Saturday, September 17, 2011

Fall update 2011



Or of course if you are reading this outside of North America then the title should be Autumn 2011 but what the hell.

First a quick update. Regular followers may recall that towards the end of last season (day 103 to be exact) I headed the report "Emma Watson nude pictures" of course there were no pictures of Emma Watson nude or dressed. This all came out of a drunken conversation with a buddy who maintained that there were a load of perverts out there who trawled the web for stuff like this and I would get a huge increase in hits on that entry if I included those words. I didn't believe it for a minute but decided to try it by way of an experiment and promised to report back on the results.

The bad news is that we have to score one for the perverts. That day has the most hits of any post on my site - 50% more than the next most popular which is the original post setting out what the site is all about and 4 time the number of hits for the season 2010-11 summary. Not sure what if anything this proves other than there are lot of perverts out there who have been lusting after the female lead of the Harry Potter movies for years - heigh ho, on with the report.

The fall weather has been fantastic and we have been spending most days hiking and biking then sitting out on the deck drinking beer in temps in the high 20's even at 5/6 in the evening. Fall is coming on with the bears starting to come down into the town to fatten up for the winter although there seem to be less this year, I think due to the late berry season up on the hill. In fact this year we seem to be getting a lot of cougars (the cats, not middle aged women) in town just for a change.

Hockey has started and we have seen the first home game which was and exhibition match against the Nitro's that we won 9-5. Lots of beers, loads of buddies to meet up with and the driver crashing the new Zamboni during the second interval - evenings don't get much better than that. Just heard we won the first game of the season proper away in double overtime so I guess technically winter's here.

The hiking has been great and I will even try and add (my tech skills may not be up to it ) a picture of a bear we met while out yesterday.

The big news on the hill is the construction of a new triple chair to the top of Polar Peak. It's the old triple chair from Nakiska and it will run from about the start of the Reverse Traverse around the County Line up to the Peak. In terms of capacity and speed it will be very similar to Boomerang chair. The RCR publicity machine is full of it claiming an extra 22 runs which I guess they can get to by designating every right/left choice round every rock a different run. In truth it will just open lift access to what we always got with a 35 minute hike up Polar Peak and we identified as about 6 different runs but it's more vert so I'm not complaining.

The safety guys have done what they can to damp down the hype a bit. They don't see it as opening all the time in fact most of them liken it to the old face lift which would just open as and when conditions permit. There will be the issue of signage and fencing at the top as it is all too easy to drop into some close out lines which can, and have, killed people in the past. If nothing else it should improve avi control in Currie bowl and allow that area to open more quickly on days when heli bombing isn't an option.

At the moment the whole lift is in bits in the parking lot and the wood formings for the pylon bases are yet to go up the hill. With overnight freezing only a week or two at the most they need to get a move on with the work but you have to hope someone has thought this out.

So what will the winter be like. The overall pacific weather pattern is much the same as last year which is good as most people thought it would collapse dropping back into warmer and dryer conditions. As we sit here the long term outlook is for a wetter and colder winter than usual with up to 30% more snow than last year which would be truely awesome if it happens. Some buddies of mine that work in forestry tell me that all animals that store food for the winter are building their stores about 1.5 metres higher up this year than normal and this is taken as good sign for lots of snow.

Well whatever it turns out to be I will be here from 23rd Nov to report on it. Off now for a cruise round the Great Bear Rain Forest on a 92 ft schooner to try and get a sight of a spirit bear. See you all in the winter.