Pre-Season Lines and Bouldering Problems

We got an early gift from the snow gods this year in the form of a Halloween snow storm. We ended up getting about 10cm that stayed on the ground for about a day. I managed to get a really good cross country session on Halloween then woke up the next morning at O'Dark Hundred to hike for turns at Fortune. Here is some video evidence:



I have also been working hard in the climbing gym and am about to do a leading course in preparation for next summers outdoor season. Here is a couple lines a filmed at a session the other day:



Hopefully next video will be documenting a winter camping and skiing trip I have planned for over the holidays. Cheers.

Training for Tele-Season

The weather is getting cooler and I am getting stoked for the winter and skiing. I have been doing a lot of biking, rock climbing and running some hills to make sure I am ready to hike for some turns in a couple months.

In the next few weeks I hope to get an outdoor rock climbing video put together. I just started climbing this month but I am really enjoying it and spending lots of time trying to improve and doing some cool lines inside and out.

Kiteboarding in Kincardine

I woke up this morning hopeful for the 25 km/h wind in the forecast but was dissappointed to tree tops standing still and water calm. Slowly the wind picked up and by early afternoon it was looking really good for a kite session on Bruce Beach. I met up with a couple other kiters and quickly pumped up my kite. The wind was blowing about 15 knots from the Northwest and I had lots of power on my 16m Ocean Rodeo Rise.

I launched the kite and got out to the sand bar to do some water starts. The surf was pretty big and it tossed me around quite a bit trying to get positioned properly. I did a couple big power strokes and pulled myself out of the water but had a hard time building enough momentum to really get going. A power stroke is basically starting the kite from high in the air and diving it low in the direction you want to travel. This movement exposes the full surface area of the kite to the wind which then generates power to pull you out of the water.

I had a blast getting pulled out of the water and riding the board but had lots of spills. This can present a problem for a couple of reasons. The first is you need to be thinking about where the kite is and what it is about to do as soon as you recover from the fall. A kite can pull you fast, hard and unexpectedly. The important thing is to make sure you stay facing the kite and are able to de power when necessary. Now remember while your worrying about the kite and what it is about to do your board is probably upwind of you and very hard to spot in choppy water. The next task is tack upwind using your body as a rudder to retrieve your board. Now you can try for another water start.

Starting a kiteboard is similar to getting up on waterskis, The difference is the bar now drives the boat and there is no letting go of the rope and coming to a stop. It is very easy to focus on your riding, forget about the kite and become underpowered and sink back in the water or get overpowered and fly over the board. The fun part is once you find the right balance of power the harness around your core takes the pressure off your arms and allows for long periods of riding without becoming tired or sore. The other cool aspect is the kite takes quite a bit of weight off the board so you feel a lot lighter than you would being towed by a boat.

I had about a five hour session and there is only one part that I would not consider fun. I was walking the kite out from the beach after a break and without warning my harness became unhooked . Now the kite is uncontrollable and quickly loops and crashes on the beach. The only option is to try and chase after it but it is hard to catch and the lines will become tangled. Eventually I caught up to it and spent a good half hour untangling the lines. Learning to kiteboard has been a lot of fun and a great challenge. I would recommend it to anyone that loves to board and is not afraid of a little excitement and a lot of power.

Mathematics takes us still further from what is human into the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the actual world, but every possible world must conform.

-Bertrand Russell

I have not had a lot of spare time recently but I can summarize what I have been doing fairly succinctly with a handy algorithm I came across that generalizes beyond mathematics.

1. Write down the problem
2. Think very hard
3. Write down the solution

Spring Riding

Sunset Snowshoe

We just had the two nicest days of March weather you could ever hope or dream of this weekend. One of the ways I decided to enjoy it was doing a couple trips around our local field which is about 4 square kilometers and a two minute bike ride from my house. I could not find any humans to accompany me on the trek but the Siberian Husky showed a lot of interest in the trip as soon as I reached for his harness. I was treated to a beautiful sunset Saturday and Sunday but preferred to leave my phone and hence camera at home.

