First time I visited Vancouver many years ago. I was there for the interview, and as the city’s features advertisement got the statement, that it is a unique place, where you can “ski and swim on the same day”. At that time I choose Victoria instead of Vancouver, but later on, I visited the city regularly, and even spend here several years. However, I never used the possibility to ski and swim on the same day. Actually, I even never tried, because the ocean is always cold, and even during the summer months doesn’t look enjoyable, and there is now snow on the mountains at the time, when water is warm in the lakes.
However, the existence of such a possibility, together with its non-realization, makes me unsatisfied.
By the will of fate, we were in Vancouver for this New Year.
There is a tradition between me (I have no idea palmed it off to me) to swim on January 1st in an open water. If on this day of the year I can find non-frozen (and, that is more important, existing) open ware near me, I have to try to keep the tradition.
This time, my friend invited us to do AT skiing early morning of January 1st to have busy ski season this year (there is a traditional opinion among Russians, the how your start a new year, the same way you will go through it).
So, I realized, that this is my chance.
As a result, on January 1st we woke up at 6-30 am (who, for god sake, woke up so early on the such a day of the year!) and went to the Seymour mountain. I should say, it was a lot of crazy people there.
The weather was not nice, but it still was very enjoyable to visit this mountain again.
After skiing down from the mountain, and leaving the friend at her house (for some reason, that I cannot understand, she didn’t want to run in icy water from the snow-covered beach), we went to the downtown, where swim/ right in the English Bay. Onlookers and gees were happy. They have the official “Polar Bear Swim) in English Bay on January 1st, but later afternoon, so we were first.
So, the gestalt “ski and swim on the same day” can be counted as closed.
