This weekend we skied in the Canadian Ski Marathon. It’s my fourth time since the early 80’s. While it was a fun adventure – and not work – I brought a little point and shoot.

We had decent weather despite the drizzle Saturday afternoon and ‘hard packed’  conditions on sunny Sunday. Below – Ralph is a proud skier from Nakkertok Ski Club!

The ski marathon is a wonderful event – not a race – that brings out old and young alike. See a video clip – en francais – thanks to Radio Canada. I met people on the trail whose jackets were proudly covered with CSM badges – some had participated for thirty years! Notice Bill’s sleeves below:

The event brings skiers cross country from Lachute to Gatineau, Quebec offering the adventurous the chance to ski 80 km each day. Skiers can choose to ski as little as 12km.

The most challenging category is Coureur de Bois Gold where skiers ski 80km each day carrying all gear needed for the weekend and sleep outside overnight on the trail. Read a Coureur du Bois story.

I took only a few photos – what you see here. I spoke with one skier who knew I was a photographer “You must have lots of great photos…” Just a few – I was working as a skier not a photographer!

In 1992 I graduated from Yamnuska Mountain School‘s three month
Mountain Skills Semester program. I was 24 and wanted to learn the
challenging mountain skills of climbing, back-country & telemark
skiing, glacier travel and whitewater canoeing.

I was more interested in learning the soft skills of teaching in physically and mentally challenging environments. While on the course I met Laurent Dick, one of the other students. He came from Switzerland as he had fallen in love with the mountains and northern climates of North America.

As often happens, we went our own ways and lost sight of each other. Then, last week in a pub in Chelsea, I visited with a friend  who was drawing verbal pictures with his stories of a recent dog sled trip in the Yukon. He loaned me a book of the Yukon Quest, a 1000-mile dog sled race from Fairbanks, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon. I beamed
when I saw the book’s photographer was Laurent Dick!

I found Laurent on the world wide web and 17 years after our shared Yamnuska experience we ended up talking for an hour this past weekend. It was interesting to discover we have followed similar, but different, photo paths.

Laurent now lives in Juneau, Alaska and pursues his passion for the
outdoors and photography with a good business. He is the author of three coffee table books  – the latest being “Antarctica” – as well as the co-author of two other books. He runs polar-photo.com and www.alaska365.com. Well worth a visit! Laurent’s photos are listed in this post, with permission.

This weekend I had a small assignment to shoot part of the Eastern Canadian Nordic Ski Championships in Gatineau Park hosted by Skinouk. I was shooting for XCOttawa.ca who cleaned up in the women’s open race – 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th.

Not bad, eh? It was relatively mild but felt blisteringly cold due to humidity. I saw some heavily frost bitten noses:

Racing was tough and conditions were good.

Below are some select race photos shot on Sunday’s 10 km course.

Photos are available for sale:

• $15 for a web sized photo – not intended for printing
• $20 for a 1000 x 1500 pixel file (prints up to 5×7) – high speed internet needed
• $45 for a high res file (20+megabyte file)

Please  contact us with your bib number for availability and payment options.

Includes license to use the image for personal use.

Thanks to the ski patrol for keeping us safe!

On the weekend I visited the Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield Quebec. Paul Symes does a fantastic job of bringing in rising talent. Some fun developed:

Friday night we went to watch Polaris Prize nominee – Basia Bulat.

I was a patron that night, not a working photographer. The venue is small and beautifully lit but does not have the bright lights of large venue. I checked with Paul and Basia and shot for ten minutes with some very simple equipment – camera body and an 85mm f1.8 lens. I shot with available light in a photojournalistic style.

If you are shooting in such a venue please beware how your camera works! In low light many point and shoot cameras will emit a red ‘laser’ to assist the camera’s focus. Twice Basia was interrupted by the red laser – not me – Paul was not very happy!

‘Twas a fantastic show – and great to watch from the fun that is the Black Sheep Inn.

Remember the work I did for Ottawa Magazine on Malcolm Isaacs’ Passivhaus inspired house near Wakefield Quebec? Malcolm is presenting his innovative work in house design in Chelsea, Quebec this week.

As a reminder – Malcolm was tired hearing how fantastic current Canadian houses are being built. Compared to developments in Europe we are behind the times!

Malcolm Isaacs is a civil engineer who has worked as a specialist in residential energy analysis and low-energy construction since 1987. He has studied extensively in Europe and in 2005/6 he designed and built the first house in Canada based on PassivHaus ideas. He is now a Certified Passive House Designer, and an advocate and trainer in low energy construction techniques, thermal analysis and energy modeling.

Malcolm researched, designed and built this attractive three bedroom home. His home uses only 25% the energy of a new and normal Canadian home. That means four of Malcolm’s houses could be heated from the energy of one ‘well designed’ modern, Canadian house. His secret – appropriate and ample use of insulation.

Malcolm is presenting his work at the United Church in Chelsea:

7:00 p.m. Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Chelsea United Church, Mill Road, Chelsea, QC

Worth a visit.

Harry