SKippy-Blog

So that’s it! Paddy and I have left Whistler! The final week was slightly less exciting as I had hoped for due to the finger issues... no snowboarding for SK. I spent the time chilling out and sorting out my stuff to leave. We had a few landlord issues (him being a bit of a sly devil and trying to keep our deposit) but that was thankfully resolved by Nuggles and his burly muscles! I think it actually involved some sucking up!

My total number of days on the hill this season was 78 - a pretty good score, higher than most so I'm pretty pleased. I think I've got to be a fairly good rider, cruising the blacks and hitting the jumps with the occasional spin and grab! It's been an awesome season and I'd recommend it to everyone!

We went out for a meal with Ben and his workmate Kristina on Saturday... surprisingly we went to the Mongolie Grill for just one more feast! On Sunday we joined workmates for beers at the Longhorn and Tapley's.

Sunday was leaving day... Ben had the major task of moving all his stuff out of the house to alternative accommodation and Paddy and I had a stack of stuff to get to the hostel in Vancouver so we merged the tasks and we hired a monster car for the day (A Dodge Magnum). After we had cleared the house Ben drove Paddy and I down to Vancouver and we hung out and had doughnuts in the city. We then went out for a yummy Thai meal in the best Thai restaurant in the city. Then we said our very sad farewells and Nuggles went back to Whistler for his summer of biking.

Paddy and I went to Stanley Park and the Aquarium yesterday - I was rather chuffed I got away with a Youth entry fee for the Aquarium (under 19! hehe). I was most taken by the sea otters - which were gorgeous! Ed says he liked the cod best... Weirdo. We finished off the day exploring the shops. Apart from a bad Subway sandwich we had a wonderful day.

Today we went over to Granville Island, home of the market and the Granville Island Brewery (the beer we've been drinking all season). First off we went beyond the island onto 4th and went to the famous "Sophie's Cosmic Cafe" of which we had heard rave reviews. We had some sandwiches and Paddy had the most amazing chocolate milkshake in the world! After this we went to the Brewery and did the tour and had samples of the different types with a nice bunch of people. Then we wobbled round the market and looked at the varied fresh fish stands and arts and crafts stalls.

Tomorrow we are thinking of going to see the Capilano suspension bridge (a 450ft footbridge 230ft above the Capilano River). It's supposed to be "smothered in tourists" so we'll see how nice it is and take some photos :o) Some workmates from Whistler are heading down to Vancouver tomorrow having left Whistler so we may meet up with them.

Posted by SK at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Telus festival is all over now! It was pretty good fun. After our last day at work, Paddy and I went out with everyone who works at the two smaller Summit shops for some sushi. Afterwards we all headed out for one of the highlights of the week, the Big Air contest. A huge jump had been built on the base of Whistler Mountain which skiers and snowboarders launched themsleves off to try and win a big cash prize. After that a band named Blackalicious played and got the crowd going.

Sunday was glorious! The sun was shining and the skies were blue. Paddy and I went early to see if we could bag him an iPod too... sadly no luck. We took lots of nice photographs of the pretty views and nearly killed ourselves climbing up Spanky's Ladder in the process. It was the last day Blackcomb was open this season so we went up there for the morning. We went up Whistler in the afternoon and did runs through the park. On my final run I did a 180 frontside off one of the jumps and found myself riding switch into the next... I went for a switch backside 180 and... failed. In the process I managed to bend my finger backwards. I knew it was bad so we rode down... though I couldn't resist popping in a few grabs off the jumps! I didn't much want to look at the finger so didn't and kept my glove on all the way to the hospital. When I did finally take it off to ice it I looked from above and it looked ok... slightly bent but not terrible... Paddy however had the side-on view. My finger was bent backwards with nasty bumps where they shouldn't be. Oh my god. I covered it up so I couldn't see it and cried my eyes out because it just looked so hideous! It wasn't terribly painful though. After the shock died down I had a good laugh but still couldn't look at it. Paddy was close to fainting! It took 4 hours to get me fixed. I had x-rays which showed it was very dislocated the anesthetic didn't seem to work so I had to have two shots and a long wait. It kind of worked eventually, I still had sensation but it didn't hurt when she yanked it back into place. A nice popping noise let me know it was done. More x-rays showed it looking much more like a finger. The bill was $700, I hope the insurance pays up! Paddy bought me icecream from Cows for being a brave girl! hehe :o)

Not sure if I'll be snowboarding this week, today Paddy has gone up on his own and Ben is at his first day of his new job so I'm chilling. My finger is strapped to the next one but still hurts a bit so I'll see how it goes. I'll put pictures of the xrays on soon - they look awesome!

Posted by SK at 02:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm down to one more day left at work! Tomorrow is my final day of employment in Whistler... I then have a week to ride before leaving Whistler altogether *sob, sob*. But then again I have lots to look forward to! Paddy and I are getting all set for our world trip... first stop Bangkok, then Australia, then New Zealand. So excited!

This week I have worked every other day, picking up shifts to save up some money and to make up for that spent snowmobiling! It's been the Telus World Ski and Snowboard festival all week with various shows and events being held daily. So far I have seen a bit of the "Dog Fest" (a celebration of the dogs of Whistler), some live music, a crazy guy doing tricks on a mountain bike and Paddy and I bought tickets to see the Filmmaker showdown and the Photograhy Showdown.

Both of the shows were excellent, the first was a competition for the best amateur short film production made within 100km radius of Whistler within 3 days. There had been 50 entrants and they had narrowed it down to 8 for us to watch... they had nothing to do with snowsports really... they were all comedies and were all really funny! One was a horror involving traffic laws and one was a comedy romance. The winner was a film made up of 7000odd still photographs which was quite clever.

The photographer showdown had 5 professional action sports photographers battling it out for a $10000 cash prize. One was a Whistler local, one a surfing photographer, another was Corey Rich - a National Geographic Adventure Photographer with amazing photos of Rock Climbing as well as snow sports and there was a skateboarding photograher and the burton snowboards photographer. The Burton guy won it to my disappointment. I thought the surfing guys photos were amazing and couldn't quite understand how he had managed to get such perfect photographs inside the waves!

Snowboarding has been pretty good recently with fresh snow falling daily. I've spent some time in the park and have started to do 180s off the park jumps.

Yesterday was Lucinda's birthday so, after working, Paddy and I went to hers for drinks before going to Tommy Africa's nightclub. It was a good night and people got rather drunk... Paddy and I didn't go crazy as he had work today and Ben wanted to drag me up the hill early.

