I’ve been seeing a lot of Tweets like these and its getting me excited for winter:

@Mt_Seymour: We have 7cm of snow and counting! – Nov 6
@CypressMountain: Snowing all day! Opening as soon as we have enough snow! – Nov 10
@GrouseMountain: Today’s snowfall pics: http://tinyurl.com/yfyl6rd – Nov 10
@WhistlerBlckcmb: Wow, check out the forecast! Between 45-70cm expected by Monday! – Nov 12

So here’s a look at these 4 mountains, when they are opening, and what, if any, will be the impacts of the Olympics this winter season for them. Starting up the Sea to Sky and working east:

Whistler/ Blackcomb

Whistler Opening: Saturday, November 14
Current Snowbase: 95cm
Blackcomb Opening: Thursday, November 26
2010 Olympics Impact:

During the Olympic and Paralympic period, which begins January 25 for course set up, over 90 per cent of terrain will remain open. The only closed runs will be those in the area of the race course on Whistler Mountain along with the training runs on both mountains. During the Paralympics in March, over 90 per cent of the terrain will also be open with only the race course and training runs closed on Whistler Mountain.

Whistler Mountain Run Closures (January 25 to March 27)

• Dave Murray Downhill, Wild Card, Jimmy’s Joker, Upper Franz’s

Whistler Mountain Run Closures (January 30 to March 27)

• Bear Paw, Tokum, Crossroads

Whistler Mountain Run Closures – other

• Bear Cub (February 1 to February 28), Raven/Ptarmigan (February 1 to March 21), Crabapple (February 1 to February 17)

Blackcomb Mountain Training Run Closures (January 29 to February 28)

• Springboard (riding the Solar Coaster Express, which is open to the public all season, will provide phenomenal views of Olympians training on Springboard), Lower Cruiser

For a complete look at 2010 Olympic impacts, including parking, go here: http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/olympics/index.htm

Cypress Mountain

Opening Day: Friday, November 13 (Easy-Rider Chair and Cross-Country Area)
Current Snowbase (Mid Mtn): 45cm
2010 Olympics Impact:

I posted earlier on what looks like will be a hugely impacted experience, you can review the impact summary here. But basically, parking seems like it will be chaos, the Eagle Chair will be off-limits the whole season, and there will be no public access from February 1 to March 8. Along with this, Cypress recently announced blocking access to Cypress Provincial Park during Feb 1 – Mar 8, and some trails for 4 months! (More info here: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/cypress/). This obviously has a lot of back country goers quite mad.

Grouse Mountain

Opening Date: TBD Friday, November 13 (Paradise Bowl and Greenway Chair 4pm)
Current Snowbase: 50cm
2010 Olympic Impact:

This is an impact I can dig. During the Olympics, Feb 12 – 28, Grouse will be open 24 hours a day! I went on a midnight snowshoe trek last year and it was great. This is when insomnia is fun!

Mount Seymour

Opening Date: TBD
Current Snowbase (summit): 45cm
2010 Olympics Impact: None

Enjoy the season!

No doubt you’ve recently heard about a grossly depleted sockeye salmon run this year, and a lot of controversy about the potential cause. For those interested in the situation, I just wanted to quickly post about a documentary that will be playing in Vancouver tomorrow, November 12 (the trailer is above). From Alexandra Mortens’ newsletter:

The entire film will be posted in a week. If you would like to get a CD of this film to set up a viewing please contact the filmmaker Damien Gillis damien@slingshotcommunications.com. If you are in Vancouver there will be a showing at:

Date: Thursday, November
Time: 7-9 PM
Location: SFU Segal Centre – Room 1500-500 Granville St. (Downtown Vancouver – Granville & Pender)
Cost: $10 for Public / $5 for Students & Seniors

For more information on the global issues with salmon farms: http://www.farmedsalmonexposed.org/

I also recommend checking out http://www.adopt-a-fry.org/ for current news on the situation, including the recently announced Judicial Inquiry by Stephen Harper.

