I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to shut down your computer at 5:00p.m. on Christmas Eve and then turn it on only after the 12 days of Christmas have passed. Today, the 6th of January, the day the Magi are said to have arrived in Bethlehem, is a national holiday back in Austria where I was born. Yet, with my computer back on-line, I shall at least get down to ‘work’ and write my president’s message.
A new decade is upon us! 2010 started with the Vancouver Olympic Games in our backyard. What a show Canada put on. Suddenly we were ‘On the Map’. Yes, the Village of Vancouver, as a New York City announcer said when New York lost to Vancouver in the North American Soccer League’s final game some years ago, had become a world-class city.
In skiing, I recall Maria Reisch and Lindsy Vonn shooting down one mountain after another, coming in first and second time after time. Maria Reisch, now Höfl-Reisch, won the Gold Medal in both the Slalom and the Super-combined at the 2010 Olympics thereby beating Lindsy Vonn to the World Cup Campion title for 2010/ 2011. Lindsy Vonn held the over-all World Cup Campionship title three years in a row, came in second in 2011 and then took it back in 2012, so we can safely say, “In the end, it was Lindsy Vonn’s decade, 82 wins”.
Not actually having 2020 vision, the future may yet produce a lady who may reach the top spot this decade. Five consecutive World Cup Championship titles in a row with six over all is still held by Anne Marie Moser-Pröll. Yet, Mikaela Shiffrin of the USA, born 1995 in Colorado, is the current champion and has won three titles in a row (2016 to the present). Let’s see what the future holds.
As with any new decade, one ought to test out a new winter sport, especially if you happen to be the president of the Pacific Ski Club. Thanks to Nathalie and Andrew, good friends from the Victoria Alpine Ski Club, I was taken up to Hollyburn Ridge where they lent me a new pair of snowshoes.
As a gift for accommodation (29/12/19 to 5/01/20) they went and presented me with my own pair (Andrew’s new pair had a ‘Wardrobe Malfunction’ and were exchanged, no-questions-asked by Sport Check, Park Royal) on the evening after that first outing. This resulted in going out bright and early on January 1st to enjoy a wonderful day in the local mountains. Wandering up from the parking lot to the new Hollyburn Lodge at Lake 1, we enjoyed my second day and also the second year of my snowshoeing carrier.
On the way down, we stopped in at cabin 154 and visited my good friend Rick and his wife, Carol.
Wishing to try our hands at skiing on the 3rd of January, we found that the winds had picked up and shut down all but two of the chair lifts–even those went down at 4:30pm. We snowshoe-ed that day; and on the next, Grouse Mountain was our destination where we took the Snowshoeing Grouse Grind to the top of both mountains, a short walk of only 10.79 km. Nathalie and Andrew’s trip ended on the 5th with dinner at the Observatory at the top of Grouse Mountain.
Near the top, we met a group of hikers, one from Florida, who, upon learning that I was not only a published Canadian author but that my second book, A Very Strange Christmas!, was to be launched this year (2020), they demanded a selfie--the second one so far--right on the snowshoe trail!!!
Let’s hope each and every member of the Pacific Ski Club had a wonderful Christmas, had Santa bring skis, poles, warm winter sweaters, boots (Andrew), snowboards, lift passes or snowshoes (Nathalie, Andrew, & Sven), and leapt into the fresh deep powder that has been blessing our mountains and slopes since the beginning of this new decade.See you all at club night, Thursday, January 16th – we will hold the raffle for the Christmas Bureau’s charity drive (100% of that raffle money will be added to the total of our gift to that charity). Party is upstairs and starts at 6:30p.m.
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