Quicksilver Snowboard Camp

It's almost season end so we decided to make the most of a good opportunity to improve our already mad skills, and attend a two day Freeride/ Freestyle Snowboard Camp.

The conditions for Camp Day 1 were pretty rough. Visibility was bad and the snow which had melted the day before had frozen solid over night. The few cms of fresh snow did nothing to conceal the crud beneath. Leigh rented a smaller/ softer park board for the camp and had to get used to it's handling in the challenging conditions.

We had four in our group and Ross our instructor took us straight into the Park. After some warm up ollies off the park rollers we headed to the kickers. We did some small hits first to practise our technique and then Ross took us off to the bigger kickers.

I think we have only ever hit the medium kickers a couple of times on powder days when you're not so fussed about hurting yourself. They're pretty scary. Ross told us to match his speed to make sure we cleared the knuckle (flat section of the jump) just after you leave the lip. You have to clear the knuckle before you make to the transition which is the downward landing. This is also scary.. The transition, apart from being solid ice sits at about 90 degrees. We learnt later in the day that one of the guys in the other group broke his shoulder after landing on the knuckle section on one of the M jumps in the park.


One guy in our group (Dennis) was actually screaming from a combination of fear and exhilaration as he went over for the first time. Gareth didn't make an attempt but Leigh and I were up for it. Leigh had trouble with the new board, he couldn't line it up very well due to it's high degree of flex. I tried swapping boards with him later in the day and oh boy was it a piece of crap.

So we hit these for most of the day and our goal was to hit all three kickers in a row. This was a pretty ambitious goal. Once you stuffed your heart back down your throat after landing the first jump, you had about 2 seconds to man up for the next jump. We really learnt that it's all about commitment. Before you drop in you have to have already decided to go hard or you're likely to freak out as soon as you approach and the last thing you want is to start flapping in the air off a 20 ft jump. I had one fall after getting some massive air off the second kicker. I landed the jump but then caught and edge on the transition and slid down feet first jarring my ankles and grazing my chin. Battle scar of sorts that I'm pretty proud of.

This is some random person in the photo (we didn't have a camera) but I just wanted to show you the actual Terrain Park we were hitting.

Day two and Leigh has come down with a really bad fever. He was in a cold sweat and state of delirium so I had to go it alone. We did some fantastic steeps off the Blackcomb glacier in the morning and once we had warmed up we hit the Blackcomb terrain garden. The kickers and features are smaller in there and we were all pretty traumatised after our adventures in the Whistler Park yesterday. Nailed the small features, confidence - check. Time for the big kids park.

Now it was time to attempt some Large sized features like the hips. The hip in the picture is actually pretty small. The ones we hit were about 4m tall. The idea is to ride straight up the front, get some hang time, and then change your rotation and land down the side. Takes some practise to get your rotation right. These aren't nearly as terrifying as the big jumps but they require you to think more about your landing and mid air rotations.


I hit some more Medium jumps, none of the guys were keen to try them again. Yeah!!

At lunch we sat and had lunch on the same table as snowboarding legend JP Walker who I used to watch in snowboarding DVD's when I first started riding. He was a really cool guy so this kind of made my day.

After lunch Gareth went home so it was just Dennis, Ross and myself. We were exhausted from riding so hard so we did some Boarder cross racing and focused some more on our spins and 180's as we rode around Blackcomb in the sun pretty much hitting every bump we came across.

All in all it was such a great experience. We felt what it was like to be pushed completely out of our comfort zone. I have a new appreciation for guys and girls who nail it because they work so hard. The mind really has alot to do with it at this level. I think I have a new perspective of my own capabilities too.

Kat

Demo Day, Injuries, Poor Performance

Friday was S U P E R demo day. We rose S U P E R early and made it up to the Roundhouse by just after 0900. Amazing. I was a little disappointed that there was no LibTech tent though. Oh well.

So we rode some boards.

I managed to get on the K2 Darkstar, Ride DH, Society and Concept UL.
Kat rode the Ride Fever and I think the Vista, and had a few spectacular accidents.

To recap: the Vapor is super stuff, therefore to flex it you have to apply tons of brute force. The Fever is a park/jib board, so is super flexible which means if you apply heaps of force, it will flex a lot. Nonetheless the tail-press 180 turned into a tail stand which turned into a flipping over. It was pretty funny to watch, but the consequences were no good.

There is now an issue with her ribs, hopefully it's just bruising and not a small fracture. Good thing she has a cough as well, because I'm sure that's pleasant.

It was great to ride some different boards. Irritatingly I think I liked all of them comfort-wise more than the Vapor. I had my first ride on a bigger board (the Concept UL was a 161) which was S U P E R cool for ripping out massive carves. If I was to have multiple boards, I would definitely have a big board for surfing the pow and bombing at warp speed down the piste runs.

Next Friday there's another demo day, which I shall be using to full advantage. Must arrive earlier. MUST ARRIVE EARLIER.

So Friday afternoon we hooked up with Jacqui and Co for some post-shred beers.

For me at least, this quickly got out of control. My first (of many) steps down the road to perdition had been taken!

We gave some Swiss dudes a lift to the village, and then headed up to The Ghetto (a.k.a. staff housing). At this point the evening gets a bit blurry. I remember (vaguely) smokin' a doobie with Loulie's room mate, packing my horn, and chewing a vitamin tablet.

At some point after this I apparently decided to go for a walk, get lost, get picked up, and get put to bed. I like to call this "Euan Style", and boy did I rock it out. Apparently anyway, for I have no recollection your honour. To top it all off, I forgot to record BSG. WTF?! IDIOT!!

I'd foolishly agreed to work on Saturday, so I did. It was slow, and was pretty nice to hang out with the boys in the sun. Ahh if only I could have stopped shaking. Teehee.

Tomorrow and Tuesday are SNOWBOARD CAMP days. w00ty!

Bad Mood

Well Monday and Tuesday this week sucked ass. My skills were nearly non-existent.
Wednesday was better, but after the successes of last week, a bit of a let down.

Today I also sucked a bit. Still trying to make it over the M size kickers. Technically I am making it over them, but lacking the speed to clear the step down. I think I managed to go fast enough on one of them, but bailed the landing. It's a fuckin' mission working up the balls to hit them fast enough.

Maybe tomorrow. Maybe never. Maybe I suck.

What is MOST pissing me off today though, is the fact that Sean's brother David, from whom we bought the turd, is now claiming that he thought that we were going to give it back to him, basically for free.

So the scenario goes a little something like this:
1. We buy The Turd(tm) from David.
2. He gets USD8000, pays off his loan, and lives happily ever after.
3. When we're done, we give him the RV back. For nothing.

WTF?! This makes NO FUCKING SENSE at all to me. Sorry Daniel, I'm still ranting about this.
Why would anyone in their right mind (or us) agree to this arrangement?!

I mean we bought the turd for a few reasons.
1. It was easy.
2. It was going to be easy to sell.
3. It was pretty cheap.
4. David needed the money.

I mean this was supposed to be a win-win situation for everyone, not a case where we pay off David's debt out of the goodness of our own hearts.

Thankfully we own the turd, and have the title to prove it. So sadly for everyone else, we hold all the cards. But this feels like a situation that could easily get out of control and end badly for everyone.

Anyway. Tomorrow there's a big demo day as part of the Telus World Ski & Snowboard festival, so hopefully we'll get to try out a few 2009 boards and figure out whether there's any candidates.

Peash.

Good Mood

Man I am in a super good mood today. Have a break from work (even here) has really left me pretty refreshed, so I had a great day there yesterday. Being paid probably helps too.

Goin' to have some breakfast and head up the mountain. Ripper!

You know what's weird though, there are, as of today (Monday) only 2 weeks to go until we leave Whistler for good.... despite my bout of wanting to leave in February, I think I'll be sad to ride into the sunset.

Pre-Work Funnies

Someone managed to put the alarm clock an hour forward between yesterday and this morning.

This means we were both up an hour early, but neither of us noticed this - even though there are three other clocks in the turd.