Ben and I went so early because we wanted to be in with a chance of winning an iPod. Apple have been in Whistler all week promoting the iPod at the Telus fesival. Part of the fun is that everyday those in the first 15 gondolas up the hill have a chance of winning an iPod. Everyone in the randomly selected Gondola(s) gets a 1gb iPod Nano. So we went along... bright and early and after I had had only 4.5 hours sleep. Ben knew one of the lifties and so knew what the lady with the magic tickets looked like. So when we saw her we jumped in the gondola and to our disappointment... she stepped into the gondola behind us!!!! We were all a bit miffed that we hadn't won but when we got to mid station she got out of the gondola behind and Ben's friend hailed her and sweet talked her into our gondola too! I think she was slightly persuaded by the little kiddie in our gondola who had no clue what was happening. So she came in our gondola and gave us all vouchers for our new shiney black iPods! Result!

On top of our lovely new toys we also had a fab time riding. I only did a few runs but they were fantastic. There was 10+cm of fresh pow and we got fresh tracks. We did one run through the trees and a couple of runs down to midstation. I then thought it was about time I had some breakfast so I went home and then went to pick up my iPod and have lunch with Paddy.

Posted by SK at 04:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I took Hannah snowboarding on Thursday... conditions were somewhat icier than they had been and the landings not so soft. She didn't really enjoy herself. We started fairly late in the day so managed to stay up until closing and did some good long runs but by the end she had definitly had enough of the snowboarding game. Learning is hard.

We met up with Ed after he had finished work and we all went and got burgers at the GLC (Garibaldi Lift Company). Hannah had the biggest tuna steak burger I had ever seen! We stayed and drank beer for a while and then headed home to watch a movie.

Friday I had to work and Hannah was over snowboarding so she went shopping for things to take home whilst Paddy went snowboarding. After work we went out for yet another meal for Hannah's last night in Whistler and went to the restaurant part of the Brewhouse. We stuffed oursleves silly and then went down to the bar for drinks. Hannah's friend Sarah and her boyfriend Scott and two friends Jo and Pete were up for the weekend and they come along for a drink too.

Saturday was Snowmobiling day! Hannah, Sarah, Scott, Jo, Pete and I all met up for the 12pm start for 3 hours of snowmobiling action! We were driven up to the Callaghan mountain where we were set up with clothing and helmets. By 1o'clock we were riding. I was sharing a machine with Hannah and I was drove first... it was quite terrifying at first as they are huge machines which are very heavy and difficult to manoeuver. I got the hang of it though and it was great fun... Hannah nearly got thrown off the back once or twice so she says! We stopped by a pretty waterfall halfway and took photographs before starting off again, this time Hannah driving. We stopped for another pretty view near the end at a point where the olympic ski jump is going to be built... you wouldn't be able to tell from whats there now. I had one last go at driving and then the action began.... We had already had one incident earlier in the day where a girl had got stuck in a snow bank and one guy had overturned his ski do whilst doing a U turn but they were nothing.... Our guide decided on one corner to leave the path and go up the bank taking a wider corner and drop back into the path... it looked quite good fun! First off Pete and Jo followed him and then Scott and Sarah. Hannah and I were hot on their tails when Scott's machine overturned on the bend! Sarah was trapped underneath the heavy machine and it took four of five of us to roll it over enough for her to squeeze out. Luckily the snow was soft and she had no injuries. Whilst all this was happening the guide had driven off blistfully unaware of what had happened and Sarah was saying "Pete and Jo ran off down into the trees!". We all saw some tracks skidding off into the steep drop down into the trees and thought "surely not!"... we were sure they had made the turn back onto the path. Besides we couldn't hear any yelling or anything. Sarah determined they were down there ran over and sure enough they had gone flying down into a ravine closely avoiding big trees and uprooting small ones taking the most sketchy path to crash into a soft snowbank at the bottom! They were amazingly both ok and had hung onto the machine the whole way down... Jo even able to hold one with one hand whilst angrily hitting Pete on the head on the way down! The guide came back and wasn't a very happy bunny! "I can't beleive you guys followed me!" (note he had told us to follow him at the start so this was silly). So... the snowmobile wasn't going anywhere so we had to abandon it and two of the single riders had to double up for the last bit. We all made it back in one piece. The instructor said they would rescue the machine the next day.

I saw Hannah off on her bus to Vancouver at 7pm, She's now safely home in the UK. Yesterday I was at work all day then Paddy and I went for some drinks after work. Today is snowy! Yes... we are still having snow dumps this late in the season! Paddy and I are going up Blackcomb as it is only open for one more week.

Posted by SK at 08:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My sister Hannah arrived in the early hours of Sunday for a week of snowboarding action! We spent Sunday recovering from the late night and we went to the Longhorn for a few hours and drank beer and ate nachos. Yummy :o) Hannah's university friend Sarah is currently living in Vancouver and was up in Whistler for the weekend so joined us. Afterwards we went into Summit and got Hannah fitted out with some snowboard boots and got her board set up. I took my rockboard into work at the weekend and one of the tune shop boys made it look like new! He spent a good 3 hours working on it! What a star!

So Monday was Hannah's first day of snowboarding ever! Paddy gave her excellent tuition and she took to it very well and was linking turns after a couple of hours. I was the photographer! We spent the day in the Adult Learning Zone and got her doing runs off the chair lift after she had mastered the basics on the Magic Carpet. She fell the first time getting off the chair and had an emergency stop but she managed to stand up every time after! We had problems with the boots and had to change them but apart from that she didn't seem to experience any pain - most odd! :oP

Monday night we were very original and went to the Mongolie Grill. We all stuffed ourselves and instead of going out clubbing decided it was a better idea to crawl home with our very full tummies!

Tuesday Hannah made further improvement on the ski slopes and we took her up to the very top of the mountain and after some lunch we did a run all the way down! It was a lovely sunny day and I now have some rosey red goggle marks on my cheeks to match Paddy's! Hannah was a bit more achey after the day and has obviously used a few more muscles!

Yesterday we got up bright and early and went on the Greyhound bus to Vancouver! We wondered around the town for the morning doing some shopping and we went up the lookout tower to see veiws accross the city in all directions. We met up with Sarah at 4.30pm and all went for a bike ride around Stanley Park. Hannah took Sarah's boyfriends bike and Paddy and I hired a couple for the grand total of $8.50 for two bikes for 1 hour and 7 minutes! We were given the most retro bikes ever with single gears and mine was pink with flowers! We have photograhic evidence... it was so funny! Paddy and I left Hannah to spend the night in Vancouver and we got the last bus home to Whistler.

Hannah is currently on her way back this morning and I'm going to take her out one my own today as Paddy is at work. Should be fun!

Posted by SK at 08:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The party started off as it was to continue... with lots of beer. We all met up at the store, which closed early, at 6pm. We had barely even kicked out the last customer before the beer cans were opening. We each had a couple of drinks before they dished out Tubing tickets for us all and we made our way over to the Gondola to go up to the Tube Park.