1. Seven people were rescued in the dark on the Grouse Grind this week.
2. MEC has begun selling bikes in their stores, and the criticism from local bike shops continues.
3. The BC Liberals are still pushing for private power projects. The Globe & Mail has another article on the matter.
4. Earlier this week, PM Harper announced an inquiry into the BC sockeye salmon collapse. Alexandra Morten has a good update of the situation on her blog.
5. There are a lot of upset backcountry skiers this week as Cypress announced closures during the Olympics.
6. The Vancouver Sun explains why Nature is the Star of the Sea to Sky.
7. Straight.com has a great article on snowshoeing, and why it takes heart.
8. The course for BC Bike Race 2010 has been announced.
9. Amber Turnau has a post about All Things Snow to get you ready for the upcoming winter season.
10. Are you the ultimate ski bum? Enter this contest and you can win 15 day of cat and heli skiing in BC.

- I can’t embed the video, but you have to see what its like to kayak some extreme water in the Congo [via The Adventure Blog]

- Ever wanted your own half-pipe? Oh to be Shaun White…

- Stumbled this on YouTube. A random clip of a friendly seal jumping aboard a kayak in English Bay:

- From Wend Blog, some pics from a dorm at a University in the Netherlands. In a word, awesome:

- Also from Wend Blog, a video on the new freediving world-record. William Trubridge went 288 feet without fins. To put that in context, I’ve never gone down further than 70 feet with a freaking oxygen tank on my back! I really don’t know how this is humanly possible:

Freediving World Record – 88m without fins from william trubridge on Vimeo.

- Outside Blog posted this trailer for a new snowboarding vid called All or Nothing. “:

Straightline Productions “ALL OR NOTHING” from Straightline Productions on Vimeo.

- A very cool amateur video of what its like to snorkel with one of my favorite underwater creatures; whale sharks [via @scubadivegirls]:

- A cool infographic on which animals in the wild cause the most deaths each year:

1. NSR made another rescue on Grouse Mountain this week.
2. Straight.com has a nice article on scuba diving in Whytecliff Park.
3. Local Tofino surfer, Peter Devries, won the Inaugural O’Niell Coldwater Championship.
4. The Globe & Mail looks at the BC Wilderness, Where the Wild Things Aren’t.
5. Miss604 has a great Social Media Directory for Local Ski Resorts.
6. Jack Christie has a great article on exploring the Fraser River by sea kayak.
7. Search and Rescue teams are getting worried about misuse of personal locater beacons.
8. I’ve been following Steph Davis’ (@highsteph on Twitter) search  for $12,000 worth of base jumping gear that United Airlines has lost, she has a humorous  post on her blog including pictures from here most recent trip.

Today is Halloween and another month has passed. Rain, rain, perpetual rain is here, but luckily this has been translating into the accumulation of bit of snow for our local mountains. There were also some good events this month like the MEC Gear Swap, Vancouver Snow Show, and the Cold Water Classic Surfing Competition which ends today.

Here’s a look back at some of my favorite posts for October:

1. To prepare for the upcoming winter season I provided some resources that will help you Get to Your Destination Safely in the Winter.
2. October 15 was Blog Action Day, and I asked (Why) Do you Care about Climate Change?
3. You can now get Free Print-ready Topographical Maps of Canada.
4. There is a great worth-while campaign running called Save the ‘Bou (Woodland Caribou).
5. I compiled a list of Outdoor Clubs and Associations around Vancouver.

And this video from Pics & Vids of the Week made me laugh so hard I thought I’d share it again!

Happy Halloween!

I recently had someone who is moving to Vancouver email in and ask me about what outdoor clubs are around. Clubs are a great way to meet new people who share your interests, learn more about an activity, and find motivation to get out and participate in different sports. While I have posted about a few of the local individual clubs before, I thought it would be handy to create a more comprehensive list.

I will try to come back and update this periodically as I find new clubs and associations, so let me know which ones I have missed!