Another treat for me this weekend was watching my roommate take off and land on his first flight at the Ottawa Flying Club on Saturday morning. Brodie accompanied me again but seemed to take a lot more interest in below ground as I gazed up at the sky. Other highlights were a trip to the Ottawa Bagelshop for hot bagels out of the wood burning oven. Also a trip to the World of Maps to order a custom map of the Quebec city area where a ski touring trip will happen over next Christmas holiday.

I mentioned a while back that I had a set back on my bicycle in the form of a flat tire. Well recently the roads have improved significantly and yet my bike has still been riding about 10 minutes slower on my commute to school than it normally would. Turns out I was riding a damaged rim and blown tire for the last month and blamed it on the poor conditions. Live and learn. The guys at Fresh Air Experience hooked me up with 30% off on a new rim and tire and a new tube for free, I attribute this to the good vibes I was giving out. So if anyone needs a bike go see Duncan at Fresh Air he knows his stuff!

I also felt very privileged to be able to attend a lecture called Painting With Parts given by my Uncle Pete at the National Art Gallery of Canada. Peter presented his life's work and I thought it was outstanding. The theme of the lecture was thinking of a building in terms of several main constituent components or parts. These parts can be designed very precisely by a computer and that allows greater competition among manufacturers to build each part. This simplifies construction and reduces manufacturing cost. In other woods....very cool. In terms of design one thing that stuck was the following. Turnover is very high amongst the brave souls that answer our 911 phone calls. My uncle designed an emergency response centre in Vancouver with a view of the North Shore mountains for the operators at their desks. The average length of employment tripled for these employees after this building opened. This shows me the power our surroundings have on us humans. This fact also serves as a perfect introduction into my next topic.

Before I begin I want to say my intention is not to be critical it is merely to present my own approach. I also do a lot of gross oversimplification partly for tractability and partly because of my own time contraints. One of the questions I get asked frequently is... Where do you see yourself in (insert number of years)? This comes up from friends, family members and in job interviews. It also comes up a lot at my house with my roommate Dan. Both of us have what seems like to us as a dramatically different perspective than the conventional view. I will define a few terms before I discuss my answer.

The lifecycle problem is a question that fascinates me and a lot of economists. In an abstract sense it means over your life how much and at what time do you consume, save and how much do you earn. The idea is to choose the level of consumption because that is what you control in order to maximize lifetime happiness. This could be for a person, a family or a country. For example the United States has accumulated 10 trillion in debt because it continually chooses to consume more than it earns. It can justify this by saying we are going to live a long time and we are going to make more money in the future. We have all seen what happens when people question these assumptions.

A conventional view to the lifecycle problem goes something like this. You begin your economic life at around 18 and your earning power will initially be very low. This is the perfect time to educate yourself in order to receive higher income later in life. The returns to education can easily justify the use of student loans. Next you enter the workforce and begin at a fairly low salary that will steadily increase until about age 55 or whenever you happen to reach the peak of your career. Over that period you typically accumulate a large amount of debt when buying a house. You then use the higher income you receive from increased workplace experience to build equity in your house and accumulate assets (savings) in preparation for retirement. At around 65 you hopefully have accumulated enough assets to receive investment income to support your desired level of consumption or you worked for a company that accumulated assets on your behalf (a pension). The key point in this analysis is that at any period you can use your income and credit or saving facilities to obtain some desired level of consumption and try to secure consumption in the future. Common sense but it is quite beautiful represented mathematically in an optimal control framework.