Thus Kat arrived at work one hour in advance. Thankfully, I will not be.

It's snowing. Yay.

Indie Grab, 180, BSG

Finally another trick to add to my arsenal of .. err.. 1.

I managed to pull off my first indie grab over a kicker yesterday. Yeah!

For those who are not in the know, this is where you grab the toe edge of your board, with your back hand.

Anyhoo. I also kind of managed (or is that mangled) a frontside 180. Wasn't very impressive though. Will work on it this week. Look forward to my broken limbs shortly.

Last night we tuned into the first episode of Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica. The long hiatus certainly hasn't affected the power of the show, but hey - you can watch it yourself.

Looks like I'm *shock horror* working tomorrow. What the? That's not right! There I was enjoying the luxury of being a kept man, but now the dream is over. *sob*.

Cypress, Vancouver, Mike China

It's been a while since my last update, as we were in Vancouver, and then entertaining the world famous Mike China.

** WARNING - This is a very long update. There are pictures though, so if you prefer to watch, scroll down :-) **

Cypress Mountain Day 1 (Thursday)
Cypress is in fact in West Vancouver. This must be very cool for Vancouverites, as it's only a short drive over the Lions Gate Bridge. It also gets around double the snow of Whistler as well, their current base is nearly five meters.

Alas, it's also much smaller than Whistler - the first sign of this was the fact that I was unable to buy tickets for more than one day at a time! The second sign was the fact that we could ride from the very top to the very bottom in about 5 minutes. After the vast expanse that is Whistler/Blackcomb, it was pretty funny.

We had a lot of fun there - despite its small size, it has some great tree runs, and the "Glades" and
"Top Gun" runs were awesome. Unfortunately the visibility was terrible, so I didn't get any photos.

I have decided that noone in Vancouver has any excuse not to be good at snow sports. With three mountains within an hours drive, and Whistler within 2.5 hours you have the perfect setting for a life of ripping.

The hotel wasn't too bad either - it looked a bit dilapidated from the outside, and the room initially had a bit of old-person smell, but the bed was king sized (and very comfortable) and it had a fridge for the beer.

Chinatown
After months of no Chinese food I was pretty fired up for our visit to Chinatown.

Except, it sucked.

We walked around for ages, couldn't find any restaurants that were open, and were confronted by many of Vancouver's finest crazies. It seems that British Columbia (much like our home Victoria) has closed many of its mental health facilities, leaving those who used to reside them to wander the streets. A little disturbing to be honest.

We had to jump back in the Jeep and head to another suburb before we died of hunger.
We found a Singaporean restaurant (that turned out to be more of a generic asian experiance). Coincidentally we had ventured out during some kind of charity night, so Kat entered a competition to win $2500 of vouchers, and received a free tea cup. Woo!

Cypress Mountain Day 2 (Friday)
Another great day. Kat had to get the Greyhound back to Whister ready for work on Saturday, while I hung around in Vancouver awaiting the arrival of Mike China.

Finally however, I managed to get some decent Chinese food. We had tried to go to a restaurant in North Vancouver on Thursday night (but it was closed and opening on Friday). I headed there with Jacqui and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food. The Ma Po Tofu was excellent, and it was a delight to eat Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli) again after what feels like about 10 years.

If you're ever in North Vancouver, you should defiantly check out Red Chilli Szechuan Cuisine (741 Lonsdale Ave, North Vancouver -604-986-2088). Excellent.

Vancouver (Saturday)
I don't know whether you've ever been in a city with no plans, no guide book, and no clues. I don't recommend it. I spent a whole day in downtown Vancouver, and it was pretty boring. Partly my own fault, and partly due to the fact that it felt very much like Sydney's CBD on the weekends. Oh well.

Finally it was time to head to Vancouver airport, and await the arrival of Mike. The plane from Denver was a little late, but nothing dramatic. A couple of hours later (through a near white-out on the road) we arrived at the Turd. Thankfully the two beers that I had in the back of the Jeep were still kind of cold, so we had them, and hit the sack.

Riding
Finally I took the camera up to the mountain. Of course the sky was not blue, but hey.

Here's our guest, looking very dashing.


I was surprised that after 2 years of not riding, Mike was pretty darn good at it.


Kat was grumpy, but still looked good in the trees.


Gettin' some lean in...


...and a little more. Great lookin' jacket. Good thing it's mine!


Despite grumpiness, there was still a little air.


....and bringing a bit of smack down in the terrain park.


Alas no photos of me yet. Sunny tomorrow, so I will give Kat a quick lesson in pro-photography.

Guitar Hero
Of course, what evening is complete with out some guitar hero.

Demonstrating his infinite prowess....


There ain't no hair like big hair, ladies.


By this stage I'd had a few beers. So the old long exposure and crazy zooming came out.


There's nothing quite like strange portraits to warm the cockles.


Someone looks kind of evil huh?


Departure
All good things come to an end, so this morning I took Mike back down to Vancouver. The turd is much quieter and less interesting now.

That is all.

Stay Tuned

Updates, snow photos, and worshipping at the temple of Mike China coming soon.

Just as soon as we're done entertaining his Lordship.

Rock on.

Bleh

Bleh.

Off to Vancouver/Cypress tomorrow.
Will post when we return, unless there's internet access at the Lions Gate Travelodge.

Takin' camera, so hopefully there'll be clear skies for some pictures.

A slightly less than rippin' day...

Last night I was really excited about getting up early and hitting the mountain, due to the promise of 10-15cm of new snow.

At 00:30 this morning I was still awake visualising myself doing a frontside 180 off a kicker. I hate it when I can't sleep. Imagine the terror at 05:10 when Kat had to get up for work, and then at 05:30 when I arose from the palatial boudoir.

Dunno what it was today, but lack of snow, and lack of sleep certainly didn't help my irritable mood, and distinct lack of skills on the hills.

A dirty English ski instructor nearly earned himself a snowboard in the head after telling me off for "riding across the piste". I hate that word. Bah.

Aerially however, today was a success. I'm now only 20-30cm from clearing the entire (small) kicker, and feeling very confident in the air. In the final moments of the day, I managed to pull off some kind of strange ollie with a 180 degree spin in it. Admittedly, I wasn't moving very fast (if you must know I was barely moving at all) but it was very pleasing nevertheless.

We shall see what rotational delights tomorrow may or may not bring.

Wa Wa Wi Wa

This week we've decided to take a small side-trip out of Whistler to Cypress Mountain.

Apparently this is where the freestyle snowboarding and skiing events will be held for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Realistically, nobody really cares about the skiing though, do they :-)

Today I put the awning out, as it was nice and sunny.
Of course, shortly after I did this, it started puking snow even down here. Waah!!

Well no complaints though, as it's been snowing like crazy this weekend. Tonight it's scheduled to snow another 10-15cm, so tomorrow morning I will be rising at an ungodly hour to hit up the fresh tracks breakfast again.

Can't wait!!

Another rippin' day!

What an awesome end to the season this has been!

More snow yesterday, so we trekked over to Symphony and Harmony again and rocked the powder.
Allegedly it was only 5cm of snow, but it was knee deep in a lot of places. Go figure.

It's really hard to convey how good the day was in words, so I *promise* some pictures this week.

Kat finally got paid, so we celebrated the return of money by having a few beers. Very nice.

More snow is scheduled for this weekend, and next weekend, the moment we've all been waiting for - China Mike arrives!

A rippin' day!

I reluctantly arose this morning at 0800, and peered out the window... WHAT THE?!

SNOW!! Lots of it. Gosh darn it. Why didn't my people alert me to this??
Bah it's hard to find good help these days.

There was fantastic snow today. In some places it was nearly knee deep.
Pity it was so foggy you couldn't see.

It's kind of weird looking over a cornice, and not being able to see where the lip is, or where the snow is, or any features. It's so white my freakin' eyes are bugging out.

So I rocked out the pow, fell over a few times, ate some snow, shredded some moguls, cursed some dirty skiers, and did plenty of hiking out of flat spots.

