a Finnish twist: Winter turned to Summer

Since I have done a such good job of regularly maintaining blog posts recently...ahem...

Spring/summer has made it here!

Or perhaps i haven't been. Anyways, I'm feeling super burnt-out from my thesis work at the moment, so perhaps a little blogging will help reduce my current aversion to computer work! I mostly just want to post photos, but I realize that it has been sooo looong (again) since the world of this blog has heard from me that I will add a bit more.

digging the cabin out - there was
almost 4 meters of snow!

alpine sunset

Well, I haven't done *much* since March...actually that's not entirely truthful looking back at it. There's the regular stuff: biathlon, classes, exams, data analyses, thesis writing...but I've made some time for a few little adventures too!

Group lunch along the tour. The weather was superb!

I went on a family ski trip over an extended weekend in late March. In my family (as some of you may know), ski trips DO NOT involve chairlifts, hottubs, beds or restaurants. Instead we had the luxury of a remote cabin (drier than snow caves), foamies on the floor, a drafty sauna and some good home-cookin'!! Oh...and a helicopter to get us there! The lack of ski lifts does not mean that we avoid the hills...au contraire!! It involves several hours of uphill trudging with skis and a backpack - some fool romantically named it "alpine touring." Anyways, it's a very honest way to get some serious exercise and have some serious fun!

Glad to go home!

We toured for 4 days with fresh tracks, excellent powder, steep and fun trees, great food and a little bit of cliff-hopping. It certainly was an experience. On the final day, most of us got a heli ride out, but Mom decided to ski up and out. The guide suggested this would take around 6 hours; the fastest he had ever seen it done was 4.5hrs by some very competitive triathletes...so...mom did it in 3.5hrs. The ride out was great, but it was a little strange to effortlessly lift over the peaks and glaciers that had taken soo many hours of blood, sweat and blisters the over the previous days. My sister's boyfriend made a video of it - check it out!!

....continued below...

A little sloughing off the cliff...nothing to be concerned
about!

Boot-packing beside the cornice...nope she's not on her
hand and knees - that's vertical!

And appearing on the other side of the cornice!!

We made it to the WEsT Coast! Douglas-fir that made the Finn awe-struck!

A couple weeks after the ski trip, Aku arrived from Finland to visit for 6 weeks - right at the end of semester! So for the first little while I tried to stay focussed and finish up assignments, exams and "work on my thesis" (that didn't happen!). We did a weekend camping trip to Jasper and froze in -10 and snow the entire time! It was really neat though because he got to see it totally differently than when he was in Canada the last time on the July long weekend. I think there were at least 100,000 fewer people in Jasper than on a holiday!

Some of the spectacular scenery on the way down to Montana through the prairie...not my favourite part of the world, but the weather could've been better too! Oil and grain drives everyone and everything here!

Butte's headframes (tops of the elevators down into the mine shafts)
that dominate the skyline and the history of the town

Mmm...Finnish baking!! karjalan piirakka!!

A Ft. McMurray viewpoint

After our road trip to Butte, we headed back through the rockies to Vancouver to visit my parents and friends around UBC, which was amazing. We had dinner in the dark (TOTAL darkness) for a birthday party and it was ...interesting. Then we drove to Vancouver Island to visit friends and Campbell River and tour the forests of the West Coast of Canada a little. Then we drove back to Langley, then up to Prince George (stopping very briefly in Williams Lake).

A little time with friends in Prince George, then back to Edmonton the next day. Then Aku flew home to Finland. A whirlwind tour!! We probably covered 6000kms!

Right after Aku left I helped to teach at the Spring Field School for 2 weeks in Lac La Biche in Northern Alberta. I got to see the northern lights over a May sunset, tour the oil sands, whitewater canoe through flocks of pelicans (that were puking up monstrous fish), and get a taste of forest management in Northern Alberta - good times!

Mid-may northern lights over a Lac La Biche sunset...BEAUTIFUL!!

However, since field school, I haven't done much outside of a computer room. Spring started out late and warm, but recently it has been cold (below 10) and rainy. I did make it to a local nature reserve and found some elusive yellow lady's slipper (Cyprepedium parviflorum) in bloom! That was the highlight of my day! Other than that, time is absolutely flying by as the countdown to the end of summer (thesis due!) is already happening and I have way to much to accomplish before then! I'll let you know if I make it out the other side!! Until then...enjoy summer, however it is progressing in your corner of the world!