Okay back to my original question. The times in my life where I can remember being the happiest and can picture myself being the happiest are at a cottage or in the woods. I also perceive that everyone else around me is at their best as well. This could my grandparents cottage on Lake Temagami which my Mom and stepfather Paul have taken over. My Aunt Trudy and Uncle Mike's cottage in Calabogie. Going for a ski or summer hike and swim at Mont Tremblant. Fishing with my Dad and brothers in Northern Quebec. Hiking for turns, and winter camping with Dan. And more recently lying on the white sandy beach on the shores of Lake Huron at my girlfriends parents cottage. The point is this is what I love to do. Which now begs the question how does that fit in with my own lifecycle problem?

Well I am very fortunate to be blessed with a gift in life that I call enjoying math homework. Why that is such a blessing is that it can be done in essentially any location on the planet equally well. A friend from school recently told she performed most of her summer work for the math department outside on her deck. Taking a break at her leisure to go for a long jog. This is the type of lifestyle I anticipate being able to obtain with my education.

Another thing I encountered recently was having a bit of fun searching for property in Quebec city with Dan. The properties were listed as ideal locations to build a second "vacation home." Our view is why leave the vacation behind and go back to a non-vacation home. It looks like Dan is going to have the opportunity to own a nice sized chunk of Canadian playground in the next few years.

So my own lifecycle problem solution goes something like this. Spend as much time as possible in the next few years to receive the best quality education possible. I am not sure exactly form that will take but my guess right now is an MSc in Applied Mathematics and another MSc in Computer Science. Then obtain a job performing operations research and spend roughly 10 years building a reputation and developing contacts. Once I have enough money saved pick-up a large property and build a small house with the ability to have my own bike trail, and skijoring circuit. Ideally there would be water access as well. I would then be permanently on vacation and work on a consulting basis to support my outdoor recreation addiction. I never would plan to retire because the concept would have no meaning for me.

What is working in my favor? The Canadian population is continually becoming more urbanized putting pressure on house prices in cities and depressing house prices in rural areas. Canada has no shortage of the terrain I am interested in, quite the opposite actually. I also plan on working in a technical area that does not require me to be physically present in an office to do my work. So that pretty much answers the question where do I see myself in ...(insert number of years)? Too long of an answer for a job interview though.

Skating in Fresh Powder

This is a picture from my last skating day of the season. I arrived to a canal covered with a blanket of snow but still fun to skate on. The snow then turned to rain and had its way with the canal by the time of my return trip. The last few days have brought more rain so the Winter Commute Season of 2010 is officially over. However, the spring commute season is just beginning, with its own set of challenges and advantages. I am going to discuss a few things I have learned and accomplished from the last few weeks of getting to school and back:

-Skating on the canal is very special and brings out the best in people. I had many good conversations and good experiences just taking my skates on and off. A few that stand out are one with a fellow ski touring enthusiast, another with some Aeronautical Engineering students and also one with a visitor from Vermont taking his first steps on skates.

-I was able to significantly increase my fitness level in the span of a few short weeks. From feeling I am the most alert and awake person in my 8:30 am class to feeling the burn on the last climb before home, the body loves fresh air and exercise. I also had a streak of 12 consecutive school days without missing a bike or skate to and from class. The goal for next year is going to be to top that.

-I also accomplished all of the goals I initially outlined and one other which I did not mention. Namely, I had a great time and found an efficient way to exercise. My other goal was not to fall over. The way I accomplished this was to take my time and be careful. I think I can apply this philosophy to all other areas in life.

So now that I can close the book on Winter Commuting lets talk about the spring. The plan is to ride the bike every school day from tomorrow until April 29th when my exams are over. Modulo the constraint that I will not bike in icy conditions. (I am a math major remember) So what is biking in the spring all about? Trying to stay clean and dry at the dirtiest and wettest time of the year. Notice I say trying because if you plan on biking in the next little while you will get dirty and wet. What guidelines do I follow:

1) Gumboots: Kiwis know it and so should the rest of the girls I seeing wearing soaking wet UGS all day long.
2) Bike Safe: I saw a woman with a bike covered in Christmas lights, this woman is significantly lowering her risk of an unwanted vehicular encounter.
3) Dry Clothes: Bring them with you because they will make you and the people around you more pleasant.
4) Take care of your bike and it will take care of you: Wipe it down and lube it up.