Biking & Cycling:
Atomic Racing Club
Vancouver Cycling Club
Cycling BC
Squamish Off-Road Cycling Association
Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition
North Vancouver Mountain Biking Club
North Shore Mountain Bikers Association
Surrey Off Road Cycling Enthusiasts Society
Dirty Girlz Bike Club
Escape Velocity Cycling Bike Club

Hiking:
North Shore Hikers Club
ClubTread
The Hiking Club for Beginners
Outdoor Club of Victoria
Chilliwack Hiking Club
Club Fat Ass
Wanderung
Valley Outdoor Association

Multi-Sport:
Vancouver Regional Outdoors Club
Tetrahedron Outdoor Club
Burnaby Outdoor Club
North Vancouver Outdoors Club
Backroads Outdoor Club
UBC Varsity Outdoors Club
UVIC Outdoors Club
The Self Propelled Outdoor Club

Paddle:
Sea Kayakers Association of BC
Burnaby Canoe and Kayak Club
Pacific International Kayak Association
False Creek Racing Canoe Club
Fort Langley Canoe Club
Jericho Outrigger Canoe Club
Vancouver Kayak Club
Vancouver Rowing Club
Lotus Sports Club

Rock Climbing & Mountaineering:
Climber’s Access Society of BC
BC Mountaineering Club
Alpine Club of Canada

Skiing:
Hollyburn Jackrabbit Ski Club
Nordic Wrecks Ski Club
Vancouver Skiers
Whistler Nordics
Pacific Ski Club

Other:
BC Geocaching Association
Canadian Avalanche Association
Outdoor Recreation Council of BC
North Shore Triathlon Club
Pacific Road Runners
Greater Vancouver Orienteering Club
Victoria Orienteering Club

Save the ‘Bou is a great campaign by a collection of organizations to get 5,000 emails sent to the Office of the Premier in Ontario, calling for the protection of Woodland Caribou. 5,000 also happens to be the number of Woodland Caribou that remain in the Southern Boreal Forest of Ontario.

Herds of Woodland Caribou used to stretch across the North American Taiga region, from Alaska to Newfoundland, and as far south as Washington. Yes, that means they used to run rampant across BC, but when was the last time you saw a caribou around? In fact, the Cariboo district, (you know, that whole middle section of this province) is named after the once abundant numbers of the beautiful animal that used to roam the area.

Incidentally, I started wondering if I had ever seen a Caribou ‘live-and-in-person’, and then I remembered this picture of myself as a young tike while on a road trip through Alberta with my Dad. (Oct 29 Update – I’ve been informed this is actually an elk! Both elk and caribou are members of the deer family, and look fairly similar, but just goes to show you how much I know )

Now, according to Wikipedia, A herd still lives in Alberta, and in other regions their chance of survival is diminishing due to threats like commercial logging. Such is the case Ontario’s Southern Boreal Forest.

So that’s what this campaign is about, and all you need to do is sign a pre-written letter for Premier Dalton McGuinty. It only takes about 30 seconds so do it! Right now, they’re at about 1000 emails, which means 4,000 to go in a short time.

Feel Good Click of the Day: 5000 Emails for 5000 Caribou

That’s what a new online campaign titled, “Save the Bou,” is hoping to achieve in Ontario by December 31, 2009.

The same Woodland Caribou that appears on the quarter in your pocket is quickly disappearing from the southern Boreal Forest of Ontario (just 5000 remaining), despite a promise from Premier McGuinty, over two years ago, to protect the animal’s habitat.

Don’t Be Shallow

Social media is often accused of being shallow and all about self-affirmation, well why not go deep and affirm the right of Ontario’s Woodland caribou to survive by sending an email to Premier McGuinty today, directly from the petition page (www.savethebou.ca) before joining our Facebook community at www.facebook/savethebou and tweeting your good deed (there’s the self-affirmation part!) and hopefully re-tweeting the campaign’s feed at www.twitter.com/savethebou. Remember to invite interested friends to become fans of the FB page.

Save Caribou and Protect Our Climate

Canada’s Boreal Forest is the largest terrestrial storehouse of carbon on earth, making it a vital regulator of global climate. When caribou habitat is logged, carbon is released into the atmosphere. When caribou habitat is preserved, trees and soil can absorb more carbon and keep it in the ground where it belongs. A 50% reduction in logging in the Boreal would reduce global warming pollution equivalent to taking all the passenger cars in Canada off the road.

An Early Christmas Present For Ontario’s Caribou?

With only 5000 caribou left, and 76 days remaining before the end of 2009, every day that passes without a credible caribou conservation strategy means another flip of the coin for the survival of Ontario’s caribou. If Premier McGuinty isn’t persuaded to do the right thing by Dec. 31st, new logging plans for caribou habitat will be drafted in the new year and that means more logging and fewer caribou by this time next year. 

Give these critters an early Christmas present.