There's something annoying about skiers. It's not their one-piece suits from the 80's, or their pushiness in lift lines, it's the way they ruin the snow when they're crap at it. From side to side they go, following each other's tracks, digging ruts deeper and deeper and deeper and.... DEEPER.

Now I like my house deep, and my snow deep, but not my ruts. I have spoken.

Also rocked out the Blackcomb terrain "garden". I'm slowly getting more confident and feel like I'm getting some half-reasonable air going. If only I had another trick. Just one.

Kat had the delight of hanging around work until 14:30. Yay. We did a couple of runs through the park. It was very nice. That is all.

Last gripe of the day - stupid motherfuckers sitting in the most annoying (and dangerous) places. What's with that? Do they have some perverse desire for me to take their head off at the neck? I am happy to oblige.

I leave you with my favourite quote of the winter: "Skiing is for little fat kids"

Rock on.

Turdy turd turd...

Last night for some reason neither of us could sleep.

Thankfully I didn't have to get up at 05:30 to go to work.

Unfortunately I had some issues with arising at 07:30 to get the bus, and slept in... again.

So the upshot of all this is my lazy ass didn't go up the mountain today. Lazy, lazy man.

I'm all pumped up for tomorrow though. Correct!

Yes, this is a boring post.

Parky park park!

What a great day today.

Got up late, headed up late, and felt like we both really looked good. I know Kat was getting some great air, and I felt like I did too. It's hard to see what I'm doing, while I'm doing it though.

So next sunny day, it will be camera time.

My new X360 games arrived courtesy of Dr. J. Excellent, thanks very much.

I've had a quick whirl of COD4, Assassin's Creed, Bioshock and Mass Effect.

All seem quite good so far! The graphics on the old 360 have gotten quite a bit better since I left Melbourne!

That is all.

Pow... err... ice...

I'm not quite used to the whole powder-on-ice business that seems to happen here.

It's those stinky skiers and their love for machine groomed surfaces I tell you!

Today (obviously) didn't live up to the promise of last night (or this morning for that matter).
Nothing but ice under the snow, my least favourite surface, coupled with edges like a butter-knife make for a slippery fear-fest.

To top it all off, I've started sneezing like a man who's getting a cold.

This was a great article I read in The Age, moite.

Herr Marcial put me onto Adblock Plus - a nice extension for Firefox that blocks nasty, nasty advertising. You should install it. Correct.

This afternoon will involve talking to Mr. Piazza about the state of the financial markets, some hot waxing, and some edge tuning. Fear the excitement.

Crapstick Jungle

Today I've been feeling kind crap again - totally low on energy, and I almost detect the signs of another cold coming on again. Bleh.

This condition has been exacerbated by the truly mindless drivel that is "Lipstick Jungle" which someone is watching. Not since the last time I accidentally tuned the satellite to "Days of Our Lives" have I been inflicted with such an insipid experience.

In other news, it's snowing even down here on the turd. w00ty!! Up early tomorrow for some pow.

The Queen's Annual Birthday Address

Yesterday *someone* made a comparison between the Queen and I because apparently I post so infrequently... hmmm. So anyways, here it is, my annual address to you my loyal subjects.

My birthday started at 5:20AM - the time that I rise to get to work these days. I've never woken up so early for anything. Work was fun though.. I had a new staff member who I had to train, and she was so shy and young and just scared of everything in general. Next, another staff member slept through his alarm and arrived an hour and a half late. On 'said' staff members break, he decided to have a little rest on the floor in the ticket booth which turned into a full snooze which he had to be violently shook from so he could get to his next job.

Ren - our gay New Zuland supervisor brought me in a cake and candles and everyone sang for me which was lovely.... then everyone left and I had to close up for the next couple of hours by myself.

I got home - tired- so I had a little birthday nap while Executive Chef Leigh prepared dinner. Our PROK dinner, cheese platter and profiterole desserts were so tasty.. I was also treated to champagne courtesy of Louis Roederer but we were both so tired that we went to bed without drinking it.

It was really a wonderful day, thanks to my family and everyone who sent me birthday wishes. You made me feel very special on what is otherwise just another day that brings me closer to my walking frame :-)

Kat xox

Put some pork on your fork!

Man what a great advertising slogan that was. It's right up there with "Feed the man Meat".

Today is Princess Kat's birthday. In lieu of heading down to Vancouver I'm going to cook her a 3-4 course meal. Just need to figure out what those courses are. There's definitely going to be some roast pork involved though.

I love pork. I don't know how our Jewish friends can go through life without supping on the succulent flesh of our dear porcine friend. If the pig was such a dirty filthy animal, why did the good Lord create him with such tasty flesh, only to deem him inedible? Tsk tsk.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to get over to the Symphony area before the crowds. Given it was closed the day before due to winds, the powder was nearly untouched when I arrived. Ahh powder. A glorious morning. Alas by the time Kat and I got back there after lunch, it was all ruined by the dirty skiers. Dirty, dirty skiers.

While we've been away I've stumbled across a number of blogs about food. You may remember this one from the brined pork. I found this one today while looking for more pork recipes. Check them out if you're so inclined to do so. Interestingly, both of these are Australian!

I am pleased to note that I have also finished Guitar Hero on the "medium" difficulty level now. Unfortunately the "hard" levels are ... well, hard. I feel it may take a lot longer to complete this time.

Finally, there are some nice polish recipes on this site here. Made me think of Trez's parents and the fine dining I've been privileged to have in Endeavour Hills on occasion!

Until tomorrow's scintillating update.

Snow and Ice

This morning I arose nice and early to do "fresh tracks" - you get a stinky old buffet breakfast, but you get allowed onto the hill before anyone else.

Breakfast was pretty nice, but Kat was working so I was chillin' by myself.

There'd been around 10cm of fresh snow last night - but it was blowing a freaking gale so visibility was nearly zero. I ripped down the hill anyway, but..... imagine the surprise of making nice powder turns only to hit.... the ice just under the surface.

It was kind of weird. Heaps of chunky bumpy shit, and corduroy shaped ice. Oh well. If there's one thing that the Vapor sux at more than anything, it's holding an edge on the ice. Ripper.

Now all I have to do is resist the temptation to buy a new board before next season. Thankfully I think shops will pretty much be sold out of anything I want....

Kat has been promoted at work after resisting it all season. Which is kind of funny because they're letting her do the SENIOR HOST role part time. I'm back to being the lowest earner of the household....

I see we have some hate mail in the comments section. I better just start fabricating mad shit to make the blog more interesting....

Peace at Last

After a weekend of working, boy it's nice and peaceful here now.
The levels of bullshit and awkwardness are now officially zero.
Now all we need to do is wait for the lawsuits to start. ROFLMAO.

Anyhoo.

Last night we went out for celebratory drinks with my boss, and I spent today feeling seedy.

It's raining on the turd right now, but that means it's SNOWING! Tomorrow I'm going to get up super-early and have breakfast on the mountain and rock it out before everyone else. Yeah.

On Friday I managed to get a demo board. Further putting nails in the Vapor's coffin. It wasn't even a great board (some Salomon thing). But it was MUCH more flexible than the Vapor, held its edge better, turned better, landed better. In general it was just bloody better. How annoying.

There is definitely a new board in the wings before we hit the snow again. I'm looking forward to seeing what Lib Tech come up with for 09...

Squamish, Guitar Hero, Apple Cider

On Friday we took a drive down to Squamish, which is the larger of the two closest towns to Whistler (the other being Pemberton, which we've been to before).

At the risk of incurring the wrath of anyone who lives there, I'm going to say that the only two attractions to Squamish are Wal Mart, and the Home Depot. A sad indictment indeed on a town if large American chain stores are your best feature. Perhaps I just missed all of the other cool things that are just around the corner in that dark seedy alley with Uncle Billy Bob.

We stocked up on toiletries and such at Wal Mart (which despite being more expensive than the USA, is still significantly cheaper than Whistler) and also managed to pick up a copy of Guitar Hero III for the x360.