So if you spot a guy biking through a giant puddle grinning like a Cheshire Cat, that's me.

Hiking For Turns

I woke up Friday morning at 6:00am with two things on my mind. One was I better study for the four midterms I have next week. The other was I want to snowshoe up Mt. Tremblant and ride my snowboard down. I hit the books for a couple of hours before I could wake up my brother and his friend with the sounds of Junior Senior's Move Your Feet blasting from my I-Phone hidden in their dark bedroom. We set course for the base of Mt. Tremblant my brother and his friend armed with lift tickets and myself armed with snowshoes and climbing poles. I was happy with my decision when I spotted the infamous 10:00 am gondola line.


The first half of the climb was really enjoyable. I hiked the side of a relatively untraveled blue run. I had a few people stop mid-run and ask me some questions that I tried my best to answer as I attempted to catch my breath. The temperature was mild and I was climbing with a long-sleeve t-shirt on with no toque or gloves. I reached the halfway point and spotted Gray Rocks looking lonely.


I was unsure about what route I would take for the second half of climb. I needed to balance distance, pitch, snow conditions, and popularity. I was looking for something fairly direct and deserted. I found exactly what I was looking for in the form of a narrow run that happened to be closed. I am pretty sure it was closed so that the tourists would not be able to track out the fresh snow. This run also had the benefit of being so narrow it kept me protected from the wind which howled as I continued up the hill.


The last part of the climb became so steep the snowshoes were actually hindering progress. I will have to get a pair of crampons next year. I used my resilient and durable climbing poles to maintain a positive rate of climb. I finally got to the top, quickly strapped on my snowboard, and had a blast on the way down. I stopped halfway and did another little hike to get to the top of Flying Mile. This is great run that allows you to pick up as much speed as you can handle. It is only accessible by its own chairlift or in my case the HeelToe Express. A quick ride to the bottom and it was time for a salmon burger and a pint of microbrew from Le Diable.

Just Another Day

The alarm clock goes off at 6:30, there is a hint of twilight in the sky but not enough light for the Circadian rhythm to help me out. My body is tired from burning the midnight oil studying integration and my legs feel like they are on strike after being put through ten straight days of hard workouts. Within a few minutes I shake off the cobwebs because a very busy day lies ahead and 16 km North. This is coincidentally the direction where the 20 km/h wind is coming from, which will be my next challenge. I quickly make a large fruit smoothie and pack my bag full of school books, delicious homemade Indian food and extra layers.

I set off for the University of Ottawa on my reliable Norco, my face is stinging and my chest is tight from the cold. Within a few minutes my heart is pumping, my legs are pumping and my body is warming up as I continue North into the wind. The roads are clear and dry and I feel like I am winning the rat race. Twenty minutes into the ride I feel the endorphins rush into my brain and give me an extra boost of energy and sense of well-being. Before I know it I am changing into my skates with steam coming off my head, arms and neck.

The canal is empty and justifiably so. The winds are making forward progress a formidable challenge and I feel like I am on an ice treadmill. However, I manage to make it to school just moments after the start of my 8:30 Statistics lecture where thankfully we are reviewing for our upcoming midterm. I hand in my assignment and pick-up the previous weeks 13.5/20, another pass. At 10:00 we are released and my next task is spending the next hour and a half studying for my Analysis midterm at 1:00. The studying goes well and I feel comfortable if not confident about the upcoming test. The next class is Differential Equations. I hand in my second assignment of the day. Our topic for the day is the application of second-order equations. The professor is an expert in biological modelling and an excellent instructor.

Next is the midterm. Before we begin my professor spots my smoothie sitting rather inconspicuously at the side of the room and asks the class if it belongs to anyone or if he should be concerned that is it some sort of toxic liquid. I reassure him from across the room that it is non-toxic and quite palatable and we begin the test. It goes about as well as I imagined it could but the time flew by and I really could have used an extra half-hour.

