Callaghan Country Lodge on-snow camp with quick video

Here's a quick vid I pieced together from short clips I took recently while staying up in the mountains at 1400m at the Callaghan Lodge for a week of phenomenal training on the 8 km loop they maintained for us.  I banged out a fairly big week of 23 hours, almost all of which was skiing.  It was pretty easy to train up there with the skiing out your front door and awesome leisure activities close at hand as well, including sauna, pool table and ping pong.  And talk about a lot of snow!  Still 4 meters of base at the end of May!



On another note, mid-week while up at Callaghan Lodge I snuck down to Whistler to see The Wealthy Barber speak in the Village.  Having been introduced to his book a few years ago, he got me interested in personal finance and saving, triggering a change of direction in my education - I am now studying Finance part-time through correspondence studies with Athabasca University (not super-seriously though).

The Wealthy Barber (David Chilton) dazzled an audience of 500 with his priceless anecdotes of writing the book while only 25 years old, and with his urgings for Canadians to save more money and to watch their debt.  The dude didn't miss a beat for 2 hours!  What a champ.  And what a privilege - I would highly recommend seeing him speak if given the opportunity.

Yellowknife Visit

While back in Yellowknife I also had the opportunity to make it out on Spring Hunt with my dad and his hunting buddy, Francis.  Being aboriginal, we have the opportunity to hunt geese in the spring time.

Kajsa retrieving a goose from the marsh.  With the marsh frozen right to the bottom, melt water had pooled on top of the ice along the section we hunted. 

The Old Man playing the waiting game.  The tranquility would be regularly interrupted by trying to call in geese, followed by rigid stillness with only our eyes following the birds as they came in towards the decoys, ending finally with the excitement of an intense shooting bout. 

An attempt to broaden my culinary horizons by eating soft-boiled half-formed goose eggs.  They were pure orangey yolk, covered by a tough, veiny membrane.  The pungent cousin of the household chicken egg wasn't completely appetizing, even though my yellow lab seemed to think so.

Out at the Yellowknife Sap Suckers' open house out in the forest on a beautiful northern spring day (sunny and 20 degrees and no mosquitos!).  The birch syrup operation had sampling of the sweet soy-sauce-like concoction accompanied by northern cranberry pancakes.  Visitors could also guzzle birch sap tea (warm birch sap) from one of the large boiling vats.  

A day where we had scheduled to ski out to Bechoko (115km Northwest of YK).  Even though the wind and ice surface ensured easy 20km/h averages, the unknown ice conditions at the North Arm and the promise of a great day of paddling on the Yellowknife River with friends convinced me to hold off for the time being.  

A picturesque evening on the ice at Prelude Lake out at the Tumchewics' cabin around the time of John Tumchewics' routine cabin birthday party.  Kajsa and I had a great dinner and visit with Alicia and Rob even though the evening out at the cabin lacked it's characteristic borderline-overboard ebullience without John, a great friend whose untimely passing last summer has left many missing him within the community.