Every little click helps!

Also follow @SaveTheBou on Twitter, and become a Fan on Facebook.

1. Earlier this week a grizzly bear mauled sleeping hunters in Nelson.
2. A North Shore News employee was rescued after getting lost in Lynn Valley.
3. Kingofdiamonds blog has a great list of cold weather backpacking tips.
4. This week 16 year old Jessica Watson of Australia embarked on her solo sailboat circumnavigation of the globe.
5. The Vancouver Sun explains how MEC walks their environmental talk.
6. Mayor Gregor Robertson unveiled his plan for Vancouver to be the world’s greenest city by 2020.
7. Darren Barefoot has a post on how you can now opt-out of the Yellow Pages Phonebook!
8. Base Camp has a post with 26 Outdoor Twinfluencers to follow on Twitter.

- I love free solo climbing videos. Here’s a skyscraper climb via Outside Blog:

- From National Geographic Adventure, this little beauty is called the Whoopy. “An inflatable wing—part balloon, part paraglider—used in skiing or snowboarding to extend jumps, ease landings, and pull off absurd leaps over crevasses and ravines.”:

- From Wend Blog, a video on Parahawking. Yes, Parahawking, which is, well, paragliding with a few hawks thrown into the mix:

- Wend Blog posted this trailer for Rio Breaks. “Part documentary, part surf film”, looks killer:

- Here’s a trailer from the Outside Blog. “Coal Country, a documentary about the battle fought over coal mining in Appalachia, exposes the environmental tragedy and social conflicts that have arisen from mining coal”:

- From the Adventure Blog, a helpful video on how to pack a backpack:

- Can’t embed the flash slideshow, but click here for a photo gallery about an Ocean of Plastic….in Bird’s Guts. “Chris Jordan ’s work attempts to place the impact of consumerism in perspective. For his latest project he traveled to the Midway Islands, near the heart of the Pacific Trash Gyre , to photograph the decomposed bodies of chicks that have been fed plastic litter by confused parents. “

The 6th Annual Vancouver Snow Show is taking place this weekend (Saturday 10am – 7pm & Sunday 11am – 5pm) at the Vancouver Convention Center.

If you’re looking for that ’something’ to get you pumped for the upcoming winter season, this could be it.

New products on display, ski and snowboard retailers and pros, mountain ski resorts, training associations and travel information! The Calgary and Vancouver Snow Shows have everything your winter is all about!

The Grouse website is also offering this coupon for $2 off admission when you bring in a non-perishable food item for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society. At the show, Grouse will also be offering a killer deal on their One Night season pass, as well as zip-lining, so that alone might make the event worth-while for you.

Apparently the Natural Resources of Canada website, CanMatrix, is giving free access to all their print-ready digital topographic maps! I just learned about this very useful website thanks to the Wanderung newsletter:

A big thanks to Bob who forwarded us this helpful link to print ready topo maps. It takes a bit of tinkering with but the payoff is huge if  you need s reliable resource in the back-country! Add this to your  bookmarks! This from Bob:

“Not sure if you know about Natural Resources Canada which is a  department of the federal government and in charge of topographic maps. Apparently they want out of the publishing business and this is the
reason why their maps can now be readily downloaded from their web site.

Credit goes to Ian Whitehead for this discovery and his notes below.  I met Ian for the first time on June 27 when joining Chris Nott for the  backpack trip to the northern part of the Stein Valley.

CanMatrix – Print Ready was produced by scanning federal government  topographic maps at the scale of 1:50 000 and 1:250 000.

1) Go to http://geogratis.gc.ca/geogratis/en/product/search.do?id=34325

2) Zoom in and pan to the area you want a map for and get the map  number, e.g. 92J10

3) Put that map number in the “Dataset name” box near the top of the  page, under the “Search Datasets by Name” heading. Click search.

4) Click submit on the next page (there should be just the one map on  there with a tick against it)

5) Choose either the tiff or the pdf format, then download.”

