Resort Skiing - Canada - April 2004 - Jan 2006

Resort Skiing – Canada - Whistler

31st December 2005

Back to Canada for Christmas vacation I decided to get some skiing in. But there was a little problem. The Canadian winter started off strong however a couple Pineapple Expresses before Christmas pretty much destroyed the snowpack at many of the mountains. My Christmas at Shuswap Lake for example consisted of plus zero temps and heavy rain. Not so nice when Japan is getting hammered by one of the best winters in a long long time.But the weather did start to turn around just after Christmas and by the time I got to Whistler on December 30 it was just about winter looking.I had signed onto a trip planned by Erik Stoltenberg's friends. I haven’t skied with Erik since my first year in Japan. His friends had managed to find a condo right in the village that was large enough for the 6 of us and expensive enough to sufficiently drain all of my funds. As it was so expensive I was determined to get as much skiing in as possible.First day out I made Erik get up at 6 so that we could get in line for first chair. We didn't get 1st chair but we did get 2nd and got to ski the 15cm of fresh snow. I got to show Erik all my favorite lines. Most of them are obvious but there are 1 or 2 that the tourists don't normally get into. And those 1 or 2 were full of nice powder. But as there wasn't so much snow out there and the 15cm covered some nice sharks both Erik and I came up with some nice core shots. But we had a good time. My coreshot happened in Ruby bowl. I went into a little straightline and coming out was carrying some good speed which I managed to ditch right before some untracked snow. I snagged a rock though and ended up tumbling around some pretty large boulders. Hiking up to get my ski I saw just how close I came to hitting the big rocks as the snow was scraped off all of them. Somebody was watching out for me there.The 2nd day was a write off as I was quite hungover but I did get out on the snow unlike Erika who didn't even get out of bed. It was rough though and not so much fun. But at least I got out. It started to snow heavily on the 2nd day and the winds picked up shutting down the upper mountain.Day 3 had us waking up to 30cm of new snow. I had met Shane and Dana Carmichael on the first day and they invited me out to ski with them. As we got 1st chair on this day again we had a few runs to lap before meeting up with the Carmichaels and before the patrol got the upper mountain opened up. It was really cool being out there with so much new snow. There was so much enthusiasm in the air from all the people out there. I even rode up the chair with Shane Szocs and it was fun listening to him and his friends talk about there lines. They talk casually about dropping 10-15 metre cliffs like I talk casually about dropping 3-5 metre cliffs. When we met up with the Carmichaels we rode up the chair with Shane and just talking to him both Erik and I knew we were out of our league. At the top we said goodbye and waited for Dana and Kelsey. Dana although not as good as Shane still finished 3rd in the North American Free-skiing tour. In other words she rips. Kelsey is also a very good skier. They took us hiking into some closed areas. A steep chute folled by some billy-goating in tight trees followed by a nice open powder field and we were on the glacier cat-track. Back to the top and they had just opened Spankies. So we got up that and as soon as we were clicked in Dana skied a bit along the ridge to Rubies before dropping off a 3 metre cliff. I couldn't be upped on that so had to jump it as well. Not as clean of a landing as her but I landed it fine. Erik landed on his side and then we were off into the bowls below. The main bowls had been skied out but Dana knew some fun ledges we could get into. A little more billy-goating and I was on the top of a nice straightline with a little cliff at the bottom. I landed it really clean and was so stoked. That was my best run of the trip and nothing topped it at all. We still had a few runs left though and got into some more cool areas. With the day coming to an end I went out for beers with the entire Carmichael family and some other skiers. Really nice of them to treat me as I havn't been in touch with them in a few years.Day 4 had us again up really early however with only 4cm of new snow I could see why there was next to nobody on the mountain. After the 30cms the day before skiing groomers and packed out runs just isn't fun. I was also very weak from skiing hard the 3 days before. Erik on the other hand was feeling pretty strong. I have to say again though that he did dick out on me on New Years Day because he was too hungover. We skied some fun runs with Kelsey and then on our own some of the obvious runs in Spankies. I was exausted and wasn't sad to ski out at 12 to the base.A really good trip and the snow fell for me which was cool as I was feeling a little drepressed knowing that Japan was getting dumped on. But skiing knarly lines at Blackcomb in 30cms of fresh is much better than skiing 100cms of fresh in Japan.

Resort Skiing - Canada

April 6, 2004

Well I'm back from my Canada trip. Just did about 10 days there visiting family and getting a few days in as well as stocking up on things like toothpaste and whatnot.Spent first few days at the cabin in the Shuswap just relaxing. Was nice hanging out with the parents. As I was already halfway to the Rockies I decided to head another 4 hours east to Golden which is actually in the Purcells but the Rockies are just a few km across the Columbia River so a generalisation. I have been hearing amazing stories about Kicking Horse. Let me just say that this hill is amazing. So steep and just sick terrain. Pretty much every run you have to ski out to the bottom almost 1300 metres below. I really enjoyed this as it just gets the legs burning. The snow conditions were really good as well. On the north facing slopes it was soft packed powder and then down low it was nice corn. Skiid some great chutes and bowls. This mountain rules. On a big powder day it would be hard to contain oneself. I think it may be where I end up when I go home in a few years. Hope there are teaching jobs there.Headed back to the wack to hang out with friends by crashing the Search and Rescue training night. A few beers with the boys. Good to see old friends.and then went to Whistler. Was trying for 2 days there however truck problems eliminated that to 1. But I was able to finally buy some shoes. But with the extra day not skiing I finally found some new shoes. Can't buy them in Japan in my small town. And then go home and can't find then anywhere there. Size 11.5 is just to common and everything on sale that I want isn't available. Rant Rant Rant. Also bought 2 new ski movies. Focused and High Society. Lots of Ski Porn at my house now. So back to the skiing. Hit up Blackcomb and found some great steeps in the usual spots that I frequent. Purple Haze, Chainsaw rigde, Ruby and Diomond bowls. The skiing was amazing and I got fried. My lips are splitting. I love this mountain. If living wern't so expensive this would be my dreamplace.But that was it for skiing so headed into Van to visit my best friend Tyler. We spent the night crawling to different bars. It was a great time and actually my first time drinking it up in Vancouver. I've lived 1 hour away from the city my whole life and never really bothered to have drinking fun in it.But all in all it was a great trip. Got 3 days skiing in. Definitly worth carrying all of my gear home for that. Drove about 2000km's and found my future mountain home. If anybody is ever in BC and finds themselves wanting to ski. Hit up Kicking Horse in Golden. It rules!!!!