Tubing is basically a snowy hill with channels carved into it which you slide down in a big innertube. If you are lucky the person at the top gives you a good spin as you head down! We all had about 4 or 5 runs down... it was pretty good fun! We had a few races... I won one and lost another.

We got kicked out of the tube park as it closed at 8 and we went to our next destination... the Longhorn. We were bought snacks of Nachos, Enchiladas and Chicken Wings and were supplied with pitcher, upon pitcher of beer. We had drunk quite a lot by the time the first shots came out... not sure what it was... but it was just a warm up. By the time the second shot came around... I had happily made the choice to stick to beer for the rest of the evening... boy was I lucky! The second shot turned out to be Barcardi 151... 151% proof... 75.5% by volume... unavailable in many countries. Shortly afterwards I was rather confused as to why the barmen said Paddy was "done" and must leave the premises. "Huh?". I looked at Paddy and despite being a bit wobbly... he seemed ok. But not wanting to argue with the chap we left... it was only 10.30pm. Paddy made it home before being violently ill.

So... today I got up at 6am and got to work for 7am. I managed to avoid doing any work involving helping annoying little British kids by doing the boring job of sitting upstairs and watching the soft goods section until 11am. The phone kept ringing and the store was stupendously busy! The highlight of the day was hearing all of the stories from the night before. So and so snogged so and so etc etc... The funniest had to be Scottish Neal walking into the store at 8.30am to announce that he had only just been released from the local jail where he had spent the night. He didn't remember why... nor how... he only remembered having the handcuffs put on him. Whistler doesn't like drunks being on the street. Apparently he was one of the others asked to leave the Longhorn early... he only made it to the bus stop.

Work again tomorrow, then big sis arrives for her week of Whistler fun! Yey!

Posted by SK at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday started bright and early with Paddy and I making our final trip to do Fresh tracks as it finishes at the weekend. We bumped into a friend Hannah from work and friend Phillipa who were also using up their last tickets. We yet again took our time over breakfast and then did a run down to the base as Hannah had to get started on her poker run.

The Poker run was a follow on stage from the Curling we did with work a few weeks ago. Arranged in the same teams, the aim was to go around the mountain and find as many cards which had been taped to the chair lift pylons. Those who get the best cards along with the 2 cards that were randomly picked at the start wins the most points. Bonus points were got for snapping pictures of other things such as "chair number 13 on the Crystal chair" or "a team member riding the Magic Carpet".

My run didn't start until 12pm and lasted 2 hours. Paddy had to join my group in the end as his group had become a bit disjointed as two team mates had left Whistler already. We were stuck with a couple of the managers Matt and Brett and the IT guy Dave. They are never the most cheerful of people so I was a bit put off but it turned out to be an ok couple of hours! It was swelteringly hot though and with all our layers and having to rush everywhere it was all a bit painful and I was desperate for a drink by the end! Spring is most definitly here.

Paddy had physio for his knee and shoulder in the afternoon so I had a nice relaxing time at home while he was having his neck "crunched" and realigned. I didn't want to ask for any details so I didn't. His shoulder seems to be a bit better now though :o)

I'm now off to spend the afternoon on the Mountains. Haven't decided which yet. Blue skies so I'm going to try and snap some scenic shots. Tonight we have a staff party... tubing and then to the Longhorn. Then work tomorrow :oS

Posted by SK at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After 3 days at work I was very keen to get up the hill on Monday. The weekend had been fairly steady going but finishing the weekend on a split shift from 8am until 8pm always hurts. I spent the 3 hour split at home and had a nap... daylight saving had effectively turned my shifts into three 7am starts in a row!

Paddy had made me green with his talk of success in the park over the weekend so I had big hopes for Monday and an intention to push myself to finally do a 180˚. We got up bright and early to do fresh tracks as we still have tickets left over. We took our time over breakfast and got some really nice runs down the freshly groomed corduroy runs. I finally bucked up the courage to do a 180, simply jump and spin! and ride away in switch without falling over! I was doing them frontside (you turn the way you are facing) and I did some switch as well as from my usual goofy stance. Paddy and I did a few runs through the park, I mainly stuck to the jumps but did a couple of boxes and rails. I managed to put in some indie grabs for the first time! (back hand, inbetween bindings on toe edge). We were quite put out by a 6 year old kid storming through the park on his/her skis at full pelt flying off all the jumps with ease! A superstar in the making! We then headed on to Blackcomb and did runs through the parks there instead. It was a bit busy though. I managed to do a 180 on the spine of the merge of two runs which was pretty cool. The day certainly improved my switch riding... I seem to have got some bruised ribs now... not sure how!

Last night we went out for Karaoke night at the Crystal Lounge to meet Lucinda and co. I managed to suppass my ability to attract wierdos when I got chatted up by the most drunk Canadian hockey fan there! He was wearing a mullet wig he had found on the street, he had apparently picked it up thinking it was a dead squirrel. How disappointing for him! After I let him down in the nicest possible way (Paddy and everyone else finding it all very amusing!) he then proceeded to take off his shirt to reveal a not-so-toned body and do the first song, after announcing that he "wasn't gay and liked the ladies" to the crowd several times. The next guy up was pleased to announce he had been banned for life from Whistler Blackcomb... though we didn't find out why. He threw something into the crowd and it hit the head barmen and he was swiftly escorted out. All in all a fun evening!

Today Paddy and I have had a day off from snowboarding. Paddy is now suffering with an injured shoulder. What a broken thing he is! We popped into town and looked round the end of season sales and went to the cinema to see Ice Age 2. Was really good though a bit soppy here and there.

Looking forward to my sister arriving this weekend! We have a week of fun arranged. I am trying to arrange to switch shifts so I don't have to work. Sadly my first attempt failed and instead of switching I am just losing the shift! Even less money coming in but it's going to be awesome!

In other exciting news... having been watching Lost for the past few months I have finally found out where I had heard Locke's old girlfriends voice before! She's the voice of Futurama's Leela! For anyone not watching Lost... you are missing out!

Posted by SK at 09:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So Sunday I worked but had a split. I went up with one of my work mates Olly and we did some tree runs. Conditions were a bit rubbish and overall it wasn't very good! We came down after the 2.5 hours feeling rather disappointed.

Monday I was up on the hill on my own. I had a late start and went to the Adult learning zone to learn to ride Switch (Riding backwards with my left foot first - something I was awful at but can now do just about!). It was so sunny it was lovely being up there and taking it easy! I progressed on to riding in the Family Zone after a few runs :o) I took Paddy up to do the same on Tuesday and can just about do it too now!

Yesterday Paddy was doing a shift for one of the girls at work so I went riding with my friend Lucinda who skis. We started the day off with doing Fresh Tracks bright and early at 7.15am. Lucindas housemate came along but is injured so just came to enjoy the breakfast! I started the day off by forgetting my pass so had to have a new one printed off! We stuffed ourselves, took some photos and then Lucinda and I went for some runs.

