Big White is AWESOME! Sailing...

Yes! It has nothing to do with Big White. Or No! It has nothing to do with Big White. 

Same thing.

Have you ever sailed?

Picture this, you are on a sailboat, the wind has filled he sails, it is coming off the port (left) bow (middle), you are heeled over 25 degrees. The boat is cutting through the water, the sun is shining, the breeze is keeping you cool, shade is found under the sails... you look up, all you see is the crystal blue of the sky, the odd cotton ball cloud, the peak of the mast above the whiter than white sails. All you can hear is the water flowing past the hull. The boat is gently rocking with the swell and you think... you think about the 15,000lbs of the boat, the 5 knots of breeze and the 4.5 knots of headway. You think how much energy is being generated by the wind against canvas... takes a lot to move that much weight at that speed...

Have you ever sailed?

Have you ever sailed with a dog? Two dogs?

With a dog that has a bit of a stomach issue? An issue that makes you jump on the tender with the dog and race against nature to beat the stomach issue. Race like you are James Bond chasing the Spectre agent, thinking in your Sean Connery voice 'Hold on there picshel, thish will be sho much better if you can keep it togetherrr...' A dog that can't hold it together...

So you head back to the boat, and you look at the sailboat with your wife and daughter just as the squall hits... 45knots... just as it almost capsizes... as you try and do your best Jimmy Bond thing, racing over/through/under the 4 foot white caps, racing as your dog bounces 2 feet off the deck cos your wife and daughter are still (you hope) on this out of control boat.

Have you ever gotten back to the out of control boat, heeled over 40 degrees, chucked the dog on as your daughter says 'the boat is out of control...' oh really. So you attach a line to the dinghy, steer into the wind, get the engine going and think 'fogging hell..'

Have you ever tried to find a safe harbour for your sailboat with the 45 knot winds? Tried to weigh anchor, only to have it drag? Try to recover the anchor and the 200 feet of line attached... hauling in the soaked rope, heavy chain and finally the anchor. Trying to power the boat against the wind, trying to give directions to the helmsman in the bouncing swell, and blowing gale whilst recovering the anchor by hand...?

Have you ever have your tender break loose and start to float away in the middle of all this...? Because the D ring bends due to all the pressure...? Recovering the anchor can be done, recovering the boat can be done... finding safe moorage (eventually) in the dark and gale winds can be done.

You can find moorage, you can settle down, you can drink that well earned beer...

Have you ever sailed? With two dogs... who both have stomach issues...? Who wake you in the middle of the night, with the 'look'? The 'please for the love of god mother, let me find some grass...'? Who wake you five times... (well four and one). Dogs that have liquified stomach issues...?

Have you ever sailed?

Have you ever sailed after a figuratively and literally shitty day and night with two dogs... two dogs that have not recovered? The dog that 'looks' at you in the middle of the lake? Trying the Bond plan again... failing again... desperately failing all over the dinghy... Have you ever returned to the boat with a dinghy full of 'desperation', chucked the dog in the lake cos his paws are full of this desperation? Got the dog back on the boat, and tried to figure out the best way to clean this liquid desperation when you realize... you realize the dog has not finished being desperate... he has not finished being desperate, on the big boat... no, not finished, he has not finished everywhere... everywhere!

So he goes swimming again and you start to clean this desperation... you clean it off both boats... it takes a bit of time, it takes hoisting the dinghy out of the water, it takes a desperate amount of rinsing...

Have you ever sailed?

Have you ever sailed after having a brain frying day and night and day, that you don't pay attention? Have you ever run aground whilst sailing...? Have you ever spent two hours with the help of a very nice pontoon boat trying to unground your sailboat... whilst being watched by numerous spectators...?

Have you ever spent 11 stressful and 'desperate' hours on a boat, only to discover the directions you were given were misleading... 6kms misleading... 6kms at 6km/h misleading. 6 km misleading, when you have missed, dinner, breakfast, lunch, coffee and dinner again...?

Have you ever sailed?

Guess what we did last weekend.

Big White is AWESOME! Mission Idiotpossible!

Look at this. I did this post two years ago, but never actually posted it... So, after a little tweaking (I did some good grammar thingy, and sum spilling). And of course it was pre-hiking at Big White... And and and... don't try this at home.

...Remember the film Mission Impossible 2 with Tom Cruise? The start is him free climbing a treacherous cliff without ropes, harness or any safety equipment... once false move and he is strawberry jam. As he is doing his improbable climb, his mission arrives, he gets a message and cue the music - dum dum dum da da dum dum dum da da... Bond theme... easier to remember, but you get the idea.

Opening clip to MI2

So, I hike the mountain quite a bit, sometimes when alone I do more 'interesting' stuff... climbing the steep bits... as you look up the cliff chair I go up to the right, as you get to the point where you see the crazy snowboard/skier dudes doing their entertaining thing in the winter (crashing). I start to climb up. The going is easy... at first.. and then I get to the climby bits.

