Achilles

   "Yo Brad, how's it going, how was your trip into the Babines", I ask a friend who I haven't seen in months.
   "Achilles is dead. We got caught in a huge avalanche and Achilles got buried. I couldn't find him", Brad told me with solemn eyes.

   Achilles is dead? I have a hard time believing the truth in his words. Achilles, the happy go lucky Husky who talks to you if you ask "you wanna go skiing?". His high pitch bark slash growl happily proclaims "Yes! Lets go skiing!" I guess that was Achilles last ski.
   A dog dying in the backcountry is very upsetting, especially to someone who loves to go skiing with his dogs. As much as we love turning ski's on high mountain slopes dogs equally love crashing headlong through all the powdery snow. When you finally reach the bottom the dog's are all ready for another lap. It is truly a rewarding place to bring your dog, for both the dog and for their owner.
   However, every time you bring your dog on a trip into the mountains when skiing there is always a feeling of distrust to the mountains. You feel a little unease when your dog is under you while you cross a steep slope. You know the worst case scenario, I guess your only hope is that it won't happen to you, and it is devastating news that it happened to Brad and Achilles.

Rest in Peace Achilles, you were one of the rad ones.

Happenings

    I sit for breakfast in my dinning room with a plate full of toast with my mothers homemade strawberry jam and a orange cut into eights. The aroma of my french vanilla coffee out of the moka pot fills the house while I ponder the last couple of days...
   Five days ago I packed my car and said goodbye to friends and started my drive across the country to my adopted home of Smithers, BC. My car again defeated the odds and made it here without worry. It was good to see my brother and his wife and there newest part of the family Luna, a miniature Australian Shepherd who I only knew from photos. Isn't it funny five long painstakingly long days can be summed up in around three sentences? Oh well, its hard to get excited about driving my car for four days.

  And here I am, sitting comfortably at a table in a place that I will learn to call home. The mountains are only a stone throw away and the horizon can only be described as breathtaking. When I look into these mountains my mind sees the adventures that will be spent on them. Hours walking up and down them, jumping from rock to rock, sliding down snow slopes, and hand gripped deathly tight upon tiny rock holds that suspend my body above hundreds of feet of space. But that is not all I see, how can you blindly look up to the mountains and not see the enchanting evergreens that hug the mountains base and valley floors, where the mountain creeks turn to raging rivers. Where the wildlife blossom like a mountain meadow. There isn't one thing that brought me to this place, its the whole of the west that brought me here, every mountain, valley, lake, and stream.

(The video is taken my my patio its a time-lapse of the local Hudson Bay Mountain)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattreid13/13345055354/