There is already quite a lot of buzz around the huge fire that basically incinerated a whole block in downtown Toronto. I haven’t heard if anybody was hurt during the massive fire but I sure hope not. I am sure I’ll learn more about it on the news today as I saw two helicopters flying over the area for quite a while. According to blogTO,
Over 50 fire vehicles have joined the fight. Early reports suggest that at least eight stores have burned, one unit has collapsed, and more structure appears to be on the verge of coming down. [...]CityTV reports that National Sound, Suspect Video, and Duke’s Cycle are amongst the shops affected.
Anyways, for those of you out there curious as to what a “six alarm fire” really means, go check out the explanation: How big is a 10-alarm fire?. Here are some pictures of the even from the condo… You can see much closer pictures on blogTO. Let me know if you have more news, photos, etc.
The fire was still going on strong at around 10h30 this morning.
Right around 2h30, the fire was under a lot more control, but the water was still going.
Once again, Coyote Rock Gym raised the bar for the other gyms and provided us with an amazing competition. They really are the veterans of comps in the Eastern region of the “Tour de Bloc
”. What makes this competition so good is not only Jody’s devotion (not to mention all the setters and volunteers) to top quality problems, but also the location of the gym, which makes it easily accessible for climbers from both provinces. The field is becoming stronger and it’s really good to so many good boulderers make it to a non-regional competition. As usual, the finals were really close and only one or two holds separated the finalists in the end. I must, however, give some props to Yves and Katerine who upped their game and clearly deserved to win the competition.
Without further ado, here are the results from Saturday’s finals. If you are looking for the full results, you should visit the gripped forum.
Women’s Finals:
- Katerine Martin
- Melissa Lacasse
- Eva Pepin-Helie
- Kerry Briggs
- Bonnie de Bruijn (Photos)
- Erin Ford
Men’s Finals:
- Yves Gravelle
- Jo Audy
- Ayo Sopeju
- Sebastien Gardner
- Dustin Curtis
- Sebastien Lazure
- Mark Stirling
- Dave Voltan
- Noah Zielinski
If you are curious, the photos of Bonnie on problem #1 and #4 were taken by Frank Lebeau. Here are a couple of links in case you are interested in seeing more from Frank. He’s a great photographer, he even took photos for our wedding last summer!
To have the ideas of a childhood icon like Jacques Cousteau so beautifully written is really special. I stumbled upon this book by chance at the bookstore today and read the introduction in the bookstore. I just couldn’t leave without buying it. I’m already halfway through and still can’t put it down. It’s beautifully put together and full of really interesting facts about Cousteau’s life. I can’t wait to go read it again. I haven’t finished the book, but I highly recommend it to anybody interested in knowing a little more about the fascinating man that was Jacques Cousteau.
While on the subject, you should go visit the Cousteau Society’s website. You’ll find, among other things, that they are starting to restore the Calypso and that you can directly contribute to their efforts to continue the history of Calypso as a symbol of the legacy of Captain Cousteau.