On our return, the small plastic Gibson was fired up, and *I ROCK THE GUITAR*. Not as much as Fletcher rocks a real guitar, but who needs reality when you have a small plastic guitar with bright colour buttons on it.

Several apple ciders later, I had finished the game on the easiest difficulty. I rock. I'm not sure what it is recently, but I've developed a penchant for apple flavoured drinks. I blame Wix and the Appletini for starting it off. I'm not sure that cider is the way to go to get my apple fix though.

Yesterday was work and a hangover. Bliss.
Today is work, and no hangover. Much better.

Must dash!

Bah

There's something seriously wrong with the intarweb here again today.

You know it's bad though when the ISP support people never acknowledge that you've contacted them. Grr.

I had a very short day on the mountain. I arrived, I couldn't demo a board, I was tired, I left. Kat stayed up for most of the day and has apparently landed her first 180. The competition is heating up!!

I cleaned the shower and fridge. I rule.

Pow, Park, Poo

Yes, my poo was excellent thanks.

I've cheated a bit, as this is post-snow for two days really.

Yesterday was just superb. A little snow kept falling, and I made it over into the remaining powder in the morning before the clouds really set in. What can I say, much speed, much powder, much fun.

A little park action in the afternoon, things appear to be on track. Kat is working on her 180. I am working on my tan.

Today I spent most of the morning riding the park on Blackcomb. For one fleeting moment, I had so much air that I was actually floating, not just rising and falling. In reality I have no idea how much air I had, as it's not that easy to figure out how far off the ground you are. Anyway, it felt scary, but good.

After lunch I followed up with a stellar performance of falling on my ass.

Tomorrow should be excellent.

Pre-Snow Update

Arose early this morning (not by choice mind you) to discover that it's been snowing overnight.

Whistler's snow report stays 5cm - not much, but enough to be fun without worrying about missing any of the action.

Doesn't look like any snow though for the rest of the week, so better make the best of it.

Must poo, goodbye.

Jeep Jeep!

We are mobile again, repeat, we are mobile again!

Only took about an hour or so this morning to replace the fuel pressure regulator, and both quick-connect fittings on each end of the fuel rail. Jeep started up first time, and is all good to go.

Rockin'.

Pow!

Ok there, I've said it. Pow! Pow! Pow!

Today after what feels like an eternal wait there was manna from the heavens. Well, powder anyway.

Of course nothing quite goes to plan. We'd hit the sack very early last night in preparation (me for pow, Kat for work) but as fate would have it, there would be no sleeping until after midnight. I curse you Chinese ingredients and your MSG. I also coughed and spluttered my way through a highly unsatisfactory night's sleep.

So I arose feeling like death, had some coffee, and some cold and flu tablets.

There is another thing I would like to take the opportunity to tell (read: rant to you) you all about.

It's cold and flu tablets here in Canada.

Basically, they suck. You can rely on Codral and such back home to dial you right up until you can feel your teeth clenching. Sinus pain? Forget that my friend, I've got PSEUDOEPHIDRINE and CODEINE and PARACETAMOL. Up here, you can forget your nice analgesics. Some other crap is jammed into all the pills here that doesn't YANK MY CRANK.

Anyhoo. I rocked up to the mountain.

We had a minor issue with ticketing (yes, that's right, unusually today is Saturday). I did a wee bit o' shredding, and headed back down at 11:30 to pick up the JEEP PARTS.

Correct. In my sweaty hands I hold the GENUINE Mopar 83502745 fuel line repair kit. Woohoo!!

Tomorrow, I foresee greasy, sweaty hands. I also picked up the ladies, and we headed up for an angst filled lunch, and then over to Symphony/Harmony.

Alas, the pow was fairly tracked out by this stage, but we ripped it up anyway. Speed was the theme for today, and we tackled the sunlit and powder-filled bowls with reckless abandon.

Several last lifts later we finished up in the fog and slush. Jacqui gave us a ride home in her shiny new Ranger. At this point my stamina left me. The ladies are out at some snowboard competition thing. I am here writing the blog. That is all.

Sick, Westin, Dinner

Farkin' hell I'm sick of being sick. Last night we checked into the Westin for our free night.

It was so nice to be somewhere a bit luxurious for a change.
Pity I was sick as a dog, and coughing and hacking up my guts the entire night.

We had a voucher for $100 off dinner at the Aubergine Grill, which is the Westin's restaurant here in Whistler. It was pretty nice.

Champagne: Roederer Brut Premier NV - ahh champagne, how I have missed you.

Amuse bouche (apparently this is what a pre-starter is called, and yes it sounds super-fancy eh?): Lamb Rib Chop served with Espresso Sauce - Not bad, I wasn't sure about the coffee and lamb combination at first, but ... turned out to be pretty nice.

Entrees (did you know that for some perculiar reason in the USA/Canada that they call a main an entree, and an entree a starter. Weird.): Kat had goats cheese croquettes, I had a fois gras terrine. Not too bad.

Main: I had a 10oz New York strip, cooked rare, and served on a bed of smashed potatoes and some vegetables. The potatoes were excellent, and the asparagus not too bad either. The only thing that let this course down was the slightly soggy broccoli. The steak itself was a beautiful piece of meat.

Kat had a pork rack served on a bed of creamy polenta. This dish was also excellent.

Desert: I had a selection of BC cheeses. Kat had a warm pecan gateau. The cheeses were so-so. A brie, some soft goats cheese, and a mild blue. The goats cheese was served with marmalade - an odd, but excellent combination. Other than that, a bit disappointing. Allegedly the gateau was not that great either.

We partnered this with a trio of ice wines. By this time Kat had a splitting headache, so I was forced to pitch in for the team and drink some of her wines. Such a shame.

After dinner we retired. I'm not sure I remember the journey back to the room. Kat had to venture out for some painkillers for the head. I proceeded to cough and splutter my way through the rest of the night. Yuk.

We checked out this morning, had some breakfast, and caught the bus back to the RV. Ahh hilarious. It appears that the parts for the Jeep have arrived and are at the post office. Rockin.

It's pissing down with rain here, and it's forecast for 15cm of snow this afternoon, and 15cm overnight. I'm gettin' up early tomorrow, no matter what!! I foresee an early night tonight. Meh.

Air, Sick

After more than a week of "rest" we hit the mountain again yesterday.
Someone had a terrible day, I had an awesome day.

Finally feel like I'm getting bigger air, and feeling much more confident.
Almost ready for the M size kickers... or maybe next week.

Feeling like crap this week though. Had a terrible sleep last night. I figured out that's because you're only supposed to take 1 of the cold and flu tablets, not 2. Hmm.

Bleh gonna go up the hill.

Fire in the Hole

Last night we had one of Kat's friends over for dinner.

I put a chicken on the Weber to roast, as we've done many times before.

This time however, after about 10 minutes I noticed a whole bunch of smoke billowing past the windows. I decided to investigate.

A quick peek out the door revealed flames billowing out of the Weber. What the?!
The whole damn grill was on fire. I shut the gas off, and it kept burning like there was no tomorrow.
Ripped the now sooty and blackened chicken out, and stuck some snow in to extinguish the flames.
Thankfully this did the trick, but unfortunately the chicken was ruined.

Mental note to self - clean out the gunk UNDERNEATH the grate once in a while.

Kat had to walk up to the shop to get a new one, which we did cook, and it turned out ok, but not great. I'd have to say this was probably the worst dinner we've prepared. Sorry about that Jacqui.

To top it all off, the cold and flu medicine I had taken made me feel kind of high, and want to puke. Ripper.

Today I woke up with zero energy, so we hung around doing nothing. But it's raining now, so fingers crossed we'll have new snow for tomorrow!

Crap

Last night I started to feel super-sick like I was getting the flu, I was all achy and shivering and shit. This morning I still feel like crap, although not as bad as last night.

I had a massive headache though, so don't think I'll make it up the hill.

Kinda annoying though cause I was looking forward to regaining the passion - and now I'm in a much better mood about stuff it should be heaps better.

