VOC Winter Longhike!!!
Had an awesome time with the VOC this weekend on the annual "Winter Longhike" trip to Read Heather Meadows near Squamish! In all, 20 something people went but I didn't see them all much. We sort of broke off into groups but had a sort of pow-wow Saturday night in the "snow kitchen!".
Seven of us: me, Andrew, Kim, Greta, Simon, Juli and Max all left from UBC early Saturday morning and drove up the Ring Creek logging road until the van could go no further. From there it was a 1.5km hike up to the parking lot proper, and the start of the actual trail. 5km and a lot of sweat later we made it to Red Heather Hut and continued on a little more up into the Meadows. The rest of the afternoon was spent building our mansion of a snow cave. It took us over 4 hours to build 2 caves, but one ended up having a boulder right in the middle so all 7 of us CRAMMED into the big cave for a very cozy night! Night time was spent cooking dinner in our snow kitchen with the rest of the VOC, socializing and trading war stories of the grind up. There was not to be much merry making as we were all dead tired and starting to freeze so the 7 of us squeezed back into the cave for a warm night's sleep! It was nice to be able to sleep in for once without an alarm blaring! We woke up to a beautifully clear day with a good view of Mount Garibaldi right out of the cave entrance! A very lazy breakfast was made even more fun telling the others of our warm night in the mansion as they woke up wet and cold in their tiny 3 man caves (mean, i know). After, we all did a little practice using a transceiver by burying one and then others would try to find it - a lot harder than it sound when your only feedback is little faint beeps. Around noon we finally packed up our things, jumped on our snowcaves, and slowly left. The snowshoers were the first to ditch camp, followed by me and Greta on skis, and then the more experienced skiers behind us. The trip down was definitely the highlight of the trip. It's amazing how a 4 hour uphill turns into a quick hour long downhill! Back at the parking lot we were greeted with a semi-plowed road, which meant a very long hike carrying our skis back down to the van. Greta and I walked about a km before some very nice snowshoers put us in the back of their truck the rest of the way!!
(The only downsides of the trip are the 4 blisters per foot my new AT boots gave me as a welcome gift, and a pulled hip flexor that is both incredibly painful and impossible to walk up stairs without picking up my leg!)
Some pictures of the weekend are posted
here. There will be alot more as my camera wasn't working the first day so the other's have a ton more pics!
Most of the gang: Max, Greta, Me, Simon, Julia, & Andrew.
Tim just walking around camp casually:
A bunch of people doing transceiver practise with the Squamish valley in the background:
Packing up outside the cave:
Kim vs the cave roof!:
Greta skiing down, and then....:
Greta falling down!:
Me skiing on the trail down:
Hiking down the (sadly) plowed logging road back to the van:
Posted by Evan at 8:18 PM
Skiing/Camping/Partying!
Going away with the VOC at 6am tomorrow up near Squampton. We're skiing in about 5km and then digging snow caves to sleep in (sans tents). Hopefully there's enough snow to get a good shelter! Catch y'all later!
(pic stolen from VOC web site)
Posted by Evan at 11:12 PM
Without getting overly political and pissing people off I just want to say that if we have to have a Conservative government I am just so glad it's a minority and not a majority lest we become the 51st state. Who out there voted conservative anyway? I only know of one (1) person total!
My home riding was yet another super close "swing" riding with the three big parties all within 1500 votes. I wanted to vote in it since it was conservative last time, but the powers that be didn't send my ballot in time and consequently put me in the position of commiting a federal offence!
Here's a cool results interface.
Posted by Evan at 11:39 PM
Celebrity Hissy Fit
A funny article on Sean Penn's troubles to obtain an email address with his name in it. Looks like someone thinks he is the center of the universe. And apparently this is not the first time!....
