Potato Gun

 Marshall and Stewie built a potato gun last year so, with the help of a bunch of hairspray, we had some fun with it last week out on the Cascade highway.

Packing the rig.

Igniting

Money shot off lover's.

Stew is a lanky engineering student.

Lighting off the residual hairspray.  aka whadumphing.

Midnight Shinny

Over the past year or so a bunch of us Rosslanders, being the Canadians we are, have spontaneously began playing casual games of shinny (road hockey for you yanks) on mainstreet of  Rossland around midnight (they can actually happen at any time, but if it's dark out midnight shinny sounds way cooler than "11 o'clock shinny", or "2:45 shinny").  These games usually start off fairly small and tend to grow exponentially as friends are called and passersby grab a stick to join in for a bit.  With the help of social media (facebook), the most recent game of "midnight" shinny was attended by upwards of 70 people (complete guess) and was shut down by the lovely RCMP by 11:30 wheeew.  Breathalizers were blown, tickets were written, and money is now owed but luckily we found an alternate place (a lit tunnel) to continue the game.  I snapped a couple pictures, nothing special but here are a few of 'em.

Marsh loves hanging out.

Casual crew.

 

 

Marsh and his new BFF, The Zah!

 

Zahh loves my moustache.

 

Serious fans.

Pretty big game goin down.

I guess the game didn't last too long...

Yeah, that's a fish.

Game picked up around 2.

Casual arm wrestles on the tunnel are mandatory.

Got some staples out.

I finally got to look at my knee for the first time in 12 days...

Pretty...

The surgeon said it's looking really good and my range of motion is coming along really well, so I'm stoked!  I have my second physio session tomorrow and can't wait to start building back the muscle I've lost.

Lhotse Ski Expedition Dispatch 5

Here's the final webisode from the expedition to ski the Lhotse couloir!



It's too bad they didn't make it, but I'm glad they showed how it's much more important to make it back down than it is to make it to the summit. That can be a hard decision when you're so close to the goal that you've put so much time and effort into. Good for Jamie and Kris in making the right choice and making it down safely.

Space shuttle Endeavour final launch POV

Very cool video of the final launch of space shuttle Endeavour from the four cameras mounted on the two solid rocket boosters. It's kind of sad that the space shuttle program is over, but now NASA will have a lot more money to develop new technology to help get humans deeper into space (Mars) and go back to the moon!



do yourself a favour and watch it BIG.

Knee surg + grad.

I've had a busy past couple days.  kicked off Friday with a casual trip down to the Trail Hospital at 6am for an ACL reconstruction in my left knee.  Basically they took a few strands from my hamstring, braided them together into one new ligament and screwed it into my knee through holes drilled through my femur and tibia to make a brand new anterior cruciate ligament!  The surgery took about two - three hoursish (I think) and I woke up around 11 to take this picture...

Yeah, I was feeling pretty rough, more from the anesthetic and pain killers than actual pain.  I saw the surgeon briefly post-op and he informed me that the surgery went really well and there was no damage to my meniscus so I can weight bare as much as the pain will let me.  I stayed in the hospital for another three and a half hours recovering (facebooking) before I was allowed to leave.  From the hospital, I headed straight to RSS to see all my graduating friends look dapper in their outfits on the big day.  That was definitely the highlight of my day
.

 

Just a casual crew of knee injuries.    

The Boys

A picture of people taking pictures of people.

chicks.

Dev and Elly, looking goood.

Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling up to the Grad related activities that ensued that evening but I did manage to make it to many of the Grad parties I had hoped to attend with the help of my dearest mother (chauffeur).

Tuna, just lacing into some breakfast sausage.

Socks, sandals, and pyjama pants?  Buck is a really classy guy.  

oh hey.

Ben is just a casual morning drinker.

Buck, eating 62 meatballs.

 

Arch and Sim1

What would grad be without beer pong?

breakin chairs.

Backstreet's back.

One of the most homosexual things I've seen lately.

One all nighter on KC...

For a while now I've been thinking of taking a certain photo.  Luckily, last Friday the perfect night for such a photo arose - clear skies with no moon. I took full advantage of this and headed up KC (little hill that overlooks Rossland) around 11pm with a backpack full of camera gear, my hammock, some layers of clothing, and a book. I got up top and immediately noticed the little wispy clouds moving in... not good. Sure enough, about 20mins after setting up for the picture I wanted there were full blown clouds blocking out the stars. Soooo I set up for a little bit of a different picture of my hammock and snapped this unit.

   

Fairly mediocre shot as I put about zero thought into it, but I dig the colours and the glowing hammock was what I've had in mind for a while.

As soon as I shot this one, I looked behind me to see some quick moving clouds reveal the bright stars!  So I set up for my first shot once more and did some tests, one of which I messed up my timing and got this shot of me walking towards the camera with my headlamp on while the shutter was open.

 

 Pretty cool.  I eventually got it all dialed (or so I thought) and left it to take 5 minute exposures every 5 minutes to overlap on top of each other to show the movement of the stars (or rather the movement of the earth).  I went to read/sleep in my hammock for an hour or so until the sky started to brighten.  Once it became light out and I looked at some of the exposures I realized that I didn't focus properly on my hammock and the two trees!  Since my tripod was as low as it could go to reduce vibration from the wind and rigs, I had to lay down to look through the view finder while shining my flashlight on the tree to focus at the same time.  Sounds simple, but it sure isn't for a rookie me evidently haha.  Nevertheless this was my finished product.

As you can see it's out of focus, but I'm stoked on the stars and I can't wait to take some more star trail shots.

I proceeded to begin take a time lapse of the sunrise which completely failed because me, being the rookie I am forgot to focus once again.  Oh well.  I still took this picture once I realized the time lapse was a no go.

In other news, I'm getting knee surgery at 6:15am tomorrow so I've be doing lots of this to stay strong.

Nathan Heintz's Season Edit!

Check out my buddy Nathan's season edit.  He has more fun than most people on and off the mountain and is just a great guy to be around.  To top it off, he just got married in Denmark and he stomped a backflip of the waterfall in Whistler - pimp.

Lhotse Ski Expedition Dispatches 3 & 4

Wow is all I have to say.
Can't wait to see if they successfully skied the couloir!

Another amazing timelapse

I'm super stoked on timelapses lately, I love how they have the ability to capture and focus on things you normally wouldn't see. Here is another ridiculous one that is from the concrete jungle of NYC, rather than the barren, arctic nature of Norway.
Enjoy!