It is now 2:30 and time to meet my student. I manage to wolf down some lunch as I wait. The subject is second year business statistics and the student needs a lot of help. I go over some problems with him but he needs to do more homework. After an hour we devise a study plan and agree to meet again the next day. It is now 4:00 and the last lecture of the day is in Applied Probability. The topic is Markov Chains which is a fascinating and useful tool to analyze the evolution of systems. The instructor is good at what he does and has a very subtle self-deprecating sense of humor which I enjoy. He calls it quits five minutes early and now all that is left is the journey home. Just look at how bad the traffic is:

While you were sleeping.....

I was hiking for turns at Camp Fortune at sunrise this weekend.

What a fantastic week it has been. I was able to bike and skate to school and back Monday to Friday. I also made it up to Fortune Saturday and Sunday morning by 6:30 to "beat the crowds." Actually Dan, Brodie and I do that every weekend we are not at Gray Rocks and it is easily the highlight of our weeks (especially Brodie). I was also able to prepare or consume delicious homemade meals all week. I can not take the credit for this one it is a stuffed lobster prepared by my roomate Geoff whose working on his Red Seal in culinary arts:


This was a delicious chicken salad with a homemade berry vinaigrette:


I also found a few airplanes parked next to a Sleeping Giant in Thunder Bay:


This was a floatplane base in the dead of winter I stumbled upon. It was full of Cubs, Skywagons, Beavers and an Otter. They were all begging to be warmed up and taken for a flight. That is all for now.

David Drainville

My destination last weekend was Thunder Bay. The same destination of my great grandparents when they left the Outer Hebrides of Scotland to start a new life in the Great White North. I attended a memorial service for my Dad's first cousin and 29-year fire department veteran David Drainville.

I remember David as a child as being larger than life, my old man is 6'3 200lb and he looked like a twig standing next to David. He was a true outdoors man and you could find him pickerel fishing in Ontario or hunting wild boar at night in the Australian Outback. I remember him letting me sit in the driver seat of his fire engines and sliding down the pole. He was a family man that raised three boys in the house he built himself on the shore of Lake Superior.

The last years of his life he was able travel all across Canada and the United States. On a trip just a few short months ago he was crossing the border and was unable to answer the standard questions. The border guard was suspicious and the paramedics were called. Within hours he was diagnosed with a brain tumor at the age of 57. The illness was considered a result of his career fighting fires. He was able to make peace with the world and accept his situation. He spent the rest of his life being cared for by a loving family. Let his story tell us to make the most out of everyday and connect with the people who matter most.

Sunny Skies Ahead

Over the wing on Fi-Fi coming into Pearson 24R


What a gorgeous day perfect winter weather in my opinion, the canal will be open again in no time. Here is the current METAR:
CYOW 291800Z 27013G20KT 20SM FEW020 M19/M27 A3027 RMK CF1
SLP262

I just got in from a gorgeous bike ride from my father's place in Barrhaven back to my place. My trusty pedal-powered vehicle performed beautifully with her new tube in place. I would love to be among the lucky few I saw doing pattern work in some hard crosswinds on runway 22 but for now I am happy to watch. I am going to be flying to Thunder Bay later today and I will post why when I return. I'll let you know what I was wearing from top to bottom for the ride today because I was perfectly comfortable the whole time:
-On my head I wore my ski helmet and underneath that I wore a thin balaclava that covered my nose and face but is permeable to allow breathing. I also wore a pair of cheap sunglasses because it would have been blinding without them. I carried a scarf but did not wear it, allowing the warm air being generated by my core was to escape and preventing me from sweating.
-On my torso I wore a dry fit t-shirt and on top of that a dry fit long sleeve. I always recommend two layers of wicking fabric to remove as much moisture as possible from your skin. Over top of that I wore a light ski jacket with the armpit vents open.
-For my legs I wore underwear, a pair of light long johns, and light snowpants over top.
-For my feet I had a pair of athletic socks with heavy wools socks over top and insulated gum boots to keep my feet dry.