The groomers were in fantastic form and we did some speedy runs before heading up the peak chair to do the freshly groomed "Peak to Creek". It was a bit icy and I did nearly kill Lucinda as I stormed over a roller only to find her stopped behind it! I stopped myself at the expense of my bum - thank god I have impact shorts!! We had quite a few breaks and enjoyed the gorgeous sunshine.

We then met up with Lucinda's other housemate Phillipa and did a run down to the base where I left them to join Paddy on his split and also Ben had finished work for the day. We went up Blackcomb and stormed some runs jumping off all the rollers and going nice and quick. Lucinda met up with us again and we did the Snow Cross in the terrain park (twisty-turny race track). Was great fun.

Was meant to go out last night but had a bit of a drama... was all dressed and ready but couldn't find my shoes (which turned out to be under a bin bag!). I tore my room apart looking for them and in the process misplaced my wallet. So I gave up. I finally found the wallet but it was a bit too late.

On my own again today. Going to go ride for a few hours but taking it easy this morning. Back to work tomorrow :o(

Posted by SK at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Paddy and I had another great two days riding on Blackcomb last Monday/Tuesday. We had more sunny weather and we raced down the groomers doing jumps off the rollers. Wednesday Paddy was under the weather and it was raining so we took the opportunity for a day off and spent the day on the sofa playing with photos and watching movies. It was good to have a rest day for a change! Thursday he managed to drag himself out to work and I went up for a few runs, however the rain kind of put me off a bit and the snow was wet and slow.

Been at work the past two days. Nothing too exciting has happened... got chatted up by a really creepy american guy but I managed to run away and hide from him. Work has been super quiet and we have all been sitting around a lot. Some of us were riding bikes around the store yesterday (the store rents bikes in the summer). People are all talking about when they are leaving (or not in some cases!). Time is whizzing past! My big sis will be here to visit before long! Yey!

Posted by SK at 08:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Got today off work (swapped a shift) and went riding with Paddy on Blackcomb. It was a late start, I rang the parents and we popped into some shops before we finally got the gondola. We met up briefly with Ben and a workmate of his before we went had Fully Loaded Waffles at the Crystal Hut - fully yummy :oP I was beaten by the waffle as was Paddy by his. I had to have quite a breather before venturing onto the slopes again! It was a gorgeous day with blue skies and soft snow. We went and did a few runs on Seventh Heaven but conditions weren't great as it hadn't been groomed and Paddy led me into the BIGGEST mogul field I have ever had the displeasure of being in.

Tonight, Paddy, Ben and I went out for yet another meal at the Mongolie Grill. But it tastes so good! I was given an interesting shot to finish the meal off. We were going to head on to the Longhorn but Spring Break has brought lots of tourists... the chance of getting in at 10pm being slim. Most of my friends also have early starts at work tomorrow so we will have to have a delayed celebration!

Bought myself a birthday present :o) Got a nice new jacket in the sales! Almost half price so couldn't resist - it can replace the one being held together with duct tape! Paddy got me a nice Canadian style hat and Ben got me a belt :o) I wore them all today :oP

The last few days were fairly uneventful... the highlight being St. Paddy's Day. Paddy and I went out to Merlin's to meet workmate Lucinda and her housemates. She didn't arrive til a bit later (and was very drunk when she did!) but we spent most of the evening with Paddy's old workmates from Ski School Sales. Irish band was pretty cool... Lucinda was chatting up the unattractive lead singer... something she denies - she thinks she must have been asking to join the band!

3 more days off to enjoy the Spring time conditions - soft snow and sunny warm days! Many say it brings some of the best days of the season... pity about all the holiday makers! :o)

Posted by SK at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The three days at work went swiftly enough. On Sunday I had a split with 3 hours to go up the hill. I met up with Paddy and some friends from work as it was one lads last day in Whistler before he heads off to South America. There were 10 or more of us, skiers and snowboarders... we all met up at the Chic-pea and Paddy and I enjoyed a couple of Big Ball subs (yummy meat ball sandwiches with melted cheese and a tomatoey sauce. It was gorgeously sunny and we all sat outside in the sunshine. We then took to the slope and stormed down the groomers... we had a great time.

Sunday night a big group of Summit workers went out to the Longhorn to wish Higgen's farewell. I went straight from work at 8pm so felt a bit of a wreck but managed to stay with it. It was a good night and not as crazy busy as it can be. Had a lie in the next day so all was good.

Monday Paddy and I went up Blackcomb and went straight to Seventh Heaven. It was fantastic! The slopes were groomed and really smooth so we just did loads of high speed runs doing loops on the Seventh Heaven lift. We would start the runs in shadow and then emerge out into gorgeous warm sunshine. I did a few jumps of the rollers and on the odd occasion when we actually came across another skier or snowboarder we would storm past them :o) We finsihed off the day with a quick uplift up Whistler and a run down to the base.

Today we got up at silly-o'clock to go and did fresh tracks. There was only a little fresh snow but we have lots of tickets to use up so went for the breakfast more than anything! We stuffed ourselves suitably and took our time (there were very few people up there so no rush!). We then did a run down to the base via Jimmy's Joker and Lower Dave Murray Downhill (the 2010 mens skiing olympic run). Dave Murray was awesome! It had been groomed and there was a nice thin layer of soft new snow on top. Paddy and I were the 3rd and 4th people down it and got fresh tracks all the way... we flew down at quite a speed and got to the bottom dying to go back up and do it again. We uploaded to the top of the gondola and went straight onto the Lower run again. This time we went even faster! Paddy had a crash halfway though and I had to stop to wait for him but he was fine - he got up and stormed straight past me!

We met up with a couple of Paddy's old workmates from Ski School sales at 9.30am and we went and rode with them. We did one run off Harmony ridge which had a one metre drop off a cornice into it.... I landed on my bum but hey! They were more into going off-piste but the conditions for off-piste weren't really that great - all a big curned up and crusty as not enough fresh snow so I didn't really feel that enthused. We did one run through the park which was good, I did the jumps :o) I left them at mid-day to go and sort some work stuff out. I felt pretty tired from the early start!

More riding tomorrow :o)

Posted by SK at 04:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Phew! What a day! I have cramp in my legs, bruises on my arms and I am totally exhausted!

The snow didn't fall all night but there was a good 17cm of fresh snow by the morning. Paddy was at work all day so it was me and Ben up the mountain today. We decided to go up Whistler at about 9am and found lovely powder :o) We did a run through Franz's meadow and got the lift back up to see that Peak Chair was finally open. We joined the queue and whilst we waited were entertained as crazy snowboarders and skiers "hucked" off the nearby cliffs! One skier did "Air Jordan", a 20ft cliff into a 40ft cliff drop. His skis popped off on landing the second but he rode away to hop off one of the lower cliffs afterwards.

