Winter has officially started in the Okanagan…

Oh, I’m not talking about the unusual accumulation of snow down in the Valley where we are supposed to be living in a desert. I am talking about the fact that on this date (December 5th) real winter started…

Firstly, by 7:00 a.m. I had made my first batch of porridge. It was amazingly good, considering I had not made any for several months. The texture was good, there was good balance between the rolled oats and the flax seed and the wheat germ, and when topped with real brown sugar and whole milk – well it was delicious…

Then to follow all that up – drove up to the Apex Mountain Resort. Dug out the winter clothing, the skis and other accouterments, picked up my ski pass and over to the Triple Chair… After runs on Whipsaw, Lucky Strike and a pair on Motherlode I moved over to the high speed quad up to the top of the mountain. Then, following an old tradition, skied the Grandfather’s Trail. It’s about five [5] kms long and winds around the mountain before ending up at the central lodge (and thus right beside the condo I share).

A sidebar: last time that tradition will be undertaken – it was bitterly cold and the run is oft-times slow, and it isn’t really fun… apologies to fingers and toes and cheeks…

The final stats for the day:
• five [5] runs
• 1,909 Vm’s
• average speed 25.1 km/hr
• max speed 46.5 km/hr
• horizontal distance: 12.2 kms

So the season has started. The base of snow is more than sometimes we have in March. Even the grooming was well done. So let’s celebrate the start of winter…

If you still care – Have a reflective Advent Season…

g.w.