1. Masey has a good overview and great pictures of the Lynn Headwaters Regional Park.
2. The Vancouver Sun reports on what is One of the Worst Years in History for Salmon.
3. Shayboarder lets you know which videos you should be watching to get pumped for the upcoming snowboarding season.
4. The Sightline Institute has a cool new newsletter (daily or weekly) where they scour over 40 newspapers from the North West and pick the top 10 sustainability stories to share. If you sign up now you will be entered in a contest for a trip to Seattle
5. NSR Member, Curtis Jones, is on the North Shore Outlook’s 30 Under 30 list.
6. Tracks and Trails has a report on a new ‘clothing optional’ trail that has some people excited.

What can I say about this topic that hasn’t been said 1 million times before? I could write about the current state of our environment, rising CO2 levels, a rising global temperature, melting glaciers, our path to spoil our drinkable water, deplete our oil reserves, kill our oceans, and surround ourselves with toxins, but the only people who would read that are people who already believe in climate change. I would be preaching to the choir.

While I personally believe in man-made global warming, depending on who you talk to, it can be a controversial topic. So rather than write about the facts and figures and explain the need for massive change to take place, I instead pose this question.  Why do you care about climate change? Or why don’t you? I asked myself this question, and the answer is multi-faceted, but ultimately boils down to an enjoyment of the outdoors.

The reason I signed up for this Blog Action Day is because this is a topic I firmly believe in. But why do I care about global warming? This is what I will write about, in hopes it makes a few people take a closer look at the ‘Great Outdoors’.

Old Faithful, Yellowstone Park

I had a fairly normal childhood, played a lot of sports, had good friends, etc, but didn’t really think about the environment, or the lasting impact were are having on it. Very recently, these factors have opened my eyes:

1) The Outdoors Spending most of my childhood time playing organized/ competitive sports, I never really got into ‘nature’ much. Playing soccer outside is one thing, seeing a harbour seal curiously approach you while scuba diving is another. The connection to nature in the latter is far more impactful. One day in early June 2007, I went on my first real hike, with my wonderful girlfriend. It was a cold, foggy, rainy, rainy (very, very rainy) day and we spontaneously decided to go up the Stawamus Chief. We grabbed lunch at White Spot in Squamish while deciding if we wanted to brave the elements and head up. Luckily we did. We were literally the only people on the mountain. We passed a tourist couple in the early stages, who were heading down because of the rain. I was blown away by the solitude, the ability to forget about work, school, etc, and just enjoy the time with my girlfriend, and appreciate the mountain and my surroundings. Getting the top was amazing, and looking down on Squamish through small breaks in the fog, it seemed like we were on top of the world, even at a modest 700m. I’ve been hooked on hiking ever since, and likely will be until the day I die.

Hiking up the Chief

Since that hike, I’ve also discovered kayaking, scuba diving, snowshoeing, back country camping, I continue to learn more about the outdoors all the time, and want to take on new sports like rock climbing. These activities have had the greatest impact on my appreciation of the environment.

School: As a business student at SFU, I was lucky enough to meet some friends who were involved with Net Impact whose ‘mission is to inspire, educate, and equip individuals to use the power of business to create a more socially and environmentally sustainable world.” Through joining the club, and a random series of events, I landed my current job with a company that hopes, through software, to change the way organizations manage and communicate their progress towards a better future.  At SFU I also watched The Corporation, in which Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface-Flor spoke of a book that changed his life (the Ecology of Commerce), and the direction his company has taken in the proceeding years to financial prosperity while minimizing environmental impact. Which brings me to my next point:

Giant Plumose Anenome in Howe Sound

Books: I read the Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken after listening to Ray Anderson in that movie. That book, in two words – life changing. The book was already 10 years old by the time I read it, but I have never since doubted the impact of business on the environment. Paul Hawken’s book has sent me reading many more great ‘environmental’ books, including, Natural Capitalism, Cradle to Cradle, Plan B 3.0,  Collapse, Blessed Unrest, and Last Child in the Woods, with many more on my ‘to read’ list. Other good books, not of environmental nature, but ones that I have read with an outdoor/ adventure theme - Into Thin Air, Into the Wild, and South.

Documentaries: If you haven’t seen any of these, I recommend you watch them (I’ve linked each to a YouTube Trailer), because they have all helped me to see how diverse and inter-related the problem of climate change and our global environment is.