Ben and I were going to do a run on West Bowl but Ben instead led me out of bounds to do the infamous tree run "Khyber". This run took us about an hour and 15 minutes, not a bad time. We must have been only the 5th and 6th people down there and the powder was deep and untracked. Ben had done the route before so I let him take the lead. The trees were very closely packed in places and we whizzed inbetween them, Ben leaping off a few drops here and there. I managed to wrap myself around one tree, knock another and get covered by snow and to accidently run off a drop and bash my arm on a tree in the process. It was really good fun and less scary than I had imagined. Following the trees there was a series of cat tracks and twisting gullies to get back to the main run down to Creekside. Great run :o)

Following this adventure... Ben wanted to go up Flute bowl... an inbounds powder bowl about a 45 minute hike from the edge of Harmony and another 45 minute hike out... all for a thirty second run down some of the nicest waist deep powder the whole way. We were joined by Rob, a work mate of Ben's. I am in two minds about whether I would want to do it again... the walk in and out were hell! But the ride was pretty fantastic and I'm glad to have done it! I did do a triple backwards somersault near the bottom just after Ben himself had had a tumble. Ouch! :oP

I felt rather dead after all this action so I left the boys as they went off to do Khyber again (which nearly killed Ben I think!). I took the lift back up Harmony and managed to find some fresh tracks down Little Whistler and then went down to Creekside and home for a rest!

Photos are up in my photo album... Paddy also has some new videos on his site.

Absolutly exhausted... and really don't want to go to work tomorrow! :o(

Posted by SK at 08:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Paddy and I did our second day straight of Fresh tracks on Tuesday. There had been 25 odd centimetres of snow the night before so the queue was a little longer than Mondays and the bus was late which didn't help. We scoffed down our fry-ups, fruit and cake before rushing outside.... but due to the huge amounts of snow the mountain safety guys hadn't given the all clear yet. A couple of hundred or so people strapped up their snowboards and clipped in their skis and stood at the boundary and waited... We watched as avalanche control teams set up their explosives way up on the slopes of the peak and then skied down before the explosions sent waves of snow down.

As soon as the all-clear had been given we rushed to the black run we had been planning on called "Pale Face" to get to Jimmy's joker again. Conditions were a little choppier on Jimmy's than the previous day but still fantastic. Next up we went down Franz's meadow (another new black run ticked) and then did Lower Franz's all the way down to Creekside base. We got some great fresh tracks down so it was really good. After we'd played around in some of the trees the Alpine was opened and we joined the queue for the peak chair... I hadn't done any of the many black runs on the peak so was excited to get up there and look down the steep slope of Whistler Bowl... had one somersault on the way down but got up again and straight lined it toward the second stage of the ride down sweetly named "Doom and Gloom". I think we did "Gloom" and joined up with Grande Finale to finish. Was swwweeeeeeet. We then went up to Harmony and did a couple of runs of the backside of the ridge. Having totally exhausted ourselves we headed back home.

Today we had a late start and went up Blackcomb. It was sooo... windy! We were being blown about on the Jersey Cream lift and quickly dropped the safety bar to stop us being blown away! They later closed the higher lifts due to the high winds. We decided to escape the wind by doing the lower tree run "In The Spirit" that we had done on Monday for the first time. We did it a couple of times and then came back home.

It is quite a storm going on and it is snowing like crazy! I think we will have well over the predicted 20cm by tomorrow if it carries on like this! It's like January all over again! Paddy is off to work tomorrow so I think I'll be hitting the slopes with Ben... could be some more tree runs I think!

Posted by SK at 03:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had a great day today! With 8cm of new snow over night and high winds over night blowing all the snow about Paddy and I got up bright and early at 6am to go and do fresh tracks at 7.15am. I had my usual fry up then bowl of fruit salad and was then all set for a day on the hill!

We hit the slopes at 8.15am starting with the most amazing run on Jimmy's Joker (a black) which had fresh powder on freshly groomed slopes! We shot down it with gentle turns placing some of the first tracks of the day on it. We then got the lift back and did Dave Murray Downhill from top to bottom to Creekside base. It hadn't been groomed so was a little bumpier but we still got some fresh lines. We then did Ptarmigan (a blue) and Bear Paw (a black) to the base each time. Then having heard that the Alpine would not be opening all day due to the wind and the continuous heavy snow we decided to go up Blackcomb mountain instead.

We hadn't been on Blackcomb for a while so started off on a familiar blue run which was full of intermediate skiers doing the most unpredictable turns it was scary! We rode down to the base in search of smaller lift queues and bumped into Ben and one of his workmates Alexis. We joined them and took the Crystal chair to the highest open area of the mountain. We spent the afternoon doing tree runs including my first double black ("Outer Limits") the trees were pretty close and weaving between them provided some amusing moments! I had a bit of a bump on "In the Spirit" where I was running down through a narrow shoot between some trees and I hit what seemed to be a twig (a few centimetres long poking out of the snow)... it stopped my board dead and sent me flying! Paddy came round the corner to find me wrapped around a tree at which I started laughing and all the snow in the tree dumped down all around me! After some wriggling I got up and rode away in one piece!

We all had lunch in the Crystal Hut which is famed for its waffles. We had two "fully loaded" ones between the four of us along with hot chocolates all round! They were delicious! The hut was lovely and warm and bustling with people but we got a nice little corner table. It was hard to drag ourselves back into the cold snow again!

Sadly we forgot the camera today but will endeavor to take it out tomorrow!! I will try and take a picture of a tree run to show quite how tight they can be! Paddy and I are going to try and wake up for fresh tracks again tomorrow. We are hoping that the Alpine will open and that we can go up Peak chair and tick off some of the blacks up there. Should be a good one!

Posted by SK at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My four days off didn't really produce many snowboarding tales... I went up only 2 of the days and conditions were snowy but very chopped up so I didn't really enjoy it. The snow seems to be falling a bit more now we are in March so hoefully there will be some good days to come!

Paddy has started work at Summit and seems to be enjoying himself! He came on his first Summit staff party last night. We started the evening off with drinks at the shop... we were then transported to Squamish along with beer on a coach and during the 45 minute journey watched bits of a Canadian film about curling entitled "Men with Brooms". When we arrived at the country club we had drinks and headed towards the ice. First we had to tape up one shoe to make it slippy and wear rubber soles on the other to make it sticky. The 50odd of us were all in teams and had a tournament. Each team member took it in turns to throw and sweep etc. Standing up was hard enough for many! Throughout the evening we had unlimited beer and some taco and chicken wing snacks. I was not alone at being rubbish at the game. Most of the games were won by only one point scored. Paddy's team didn't score any! It is really a lot harder than it looks on the tv!

