from?

Skiing

After a full day of shovelling the pathways, parking spots, shed roof, camper,

 the basement windows & the neighbor ladies paths, a friend showed up

all excited about ALL the snow and we immediately donned our cross-

country skis and took off breaking trail around the "back 20".

 As you might recall, the bridge blew out last summer,

this is the new crossing.....a bit tricky on skis, but worth the adventure.

 It is actually the approach and the ending that are the treacherous part of the adventure.

 Over the knee deep! Wow!

 Whew! a little desent, but not very fast as the snow was SO deep!

The snowed in path.

Before & After

 Looking out the basement door toward the garage pre-shovelling.

 Same view, post shovelling.

Looking from the gargae toward the basement....

Day of rest?

 Monday is usually the day to bake bread and wash long johns,

but we got snow, snow and MORE snow,

ultimately it snowed over 20 inches in fewer than that many hours!

 Some scenes from the day.

I was hoping that this shot of myself would indicate how high the snowbanks on the driveway were...

Over waist high, can you tell?