As I type I can see a little squirrel outside the window. As the weather becomes much more Spring-like we've noticed the animals starting to wake up. Birds are singing, squirrels are foraging, and I even saw some kind of pheasant or grouse in the forest the other day.

What's more worrying is I can see some asians trying to move their giant motorhome - they better not be driving their sorry yellow asses into the front of the turd. You don't see many of the brothers in motorhomes, so this is a rare sight indeed.

Well it's a bit of a month for surgery I think. My old man is having some cataract surgery done on his eyes, which should be fairly routine. Kat's dad will be having surgery to attempt to repair the damage he did when FALLING OFF THE ROOF. Hopefully everything turns out well for both of them.

Time for my daily Bouchées D'Avoine Au Miel. Yum.

License Renewal

Seems like today is the day for license issues.

1. My AU license has expired. This is no big deal, just requires payment and shipping.

2. Our Florida licenses expire early April. Unfortunately it seems like we have to renew these in person. Not sure how that's going to work... I have e-mailed them, hopefully we can work something out. If not... well I don't know.

Farkin' tired today. Feel like I'm getting a cold.

Toodle-pip!

4 Degrees

Well it's Saturday here. Someone forgot to turn the heaters off before going to work this morning.

I wondered why I was dreaming about being a roast chicken.

It's a balmy 4C here again, it was raining last night, and the snow continues to retreat. It's kind of interesting as I've never seen a snowy Winter turn into Spring, however it is also kind of annoying given we have China Mike arriving at the end of March, ostensibly to snowboard. Might be more like dirt-boarding by then.

This week I have been super lazy. Haven't been up the mountain since Tuesday. Still I've been working on these busted computers, so should still have made some cash.

It's weird, we're heading into our last month in Whistler - as I think we've decided that we'll be leaving in early April... unless of course it starts dumping snow every day for the next three weeks (unlikely). Looking forward to being on the road again, and looking forward to what's next!

Maxx Fish

Well we're living the dream now! Last night we headed out to Maxx Fish for Alison's farewell. It's everything you imagine a nightclub in Whistler could be. Loads of drunken youths, and terrible music. Oh well. Our friend Charles was there though, it was pretty good to catch up with him.

All in all a good night, although I feel a bit seedy today.

Quiet day in the sun. It REALLY feels like spring. A squirrel was running around on the roof of the turd this morning. Tsk tsk tsk.

Very tired tonight. Going to bed, tomorrow's a new day!

Lazy Ass Motherfucker

After a disappointing day on the mountain yesterday I've decided to give my ankle a rest for a day or two.

The only thing I was rockin' yesterday was my bad mood, so perhaps a day sitting around in the RV working on other people's computers will help. Hah!

I've finally found a sport that I could be a professional at - check this video out.

Well as I have nothing interesting to say myself, how about a round-up of interesting things I've read this morning while eating my breakfast?

This lamp is powered by a weight that slowly falls from the top to the bottom over a period of around 4 hours. Yes you pull the weight up yourself, but the trick is that it doesn't require any existing energy infrastructure! Perfect!!

One for Dr. Shinners. No more will you need to use that stinky mouse my friend!

You can look this one up yourself, but proving Sony has beaten my feeble predictions, Toshiba have announced that they will be withdrawing HD-DVD from sale.

I imagine this has been right up there with my blow-by-blow description of the final moments of NFL games. Pfft. Write your own blog then!

Oh, I almost forgot! The parts for the Jeep have been shipped! Thank fuck for that. Whilst I love kickin' it with the common folk on PT... well ok, you got me. I don't. Fine.

Something wicked this way comes...

I noticed over the last few days that subtly something has changed about the Whistler experience (at least for me). It feels like it's gone from being a holiday and/or an adventure, to just eking out a living for meagre pay.

I'm not sure whether it's the work, or the warm weather and lack of snow that's doing it. But it feels like there's a certain sense of inevitability about it all - like the first realisation that the season will end.

I hope that over the next week or so we get some more snow, and lots of it.

At least it's taught me one thing - the whole "doing a job with little responsibility" doesn't really cut it for me. It's also confirmed that to do a job for little money, you must seriously love it......

Slowly I feel like a conceptual framework for the rest of my life is evolving in my head. Don't know what it all means yet, but it's like a cloud is coalescing.

In other news, my ankle has peculiar bruising from the sled incident. It's kind of OK, but still a little sore and weak - occasionally it provides me with the entertainment of stabbing pain while I walk.

Today I'm having a lazy morning, it's nearly 09:30 and I'm still in the Turd. Must be nearly time to shower, wash dishes, and get up the mountain in the sun.

Valentines Day

What a great surprise!

Kat has managed to win us a night at the Westin, with dinner for two and a milk bath at the spa.

Oooh!! Luxury!! I've nearly forgotten what it's like!

I don't normally subscribe to Valentines day, but what a great gift this is!

That is all.

Oh No 2

So a cab and bus ride later, I made it to work.

Of course yesterday it was sunny as hell, a great day to be out on the slopes. Instead, I was catching rays in the back country. I even managed to take my jacket off and have a quick lie down for a minute.

It was so bright, you couldn't look at the snow, or even not cover your eyes with your hands when they were closed.... man that was weird.

So I was having a pretty good day until someone decided to take a corner on the wrong side of the track and slam into my ankle. I could barely walk yesterday afternoon, and last night I woke up with the old ankle throbbing and stabbing with pain.

This morning however, it just looks bruised and swollen (!!!!) and isn't anywhere near as painful as yesterday, so I'll try strapping it into the snowboard boot....

There will be much irritation if I cannot ride today.

Oh No

I spoke too soon. Seems I have to work today, but have no way of getting in. A guy from Blackcomb Snowmobile is supposed to pick me up, but he wasn't answering my calls last night.

Hmm.

I can't be assed.

Jumping Jiminy

Well well well....

Headed up to the village early, picked up the freshly tuned Vapor and stomped the mountain.

Hit the Blackcomb Terrain Garden again today, and was pleasantly surprised with the results - seems I'm getting some fairly nice air now, and landing everything. 'Cept that tabletop that I fell off. Never mind, no-one saw it.

I'm quite pleased with the tune on the board - the wax job was pretty average, but the base grind and edges have made it much easier to ride.

Seems like I've narrowly escaped working tomorrow, so can hit the mountain again. Rockin!!!

A good day today... a good day...

Fuel Pressure Regulator

Yesterday when driving Princess Katarina to work I noticed the smell of petrol in the cockpit of the Jeep.

On returning to the turd, I popped the hood to investigate. There's nothing quite like seeing fuel leaking out of the front of the fuel rail, and dripping onto the hot exhaust manifold below. Fire anyone?

So I go to replace the o-ring, but in the process find that I need some fuel line quick connectors - thankfully a dealer only part, which need to be ordered in.

The upshot? A Jeep that's going nowhere until the parts arrive. Yippee.

We've been getting acquainted with the public transport in Whistler, and it's not too bad....

Hit the mountain today - I've had nearly a week off and it felt strange at first, but after a while was ripping up the terrain park again - definitely getting better.

Until tomorrow...

Rain, Work, Jeep, Accidents

Motherfucking rain rain rain. Why the fuck dump a shitload of snow, and then RAIN?! HUH?!?!

Work. Work sux. Two days ago I had a sled blow a belt, so missed most of the customers.

Yesterday there was a power failure, so .... I missed most of the customers. I FUCKIN RULE!!!!!

Last night I figured out another thing the Jeep is great for. Imagine you've just picked up some beers, and you're driving down the road and you want to drink one. Unfortunately the bottle opener is attached to the keys of the car. Well.... no problem here my friend, just remove the key from the ignition, keep driving, crack your beer, and enter a world of beer pleasure.

Nearly had an accident on the way home from work the other day. A puddle of water had gathered by the side of the road that seemed to be about a foot deep - man was that scary when the whole care was covered in water and I couldn't see what the fuck was going on. Oh well.

No work today. No riding today. Lazy, lazy man.

Pre-Work Update

Emerged from the turd this morning to find 15-20cm of fresh powder.