Today I was back at work. Was particularly annoyed by some of the British customers who refused to accept the fact that they had to pay for boot storage (as they have to in all Whistler shops, rented or not)... It went along lines of... Why do I have to pay? Why can't I do this? Whistler is ridiculous! I can everywhere else in the world! I won't come here again! This is an outrage!
I merely told him that all places did it for perfectly good reason, pointed out those blatently obvious reasons and made out that my opinion of him was very low without saying such. I told him I hadn't had any problem with it when I had rented from European shops in the past and that 2.5 of his precious British Pounds per night to have cozy dry warm boots really wasn't that much. He hadn't even rented the boots fom us either! Idiot!

So one day down, two to go until I get up the hill again! I'll put some photos up of the curling when I can. I added some others to February the other day.

Posted by SK at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two weeks since my last blog. Not much snow has fallen in February so I've had very little to report on the snowboarding side of things. It's all been icy groomers and a bit of park for me - I've made good use of the nice sharp edges on my new board! Park got a little scary towards the end with the landings being very hard. My bums collision with a box a few weeks back is still giving me some gip (think I may have bruised the bone or something) so I have invested in some impact shorts! They make me look very shapely :oS They have also protected me against the super cold weather we've had... reaching -23*C ambient at the peak with -40*C wind-chill! Brrrr....!

Ben had some friends from back home visit for a few days (they have been staying in Vancouver). We went out to Dusty's for dinner and all met up on the slopes once or twice. Paddy and I headed up early one day and had Fresh Tracks breakfast... knowing that there was no fresh snow we sat and enjoyed the all you can eat breakfast and didn't hit the slopes until past 9 o'clock. It was Paddy's first time... he ate a lot :o)

Whistler has been buzzing with tourists the last two weeks... lots of Brits heading over for the half-term holidays. Work has been as busy as it was at Christmas!

Mark and Neal, my housemates at University, came and visited me for the last few days. It was a great finale to their 4 week trip down and up the West Coast. They had had a great time visiting Seattle, San Francisco, Yosemite, Red Wood and various other places. Upon their arrival on Friday I fitted them up with some super cheap rentals and all the clothing and accessories they needed. Then Paddy, Ben and I took them to the Mongolie Grill where Neal and Mark kindly treated us to dinner. It was very yummy as usual!

The next day I left the snowboard at home and got some skis out from work! Neal and I got back into the skiing game and gave Mark some lessons. We somewhat throw him into the deep end but he did really well and after some issues with skis popping off he was cruising by the end of the day. I worked the next day and Neal and Mark went up on their own... they had a tough day as it had snowed 23cm the night before and it was quite hard on the knees.

Yesterday, following a night of rain we decided to pass on the skiing and the three of us went ice-skating instead. I haven't been skating for sometime and we were all on hockey skates which was really scary! They a shaped so that the tip and tail of the blade are rounded (no teeth on front or square back) so you can just fly on to your front or bum! I managed to stay standing with some windmill arm moments here and there!

Exciting news front... Paddy has had a change in jobs... leaving the big evil corporation he was fed up of to work with me in Summit! He isn't actually working in the same store as me but one of the other smaller ones as they are short of staff. No longer will he have to be saccharine sweet and be a corporate machine! He may even be able to bag himself a pro-deal snowboard :o) He is signed up for the next staff social on Thursday where all of us are being shipped by bus to Squamish to go Curling! Curling with crates of beer on the side line! Yippee!

Other news is that my sister is going to be heading over in April! Yey! I'm going to teach her to snowboard and she'll also catch some of the week long World Ski and Snowboard Festival! Justin Timberlake played last year so I have high hopes! hehe :oP

Paddy and I are starting to think about our world travel plans... at the moment the main idea is to move the America travels forward to before Thailand and to head to New York and the East Coast for a week! All very exciting!

Posted by SK at 06:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Had a great (if a little laid back) day yesterday! Paddy and I had a late start and went for Dusty's breakfast before going up Whistler. We decided to cruise the groomers today and went up Harmony for some photos as it was another Blue bird day and still no fresh snow. We then went to the Roundhouse to meet up with Ben and Wayde and had some beers... the ride down the mountain was somewhat terrifying! The combination of sun, no lunch and beer certainly slowed the reactions! Paddy and I went racing down the mountain overtaking everyone on the icy lower slopes... it was very scary and I was glad to get to the bottom in one piece! Riding under the influence is not recommended! lol. I am loving the new board though... it's got so much more pop in it so I'm getting more air when I ollie. I widened the stance a little and it now feels super stable.

The cupboards were looking rather bare last night so we headed back to Dusty's for burgers (greedy I know)... it was whilst I was munching through my delicious "warrior burger" that I recognised someone across the room. "No way"... one of the boys on my university course! I sat and stared for a bit and consulted Paddy as to if it was him or not and after deciding that I wasn't seeing things went over and said hello! He's over here on holiday for a couple of weeks and is staying with some friends (also from Nottingham but I don't know them) who I recognise as serving me in the supermarket where they work! He had only been in the country for 5 hours... how crazy is that! It's a small world!

Just finished my 1st of 3 days work... it went by really quickly today! I bought the biggest piece of chocolate cake whilst at work and made myself feel very sick! I think I must have done too good a job of chatting up the guy behind the counter as he cut me a HUGE piece and coated it in whipped cream! I couldn't eat it all so shared it with half my work mates! I felt so ill! I could just eat some more now though :oP

Paddy and Ben had a couple of hours in the park today I think... we are turning into such park monkeys! Paddy's now at work doing a late shift which is a new thing - cool because he gets to ride more.

Posted by SK at 06:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Have spent the last two days in the park as we've had barely any new snow and the skies have been blue!

Went up yesterday with Olly and Koji (English and Japanese boys from work). We went up Blackcomb and started off on Seventh Heaven up in the alpine. The winds were unbearable at the top - icy cold and very fast! It was hard to stand up and the board I was trying out from work turned out to be all bendy and felt totally unstable on the ice. We rocketed down the piestes to start off and then went beck up again but found shelter on a tree run the second time round. We then headed to the park.... yikes! I had been somewhat afraid of the parks up until this point... we went to the easy peasy park (called the "Terrain Garden") to begin with where we jumped off spines and jumps and slid along boxes and rails. It was all totally terrifying but felt great to be able to do them. We ran through the Terrain Garden a few times and then went up to the proper full size park for a few runs... I did pretty well and did some of the bigger boxes and rails and loved the bigger jumps! We took the Catskinner chair lift up again which took up right over the XL park (a super dooper park where everthing is massive and you need a special pass to get in). Some guys were pulling off 540*s and more off the jumps and a skier did what must have been a 720* or more and looked really cool!

Last night I joined Paddy and Ben for a staff social of theirs at the local chinese restaurant where we had all you can eat. We then went on to Dusty's bar and grill for a few more pitchers.

