2020 Year In Review - December
December had more socializing than I'm used to without a pandemic and my last day of outdoor Squamish climbing of the year.
December had me learning about traditions that are new to me. I liked all of them really, and thank you very very much Frauke for the advent calendar!
December climbing day in Murrin
Turning into a climbing night - 4:34PM on a Thursday. I think we all coordinated taking a vacation day for this one.
The ski gang (Edward, William, Sean, Tobias) and I did another attempt at Metal Dome, while trying to be somewhat COVID responsible. Conditions were super bad so we once again didn't make it to the top of anything, which is OK. This was a melancholy trip since we knew that carpooling up was playing with fire and we would not be able to do it any more.
Car faff with my trusty Subaru.
Fast condition for the way up had us a little overconfident in the conditions for the day
Reality sets in - there's no snow to ski for the day.
Then Alex and Frauke and I coordinated a pre-work Hollyburn trip which worked really well. The weather wasn't great, but was good enough. I think they got a couple nicer photos.
Looking back at the way up as the clouds look like they're considering clearing up.
Then since that went well, Edward and Marissa and I went up for a lap before work ourselves.
Sunrise on the way up
Nice skin track for the way up. Marissa in the lead at 9:16 AM on a Tuesday
10:14AM quick view from the top, then head on down.
Then the Germans and I got together for a gingerbread house making evening. Guess who's is who's.
The barn, the house, and the outhouse with the stained glass window. Photo by Frauke S.
And did a (well really a couple of, but didn't get photos of all of them unfortunately) christmas hat climbing session, which was really fun.
Just regular christmas hat climbing things - photo by Frauke S.
More regular Christmas hat climbing things - photo by Frauke S. Christmas hats also most generously supplied by Frauke.
After that I was in the mood for more skiing, but couldn't find anyone to go with, so on Christmas Eve went out solo lap up Seymour. It was busy.
Busy morning solo ski up Seymour - 9:13AM.
I scouted out my line. I didn't know how I wanted to go up, but wanted to head down the lines on the left of the photo (skiier's right). The snow was not so good, and I ended up going down the trees kinda middle-left of the photo and that was kind of interesting.
9:57AM at near top, hiding from the wind, and I'm getting ready for morning standup meeting which was luckily cancelled since it's Christmas eve!
Then on Christmas Day, the Germans and I (and a couple bonus Germans) drove up to the Cypress lookout in some very gnarly conditions to make some mulled wine. Thanks very much Alex for driving!
Just for 2 or 3 minutes we got a view of Vancouver through the rain and the clouds. Not pictured unfortunately is the mulled wine which was excellent.
Then finally to close out the year, my old teammate, Danny, and I went for a lap up Hollyburn on Newyears Eve. We started super early and were worried that no one else would show up at all and we'd get lost on the way up with no skin track, but luckily at 8AM sharp a whole bunch of people showed up and we made it work.
Danny on the skin up, luckily we found some tough looking people to break the trail for us.
Conditions looking very good up on Hollyburn, view looking not too bad either. Photo by Danny S.**
That's pretty much it for 2020, the #bubble did a bit of a get together late into the night in a relatively COVID-friendly way, and that was it for the year. Normally the conclusion would go here but you are probably bored, so see you next year, or hopefully a little sooner than that since news a year old isn't really news.