On the trails: Canada through Swiss Eyes

Sentinel Pass, Lake Louise

While recreating and training in the backyard, not a day goes without living me grateful for beauty, open spaces, wild and dramatic landscapes. How fortunate are we to be surrounded of beauty and endless playground.
July was a month to rediscover it all. I was fortunate to welcome a friend visiting from Switzerland for 3 weeks. since she is too a ski mountaineer racer part of the Swiss team, I had prepared an unusual travel plan so she can see has much as possible... not so much focussing on typical Canadian attractions tourist attractions, the route plan was more about discovering BC through Mountain Running & Biking.

We started off with a Canmore XC bike with fellow ski mo racer Peter Knight then we wondered towards Banff & Lake Louise and ran the classic Sentinel Pass over to Moraine Lake.

Overlander Trail, Jasper

From there, back to Revelstoke to offer the chance to Mireille to unfold a bit!
After some XC riding in Revelstoke on the MacPherson trails, we took the Icefield Parkway direction Jasper for some flowy single tracks. One day, we biked to Wabaso Lake and the second, we covered the beautiful overlander trail. We then moved towards Mt Robson and ran to Berg Lake... It was so amazing to get to do the trail and have the chance to look around and enjoy... (thing I probably won't have so much time to do on september 7th marathon). A stop to Valemount's finest people was appropriate to visit Reiner Thoni and his family at the Cariboo Grill.

Spectacular Mt Robson

A bit of recovery and more biking/ running around Revelstoke and we were back on the road to go to the Coast! A great XC ride around Lost Lake was the first thing on "to do list" . On the second day, Mireille ran the signing pass as I biked with some great friends. On the 3rd day, we had a classic West Coast Experience: We climbed the 3 summits of the Chief for breakfast with fellow ski mountaineer racer Brad Schalles, joined my super awesome friend Ian in the afternoon for an XC Squamish MTB ride and finished the day sipping a latte on Jericho Beach in Vancouver...feet in the sand with ocean view wearing Lululemon clothes... (no small dog in the purse but I almost borrowed one just for kicks...).

Then back to Revelstoke, Road bike to the top of Mt Rev, Run summit trail, Bike Frisbee alpine trail and a long nice alpine run in Glacier National Park rounded up the vacation.

The ohhh's and ahh's of Mireille reminded me of how I felt the first time I had the same landscape unfold before my eyes. The kindness and laughs shared with close friends we visited along the way reminded me how special and precious friends are! I guess, what I'm trying to say is: "Thank you to Mireille for making me rediscover my backyard through your eyes!"
Mireille sure brings back countless memories but also a few bruises and scratches of our adventures... I kept on telling her that they are free souvenirs from mother nature!