Today Paddy has had the day off and Mr Nuggles is down in Vancouver with a mate. Paddy and I went up Blackcomb to play in the parks again. I showed him my tricks (as unimpressive as they are) and he finally braved the rainbow box (shaped like a rainbow) that he had previously been afraid of... he didn't like the idea of me doing it yesterday! The day quickly wizzed by but we did quite a lot and had a lovely day... the sky was blue and you could see for miles! Sadly the parks were a bit busier than they were yesterday. We finished off the day with a trip up Whistler Mountain and a very icy run down to Creekside.

Tonight its party time! Paddy and I have both got staff parties! I think Paddy is intending on going to both - starting off on his then heading to mine for the free alcohol! Cheeky begger! Should be good, mine is a table tennis and poker night... Paddy is going tubing at his.

Posted by SK at 04:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is my Monday having just finished 3 days of work. I now have 4 days off :o)

Went riding wth Ed and Ben last Friday, starting the day with a Dusty's breakfast again (which was too big for me to finish again). We headed up Whistler from the Creekside base and did one big run down to the village base of the mountain and then took the gondola up Blackcomb mountain as we haven't been going up there as often. We met up with some of Ben's friends on the glacier and did some good runs including one really tight tree run! Paddy fell in a snowy hole and I thought I'd lost him until he emerged from the trees. I felt really rotten from cold so ended my day slightly early at 1pm.

This weekend was pretty tiring having not fully recovered from my cold yet. I have also been having trouble with major pain in my arches and feet as a whole (really crazy) so have been walking a bit like a penguin. New insoles seem to be doing the trick solving this though. Joined Paddy on his usual trip to the hot-tub and relaxed in there for an hour or so which was nice and it seemed to help the feet.

This weekend saw the beginning of a week long event at Whistler where gays from around the world head for Whistler... yes... its GayWhistler week! The men and the women (mostly men) came in two-by-two to be fitted up with skis and everyone was so friendly and the tips were good. Ask anyone and they will say that working Gayweek is the best week of the year as everyone is so nice. None of these grumpy British families! lol.

Was glad to hear of the rugby scores, Ben is quite miffed that Wales didn't beat us. Hugh (a scottish lad from work) celebrated Scotlands victory against France by sporting his kilt up the mountain... and no his wasn't wearing anything underneath. He came back rather chilly and said that the problem was that he has twin tip skis and so the spray up of snow was something rotten! His kilt would also occassionly rise up in the lift lines due to the actions of some ladies ski poles. He later offended some gays in the shop who overheard him saying something about duct-tape.

Not much fresh snow to talk about but the skies are clear blue and everyone is happy! I'm about to head up Blackcomb with a group from work... they might teach me a few tricks in the park :oS We shall see if I chicken out or not! I think I probably will having seen both Paddy and Ben's shin injuries!

Posted by SK at 08:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Feeling a bit better today - just a streaming nose to deal with! A somewhat sleepless night last night with several coughing fits!

Paddy and I headed to Dusty's Backside (the back of Dusty's) for a fry-up breakfast at 8.15am. We then went up Whistler mountain where we warmed up on a few greens playing on some jumps and going switch here and there. We met up with Ben and a few of his work mates at 10am and went in search of some powder and trees up around Harmony! We rode quite a few black runs and the powder was deep. Managed to not wrap myself around any trees or fall over too many times... though everyone got stuck in the powder at least once!

Paddy and I started to head back at 12pm as he had physio and I thought my health had just about had enough for one day. I took him down a black run I had enjoyed with a work mate called T-bar bowl... we got fresh tracks! :o)

Nuggles has just arrived home having done flute bowl again... apparently leaping gallantly off a 10ft cornice to gain entry... gallantly in the way he landed on his tummy with the soft deep powder to cushion his fall! He continues to rave about the amazingness of Flute so we are going to have to head there asap.

Have finally got some photos on my website... new additions to December through to February... none today but hopefully more tomorrow!

Posted by SK at 04:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Paddy and I went snowboarding today! Yey - it was ace! We took it very easy as I am still a wreck with my cold and his knee still isn't perfect. We spent only a couple of hours up there and played around on the green runs. I showed him my jumps (photos to come) and we also had a good laugh going through the trees getting stuck here and there! We then went our separate ways... Paddy in search of a hot tub before his physio session which he's in now and I went to collect my pay cheque! Aways good :o) I had hoped that the fresh air after 2 days of sleep would help clear things up... at the moment I think I feel worse... back to bed for me :o( Still good to have got out though. :o)

Big news today... it has been confirmed on the Whistler Blackcomb website... January has had the most snowfall in one month at WB ever recorded with the snowfall accumulation reaching 469cm (185 inches)!!!

Posted by SK at 02:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well so much for making it to work yesterday... spent the whole night before waking up every hour or so with a dry throat so by the time my alarm went off at ten to six (in time for me to get to work at 7am) I had no voice and felt very rough! I had to get Paddy to ring work for me as I couldn't talk... they beleived him... slightly dubious as it had snowed a whopping 40cm that night! :o) But no... I was stuck in bed all day! :o( So I've not only cut my hours down but I've now missed a day this week... the bank balance is going to notice! But nevermind :oP

Today I am still feeling under the weather though a little better... still no voice... Ben and Paddy are lucky things :o) I sat and watched movies all day as the boys have been at work and I have consumed almost a whole bag of grapes which Paddy bought me... and it was a HUGE bag too! Looking out at the snow fall and hoping that I'll be better tomorrow so I can go out and play.

Found out that the snowfall this January has been on par with the highest recorded for any January! There should be confirmation whether there is a new record tomorrow I should think. We've had around 460cm since January 1st. They have also predicted another 15-20cm tonight! This season is turning out to be pretty good so far... lets hope the rest is as good so Paddy can get his share of it!

Posted by SK at 04:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I did enjoy my 4 days off... I snowboarded all except one day as the weather was terrible - torrential rain. I enjoyed it so much so I've decided to always have 4 days off a week and have cut down to three 10hour shifts instead of four! I'm going to have to cut back on any meals at the Mongolie restaurant and I don't think I'll be getting a second board anymore but it'll be worth it! The snow this January has been amazing... over 4 metres has fallen so far with more expected tonight. It's currently bucketing it down or as they say out here "puking"! What with the amazing conditions and Paddy's knee finally nearing recovery I'm going to make the most of my time out here and spend more time on the slopes!

Sadly... straight away after losing my 4th shift I have been struck down with the flu... dry, tight throat and VERY painful chesty cough. I have had to leave work an hour and a half early today... I nearly made it but my throat was unbearable by the end so I've come home to have a nap and an early night so I can make it to work tomorrow. Following work I have another 4 days off and I hope the snow continues to fall til then and that I'm better. The night before last it snowed a foot at Village level! I fell on my bum walking down what we call the treacherous path of death to the bus stop in the morning and got very wet! It was beautiful. Going to take my camera up the hill next time I go so will post some by the end of the week hopefully.

