Whoops, blew right past the month of March and into April for the February report. I did not want to post the February report until I finished the Cascade Saddle trip report, which I’m quite proud of. And then I continued to be busy, even though lectures are finished.
In February, aside from work and the Cascade Saddle, I went to the Madawaska Ice Fest and, well, climbed some ice. It was extremely cold, like -25. Also represented the Ontario Alliance of Climbers at the Fest.
Health news
One last dentist trip before getting an implant, so that I could get stitches removed. No other personal health appointments this month, actually, as usual.
- Biological sex and the immune system: I did notice that the reactogenic COVID vaccine elicits more reactions in MP; here’s an old Technology Review article about that.
- Single vaccine vs coughs, colds and flus: time-limited but surprisingly effective; good for peaks maybe.
- Test being developed for post-COVID ongoing lung disease
- AstraZenica COVID vaccine side effects explained: super rare reaction to adenovirus.
Professional
By virtue of being on a hike for 4 days, the number of days worked in February was a more reasonable 19. Coincidentally, there were also 19 working days in February. Most of my professional effort was teaching prep, but there was also a bunch of video calls for NFRF grant proposal discussion, as well as more FAUW governance work.
Teaching
There was an SE465 midterm while I was on the Cascade Saddle; I got Derek to proctor it. A lot of weird things happened. e.g. how did the AccessAbility exams not have Crowdmark QR codes? I wrote a postmortem (not a good sign when I have to do that). Anyway, I made the midterm worth bonus marks, inspired by Luc Devroye.
I was certainly burned out by midterm time, but the rest of the term was mostly less intense; most of the three weeks of Dafny lectures didn’t require prep, thankfully. Also it didn’t help that it was both midterm and assignment prep time. There was definitely some same-day prep in February. The course should now be in a better state for next year.
Grad students/mentees/collaborators
Only on 4 days in February (hey, it’s a short month), which is way below average.
Collegiality/Service
Three NFRF calls, three FAUW governance meetings, didn’t work on SCAM?
Trips
Far: New Zealand; less far: Maynooth; closest: McMaster.
Far: Cascade Saddle, February 13 to March 1
We’d tried to do the Cascade Saddle Route a couple of times in previous years, but you really want good conditions for it. It’s also harder before December, because some bridges are removed (so that they don’t get taken out by avalanches). Turns out that those would actually be some pretty serious river crossings, especially in spring.
Anyway, like every year, reading week 2026 was in mid-February, and midterm week was the week after. Hopefully there would be a weather window.
In the end, everything came together for us on this Cascade Saddle walk, on the last possible day. The saddle was a spectacular 11-hour day.
Closer: Madawaska Ice Festival, Maynooth, February 6 to 8
Occasionally I go ice climbing. Not very often. They had set up some topropes at Diamond Lake. Where by “they” I mean “people including me”. I climbed a couple of ice routes. Good to keep in practice, and nice to see becs (who was the keynote speaker) and Nate.
Getting to Maynooth during a snowstorm took 5.5 hours; getting back was way faster (4.5h from Diamond Lake, which is half an hour further).
I have pictures of the festival supper, but I haven’t processed them yet.
Closest: McMaster Climbing Club, February 2
Gave the OAC “climbing outdoors” presentation with Tyler. I should really do this at Waterloo as well.
Travel Planning
- Ahead of time planning: for the Edmonton International in March.
- On-the-fly trip planning: changes to the Cascade Saddle trip due to weather.
- Literally last-minute planning: changes to return itinerary from Wellington due to Uber/Didi not showing up.
Movement statistics
Definitely more walking while in New Zealand and especially when hiking the Cascade Saddle.
Movement statistics:
- 🚶 Walking: 91km on 18 days
- 🚲 Biking: 86km on 10 days
- 🚗 Driving: 2326km on 12 days: Hamilton (142km); Maynooth (864km); New Zealand (1223km); Vancouver (97km).
