A pleasant holiday; a cold return

This year's winter break has been, well, wintry. As a clan we began by travelling to Canmore for five days of skiing. The weather never got colder than -10'C, and got as warm as 3'C. I spent four days skiing at the Nordic Centre and one day at Peter Lougheed Provincial Park. Four of those days were with fellow clan members, and one was solo, while the others took in the thrills and spills of Mt. Norquay.

(I have decided not to ski downhill. Maybe not ever again, but I certainly have lost my appetite for what used to give me thrills. Now I'm happy to avoid lifts and lift lines and lift tickets and equipment with weight like a stone to help gravity slam your ass down the slope. I dropped the kids and spouse off at the hill and headed back for the Nordic Centre.)

The Nordic Centre was in fine condition, and two night skis were the highlight. They light 6.5 kms of tracks and keep the lights on until 10 pm. While there's a $10 charge per skier for day use, at night you ski for free. Sweet!

The day at Peter Lougheed began climbing for 4.5 kms up the well-tracked WhiskyJack Trail, and then skiing a long way back down following a series of untracked trails that, after about 16 kms take you back to the parking lot. A total of more than 20 kms. Beautiful.

Up the WhiskyJack

Obligatory family photo at the "top"

Tall tall trees and fairytale snow

A detour resulting from the summer flood

This, my friends, is proper, sensible winter out-of-doors activity, in Alberta winter weather. The return home reminded us that we were Manitobans, and winter weather has its variations. Which is not to say that Alberta doesn't get cold. It's just that Manitoba always does. It may be a little earlier this year, but let's face it, we knew it was coming. Why are we so surprised? I don't know, but after skiing in -2'C, I couldn't bring myself to squeak and lurch my way around the trails here, at -25'C. (I still haven't skied here this season.) 

Which brings me to riding in the cold. I commute by bike all year 'round. I have done so for twenty-two of twenty-four years of my working career. Currently my commute is a reasonable, eight km one way, gravel (6.5 kms) and road (1.5) ride. Every year there are a few cold rides. By cold I mean -30'C or colder. Today was one of those days: -36'C, -46'C windchill (whatever that means); the wind came from the WNW at 20 kms, and to get to work I rode into it. It took me just over thirty minutes to get to work today.

At work, after the ride, I looked like this.

I'm a slow learner, perhaps because of an unhealthy tolerance for "getting by on something that works ... sort of". My goggles usually fogging up by the end of the ride. I sweat a lot. By the time I get to work I'm wet and hot (except for the extremities: fingertips, toe-ends, and one other member). I'm trying to figure out how to juggle the heat and moisture I'm generating with the need to keep the wind and cold out. Generally on an 8 km ride, it's not much of a concern, but I've registered for the Actif Epica, so I need to figure out how to ride at a steady pace for a long time, and not heat up (and sweat) over much, but stay just warm enough that I don't slowly frost up into a block of ice. It's a delicate, and vital, balance.

That, and I need to manage the goggle fog thing. BP at my lbs suggested dish-soap on the goggle lens. I tried it today with some success. On the way too work, when it was really cold, there was much much less fogging (icing actually) than usual. At the end of the day, on the way back, it was clear that the lens needed a second treatment. So it's a solution, but a high maintenance one. Maybe that's just the way it is on a bike at -30'C.