It's all about the butt shots - climbing that is!!

I am absolutely KNACKERED!! Have just spent the weekend on a rock climbing course. It was great but exhausting and my whole body is aching and knees, albows, ankles and shins are black and blue (and bloody red in places!) from all the bruises. Chris did todays part only (due to his prior climbing experience) so isn't quite as battered. We met some great people and have lots of photos - climbing photos quickly turn out to be 'all about the butt shots'! so I'm sure my scrapbook will be full of other peoples backsides! We climbed in the Checkamus Canyon and the Smoke Bluffs in Squamish (about 1.25 hours north of Vancouver). It was awesome and hopefully something that we will be pursuing in the future and a 'new' sport for us!! (so much so we're planning our visit to the Mountain Equipment Coop store in Vancouver in a couple of days time!!) For now we're back in the RV collapsed in a small heap on the sofa! Back to Vancouver tonight for our train trip tomorrow!

Vancouver Sun Run

Wow - what a great experience. Ran the Vancouver Sun Run today (called the sun run as it's sponsored by the newspaper the Vancouver Sun, but it did live up to it's name in spectacular style - glorious 20 degree weather making you long for the shady patches!) The race started in downtown Vancouver, along the main drag then into Stanley Park and along the Creek crossing 2 major bridges before ending in BC Stadium - the football stadium. The scenery was great - snow-capped mountains, leafy greenery in Stanley Park, the breathtaking water view at English Bay, and bridge views of English Bay and False Creek. Such a good vibe - 50,746 registered participants on the day! Chris and I ran seperatly coz of our varying times - my 'wave' didn't cross the start line till 45 mins after the claxon went off (very cool - you wear a computer chip on your shoe to register your actual 10km time from start to finish lines!) but eventually met up in the stadium for free powerbars, yogurts, fruit & bagels for a late breakfast! Spent the afternoon back at our city campsite lounging in the sun, napping and having a fabulous lard-bucket BBQ! (thus destroying all the health and vitality our bodies may have felt!) I think well deserved! Finished the day off with a soak in the hot tub!

A great surprise!

Paul had arranged a surprise for us all on the last day we were in Whistler - a scenic flight around the mountains, village and nearby Garibaldi Prov' Park by Helicopter - it was awesome and totally unexpected. Got some great views of the mountains and the ski slopes - managed to identify some of the runs we's been skiing on!

Drove off the mountain as far as Squamish where we stopped for the night in a campground right opposite Shannon Falls and 'the Chief' - a huge granite rock face standing about 2000 ft and the falls were huge - quite a pleasant noise to be kept awake by really!

More Whistler!

Have had an awesome time in Whistler - sad to be leaving tomorrow. Our first couple of days on the slopes were OK - we had glorious weather - blue skies and all, but in consequence the snow was pretty slushy and patchy on the lower slopes. Paul and Tom got to grips with snowboarding and on the 2nd day we had them coming down some of the slopes with us!

The weather turned on our third day - which we'd decided to have as our 'day off'. It rained a bit, but we were pretty lucky. We'd booked a Zipline tour on Cougar Mountain - it involved 3 ziplines, varying in length from 400-900 feet across a valley and river. It was really cool and since we were the only 4 people on the tour we got to do all the ziplines twice! Had a blast!


Later in the day we also had booked a 3 hour twilight Ski-doo trip. It left pretty much from the base of Blackcomb mountain (2200 ft) and we rode/drove(?) all the way to Crystal Hut at just over 6000 feet where we had soup and hot chocolate to warm up before heading back down the mountain - again another really cool activity. Paul and Chris were in their element driving big boys toys through the snow and disobeyed all instructions of 'no over-taking'. We even got to do some 'jumps' on the way back in.
Have just had another 2 days on the slopes now and we've had some wicked snow. It rained all last night and this afternoon snow even settled in the village! The powder conditions up high were just great and we've thoroughly enjoyed our time here - I just can't believe Chris and I hadn't made it up here before now.

Whistler

No photos at the mo' - too busy having fun! Got here yesterday and have a great apartment in the village. The roads were no probs on the way up here - but when we got here it was easy to see why - there's a distinct lack of snow. The slopes are pretty much OK thankfully but there's no snow in the village at all. Spend our first day on the slopes today and we're all absolutely shattered. For Chris and I it's so novel that we can ski for nearly an hour downhill without having to get back on a lift!! Paul and Tom both spent today in their snowboard lessons (first time ever for both of them) so we're looking forward to tomorrow when we can take the mickey out of them no end!

Shoes

We've spent the last 3 days in Cultus Lake. Chris has been busy, busy, busy with the rear axle brakes - stripped down and new shoes on (now that's my kinda RV - always out for a new pair of shoes!). Had lots of post waiting for us when we got back from the island so thats always exciting and we celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary by over-eating and drinking to excess on a beautiful BC evening in the campsite. The weather has been glorious and we'll have to eat some words - Cultus Lake can be rather nice after all! We even dug out our shorts for the afternoon! Went out on the bike up to Chilliwack Lake today - only 50km up the road but a steady climb all the way - the difference in temperature was so noticeable. At the lake we were level with the snow line!

We're excited about our friends Paul & Tom visiting - we'll be picking them up at Vancouver airport on Friday evening then heading up to Whistler for some class skiing (I just can't wait!)

Terry Fox

Got our amazon order through yesterday, including the amazing book about Terry Fox called 'Terry'. This is a Canadian lad who died over 25 years ago!! Aged 18 he lost a leg to cancer, then later in life decided he'd run across Canada (with one leg remember!) on his 'marathon of hope' raising money for cancer research. After 143 days and over 3000 miles (with a couple of thousand left) his cancer returned and stopped his run - he died less than a year later aged 22. His legacy remains rooted in everyone & everything here in Canada. Ever since we came into Canada last summer his story is heard everywhere - roads, mountains, parks & schools are named after him. Last year a special edition dollar coin was minted with him on it (the first canadian coin ever struck showing a person other than the king or queen!) Terry Fox is everywhere! We ran in the annual 'Terry Fox run' last Sept in Banff and incidentally met his brother in the foundation HQ just 5 miles up the road from where we've camped out this winter. His story has moved both of us soooo much and the book is just so sad - I can only read a few pages at a time coz I just start blubbing!! It also makes us think hard about 'the meaning of life' without being too profound about it!! (check out more about this amazing guy at www.terryfoxrun.org)