Red Heather: Avoiding the Ditch
I’ve been avoiding driving up the Diamond Head Road for a few years now, since it is often icy and very dangerous. Many people don’t realize this, and on a few occasions I’ve seen four or five cars in the ditch, and tow truck drivers are said to make thousands of dollars on a good weekend there. However, it’s a great day trip – it’s only an hour away, you can drive high, the access is quick, the views are spectacular and there’s reasonably good skiing, so I do like going there once or twice a year. After a not too early wake up, we drove up (with Mirella and…
- Backcountry Skiing, British Columbia (and nearby), Sea to Sky, Trip Reports, Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC)
Mt. Sproatt: Sprouting Wings
Yellow icicle? I never thought of this, but most icicles are clear. This icicle was more of a frozen waterfall, and although I’m not an ice climber, the thought of climbing it got me a bit excited. What were the chances that we would find an icicle, let alone the correct yellow icicle? We had been looking out for this yellow icicle, since it was our path out of the forest and into the glorious sun. On Saturday I organized a VOC trip to Mt. Sproatt, near Whistler. Ten people showed up, two of them not members of the club. We followed the directions on the VOC wiki and parked…
Rolled Up Red Pepper Bread
The smell of roasting peppers is irresistible. I have observed this fact over the past few years, and yet still manage to be amazed by it every time. A person walking into your kitchen while you are busy roasting peppers, is sure to be dumbfounded by the exquisite aroma emanating from your oven. I made this bread twice. The first time I followed the original recipe, which called for mixing the peppers into the bread. This is all very nice, but I ended up with a wet mess that was impossible to knead, and a bread that took forever to dry out in the oven. The second time I made…
Phelix Hut: J. R. R. Tolkien Lives On
The well known author of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy supposedly died in 1973. However, in a small almost unknown corner of southwestern British Columbia, J. R. R. Tolkien lives on. I know this since I visited his snowy throne. Yes, with my comrades I scaled the steep ice walls of his castle, to stare face to face with the literary giant, and to view his kingdom, or failing that, at least his magnificent creations, notably: Gandalf, the white bearded wizard, his fearless and fast as lightning horse Shadowfax, and Aragorn, the tall warrior. Together, they make quite the bunch, or group of mountains, it depends…
Cuba: Cycling Journey to the Land of Socialism and Endless Coconuts
Often there were more horses and oxen than cars When you think of Cuba, what do you think of? Perhaps Fidel Castro, Cuban cigars, cheap rum, old American cars, communism and the US embargo come to mind. But the experiences we had, such as riding alongside more horse carts than cars, gulping coconut after coconut given to us for free and watching kids ride to school on a tractor, never failed to surprise us, and gave us a glimpse of another Cuba. A Cuba that keeps marching on to its own special drum, despite huge obstacles that have been put in front of it (thanks in large part to Uncle…
