I love snow. A lot!

This girl, born and raised under African skies sure does love the snow.

When I speak of my love affair with snow, I mean loads of wonderful white powder on the trails and on the mountains.  I don't mean the grey slush that splashes all over your winter coat as you stand at at the bus stop with the wind howling around you. No no no, that's a whole different snow.

The snow I am so enamored with stays high on the mountain. Most days I can go to the gym in my Birkenstocks and bike shorts wearing a thin sweater - well and a rain coat some days - because there's hardly ever any snow on the ground.  To get to a snowy playground, I have to get into my car and drive to the mountain. Whether I go to Cypress or Mt Seymour, its easily 30 minutes from my door to the parking lot.  If I go to Grouse I can get there in about 10 minutes, but then I have to wait for the gondola to whisk me up the mountain. So whichever route I choose, it's still pretty easy access.

My love affair with snow means I ski, snowboard, snowshoe, and this year am also figure out cross-country skiing.   The fact that I do them all at a mediocre level doesn't faze me at all.  Being 45 I have the wonderful luxury of doing it simply because it installs a giant grin on my face that lasts for days.  That's enough for me.



The one thing I love even more than snow is the mountains.  Unlike snow, mountains have the added advantage of being a year round pleasure.  I couldn't even tell you which is my favourite season in the mountains.  The winter of course is great for the snowplay, but a spring hike when the flowers peek their heads out of the snow is equally wonderful.  Waterfalls double in size as the snow melts, and new ones are created as the water forces its way downhill.  Summer delights are too many to count as the trails recreate themselves for the new season with new growth all around you.  Fall holds the promise of winter, while still giving you one more chance to get to those trails that you meant to all summer long.

The mountains are a playground that offer innumerable delights.  Whether you're a hiker, photographer, bird watcher, mountain biker, runner, star gazer, nature geek ... you get it .. whatever it is you like doing outside, it's 10 times as much fun in the mountains.

And to think I grew up in Johannesburg ... a city with no snow, no mountains and too far away from the ocean.  Imagine if I'd never left Johannesburg! Imagine if I'd never left Toronto!! My life would have gone on without know where my true love lies!  I would have missed out on all these experiences that make my happy want to burst right out of my chest.

I am grateful everyday that I found my way to Vancouver.