Skiing the south side of Paul Ridge, instead of the usual north side. Deep snow, lighter than usual, and huge hemlock trees made for a nice 300m descent. In theory one could continue on the west side of the creek drainage and pop out on the road at the switchback [...]]]>

Calum - Paul Ridge

Skiing the south side of Paul Ridge, instead of the usual north side.  Deep snow, lighter than usual, and huge hemlock trees made for a nice 300m descent.  In theory one could continue on the west side of the creek drainage and pop out on the road at the switchback by the settlement at Ring Creek, but who knows how dense the forest gets in there…

Paul Ridge Route in Google Earth

This was the same day of the Boulder Mountain avalanche incident.  The reports for the South Coast were just as scary as South Columbia, yet we were still able to have a fun, safe day in the backcountry by using common sense and managing the risk.  We don’t need the government to regulate the backcountry – we have the Darwin Awards for that.

The turnout at this event was a fraction of the previous evening’s, even though the sights were more interesting, in my opinion. For this leg of the torch relay, the flame was carried 80 feet up and down a spur tree at the Squamish Logger’s Sports grounds.

The turnout at this event was a fraction of the previous evening’s, even though the sights were more interesting, in my opinion.  For this leg of the torch relay, the flame was carried 80 feet up and down a spur tree at the Squamish Logger’s Sports grounds.

The first picture was taken during Squamish Days 2006, but thought it might show just how tall these spar trees are.

I wanted to call this post, “Pole Smokers” but though the reference might be perceived as derogatory toward those who participated, so then I called it, “Flaming Poles” but that might have mislead the eastern European gay community (who all follow this site quite closely, I’m sure)

]]> http://andrew-stephanie.ca/torch-treeclimb/feed 1 http://andrew-stephanie.ca/olympic-torch-community-celebration-squamish http://andrew-stephanie.ca/olympic-torch-community-celebration-squamish#comments Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:23:18 +0000 abythell http://andrew-stephanie.ca/?p=828

A third of Squamish was at Brennan Park to see the Olympic Torch.     Inspirational words were shared with the crowd by important officials.   Original phrases such as:

• “We’re all here because of you, Squamish!”
• “Go Canada Go!”
• “Are you ready to make some noise?”
• “These are *your* games!”
• “You can accomplish anything you set your mind to!”
• “This is the best crowd yet!”

and my favourite:

• “Thank you, mayor MacGregor.” (The mayor’s name is Greg Gardner. If only he had said, “Mayor McCheese“)

The generic Coca Cola stage show was about the weirdest bit of corporate propaganda I have ever witnessed, but the crowd’s red-white-and-red enthusiasm was for Canada, not Coke.  The torch was brought in, the cauldron was lit, and important officials patted each other on the back for a while.  There were some great performances by the Squamish Community,  including G. Jogi Daduwalia and the Squamish Bhangra Crew, and the West Coast Lumberjack Show.

The evening ended with some really good fireworks, but for some reason I was thirsty for a cola-like beverage, so we called a friend on my Samsung phone,  hopped in a Chevrolet, gassed up at the Petro Canada with my RBC VISA, then headed off to McDonalds.

OK, we didn’t do any of that stuff.  We went to the Shady Tree and had beer and chicken wings.

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