ARGH WHY AM I WORKING?!

Maybe I'm working so I can buy a new board. Yeah that's it.

Bah.

Fuck Burton, The Office, The Mountain, The Sickness

Fuck Burton.

There, I've said it. Why?

1. The Vapor is falling apart. The different materials in the basesheet are coming apart. A bit of the basesheet has fallen off. The techs won't base-grind it, so the base edges can't be fixed. Win.

I feel this is unsatisfactory for a board that retails for around USD1000.

2. My AK3L jacket is coming apart at the seams. Rockin.

Anyway.

I thought I'd post a few pictures from around my office.

The first is my view of Brandywine Mountain. This is where I spend a lot of my time. As you can see it's got much better decor than the GE office in Burnley.


I'm not sure which mountain this is, but this shot is taken from much higher up, looking away from Whistler/Blackcomb.


Some more back-country for you.


This is looking back towards Whistler and Blackcomb - you can see the runs cut into the trees!


You may remember I was crapping on about "hoarfrost". Well here's MY photos of it.


Check out the visible crystalline structure!


Just one more view back towards the slopes.


...and here's some guy's shadow!


Hit the mountain today. Little wind, but much cloud, so low visibility.
Ahh well, had a pretty good day shredding it up.

Kat is sick. Some kind of gastro. Wicked.

That is all.

Windy Skills

So loads of snow, but loads of wind.

So much wind, that the visibility was nearly zero.

I am tired.

恭喜發財！

(Or for you non-Chinese, or non-China-Mike, Happy Chinese New Year!)

That is all.

Work, SuperBowl

If you're wondering why no updates, it's because I've been working some pretty long days.

So here's a quick recap....

Friday
Hit the mountains with Kat and Jacqui. I think everyone had a good day. We headed over to Harmony which is on the other side of Whistler and fiddled around in the powder bowls there. Fine times, except the cloud made the first 1/3 of the mountain a bit treacherous. Who needs to see anyway huh?

Everyone's rockin' the little kickers in the terrain park, and hitting natural features around the trees. Mad skillz.

Saturday
Arrived at work laden with our laptop and such, to find that someone had removed the card reader. You might guess correctly that I was seriously pissed off, as I'd looked at my card reader before leaving the turd and deliberately not taken it because there is normally one at work.

So an hour and a trip back to Whistler later, I was ready to get started. Thankfully I only missed the first tour.....

Slow day.

Sunday
SuperBowl day! Pity I was at work. I studiously avoided any chance of hearing the result all day.

What a game. Sadly for the Patriots their hopes for a perfect season have been dashed by the Giants. Despite being tired, I stayed up and watched the game I'd recorded. Man what a last 30 seconds where Eli Manning and the Giants made a drive to convert a touchdown to win the game.

Eli might not be as famous or well regarded as his older brother Peyton, but hey - he's got a SuperBowl ring too now....

Yes yes yes, I know you all don't give a shit. Go away.

Well I'm off to work again this morning. It's a SERIOUSLY slow day.

Much love....

Pre-Shower Update

Boy am I (and possibly those around me) looking forward to taking a shower this morning.

I DID have a shower 2 days ago, but didn't get around to it yesterday - the advantage of the cold weather is that you don't seem to get stinky nearly as quickly.

Bit of snow last night, which is good. Hopefully enough to make the slopes good to ride on yesterday, I'm sick of super-hard compacted icy snow - it still makes me shit myself about falling my my ass.

I'm in the middle of researching an inverse relationship between beer and mad skillz. So far I'm pretty confident in saying that ANY alcohol consumption the night before leads to a discernible reduction in the madness of my skillz. Hmm.

Oooh shower time!!!!

Praise the Lord

We have water. Amen.

Evening Update - No Water

Still no fuckin' water. I'm at a loss. It's pretty warm (-4) at the moment, so I hope that over the next day or two it will sort itself out. I've e-mailed Fleetwood to try and get a plumbing diagram....

This is a classic. Since when did the outer-suburban massive turn gay and 80's?!

Bah.

Minus 11

Still no water, but at least the temperature outside is slowly going up today.

Inside the thermostat for the furnace says it's 32C. Holy crap it's hot. The gas heater does NOT FUCK AROUND heating the place up.

Today I'm going to dig out the hose that lets us connect an external propane tank to the turd - I don't want this to happen again, and if the furnace is the key, so be it.

I must admit I'm not sure what to do if it doesn't defrost - it's not really practical to live in if there's no running water.....

Minus 13

Motherfucking fuck fuck.

We have cold water in the toilet (for flushing, and for teeth cleaning).
But no water (cold or otherwise) anywhere else. Have had the heaters cranking all day, but to no avail.

Have heated the space where the water comes in (and I presume splits off into two pipes) but that hasn't helped either.

I'm fresh out of ideas, and a bit worried that it won't unfreeze.

Had to have showers at the park facilities today. $1 for 6 minutes. 6 minutes seems like a really long time in the shower, but I guess we don't have long showers in the turd.

Fuck. It's still -13 outside. WAAAH WHEN WILL IT WARM UP?!

On a lighter note, I hit the slopes hard this morning - got some pretty good air off the kickers, and on little bits and pieces in the trees. Stompin!!!

My switch riding is coming along, however there's still a long way to go....

Kat joined me after work, and I promptly decided to fall on my ass a lot. Oh well....

Freezy freezy freeze freeze!! Tomorrow afternoon it's supposed to get up to -2, so let's hope the turd unfreezes :|

Minus 15

Holy crap it's cold this morning. Yes, the water's frozen inside too so looks like I have to take a shower at the camp facilities - guess there's a first time for everything.

Definitely left the heaters and such on last night, but perhaps they weren't turned up enough. Seems like when it's going to get down to around -14 or less then they'll have to be set to "giant carbon footprint" mode for the whole night. Sorry Mother Earth.

The heaters are blasting, and it feels like a bloody sauna in here. Time for me to get out into the cold!

Evening Update

I felt like today was kind of lacklustre.

Didn't feel super together. Landed the jumps at slow speed, but at higher speed I still shit myself. Bailed a a couple of times today and jarred the shit out of my shins. Bah.

Riding switch is like learning to ride all over again, and kind of frustrating.

I think you should click on this link, because it's funny.

Morning Update

Holy fuckin' bejeezus it's cold.

The delightful live temperatures page says it's -13. Elke says it's -16. Either way, it's chilly.

Nothing appears to be frozen however, and this is a good thing.

Going up the mountain to practise my mad skillz. I've finally started to get serious about learning to ride switch (that's riding the other way from your normal stance, for those of you who aren't rad enough to know these things) and in the process on Friday I fell over and whacked my right shoulder again.

BOTH my shoulders are running at around 80% these days. Don't quite know what's wrong with them, but they're NQR - if I fall asleep and roll onto my front with my head on one arm, there's much pain when I wake up and try to move. In fact, it requires me to try to roll over without using my arms for leverage. Who's a fuckin' old man now eh?

Well I better get off my ass. Time waits for no man.

Forza Two

Huge day of Forza today.

Thankfully it's finally snowing again. I'd say more than 10cm already today.
Hopefully it keeps going all night, and all of tomorrow. Puke snow, puke.

Wow is it 22:30 already? Must be time for bed.

Tuning, Riding, Lesson

This morning Kat von Shred went up the mountain to have a lesson.

As is my morning duty I arose to make her coffee, and prepare breakfast and lunch, only to be informed that her ladyship didn't require sandwiches.

If you'd paid attention to yesterday's entry, you will remember that this morning I was going to tune the snowboard. In case you're not gnarly enough to know what tuning entails, here's a brief summary:

1. Remove burrs from the base side of the edge using a stone (similar to one you'd use for sharpening a knife).

2. Apply a 90 degree angle to the side edge with an edge tool (basically a file in a guide which sets the angle for you).

3. Smooth the new edge gently with the stone.

4. Clean the base of the board (normally you'd use base cleaner, but I forgot to get any so I used normal household cleaner - conveniently I forgot it had bleach in it, so my brand new Burton hoody has a few faint bleach marks on it - IDIOT!!!)

