Recorded from November 14, 2009 to May 24, 2010 with a digital camera that took a photo every 30 minutes; the film is comprised of over 8000 images. It was taken from the taco-cam perched on a windowsill above the deck in the house that I live.

East to west; from Barrie, ON to Whistler, BC in about four and a half minutes. Recorded October 26 to 31, 2009.

First tracks on the Hortsman Glacier on Blackcomb Mountain

That’s how much snow fell in the month of November in the alpine on Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. At one point in November, it snowed everyday for two weeks. The result of it all was 560 cm – 18+ feet of snow! As I described at the start of the season, this was going to be an epic winter. Hopefully this turns out to be true for the rest of the season!

There was full coverage of snow from the first day and rocks were almost all covered. It was mid-season conditions in November. We got a few days of rain in the village, but it mostly turned into snow in the alpine. There was a bit of a fright on the day before US Thanksgiving when it rained up to mid-mountain. Thankfully, the rain stopped there. The high alpine the following day was great – especially on Blackcomb Mountain (as seen above).

Hopefully the snow keeps coming – with some sunny days in between!

Here is a time lapse of the month as seen from the Batcave…

Terri stealing a bite of my cookie at Jericho Beach in Vancouver

Canadian Thanksgiving weekend marks the end of summer in most of Canada. The summer has been filled with hiking, XC biking, downhill biking (ouch!), golf, barbecues, trips to the beach and travel. Although, it was a fun summer – I’m definitely ready for winter!

Image below: one of many images from my flickr set, 100 days on the mountain in 2008/09. I’m not sure what I’ll do this season but I’ll think of something because one has to have goals.

Day 100: May 6, 2009

]]> http://garry.cc/blog/2009/10/11/summer/feed/ 0 http://garry.cc/blog/2009/08/11/homeless/ http://garry.cc/blog/2009/08/11/homeless/#comments Tue, 11 Aug 2009 08:08:52 +0000 Garry http://garry.cc/blog/?p=620

Olympic Couchsurfers

The 2010 Olympics are rapidly approaching; the February 12, 2010 opening ceremony is six months away, but it feels like it is only three months away. While it is only August, the available housing in Whistler has shrunk to a level that is normally seen in November when the ski/snowboard bums show up because they don’t want to waste any time or expense to pay for an extra month of rent before they find the fresh powder on the mountain.

This season, the situation has be exacerbated by property owners hoping to cash in on the Games. Many landlords are not renewing leases for the 2009/10 season in hopes of making some fast and hopefully big cash from visitors. I’ve seen properties listed for rent for as much as $20,000 per month. [Edit: here's one for $70,000 per month!]

The other problematic situation that has occurred because of the housing crunch are listing that have vacancies for one or two months in September and October because of the summer crowd moving out. Most of these vacancies will remain unfilled until the leases expire. Nobody arriving in their right mind would take one of these spots. If they did, they might have to move out of the BC lower mainland until the 2010 frenzy has died down in April.

The last unusual situation are landlords that are requiring their tenants to move out of their dwellings during the time of the Games – as seen in the above posting on Craigslist. This raises a few questions. Where will these people live? Couchsurfing may not be an option because every available couch and likely floor space will already be taken up by family, friends and long-lost acquaintances. Then there’s the 30,000 or so volunteers that will be rolling into town for the Games. Vancouver and Whistler will be bursting with homeless natives and visitors alike. Maybe Vancouver will go back to it’s roots and erect a tent city for the homeless.

Blackcomb burning

After a lightning strike last Thursday, a fire started on the Crystal Ridge area of Blackcomb Mountain. It was mostly contained within the first day as I’m sure workers were pulled off the 100 or so other fires burning in the province. I imagine fires in Whistler are given some sort of priority over other fires given the high profile nature of the location.

For the many firemen in town for the World Police and Fire Games, I wonder if it was a treat or a horror show for them to watch the mountain burning.

As of yesterday, four days after the original fire another fire started on Ruby Bowl, an area with very steep terrain. Blackcomb mountain was closed to tourists and hikers for a few days after the original fire, but remains open after the new fire on Ruby Bowl yesterday. Whistler mountain and the Peak 2 Peak are open with the exception of the backcountry trails which the province has issued a voluntary ban on hiking due to the fire risk. It’s been an eventful week.

As I know all of you like watching stuff burn, here are my photos from the fire. Click on the larger image to advance to the next one. If you’re on a mobile device, click here to view the images.

