Growing up in the the Southeast Canadian Rockies has an effect on a person that lasts a lifetime. Those effects make city-dwelling folk like myself retreat back to the mountains whenever possible. Elkford is the end of the line in terms of pavement and from that point north to Kananaskis country there is nothing but 70 km of wilderness, interspersed with the occasional logging road. It’s hard to put into words just how beautiful the area really is and it’s where I grew up. We learned a few days ago that the town was hosting its twelfth annual dogsled races on the weekend and thought that we would go down to take some shots.

The week leading up to the race had brought an old-fashioned snowfall to much of the BC/Alberta border, and made Elkford look very postcard like – the temperatures were perfect; between -5 and -10 on both days. The volunteers at the Elkford Snowmobile Association (who were manning all of the rider’s checkpoints) were gracious enough to give Duane and I a ride out into the backcountry and drop us off on the side of the trail so that we could get our shots. It was fantastic to just go into the woods and just hang out! Normally we are moving in some capacity (snowshoeing, xcountry skiing etc…) and don’t have the time to take in the sites so it was nice just to sit back and take it all in.

This is what is killing so many people this year – the November rain crust. This highly granular, sugary stuff is about two and a half feet deep and has prevented the entire snowpack from settling in. Duane and I were amazed at how easily we were setting off slumps on extremely benign slopes. We would jump into the snow at the top of a hill (10 feet high or less) and create fractures that ran for twenty feet or more – sometimes the entire hillside would give way. You won’t find me out in the backcountry until they are sure that this layer is no longer a problem. You can always find the latest conditions at www.avalanche.ca.

The chase is on! This might be my favorite from the weekend.

Our gear took an absolute beating this weekend! Between the snowstorm and sub-zero temperatures on Saturday and me dropping one of the cameras (the new one of course) in a snowbank they definitely earned their keep. There were also a few occasions when cameras got thrown as we madly scrambled to get into position for the next shot. But that is why you pay the money for high-quality gear – it stands up to a bit more abuse I guess.

So this sport is the sport of skijoring. It involves a climbing harness and a length of rope attached to two highly energized, large dogs. On skis without edges. No thanks!

Catching a breather.

Okay, okay – so maybe we just didn’t sit idly by while we waited for the sled teams to pass. We may have been playing in the snow like we were eleven years old again.

But if our wives ask – we were working really hard!

On the home stretch.

One of the areas that Duane and I would like to expand in our photography is the ‘adventure/sports’ side of things. With that in mind we headed out to the Kicking Horse resort in Golden this past weekend with a pile of photography gear. During one of the gondola rides we pulled out the 5D and 70-200 lens to check over some frames, which got a very surprised ‘Holy crap! You guys ski with that thing in your backpack!?’ from a couple that was coming up with us. Have I ever mentioned just how much we like this hill? Even though they haven’t had any fresh snow for a while, there were still pockets of powder waiting for those who were willing to work a bit for it. The backcountry around the resort looked amazing, but with this year’s avalanche hazard being what it is it will have to remain as tantalizing eye-candy for us. Hopefully next year! If not though – Kicking Horse should be able to occupy our time!

We met up with Claire and Agustin while they were back out west for their Christmas break. We decided that Big Hill Springs Provincial Park was the ticket and were rewarded with a perfect blue-bird day. Claire really demonstrates to me just how small the world is – I used to work with one of her close family friends at my old school, and my wife works with Claire’s dad at a different school in Calgary. Apparently Claire’s dad also has the shutterbug disease, so she grew up posing for the camera. The result? Total comfort in front of the lens! Here are a few of the favorites!

Thanks guys! We can’t wait until August!