5. Wax the board.

6. Make sandwiches for my lunch. (Technically this is optional, but good for hunger)

This took me an hour or so, including some Forza2 in between steps. Rockin.

Met Kat on the mountain, and had a light afternoon's riding. The board was lighting quick, and more responsive with the sharper edges. I rule.

Tomorrow's Australia Day here, but you've already had it. Happy Australia Day I guess. I'll be hanging around the RV playing Forza. Wooooooo!!

Terrain Garden

Today I ventured into the "Terrain Garden". Note this is different from the "Terrain Park".

"Garden" being the place for noobs, "park" being the place for the pros.

No huge leaps of skill, I still shit myself at the top of each kicker. Oh well. Onwards and upwards eh!?

I finally got sick of the cold water tap in the toilet not working, and tried to heat up the compartment to defrost it. Didn't think I had any luck, until suddenly it started flowing again. Mission accomplished.

I am tired. Tomorrow I'm going to de-burr and tune the edges of the board. Then a lil' waxing, and hopefully the board will propel my skills to new heights. Fat chance eh.

Teeney Swodd

Last night we went to the cinema to see "Sweeney Todd" the new Tim Burton musical, based on the.. well musical.

Frankly I was under-whelmed. Despite the nearly universal positive reviews, it never really grabbed me. Sure there were some gruesome moments, but I didn't think that Broadway and the Silver Screen really connected.

Made me think twice about ever getting a shave with one of those nasty cut-throat razors though.

I'm going to give it 6/10. It's dark, it's musical, it's Burton, but ultimately it failed to keep me entertained and I found myself wondering whether it would be better if someone slit MY throat to put me out of my misery.

Anyhoo.

All this sunny weather comes at a price - the price of keeping the turd heated when it's below -10C at night. Right now it's around -11/-12 and it's only 10pm. The poor old heaters have been working overtime.

I'm looking forward to some snow. Partly because it'll be great to ride some fresh powder, but partly because the cloud will bring milder nights.

Brrrr...

In the high-back-country today the snow has formed strange giant ice/snow crystal hybrid things.

They look like snowflakes do, but are large, so you can see the crystalline structure with the naked eye. These weird flakes have coated the landscape - they're super light, and you can pick a handful up and it feels like you're picking up ... crystals.

I consult the oracle of Wikipedia - and apparently it's called "hoar frost".

I took a photo, but it's not as good as this one. I shall subject you to my abstract photography tomorrow, when I get the card reader back.

G'night!

Water-On

Thank fuck leaving the heaters on all day has defrosted whatever was frozen.

Not a huge day on the slopes. Still werkin' the little kickers, the ollie, and making my first attempts at riding switch. Not a whole lot of progress, but something is better than nothing eh?

Oh wait, I did break a binding strap landing a jump today (I think).
Well at least the binding strap did break....

Play-Off, Water-Off

NFL Update
No big surprise that the New England Patriots eventually beat the San Diego Chargers to advance to being the only NFL team to ever have an 18-0 record. IMHO however if SD had managed to convert any of their trips to the red zone into a touchdown instead of just scoring field goals it could have been a different story. C'est la vie I guess....

In my mind the upset of the day was the fact that New York pipped Green Bay. Favre's men seemed low on energy in the -18C weather. I would be too I guess.

Water Update
This morning there was no water again. On quick investigation it turns out that it's NOT the hose that connects the Turd to the city water. This implies that something INSIDE is frozen. Not quite sure how to tackle this, except to bring the interior temperature up and hope that it thaws..... stay tuned for a potentially stinky update later on.

Snow Update
No new snow, but a great sunny day so we're off up the mountain.

Playoffs - Conference Championships

Today I'm kind of annoyed.

It's sunny and I can't ride, and I'm not working.
Kind of fucks me off a bit, as I'll have to work during the week which means I lose a day of riding.

How am I going to get to my goal of 100 days on the snow if I keep losing days like that?! Grrr...

Anyway - it's the NFC/AFC championship games today. San Diego play New England, and Green Bay play New York. Must admit I'm not completely in the mood. Oh well.

Maybe this glass of gin will help.

Jumping Crickets!

Xbox 360
So thanks to Team Maglaras (oh and Anil who COST ME $30 IN DUTY!!!!) we now have the 360 in the Turd. Even though it's only currently connected using the composite inputs, it looks FARKIN' GREAT at 1080p. I notice that either I had burned DiRT and Forza2 or someone else did it for me. If it was me, well I rock. If it was someone else, thanks!!

Colin McRae: DiRT is pretty nice, although the physics model doesn't feel super real. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it feels even less real than the already unreal earlier editions.

I'm thinking of saving up to buy Guitar Hero III :-)

Mad Skillz
Yesterday we hit the terrain park again, and both managed some small jumps off the tiny baby kickers. Kat also hit the small tabletop. Shaun White can still rest easy, but it's a start. My ollie is also coming along pretty well. Am just practising being able to ollie over things without having to think about it for 100m beforehand.

Today I'm having a lazy day, it's 09:00 and I'm still sitting around in the turd. Mind you I still got up at 06:30, what's with that?!

Think I'll cruise up the mountain a bit later in the morning. Feeling kinda run down this week.

A taste of the Backcountry

I finished work today at midday and headed up the mountain with Elke and Andrew after I bumped into them at the campground. It was a sunny day so we headed for the top of Blackcomb Glacier. Once we rode off the Glacier chair we decided to check out what lay over the backside of Blackcomb.

To get into the backcountry we had to navigate a fifty step climb up a snow ledge which had no handrails, only boot grooves dug out by other climbers. I nervously climbed up, hoping that I wouldn't slip and fall back off the ledge. I was relieved to get to the top, but only for a moment. There was another narrow ledge that you had to drop off in order to access the bowl below. Once in, it was an easy traverse to get to the next drop off. We had two options, drop in to the left, or into the right - cautioned by signs that read 'Steep, rocky entrance' that as well as knowledge of numerous permanently closed areas PLUS visible signs of an earlier snow slide. We chose left.

The drop in was exceptionally steep, double black according to the map. It was a slow decent at first, tricky for me as we had to get through a narrow, rocky pass. Once we all cleared the pass, it was a steep, powdery line to the bottom. Very nice riding, well worth the uncertainty faced at the top.

A few more cheeky powder lines and then we hit a 3.4km path which lead us through the valley and back into civilization. The path was super quick, no room to turn because skiiers were absolutely flying past, bent over in racing positions. So with the board pointed straight, I flew along the path and had a great ride back to the lifts.

All in all, pretty cool fun.

Nothing to report

I have nothing to report.

Kat "Double Black Diamond" Von N will be posting later on today.

Ahh a day off. No new snow though, but some sun. What is this sun business, I am not familiar with it.

We're moving to Narre Warren

This article is gold.

"Best party ever, that's what everyone's saying"

Corey rocks. Not as hard as Benny C, but pretty hard.

Crappy Work, Playoffs

Man what a day at work I had yesterday. It was my first day flying solo, and if they're all going to be like that I want to take my ball and go home.

Not only did it piss wet snow and rain on me all day, but it was bloody mayhem with tours going in and out at the most inconvenient times.

Some Japanese guy drove AROUND my parked sled, into the ditch, breaking his hand. Nice one. He then tried to blame me for distracting him. Pity I was on the OTHER side of the corner.

To top it all off, I lost my radio (it was later found by someone) and managed to drive my snowmobile off the edge of the road into waist deep snow while looking for the radio. Ripper.

Anyway. The NFL playoffs have started. Today I've spent the entire day on the couch (un-showered) watching the San Diego/Indianapolis and New York/Dallas games. The Chargers upset the Colts in the first game, and if they can hold on it looks like the Giants MIGHT just upset the Cowboys.

31 seconds to go, Dallas needs a touchdown to win. If New York manages to block this drive, they win.....

....and the Giants intercept Romo's last effort at a touchdown pass!! So one Manning loses, one Manning wins.

