Hitting the slopes

Well, today was the first day on the slopes, more on that later.


Pablo - a golden retriever/lab cross with a bit of husky. Awwwww

Yesterday saw the first "trial" of the snowboard, with a brief slither down the drive. It didnt work at all, something which i found highly amusing. After sledging with the kids, we had dinner with the neighbours, a fun evening with a chance to meet some "proper" canadians. Videos on youtube ensued, and we all had a good time watching such classics as "Bear versus Carribou", "40lbs of Tannerite", "Tannerite and gasoline meets old fridge" and so on and so forth.

Unfortunately, we did not watch powerthirst.

So this morning i woke up early (0700, although the kids wake me up every morning clockwork at 0630 running over my room) and dressed for boarding. After loading up on pancakes with maple syrup and coffee we drove to Sarah's brothers house, where i was left with his family. Some more coffee followed, before we threw the kit in the truck and headed up to Big White.


Throwing the stuff in the truck

The drive was amazing, with snow covering the roads and drifts up to 7 or so meters deep (covering mature pine trees in places), the truck fishtailing all over the place.

Upon arrival at BW we headed up to the village to get my pass. Unfortunately, the age of majority in BC is 19, so a parental consent waiver was required. This needs to be posted home, signed and posted back, but Laurie can sign it as my legal guardian, or i could just do a bit of forgery... Either way i was issued with some day passes to cover me until i get that sorted.

Riding to the top of the lift, the pines were cladded in snow, (Apparently they are "snowghosts") weighing the bows down. The forest was completely silent and foggy, adding an almost supernatural feel to the place.


Yours truly wearing a not very nice helmet - one to be bought soon!


Pretty snow!

In canada the runs are not marked out at all, meaning riding through forests is easy and fun to do. Given the lighting conditions however, this was not too wise a move, especially after the fiasco that was my last time on a board.... So we rode down two runs, (excellent snow quality compared to europe, it was nice and dry), i managed not to wipe out a single time! Upon arrival at the top of the village lift i discovered that i had snapped the toestrap of my left binding. I was not particularly happy, and so headed straight to the repair shop to get it sorted. 15 minutes and 21 bucks later and i had a working binding again thanks to some very helpful aussies (who claimed that they invented chicken pie, not the brits?)

A few adjustments were made to the bindings, giving me better responce from the board. It really is a good board, several times i thought i was going to wipeout but i didnt, the board held in there!

After a few more runs, we had lunch (stopping for maple taffy - boil maple syrup and pour it on ice - gorgeous) and then hit the park for one last run before heading home. The park is really cool, and i have set an objective of 180ing onto a rail, boardsliding it and exiting the rail with a 180 by the time i leave - given im not particularly good at rails and have never tried a 180 this is a fair bit ahead of me :)

On arriving home, i discovered that Lauries parents had arrived and gone shopping for appliances, so i promptly had a nap.

The plan for tomorrow and monday is as follows:
Go to church and hang out with some of the guys for lunch and the afternoon, followed by snowtubing in the evening.

Monday i buy my car, one of the following:

2000 Subaru Legacy Outback in dark green, all wheel drive
Ford Explorer SUV
Or a GMC Safari.

At the moment im thinking the Outback because its low and light compared to the other two - ie i wont roll it messing about!