Pillow Talk

I always find it funny when I see bags of potato chips in a town that is at a high elevation. Whistler isn’t that high at 670 m/2,198 ft but when the chips are packed at near sea level and then brought to a higher elevation, it’s a bit puffed up – enough to be used as a pillow in a pinch. But I wouldn’t take my food to bed with me.

It’s simple science and great entertainment as explained by this science teacher in Mussoorie, India (elevation 1,826 m/5,991 ft). I wonder how puffed up the bag would be if I took it to the top of Blackcomb Mountain (elevation 2240 m/7349 ft). Maybe this has to be done.

Lost and found

The original goal was to hike/climb 7th Heaven on Blackcomb mountain – which we did. However, on the way up we started collecting garbage. We found the usual objects including water bottles, beer bottles, cans, goggles, clothing, skis, ski poles, two-way radios and the best of all, $125 (US) and a money clip. Maybe that was some good karma for picking up garbage and lost objects.

During the winter season, similar objects are found every day – especially cell phones and wallets. Whistler is a fairly good place to lose thing and have them returned. I recently left my credit card in a restaurant. I didn’t discover it missing until a few days later. When I did realise where I left it, I called and they did indeed have it. I retrieved it shortly after that without any hassle of getting it replaced.

I normally don’t carry cash with me – maybe for fear of losing it? However, banking is different that what it used to be. With ATMs and credit cards, cash is almost unnecessary in large cities and popular resorts. I can’t think of any place in Whistler that does not accept credit cards; and I think every merchant does because Visa is a worldwide sponsor of the Olympics. Even my lift pass is connected to my credit card so I don’t even need to carry a credit card with me when I’m on the mountain. Replacing a lift pass is easier than replacing a credit card or wallet. I’m not sure why people still carry cash.

The set from the day is below; click on the larger image to advance to the next one. If you’re on your iPhone or can’t see it, click here.

Rainbow Lake, Whistler's water supply.

After hiking to Rainbow Lake in Whistler, I started to think about where our drinking water comes from and how we use it.

In 1988 when I traveled to Europe for the first time, it seemed a bit odd to drink bottled water. However, everyone seemed to do there and it was the norm for Europeans. Growing up in Canada, I drank unfiltered tap water. As the population grew, so did the strain on the system. Water treatment facilities started to add (more?) chlorine to the tap water and I could really smell it in tap water. In the summertime when it got really warm, the Toronto tap water smelled like algae. This was really unpalatable to me and I started drinking bottled water – like the Europeans. However, this was costly and also created a lot of waste. I moved to an in-home water filter system, however, this removed the bad things (chlorine, algae, eliminated plastic bottles, etc.) but also removed the good things like minerals. This was a no-win situation.

When I look at where the water supply comes from, it makes me shudder. In Toronto, the tap water comes from Lake Ontario. Lake Ontario is also one of the most polluted lakes of the great lakes and dare I say it – in the world. There have been instances when periods of heavy rainfall caused sewers to overflow and have raw sewage run into Lake Ontario. Toronto, Kingston and other Canadian cites are have had similar instances. This happens worldwide and there are probably worse instances than these, but it doesn’t make it acceptable.

The treatment and necessary measures to ensure a safe water supply are required by the large concentrations of population in large cites. Even our food supply is similarly concentrated in factory farms and agriculture that also pollute our environment. I’m not sure what kinds of long term effects that this environment could cause to our health and economy, but the  possibilities are frightening.

It is tough to find a healthy balance between our health, lifestyle and food choices. However, after moving to a smaller town, I have one less thing to worry about and drink unfiltered tap water with peace of mind.

Cheakamus Lake

It is true, there is more to do here in the summer than in the winter. I’ve only hiked a handful of times, but if I hiked one trail per day in the summer, it would take me several summers.

Today I did the Cheakamus Lake hike. It was a short 2.5 hour hike from the parking lot beyond the garbage dump and the Athlete’s Village. It’s a relatively short and flat hike on a wide and well marked trail. It can be done by most in a morning or afternoon.

From this area, there are several hikes that can take you to Black Tusk, Garibaldi Lake and several other places. If one skis off the backside of Whistler Mountain on Oboe, Flute or Piccolo summits, or if one loses their way on Khyber (an unmarked off-piste tree run) they would end up here. I’m hoping there is a trail to Singing Pass which can take us to Whistler Mountain and to the Village.

More information about the Cheakamus Lake Area can be found at the BC Parks Website.

Here are the images from the day. Click on the larger image to advance to the next one.

Are you reading this on your iPhone? If so, there’s more photos if you click here.