• A Crude Awakening – Looks at the implications of a world economy built upon petro-chemical derived products and transportation, and what will happen when our oil reserves are gone.
• Flow: For Love of Water – Great movie, which looks at the increasing privatization of our world’s fresh water sources, and their depletion.
• The Last Continent – Story of a Canadian expedition to the South Pole to research the effects of climate change. Awesome cinematography.
• Home – I’ve reviewed this movie before – a must see.
• The Future of Food – This movie was shocking for me. Looks at how large companies like Monsanto use the law to force farmers to use their products, and the implications on human health.
• The Cove – A new one about the annual dolphin slaughter in Japan.
• Sharkwater – Elephants kill more people than sharks each year, yet we kill millions of sharks so we can add their fins to soup. This movie depicts how the top predators of the ocean’s food chain is going extinct, and the possible implications.
• Planet Earth – A brilliant TV series by the BBC with some of the best wildlife footage I’ve ever seen.
• Up the Yangtze -  Looks at man’s ability to greatly alter the natural environment with the damming of China’s largest river, the Yangtze, and the resulting displacement of 1.24 million Chinese.
• Who Killed the Electric Car – An inside look at the events which set back the development of electric cars.
• An Inconvenient Truth – Do I need to say anything for this one?

The final thought I have is that at times when you’re watching these movies, reading these books, and otherwise educating yourself on the state of Earth’s environment, things can seem hopeless. The documentaries in particular can be down-right depressing. It’s terrible to see the things we are doing to our oceans, our drinking water, our air, our valuable natural resources, the chemicals we expose ourselves to, our reliance on oil, and how things will come tumbling to a bitter halt when these actions catch up with us. For me, getting outdoors is the antidote, the inspiration, to fight for our environment, because it makes it real.

I am far from an activist. You couldn’t even call me an environmentalist. I don’t ride a bike to work (yet), my son wears disposable diapers, I’m not perfect. But I have come leaps and bounds in a few years with regards to how I look at our environment, and the actions I take. Its amazing how a shift in your thinking, and taking one small step, will led to more and more small steps, which will add up to a change in the way you look at the world. I think when I look back on my life in 10 years from, I won’t believe how wasteful I currently am. The same way my son’s generation will look back on us and say ‘how could they have done these things?’.

I’ve already taken a lot of small steps: My house has CFL’s, I started composting, my shower has a nice low-flow shower head, I use a reusable coffee mug to avoid wasting a cup each day, I hang-dry laundry when weather permits, I weather-proofed our house doors and windows, I choose to buy things from companies with good corporate social responsibility when possible, I try to use reusable shopping bags, I transit to work, I do my best to buy eco-friendly products, and so on. But best of all, none of these changes are really a sacrifice, they are easy, often save money, and in most cases are more enjoyable than the less eco-friendly alternative way of doing things (for example, you couldn’t pry my stainless steel coffee mug from my cold dead hands, and I now shudder at the thought of using a crappy disposable cup).

I also try to encourage people to get outside more through this website.

Kayaking in Deep Cove

Getting outside, whether it be walking in a park, hiking, snowboarding, kayaking, or wing-suiting into a freaking canyon, is the best way to appreciate what we have, and what could be losing in a generation or two. Until you appreciate nature, you won’t see the value in these small actions, because I know I didn’t.

Because whether or not you believe in global warming, there is MUCH room for improvement to how we treat the environment, and the effort is worthwhile. A healthier environment and healthier eco-systems only mean healthier people, lower rates of asthma, cancers, and still-births. It means more efficient companies, which make sustainable profits using materials that can be re-used indefinitely, while giving back to the communities in which they operate. It means a future we can be proud to leave to our children.

The implications are very real. Glaciers are melting, clean drinking water is becoming more scarce, toxins are in everything – our fish to our children’s toys, and the oceans are dying a slow death by plastics and our over-consumption of its inhabitants. In the end, even if climate change is a farce, we will only have a better economy and better lives if we take care of the environment first.

Finally, here’s a look back at some environmental focused posts I’ve had over the past year or so, and if you’ve managed to read this whole post, thanks!

1. 11 Million Salmon missing….
2. Shark Finning: International Problem Comes to Vancouver
3. Earth Day around Vancouver
4. Canadian Navigable Waters at Risk
5. Upper Pitt River Still in Danger
6. Stand Up for BC Rivers
7. Good News for BC’s Great Bear Rainforest
8. My original post on Environmental Sustainability