fitness · skate · skiing · snow · snowshoe · winter

Playing in the Snow Over the Years (and Recent Weekends)

Sam B
Two women posing with mountain bikes in snow, February 2020.

Last year Sarah and I missed winter. See here.

This year we’re celebrating it, the sunny snowy days anyway. For three weekends in a row, we played in the snow between work things.

I’ve spent the past couple of weeks away in Ottawa at academic administrators’ conferences. Week 1 was the  Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE) Development for Deans meeting. Week 2 was Higher Education Strategy Associate’s Re:University meeting. It’s been a very busy January and so this blog post is more photo essay than anything.

An ode to playing in the snow!

Weekend one was Sarah, Mallory, and me at Arrowhead and Limberlost on skis, skates, and snowshoes. It was snowy and warm, like almost too warm, just below freezing.

A woman in a bright pink jacket smiles while Nordic skiing on a snowy trail surrounded by trees.
A person snowshoeing on a snowy trail surrounded by trees.

Weekend two Sarah and I spent at the farm between Ottawa conferences. Mallory and friends visited and so did Susan and Jeff. It was a bit strange weather-wise. In this part of Canada, we associate snow with lake effect snow, and that usually happens when it’s not that cold. When it gets really cold, people say it’s too cold to snow. Not this winter. As our weather changes, with climate change, we’re having overlap between days when there are record-breaking cold temperatures and record-breaking amounts of snow. What’s that mean? Toronto had -25 (feels like -35) and 60 cm of snow in 24 hours. Ouch!

I’m not sure we got that much at the farm, but we did get a lot. We debated not going out, but in the end we decided we all needed the sun. See Braving the cold, looking on at our neighbours to the south in horror, sadness and fear, and taking comfort in food.

Two women smiling for a selfie in a snowy landscape.

We even did some snow hiking in Ottawa in the middle, along with a day at the Nordik spa in nearby Chelsea, just outside Gatineau.

A sunlit winter forest with bare trees and snow covering the ground.
A snow-covered evergreen tree with sunlight streaming through its branches, surrounded by a winter landscape.

And weekend three saw us back at the farm for some snowshoeing in VERY DEEP snow. Wow.

Two women smiling for a selfie in winter clothing, surrounded by snow and trees.

Now it’s back to work on campus, back to city life, and today it’s back to swimming lessons–Chicken, Moose, Butterfly.

I’ll be looking for places to cross-country ski in Guelph, and also adult learn to skate lessons, so I can skate again.

Published by Sam B

Philosopher, feminist, parent, and cyclist! Co-founder of Fit Is a Feminist Issue, co-author of Fit at Mid-Life: A Feminist Fitness Journey, published by Greystone Books.

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