This way I think.

The route I am following is pulling me to the right; straight up is too technical - I only have hiking boots... this way seems to gives me the best route upwards. The downside of a traverse climb is the slope of the ground - for every foot I climb to the right, the ground drops off another foot - each foot higher means two feet further from the ground. Before I know it I am high, very high. At one point I am thinking I could base jump from this height, not that I have base jumped before... and I don't have a parachute but you know... I was probably wrong, but it was high.

Now it is not the fall that worries me, I am more concerned with the very rapid deceleration caused by those jagged boulders at the bottom.

Anyway I am at the point where continuing seems my best option. Have you ever climbed? Your eyes and head are close to your hands, not your feet. You can spot holds, spot your route and looking up is less scary... than looking down a 4000 feet drop towards those happy little killer rocks. So onwards it is, I am not that concerned at this point, I am moving, the climb is challenging but is doable.

I get to a bit of a crux and I manage (with quite a bit of difficulty) to get beyond the 'hard' bit. Now unfortunately as I get over the hard bit, the tiny hand and foot holds I used fracture away. I am spiderman-ing against the face and I notice for the first time the whole face is fractured... everything I touch is coming loose - big slivers of rock are breaking off in my hands. Despite my less than admirable performance in the brain department so far, i.e. what a dumbass, I am able to conclude (by myself) this could be tricky, as in 'OMG I'm gonna die...' tricky.

As difficult as it was getting up, it would be less fun getting down, even if the holds still existed... the don't. And with the rock fractures constantly coming loose, yes I am also a bit concerned with getting a 'tap on the head' (old Navy saying) from above - then performing my swan dive into those happy rocks. Anyway the shaky legs I have from 'muscle fatigue' (yes that is what I am calling it) subside, oxygen gets back to the noggin and I start to think. I cannot go up, I cannot go down, both sides are looking impossible... yes, Mission Impossible. Clip again - Opening clip

I am on the cliff!

So there I am doing my Tom Cruise bit on the Cliff and at that point (in true MI2 style) my phone rings - so still being spidey I answer the wife... "Where are you?" She barks, okay she enquires but this is my version.

"I am on the cliff" I answer honestly.

"Are you still going up, or on your way down?" she asks.

"I not sure..." well I am not, but she cannot hear me clearly anyway. "Can I call you back?" I ask, and hang up, yes I was a bit short with her but you know, I have a situation here and boy would she be mad at me if I killed myself - best be avoiding that situation... it could be 'tricky'.

So I am thinking of options. I am stuck but I am not panicking, I am stable in my spidey position - and I don't want to embarrass myself by calling 911 having search and rescue come and get me - no no no. So I figure a 'soft' rescue would work (for me - cos it is all about me). 

The fire dept. Yes, with a harness and rope, that would work - so I call Gareth, no answer (I should have been nicer to him I think). I call Brad in the Globe (love the Globe) 

"Do you have the chief's number?" I casually enquire... 

"No, he is on vacation." 

"Ah... do you have Chris's?" again, cool as a cucumber.

"I'll get it for you, let me call you right back"

By now I have been in this spot for probably 30-40 mins and I am still trying to work out a way down... And and and... my battery is almost dead, appropriate.

10 mins later and no call... I decide to get myself down. To be honest I don't really know how, I do recall at one point I was on a sheer face holding on with my finger tips and trying to reach a toe hold... and crying... Eventually I get to a easier area and I go up - I am hoping and hoping I don't hit a tough area again cos I am vertical and it is a long, long way down.

I reach the top, and then go down - I have to find my glasses, (whilst I was doing my Cruise thing those bloody horse flies kept trying to eat my head, and whilst trying to swat them away I knocked off my glasses - didn't see that in the movie), rescue one of my dogs (the barky one - you know which one) and find the other. Then I head down, I stop at the lake and drink the water... if it is good enough for ducks... it is good enough for dumb-asses.

As I am heading down the deputy fire chief calls me (well done Brad), I tell him I had an issue but everything is fine. It is about this point the battery in my phone dies. I have a meeting at 11am at the Globe and I head straight there - sweaty, dirty, and stinking - but hey, this is Big White. As I get through the door Brad says you had better call your wife... Susan had called the Globe got hold of Brad, Brad had told her I was trying to reach the fire Chief... I had been gone two hours longer than usual... why would I be two hours late and calling the fire chief...? 

So that is my Mission Idiotpossible story - at Big White - where else can you live where you can walk out your door and get stuck on a cliff? Big White is AWESOME!

So... finishing with my Pitch again, Sólido Properties is still alive and has a bunch of properties on the mountain, which surprise surprise... We Rent! Yay! Of course we do. If you have continued reading (I don't know why, I am not Shakespeare, this is not considered literature... but have) and you are looking for a place to live then... visit our website, or Facebook page.