I can tell you care. Fingers crossed for snow. Gonna hit the mountain tomorrow and work on my ollie and hitting some bigger jumps. Rockin'.

Ride 'em cowboy

Very short update.

Yesterday we went up the mountain extra-early to do "Fresh Tracks" - which is breakfast on the hill and then you get to ride the powder before anyone else is allowed up. Excellent fun.

Kat gave a snowboarding lesson to a couple of her work colleagues. Very nice.

It's amazing how quickly that what was originally so flat and delightful becomes chopped up and bumpy.

We rode until about 3pm and then had some drinks, dinner and Uno. In bed by 10pm, which felt super late. Ahh the life of an 80 year old.

This morning I'm pretty slow to start - it's nearly 10am and I'm still hanging around the turd. Kat is at work (where else).

Speaking of turd, this morning someone had delightfully smeared poo on all the toilet seats in the men's toilets. Ripper. Thankfully they'd spared the disabled toilets.....

I'm not sure what kind of person does that. Probably the same kind of person who asks you to move an injured skier out of the way so they can keep hitting the kicker.

I better get moving, otherwise I may never leave.

Bad Landings

Another 9 till 3 day on the mountain.

I think it put down around 10cm of new snow last night, so it was much more fun.

Nothing revolutionary today - going for more speed, and more air. Going to work on my ollie and riding switch this week - looking forward to falling over some more. Not.

Saw the aftermath of a girl writing herself off in the terrain park this morning - at best she's probably torn something in the top of her leg, at worst it might be her pelvis or femur that got fractured. Not nice.

Sadly, some guys who wanted to jump off the kicker thought it might be a good idea for us to move the girl, rather than them have to wait until the ski patrol could take her away. Tossers.

Well it's 21:16 - nearly time for bed!

Frozen Jeep, Mountain Stomping

This morning we awoke to a frozen up Jeep.

Normally when we know that it's going to be really cold at night we crack the doors so that they aren't frozen shut, but last night we were caught by surprise.

So this morning all the doors were frozen shut. I managed to get the drivers door open (always a good thing) but then it wouldn't latch shut.

I drove Kat to work holding the door closed. On the way home I got the door to stay shut by locking it.

Unfortunately when I arrived back at the RV, the door wouldn't open again.......

.....so I had to climb out the window.

Very annoying. Luckily during the day everything defrosted, and Kat was kind enough to open the doors - tomorrow I hope there won't be a repeat of the issue.

I hope.

Spent 6 hours up the mountain today. Didn't feel like I made any breakthroughs, but also didn't go backwards. Blackcomb had been fully groomed, so was kind of boring. Made my way through the trees a few times and a bit off the beaten track to try and find some powder - was ok I spose.

Last run of the day was on Whistler - was definitely better today - which is unusual.

Just finished trying to diagnose a Vista/Skype problem with my old man. No luck.

Ben enjoyed the privilege of the MooseCam(tm). You win, Ben.

G'night!

Mayhem

A little bit of work today.

Today is the last day of the holidays for many Canadians, so many were packing up and leaving Whistler. Or so they thought....

Apparently there were several accidents (I only saw a burned out shell of a car being driven back to whistler and a Greyhound bus stuck in a snow bank by the side of the road) and it took nearly 1.5 hours to get back from work (normally a 15 minute trip).

I'd be guessing there was a traffic jam stretching for about 20km in total, although not all of it was standing still. The centre of the village was completely gridlocked. Amazing. Cars were parked on the road with lights and engines off.

Anyhoo. Tired. Goodbye.

Post-Work Celebrities

Today was a bit of a day of celebrity at Blackcomb Snowmobiles.

First on the card was five times MotoGP world champion Mick Doohan and family.

Strangely enough I never followed bike racing, but recognised him anyway.
I've got a picture of him wearing a helmet and riding a snowmobile which I will post. You will not be able to recognise him.

The second celebrity was Pamela Anderson (and her kids).

Alas the closest I got to the star was holding her Amex Centurion card (I had no idea she was even coming). If only I had taken the number down, we could have gone on a spending spree.

I will also post an unrecognisable picture of her as well. Don't think I'll be able to sell that to News of the World any time soon.

Until tomorrow's star-studded episode....

Pre-Work Update

Mad Skillz
Yesterday I pushed through the cold and hit the mountain again. The mad skillz were still there amazingly.

The speed at which I am heading down the mountain has increased to the point that if a small child were to suddenly appear in front of me, I wouldn't even bother trying to stop.

I started to hit some larger jumps in the terrain park yesterday (no, not the actual kickers, but the side of them, which in my book still counts as a jump), and there were some spectacular wipe-outs on my way down the mountain. Nothing hurt however. New bindings functioning as advertised.

Snow
It's been snowing HEAPS the last few days. Only problem is that after every big dump is a little rain, so the snow gets a bit slushy and sloppy. I'm working today and tomorrow so praying for large dump on Sunday ready for my Monday morning session.

Time to head off to work. Yay.

New Years Wrap-Up, Surfing the Snow

New Year's Eve 2007

Pretty low key here in the RV park - we were both dead tired, but the careful application of gin, tonic and Lychee Martinis seemed to be the remedy.

Some photos... the first is of two little monkeys frolicking in turd...

(This is obviously Kat, and our friend Elke from next door)


The infamous neighbours, Andrew and Elke.


The other neighbours - Bob and Hunter. Hunter is the dog. Bob is a good man.


This was one of my Christmas presents - a moose that poos when you squeeze it. It sounds silly, but it's very cool.


Here's Bob and some bearded freak. This is pretty late in the night, and... well... I was very tanked.


Everyone was pretty crook the next day - but that's what you get I guess.

Despite best intentions, there was no riding, only working, and puking.

All of the working and puking was done by someone other than myself. A fine effort in my opinion.

Oh, and before I forget - SOMEONE was demonstrating their MAD KARATE SKILLZ and managed to kick me, fall over, break the heater, and spill wax on the floor. ROCK ON!!!!

Mad Skillz Update
Today my new bindings, the much maligned Vapor and myself melded to form something a little more than the sum of its parts.

If I have not mentioned my AWESOME Christmas present, you can look to the left, and weep over the weaponry that is the Flow NXT-AT. Such comfort, balance, and response. I only need think about turning, and like magic, we turn.

I don't know exactly how it happened, but everything came together and I was surfing the powder like I had been born into it. I could have danced a little jig by the time we arrived in the car park at 4pm.

It's the first time that Kat and I have ridden together for a while - we caught the last lifts up this afternoon and rode at dusk (it was bloody dark when we got to the bottom). Fine times!

Today we are both a little sick. I am going to bed now. Witness the sickness.

Yesterday on the mountain

A 29 year old skier died and a 21 year old snowboarder was seriously injured after triggering an avalanche in a permanently closed area on Whistler peak which swept them off a 75 foot cliff face. Both were staff members working for Whistler Blackcomb.

Elke and I saw the News reporters in the village today interviewing people about the accident. I think that's the third person who has died on the mountain so far this year. A fourth guy almost died a few days ago after getting lost in the trees but was rescued the next day after spending the night in freezing temperatures.

Kat

Internet Access Fixed

Finally it seems like the ISP here has fixed the wireless node here in the campground.

I will recommence more regular updates.

Happy New Year - hope NYE was fun!

Happy New Year

Sorry for the lack of activity here lately folks - but been absolutely flat out.

My days go like this.

Wake up, eat, poo, work, eat, work, beer, eat, sleep.
Repeat.

On the plus side, making some good cash. I think with both our jobs we will be able to cover all expenses, and still have some left over!!

So... here we are at the end of 2007 - and the first day of 2008 for you - hopefully you're still up, or passed out by this point.

Thanks for reading, and the good wishes and comments and stuff over the course of the year - it's great to know that people still care.

I'll make another update tomorrow (depending on the whim of the Gods of the Internet) - need to get my ass into gear to head up the mountain. Fitting my new bindings too.. mmm... bindings...

Well take care, next stop - 2008! Hope it's a blast!

xox