"This was not the first time Penn has expressed anger over the difficulty of obtaining a Sean Penn-specific e-mail address. He made headlines last year when he refused to appear on the set of Columbia Pictures' All The King's Men for two days after he learned that SPenn@sonypictures.com had been taken by video assist operator Steve Penn."
Penn admitted that the painful experience of not being able to communicate freely through e-mail had its upside.
"Oh, certainly, I identify more strongly with the poor, war-battered youth of the Middle East."
Penn invited the perpetrator to accompany him to Iraq, to "learn a hard, real-life lesson about the devastation wreaked by false pretense, gross injustice, and misapplication of power."
Posted by Evan at 12:05 AM
24: Things Jack Bauer Won't Say....
If you are a 24 addict you'll probably find these damn funny. And if not, start watching this show! As you know Jack is a bit of a badass and so far there's nothing he won't do or say, until now...
(and to give due credit, stolen from
here)
"Everybody Calm Down...I Brought Enough Snackwells for Everybody"
" If You Put a Gun to My Head, I'd Have to say Cloris Leechman was my Favorite Actor in Spanglish"
"More Mayonnaise!"
"Who Read My Journal? Seriously, That's Private."
(Aftering Injurying Himself) "Samson's Cat...That Smarts!"
"I Can't Believe Edgar has More MySpace Buddies than Me."
"I'm so Bummed, I forgot to TIVO Skating with the Stars Last Night?"
"Anyone See My Troll Pen?"
"Happy Birthday, I Knitted This For You"
"Who's Djing at Liquid Tonight?"
"My First Puppy was named Snuggles and My 2nd puppy is Name Sparkles"
"I want to be in Charge of Secret Santa This Year"
"Guys I just took this Internet Quiz that says the OC Character I'm Most similiar too is Caleb, Ugh"
"These Ugg Boots aren't as comfortable as My Last Pair"
"I Put some of My Famous Risotto in Fridge, Help Yourself"
and Finally
"Mr. President, Can We Just Hug?"
Posted by Evan at 11:58 PM
Posted by Evan at 12:09 AM
Another one!! This time the credit goes to Peter for the nice shot!
Posted by Evan at 5:48 PM
Pictures Keddie and Bobo took of Broomball are posted
here!
Posted by Evan at 11:04 AM
I am never drinking again!
Posted by Evan at 2:37 PM
Broomball was sweet!!
Posted by Evan at 10:29 PM
I like beer, I like beer,
but drinking too much can make you act a tad bit queer;
and if this is a problem, so I hear,
that you must to Montreal steer;
but be sure not to leer,
lest all your beer be turned into kefir;
and it will become yet another inhere,
a fragmented reminder of your once glorious beer.
Posted by Evan at 12:55 AM
Very Amusing (and immature!!)
Pornolize your website today!!
Here's mine translated into filth. I particularly like how it adds middle names to my links of the left! (Disclaimer: This link is definitely not for the easily offended)
Posted by Evan at 7:21 PM
"In the future, everybody will be famous for 15 minutes." - Andy Warhol
This isn't fame but it's kinda cool, check
this out!
This site posts a new picture or quote everyday that is reader submitted and inspires one to travel.
Posted by Evan at 11:37 PM
Mt Baker Trip/Debauchery
So a bunch of us (moi, Peter, Jodi, Ruth, Ian, Rory, Bob, Mike, Aviv & Mark) rented a 'luxurious' cabin at Glacier, Washington this past weekend so we could hit the mountain hard for 2 wicked days of skiing and boozing before the semester got into full swing (and also to take our minds off the looming 479 project deadline).
So Friday afternoon we skipped class and drove South to be hassled by the border guards who thoroughly searched our van and confiscated our dinner: oven-ready pizzas!! Man were we ticked, especially when we bought the exact same ones in a store 100 meters from the border! I thought they lifted that ridiculous ban on our Alberta beef.
On a more positive note I never realized how wonderfully cheap beer down there is, less than $10 CDN for a case of domestic beer!! Sweet Jesus I'm moving to the states! Well just joking on that one, I'd (implied loosely) never do that, but I do appreciate a good deal on beer.