Now that thats out of the way let me tell you a bit about myself and what my blog is all about. I am 23 years old and I live in Ottawa with two fantastic roomates and a 1 1/2 year old Siberian Husky who is a wonderful companion inside and outside. In the past few weeks for the first time in my life I have really discovered and decided what I love and plan on doing for a living. Right now I am studying Mathematics at the University of Ottawa and plan on continuing in the Systems Science graduate program next year. After that I would like to study computer science and software development at the University of British of Columbia. The goal of this education will be the ability to work for an aviation company working on aircraft performance and control systems. I would eventually like to become self-employed like my mother and work as a consultant from home when I start a family and have my own property.

Until last year I was studying economics preparing to do an MA and possibly a PhD but one of my elective credits was a Mathematical Economics course that dealt with dynamic optimization and optimal control. I instantly fell in love with the subject and have since been trying to practice and learn as much as I can about optimal control theory since. This has involved me filling up all my remaining credits with courses like Algebraic Structures, Real Analysis, and Applied Probability. Also it requires me to take summer school and an extra school semester.

For those who might not have heard of optimal control it is the branch of mathematics that involves choosing the trajectory or path of a number of control variable over time in order to maximize a performance index. Some real world examples might be controlling a chemical reaction to achieve the most end product with the least input of energy and precursor chemicals. Also you might want to minimize the amount of harmful byproducts produced in the reaction as well. Another example would be finding the best route for an airplane to follow that minimizes the amount of fuel burn and time traveled. This is done by considering engine performance, winds, and of course avoiding the other aircraft in your way. The examples are endless.

As far as my personal life I am truly blessed to have a beautiful and talented girlfriend that is passionate about creative writing and documentary making. I could not imagine a better complement to my interests in science. We also share a love for the outdoors, cooking and our parents cottages. I also feel extremely fortunate to have a very diverse, dynamic and ultra-supportive family because what I do would not possible without their assistance and advice.

I have a love for aviation and flying that dates back to my role model, my grandfather Allan Raymond Buchanan. He owned and operated many planes throughout his life and began flying in Aruba at about my age. He was an engineer and worked for a few aviation companies before starting his own business and retiring at an early age to enjoy traveling and the outdoors. His family was always his top priority and I hope never to forget that. I will write a post about him some day.

I am a total outdoor junkie in every season and I could not imagine a better country to live in then Canada for that reason. My favorite activities right now are biking, hiking, canoeing, camping, snowboarding, waterskiing, surfing, snowshoeing, skating... this list goes on and on. But the sport I am most excited about is skijorning for which I plan to own a beautiful female Siberian Husky in the next few years. In the future I see myself working from home, living near mountains and water and owning my own bushplane. So like I said sunny skies ahead.

If one of your courses has this as a marking scheme....you might be a math major

Marking scheme. The final grade will be made up as follows. The two term tests are of equal weight. The contribution to the final grade from the term mark will be denoted T and that from final exam, F; both are taken out of 100 for the computation below. The term mark, T, will be composed of marks on the problem sets (more or less weekly; best n out of n + 1) contributing 10%, and two term tests contributing 45% each. The final number grade, M, is obtained from the formula
M = .6F + .4T if F ≤ 60 or F^2/100 + T(1-F/100) else;
subject to the constraint that a passing mark on the final exam is necessary to pass this course. The letter grades will be determined (modulo the constraint) from M via the standard translation, except that D will be given by 49–54, E by 45–48.99, and F, less than 45.

Gray Rocks

Well as expected Dan, Brodie and I had a fantastic time camping and skiing on Gray Rocks. Gray Rocks is a great little ski hill near Mont Tremblant, Quebec, the only catch is they went bankrupt last year so the only way up is climbing skins or snowshoes which suits us just fine.

