If A Tree Falls…?
Forty-two Vancouver Skiers fled the Lower Mainland’s Sunday drizzle for a snowier destination to Manning Park on January 18, 2015. Jason, our International Stage Lines driver, assured us we’d be on the soft stuff by 10:15, and indeed we were.
Jason stayed throughout the day, at Lightning Lakes, so most skiers timed their ski from there, although some skied from the bottom, a 600-foot ascent from the Nordic Centre.
As we fell into line, I felt like part of an early 20th-century Arctic expedition, trudging along un-groomed tracks until the bridge (or lack thereof). It’s disappeared! We cut out to the road’s shoulder for 600 meters. Luckily, it wasn’t too gritty. What happened to the Lightning Lake Connector? Was this disconnection an omen?
The wind howled at our backs as we entered the shelter of Lone Duck trail. Skies cleared and bits of blue reflected our good fortune. To be there, outside. The trees were dancing. We were dancing, too. The wind accompanied us. Was this moaning shuffle a ‘Happy Dance’… or a zombie dance?
This Rita Buchwitz photo shows the serene beauty of Manning Park.
Slow-going soft snow is a skater’s nightmare, and snow at varying temperatures above and below zero is a ski-wax dilemma. We were glad of our non-wax classic skis as we climbed South Gibson’s. A few hardy souls later reported that the less-groomed North Gibson’s access…was a challenge. A few skated. Others enjoyed Strawberry Flats, or took the T-bar to the Alpine Lodge for a bowl of soup—then descended via the alpine area, or profited from the shuttle bus option.
Timing is everything. All club members had reached Strawberry Flats by 1pm. We headed down at 12:30 to secure a spot in the hot tub (the Lodge charges $5 per towel for non-guests) and were some of the first club members to test a philosophical measure of reality. The famous riddle—
If a tree falls in a forest…(John Joyce photo)
John Joyce photo of a conifer dismemberment
Or better yet—
If twelve trees fall over the Manning Park Nordic Ski Trails, and everyone is around to hear it, aren’t we the lucky ones?
Needles and bark and tree debris, oh my! (J. Joyce photo)
Kate Deakins (trip leader), Shelley Lear and Anna Bentley were in the Strawberry Flats Warming Hut at 1pm when the trio experienced something odd. ‘We heard a ginormous whoosh, and all the skis blew over,’ said Anna.
Around the same time, we came upon three skiers gathered round a fallen tree across the trail. Debris littered the trail for ten meters beyond point of impact. What an explosion it must have been.
Rita Buchwitz photo of Van. Skiers hurdling an obstacle course.
John Joyce photo of Lucien doin’ the Happy Stance!
A young skater had stopped alongside a pair of young ladies. He said to us, ‘These gals witnessed the tree fall, and some of the shrapnel hit her leg.’ We looked at her, and she looked back with a giddy ‘I-escaped-it,’ shocked grin of triumph. It was the first of a dozen trees that we climbed over, skied under, or removed skis to get past. Had they all fallen all at once? Who can say? They certainly weren’t there, less than a ½ hour before.
Highway 3 (the Hope-Princeton) had some fallen of its own on the return trip. Several cars had gone into the ditch or overturned. Those slushy, slippery sections had taken a toll. We felt safe and fortunate to have enjoyed another Vancouver Skiers’ day on the hill, doing the ‘Happy Dance’ with some conifer (cone-headed?) zombies, who fortunately, didn’t step on our toes.
* ‘If a tree falls…’ quote is attributed to philosopher, George Berkeley, 1710.