Friday night consisted of us eating out oven-ready pizzas with copious amounts of beer while we bitched about the border guards. We then all tried to simultaneously fit into the hot tub and emptied about half of its water in the process, what fun! Fast forward through a mediocre day of skiing, followed by repeating Friday nights activities with possibly a little more alcohol and good cheer we get to Sunday, the day our powder prayers were answered, to the tune of 7 fresh inches!! Sunday was one of the best days I've had skiing in the loooong time. It was so good that Mark and I even skipped on a lunch break to stay out to play a little longer. All of the runs were steep and deep, much to our liking. I think we even managed to do every black and double black (there are only 2) on the mountain over the weekend. We skied hard and took numerous falls to prove it, especially on the steep double blacks where the snow cover was too slim to cover everything and left us in some pretty tricks situations. A truly awesome day of skiing had to come to an end though and we all packed up to make the trip back to Sumas to stock up on cheap, cheap alcohol! This time the (Canadian) border guards were super nice and pretty much waved us through, but we were good little kids and only brought back out limit in beer!!
Check out more pics of the weekend
HERE!!Some of the gang getting ready to go skiing early Saturday morning. From left to right: Aviv (aka the smuggler), Ian (with his eyes open surprisingly!), Ruth, Mike, Rory, Bob und ich.
Ready to rip but not ready for a photo.
Fresh Power everywhere Sunday!!!
Taking a lunch break in the lodge Saturday:
Me and Bob in front of our gloriously growing 'Tower of Power':
Posted by Evan at 10:59 PM
A small battalion of us are off to Mt Baker tomorrow for one last weekend of fun before the grind starts. So we're skipping class tomorrow afternoon and breaking out the alki first thing we're state side...catch y'all later!
Posted by Evan at 12:58 AM
Random Misplaced Whistler Pics
Got a few more random pics from Alli from Whistler and I'm bored so ya...
Matt, Me, Taylor, Mike at Tommy Africa's:
Amber, Tyler, Alli and one of Alli's friends:
Awwww: Alli & Taylor
Posted by Evan at 11:56 PM
Happy New Years!
A little late but here are some pics from New Years 2006!! Since I'm too lazy to post much check out
Bob's page for more pics and smart-ass comments! It was actually a super fun night that started with me and Matt realizing we had nothing to do, but then we realized there were indeed a lot of people with nothing to do. Put two and two together and you have a PARTY! (considerable mention goes out to Taylor who beer bonged a few too many times and also to Matt, who was the guest nobody wants but he was in his own house) (no considerable mention goes out to Allison who came all the way down from Whistler but was too good to party with us but still crashed here; jk though)
"The Guys" - Happy New Year:
Taylor hitting the bong for the 35th time before visiting the back lawn:
Me and Matt after some more beer bong action. Matt always seems to be taking off clothes and putting random ones back on:
And here's 1 for Peter, the more astute drunk (anyone else think Peter should move to Montreal to improve his openmindedness? and I don't mean that in a 100% queer way folks; and this is just a horrible inside joke that only the people at the Wolf and Hound last night are going to get, but anyway):
that's all you're gettin folks, check out Bob's page for the more embarrassing pics
and one last HOHOHO and a glass of Egg-nog until next year!...
Posted by Evan at 1:00 AM
Well Christmas Holidays are already over!:(...Lots to say that will be left unsaid. Now it's back to school again (yay?). Hope you all had a wonderful break and are well rested and ready to begin the grind yet again. Also, stay tuned for embarrassing New Years photos!
As a side note: went to the Wolf and Hound tonight with Peter, Jody, Ruth, Bob, Stacy and Aviv and his roommates. Had a nice night in one of the best pubs around (gotta love Celtic ale). mmmmm I love beer.
Posted by Evan at 11:41 PM