We left Friday at around 6 pm under a cold blue sky and temperatures hovering around -10 C. A lot of preparation and planning had gone into this moment and it felt great to push back. Of course we turned around a few minutes later because I forgot my gloves but that's the way she goes. We arrived in pitch black at the foot of the hill and found a parking spot right next to the abandoned chair lift in a snow drift. Perfect. We had a pretty good idea of where we would find a campsite by studying an excellent topo map of the area. After a bit of a Charlie Foxtrot trying to get everything I needed on top of my back (including some last minute beer purchases) we started up the trail.

Now it started getting interesting. My pack was so heavy it was cutting off all the circulation to my arms rendering my poles useless. Thankfully, we took our time and only trekked about half a kilometer. We turned into the woods and down a slope and found a small area for a tent. Now the fun begins, it's time tramp down your site, set up your tents, clear brush, gather wood and start a fire. No time to film, we worked at a steady pace for a few hours careful not to sweat. The last thing on your mind is the cold because your mind is racing and full of adrenaline. Pretty soon we had a nice fire, tents and sleepings bags all set and we were munching on fire roasted sausages and sipping Heineken. Success.

The next day we woke up to a perfect winters day with wall-to-wall sunshine and temperatures around -5. There was a system moving in that would bring +8 temperatures and 47 mm of rain the day after we left. Here is a clip of me enjoying being on top of mountain:



and another of our campsite:



The first day was really incredible. We could not have had nicer weather and we ran into plenty of nice people enjoying a snowshoe or ski. I think we did about five runs in total and had a delicious hot lunch with a fire and a few wobbly pops. That night we spent the last hour of daylight gathering wood and prepared a huge fire. We were so tired I think we were probably in bed by about nine.

Sleeping worked out pretty well, lots of layers including a toque and scarf and I stayed warm all night. We did end up with a lot of condensation on the insides of the tent which was unpleasant but not a huge issue. The following day we slept in packed up camp first thing so we were not stuck with packing up after being exhausted from skiing. This was definitely the right thing to do and will be part of our routine from now on. The biggest problem we encountered was keeping the liquid (beer and water) from freezing solid. The best way was to keep a 1 L bottle of water in your sleeping bag. Overall we were very well prepared and happy with the location of our site for subsequent trips. Here is a clip of my last run:



Hopefully we will get a chance to do a few more weekends this winter. The weather so far has not been cooperating, we got 45 mm of rain which melted a ton of snow and closed the canal. Next dump of snow we get you know where I'll be.

It could have been worse...

Here is a shot I took on one of my rides home this week of a science experiment gone wrong at Carleton University. Remember your safety glasses kids!


I had my first setback to the season today in the form of a flat tire. I should remember I weigh 200 lb and should not be biking like a 13 year old. I should also remember that the spare tube I keep in my closet is no good to me in the closet. Anyways, this happened about 10 minutes into the ride so I already had about 4 km behind me and the last thing I felt like doing was walking home and starting my day all over again. So now I am stuck and I consider four options:
-Just take the bus: Well if there was one I might be able to. But our city's bus service is in shambles thanks to a mayor who could not manage his own paper route.
-Call a cab: I would if I had an important paper due or exam.
-Jog: Not happening considering I have a helmet, large bag filled all kinds of food and drink and gum boots on my feet.

So i settled on the Heel-Toe Express for the next 7km or so until I can put the skates on. I accepted the fact that I was going to be Late and I would have a totally unique excuse for my professor. Here is a shot of the welcome first glimpse I got of the canal this morning:



Skating never felt so good.

