Mar 29, 2011

Trophy Hut


I got to spend the first of my two weeks off skiing with 10 good friends for a week in the wild backcountry of Wells Gray Park. It was fabulous... there was sunshine, good turns, amazing food, laughter, hot saunas, big days and just lots of good times.


I am back in Van for a week before I head back up to Durrand for my last two weeks of teaching the girls. Since in the city I have already enjoyed mtn biking, trail running, beers on commercial, sushi, and coffee shops.... all fabulous things!


Some Links to pictures from people on the trip
Tom Pictures
Andrew and Lina Pictures

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina

Mar 17, 2011

C'est La Vie

This week was exciting for the school. We got our school uniforms: Marmot fleece sweatshirts with our school name printed on the sleeve! Florina finished her distance education French 11 course! YAY! So, we had a french party to celebrate complete with sparkling apple juice, marshmallows, and salt and vinegar potato chips!



It really has been snowing non stop for a week here... good for skiing in the trees but not so good for the shovellers... we did however get out everyday on snowshoes, skis, and snow cave building.. I also have been doing tons of yoga and mini crossfit workouts inside! We also have been practicing new acrobatic movements and our regular acro routine! So, still keeping fit in creative ways, and still enjoying life in the mountains, and teaching! We have spring next week and I get to be a guest at another Hut... Trophy Hut.  It will be nice to ski tour  and catch up with friends!

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina

Mar 12, 2011

Another new week...


Every Saturday here it kind of feels like summer camp. Throughout the week you see guests build bonds or enemy lines:) among old and new friends. It is a beautiful thing chatting, listening, learning throughout the week and then Saturday morning comes along and the heli swoops away guests 5 at a time... sometimes there are sighs of relief, little high fives, or backroom bets on who is going to get the front seat and other times (most of the time), hugs, last minute email exchanges, tears (i have yet to witness these), but excitement on having met new people and making those connections. This week was stellar, the folks were kind, helpful, funny, and just plain ol nice. The guests even performed a week end skit last night for us describing the different events that happened throughout the week.

Charlotte, Florina, and I also performed our first official acro routine in front of the guests. We created a 4 minute three person routine to Walk of Life by the Dire Straits. We had about one week of practice learning different movements and one week of putting it together in a show we could perform.. We have a little space up in the school house beside the mini bouldering cave where we use the crashmats to break our falls and the carpet for a mental safety net... so this was our first time trying it all out on concrete with only yoga mats for protection... I am very proud to say we nailed the entire routine



School Field Trip:



school website here
We also had our first school field trip this week. The three of us joined in on the group heading to the other hut, The Moloch Hut. We left Sunday climbing up onto Eagle Peak and Mt Fang...and returned Monday late afternoon following a trip up to the top of Mt Graham. I was proud of the fitness of our little school. The three of us managed to stay in front of the line on the skin ups and enjoyed playing catch up if needed weaving through the guests to retain our spots back in the front where we enjoyed going a little bit faster. We skied some pretty steep and beautiful lines and I must say I only got scared once after I was told not to fall off the end... all I could think about was falling off the end.... haha... gotta love the way our minds work sometimes.



This week due to a lot of snow fall from Wednesday onwards, after a failed attempt for an afternoon ski with the school we succumbed to working on our snowcave.... it is going to be quite something with different hall ways and rooms. We created the snowcave from a massive snowbank along the deck and one of the pathways... I look forward to sharing more pictures in the future... I must say it is quite the work out digging out the trenches with our little avi shovels.... Along with snowcave expansion, we also worked our muscles shoveling off the debris from the roof.. Due to lots of snow and warm weather the build up snow on the roof quit bonding and came crashing down at sporatic moments throughout the week. Don't worry everyone was safe!



This will be our last week before we all head out for March Break: me to the Trophy Hut for a week of backcountry skiing throughout Wells Grey with Andrew and friends and the ladies to Whistler to visit with cousins etc.... 
keep smilin'

live, love, laugh,....DREAM!

lina

Mar 3, 2011

Creative ways to have fun and keep our daily dose of Exercise despite harsh weather...



When the weather is being difficult most people would succum and stay inside, lay on the couch, and lounge but we at the Durrand Glacier School of HIgher Education have stayed motivated and active through creativity and youthful love for life!

1. We have been exploring with acroyoga moves and are getting pretty good considering our short amount of time practicing together. Watch out Cirque du Soleil


















2. We have been improving our tricks off our local cliffs on snowshoes.... The three of us breaktrail up and over the knoll and practice on some smaller cliffs along the way. Once we hit the big ones we throw ourselves off with style and ease! Vids to come to show a snapshot of our raw talent for now a pic!



3. Some days we can't escape the snow shovelling.. but I decided I really like it for its meditative and repetitive nature... Its nice to be outside and not have to think just push, throw, and scope.

4. Of course our minds are constantly being opened and knowledge seeping in....


Life is good
school website clich HERE

live, love, laugh,..DREAM!
lina