Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Ski Day and Another possible major Setback

For my thousands of readers that don't know, I am not just a 'bike' guy, but I am also an avid skier.  Who says I can't be great at one thing and be great at other things?  Checkmate Sergei,  Chuwa  Chuuung!
I fill up my winter days whenever I am not riding with two-planking the mountains of the North Shore.  Cypress, Seymour and Grouse Mountain are the local spots.  Just recently it has only been Grouse Mountain as it is the most convenient mountain for me and their season's pass is the most affordable.  
Yesterday was just another ski day.  It was a beautiful clear day and at just that perfect temperature.  The snow, however, was just a bit on the icy side.  This will become my downfall as the night ends.

On the way to Grouse Mountain through Vancouver's Lion's Gate Bridge.
On Lion's Gate Bridge

Riding the Grouse Mtn Gondola to the ski lifts.


For those not living in the Greater Vancouver area, you may insert your jealousy here now.

One of my goals in life is to Ski, Hike, Bike ride and Kayak all in a span of one 12hr day and ending it off with pitching a tent out in the woods at night.  This is certainly one of the very few places in the world where this is possible.  The only problems I foresee are logistics..  How do I carry my skis, where do I put my bike, will the kayak fit in my panniers..  etc. etc. etc.  You know where I'm getting at.  One day I will figure it all out.

Up on top.

Now do you understand about the 'jealousy' thing?   ..thought so.

It is about 5pm during this time and I am noticing a somewhat large number of kids everywhere, much more than I am used to seeing, especially on a school night.  I then put 2 and 2 together and remembered that it was Spring Break!  Arg. This just means the lineups are gonna be huge.
I just want everyone else to go home!  Let me have the mountain all to myself!
I didn't mind the super hottie tourists hanging around though, speaking in their foreign tongue, wondering why those two goofballs from a distance are staring at them and taking candid pictures.  

This is the Eye of the Wind.  Yes, I know,..  I've taken enough pictures of this for those of you who know me, but for some reason, my blog is getting hits from out of country from strangers so I am compelled to show off these beautiful sights that some of you are getting bored with.
If you want more information on this, go here http://www.grousemountain.com/Winter/The-Eye-of-the-Wind/  

A few more attempts at making you jealous pics.


Sun setting. What a beautiful sight.
 And last but not least,
View from Grouse Mountain at night


The day/night wouldn't all be pretty however.  It would seem that everytime I am up on the slopes with the travelling circus I hang with, that at least one of us goes home with an injury.  As good as clowns we are, we also have big hearts and so so brains.  Unfortunately, this night is my night.
 
As witnessed from the video footage, I did manage to hit my landing, but in the process I wrecked my ankle.  
As I lie in bed a day later with a huge swollen ankle wrapped up in ice, I still wonder how I made it home.  I think adrenaline was the only thing that got me home last night, I even had the 'threshold' to hit up a McD's afterwards for a late night chow down.  I am still unsure of the severity of my injury, if the swelling doesn't stop, then I will be forced to go see a doctor about it.  We shall see.
Now my biggest beef about all this is that I will be off my bike for a while again.  Ugh.  It is already spring time and my conditioning isn't even close to where I would like or need it to be.  

To end off this blog post, here is a compilation of the night's video footages.  Once again, I apologize ahead of time of the poor quality of video,.. at least the music makes up for it :D.

2 comments:

  1. Dear Eli. Your videos are awesome. I think the time you put into adding music to them is amazing. I now feel like I should put on my leotard and over sized t-shirt and break out in my body works work out. Go cheesy 80s work out music!

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  2. Haha, nice. Yep, hours and hours, days and days went into editing the video. The music was specifically written for it. Grammy's here we come.

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