On another note I leave for my backcountry ski and winter camping weekend tomorrow. In order to make the snowshoe up a mountain through fresh snow with an 80 lb pack as easy as possible this has been my weekly training program since New Years:

-100 km of biking
-50 km of skating
-3 intense gym workouts
-2 hours of uphill snowshoeing with descents on my snowboard
-2 hours of x country snowshoeing

A couple of notes on this. It is very important to get enough calories and proper sleep to support this volume of training. I also save the high intensity for the gym and the uphill snowshoeing. Trying to do all these activities at break neck speed would go over like a lead balloon. My gym workout is short and sweet as I am usually in and out in 45 minutes. I am amazed by the number of meatheads I meet in the gym who look at me like I have six heads when I talk about core training and functional strength. It is also astounding how bad everyone's technique is. Please spend 50 bucks on a trainer before you start spending several hours a week attempting to injure yourself with bad form. This is why I mostly train alone and outside.

A couple of tips on winter biking before I go:
-Have a light and a back-up
-Have a bell and ring it like it is going out of style
-Have a helmet that easily fits over a warm toque
-Have an extra layer and a scarf to put on just in case
-You will want goggles for glare and for freezing ice pellets attacking your eyes
-If you do not feel cold when you start riding you are over dressed and will be overheating and dehydrating yourself
-Footwear is essential to staying comfortable - I wear insulated gum boots and think they are the cats pajamas
-Make sure you are prepared to become covered in mud and filth
-Have a fender because you do not want to become covered in mud and filth
-Try and have a good idea beforehand what the conditions are like and make sure your comfortable with them. I don't ride if there is a heavy snowfall or extreme cold because that would be asking for trouble.
-Have a good ride
-Don't forget your spare tire

I will be doing another post next week with hopefully a lot of great videos and stories from the trip.

The Great Winter Commute Season of 2010 Begins

Today is the day I have been waiting for since the winter school semester started. The Rideau Canal has opened for skating from Bank St to Ottawa U and I will be using it to get to and from school everyday. People that know me well know that I am dedicated biker and have been known to bike in everything from -20 to + 30 degrees Celsius in every kind of precipitation. So with that being said let me tell you about my route.

I live very close to Macdonald Cartier Airport in the south end of Ottawa and attend school at the University of Ottawa. The way I bike to school is more or less 8 km down Riverside Drive and then I join up with the Rideau Canal at Mooney's Bay and follow it for another 7km as it winds its way to my school. So each school day this winter I will bike down Riverside with my skates attached to me somehow, drop off the bike and glide all the way to class. I will leave my front door about an hour and a half before class starts to give me lots of time to really enjoy the commute and not feel rushed.

Now let me tell you a bit about why I choose this way to get school. First of all I detest driving in traffic, I swear, I talk and text and become extremely irritable and that does not even cover parking! Second of all the bus just does not do it for me I do not like rushing out in the morning, its not convenient from where I live and it is crowded. Now biking and skating replace two activities that I loathe with vigorous low impact exercise that at the same time allows me quiet time to think about my day and most likely some tricky math question my professors came up with. There is no such thing as being late becuase you got stuck in a bike jam or missing your bike and having to wait for the next bike in half an hour. So to sum up what I'm doing is:
- Replacing a frustrating sedentary activity with an enjoyable active one
- Finding time for quiet reflection
- Putting a silly grin on my face whenever I zoom by a bunch of cars bumper to bumper
- Enjoying the outdoors and the recreation facilities that my city provides
- Making the most out of winter

Hope this might help convert a white knuckle driver out there or at the very least help some of you understand what we crazy people are doing biking in the winter.

P.S. Flying is on the backburner right now because of school and the afformentioned winter so this is going to be more of an outdoors blog for now.

Posts to come:
-A primer on winter biking
-A trip report from the winter camping and backcountry ski weekend Dan, Brodie and I are planning in Quebec in a couple of weeks and hopefully another video
-A little more about me and what my goals for the blog are.

why i love winter

here is some footage of the backcountry powder day at camp fortune with my roommate Dan and his husky Brodie. I'll shut up and let you watch it.