- 🚗 Taxi: 124km on 4 days (to YYZ; from WLG; to and from WLG; to WLG)
- 🚌 Bus: 169km on 5 days (Wellington; tramping shuttles; Vancouver)
- 🚆 SkyTrain: 13.5km (Vancouver)
- ✈ Plane: 30175km (YYZ-YVR-WLG; WLG-CHC; CHC-WLG; WLG-BNE-YVR-YYZ)
- 🚠 Cable car: 1.4km (2× Wellington)
Transit was 183km: bus plus SkyTrain.
Walks
- Cascade Saddle Route (Raspberry Creek to Aspiring Hut, over the Cascade Saddle, through to Dart Hut, Shelter Rock Hut, and out at Muddy Creek).
Pictures
January was a bust in terms of photo processing, so there was no photos post for the single set of photos that I processed. February was more reasonable, though I surely took more pictures than I processed, especially with the Cascade Saddle hike. There is still the set of January 2024 pictures from Te Papa, and then the Travers-Sabine in February 2024, which is substantial, and yet not atop my queue. I try to mix recent pictures and archives.
Picture logs available, and, as always, pictures are clickable to go to the full gallery.
- Sets of pictures processed: February=10, January=1, December=27
- Total pictures selected: February=276, January=27, December=919
- Total pictures in selection pool: February=1210, January=91, December=3092
- Accept rate: 23% (min 14%, max 47%)
- Pictures posted on this page: 73
Commingled flora and fauna:
Miscellaneous
Still well above normal focus on teaching this month. Not that much life maintenance this month. So, teaching, some service, and travel.
Posts
None.
Books
Still none.
Acquisitions
- WD Blue 8TB internal HDD: only got around to installing it in April; for backups.
- Rossignol Waterproof Ski Gloves - Men’s: $40!
- Cygnett USB C to USB C Light Up Cable 1.2M: this is a funky cable, can’t miss it in the dark; I discovered that I had no USB-C to USB-C cable in the airport in Sydney and got this at the airport. Felt bad about using it at night.
- just a generic whistle: good idea for going in the backcountry; surprisingly expensive.
- more envelopes for Tet money (but I later found the ones I had already).
Sports
GRR 3×, Faultline 1×, McMaster Climbing 1×, Diamond Lake ice 2×, judo 1×. Not a good term for judo!
Food
Canada:
- Monga Fried Chicken, Hamilton: good place to stop on the way to McMaster.
- Loafe Cafe, Vancouver: on a bonus day in Vancouver, visited UBC; decent food on the on-campus scale.
- Sabina Mexican Food, Vancouver: 10/10 tacos, pretty sketchy neighbourhood.
- Dudes Coffee House, Surrey: real local cafe atmosphere, tasty cookie, acceptable croissant.
- Sushi Topia, Surrey: yet another excellent Vancouver sushi restaurant, hard to reach without car, surrounded by other restaurants.
- Tang Vietnamese Restaurant & Bar: banh mi was just the right amount of (non-airport) food before taking the plane back to Toronto.
New Zealand:
- The Beijing Restaurant, Newtown Wellington: pretty old-school Chinese restaurant. I liked it. Eggplant not as tasty as I hoped, but other things more tasty than I hoped.
- Poppies Cafe, Twizel: I was taking a FAUW governance call when eating breakfast here, but the eggs were fine.
- Mantra Indian Restaurant, Arrowtown: hopping Indian place in Arrowtown; I’d go again.
- Gantley’s Tavern, Queenstown: went there for lunch, had a scone, did some work.
- Ministry of Works, Twizel: excellent post-tramp fish and chips
Volunteering
Constitution #1 approved: Wellington Judo Academy. This one was required by changes to the NZ Incorporated Societies Act. Remaining constitutions: Faculty Association of the University of Waterloo; Ontario Alliance of Climbers. All under different regulatory regimes!
Conclusion
Again a super busy month. January, February, March. All busy.