Posted by SK at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The shock of not having to work for 4 days led me to totally shut down and sleep until 10am... only to be woken by my phone! Dragged myself out of the house to go snowboarding. No fresh snow so nothing amazing - all the pistes have been groomed so some are really fast! I'm back on my board now which goes really quick on the groomers... I did some more jumps, one in the terrain park! Getting more confident at them and went for a grab on one... not quite there but almost!

Finished the day off with a run of Peak to Creek - A 7km (4.34mile) run from the very top of Whistler to Creekside base. It was rather bumpy and chopped up in places so not that brilliant. Can see how it would be awesome if in good condition though :o)

Time to relax...

Posted by SK at 02:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Only had two days off due to shift switching... the first day off was very lazy and when I finally got up Whistler my new goggle lens was fogging between the lens so I had to head back down after just a few runs and get a warranty replacement. So far so good. I didn't have much time left that day so I headed home to relax and build up energy for the next days riding.

Wednesday I met up with workmate Olly and his brother in law and we did some routes I had not done before on Whistler. It was a really good day and I worked on doing some jumps with Olly's help. He's pretty good and was pulling off 360s with no trouble on the side of the piste.

Today I was on a split and had a 3 hour break to go riding. I borrowed a board from a shop in town... the K2 mix. I was pretty impressed, it was excellent edge to edge and did seem to have a bit of pop in it. I'm going to ring up K2 on Monday and see if I can get a pro deal on it and get it nice and cheap :o)

Meanwhile... Paddy and I have now watched the entire 1st series of Lost... we are unsure of the quality of the cliff hanger ending... but overall really enjoyed the series... we are somewhat addicted to it! We're having a break before starting on Season 2 which we've stockpiled half of so far.

Posted by SK at 09:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

5 days since the last update... though one was lost to a hangover unfortunately :o( It's about time I wrote something!

The snow has been snowing all week... in the last two days we've had about 3ft. The snow base is now at approximately 100 inches or 250cm. It's pretty awesome up on the hills.

Finally got up on the hill on Wednesday to do fresh tacks with Lucinda and co. Ben came along too and we did a few runs with them before speeding off on our own. We went up around Harmony chair and found ourselves some fresh tracks then we went back to the easy slopes and I work on some jumping and riding switch etc. A pretty successful day - we had a good time. Still waiting for Paddy to get back in to the game though as his physio continues.

Wednesday night was the infamous Summit staff Christmas party (a little late I know...). It was held in Teppan Village the Japanese steak house just upstairs from the store. Free food and drinks all night. The food was delicious! Everyone got very very drunk and it was good fun as we had the restaurant to ourselves (50+ of us). They then gave us all taxi vouchers for a free ride home :o) The following day I was awake for all of 6 hours and I am quite put off drinking ever again. I think that says it all.

So Thursday lost, I got up the hil l again on Friday with Ben following yet another 30cm snow over night (a fairly common thing now). Had trouble with my feet hurting so headed down to Summit.... I was going to call it a day but I spotted the Black Widow snowboard I've been wanting to try out so I took it out for a spin. Met Ben again along with Wayde... They both took some demo boards/skis out from the demo tent on the mountain so we were all messing about on new gear. I'm not sure about the Black Widow... its heavier than my board even though shorter... of a similar stiffness (maybe a bit softer) but it does have a little more "pop" in it. I will have to have a think about it.

I'm back at work now... only one more day after today until I get some days off again :o) Paddy and I are watching Lost at every opportunity at the moment... pretty exciting stuff though rather time consuming.

Posted by SK at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It snowed a crazy 35cm night before last... I was so gutted to be working yesterday! Last night it snowed another 11cm bringing the snowbase to 203cm (80inches)... too bad I've got to do someone elses shift today so I have to wait til Wednesday to go up... supposed to snow all week though! Going to do fresh tracks with friend Lucinda from work and her brother whos visiting her hopefully. Should be awesome.

Paddys knee apparently not damaged in any way shape or form according to MRI scan so is off for some "aggressive physio" today... sounds horrible! Hopefully it will put it right though... he has some nice shiny new crutches to play with for now!

Bring on tomorrow!

Posted by SK at 08:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Christmas is over and the crowds have disappeared... there is still a fair amount of people here but it's certainly a lot quieter than it was. Makes queuing up for lifts much nicer!

At work all this weekend and have switched shifts with a lad at work so I'm now working until Tuesday :oS Means I only have to work 3 days next weekend though :o) Am looking forward to getting out on the snow as its been snowing every night for the last week and a half and temperatures are dropping. I'm going to test out a demo board at work when I get the chance... the Nitro Black Widow - I'm thinking of buying one as they are less stiff than my current board and have "mad pop brah"!! It'll be my "fun" board. I'll probably get one of next years boards early hopefully in February on a pro deal (cheap like the budgie) :o)

Ed and I started watching Lost last night - I bought it on dvd weeks ago but we only just got around to cracking it open... more like we only just commited ourselve to the addiction that seems to surround this tv series. It's looking good so far... I'll let you know the verdict!

Posted by SK at 05:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What a horrible weekend it was! I worked four 10 hour shifts all starting at 7am (so I got up at 6am each morning). I've never been so tired in my life.

Paddy and I didn't do anything for New Years as it turns out his knee is in a pretty bad way and the doctor performed some "manipulation" on it which left him in rather a lot of pain that night. More tests to be done but he may need an operation... no snowboarding fun for him for a few weeks. We watched Charlie and the chocolate factory and had a few drinks instead. We both had early starts the next day anyway so not such a bad thing.

Yesterday was my first day off of three... I had a much needed lie in before heading up Whistler. Despite only being on the mountain for 2-3 hours I had some really good runs and quite a few as the queues were short (especially as I was in the singles ones). I did some awesome black runs and got some powder. I then headed home for a nap!

Last night Bens friend Ben (aka Toddy for simplicity) arrived up from Vancouver (he's staying with family of a sort) to stay for a few days to do some riding. We all went out for Dinner along with Ben's workmate Jean to the Mongolie Grill (it's been a while!). Obviously the food was delicious and the beer was as good as ever! I managed to weigh up the heaviest meal out of all of us at 660g and I ate the lot! I did go easy on the rice though ;o)

This morning Ben and Toddy and I all went along for "Fresh Tracks" on the new 4+ inches... you buy a special add-on ticket to go up the mountain early at 7.15am and have all you can eat breakfast before hitting the slopes and getting fresh tracks on the new powder! It was awesome though it's amazing how fast the skiers churn up the lovely soft powder into moguls... but we had one or two amazing runs. We then headed further up the mountain on the Harmony Express chair shortly after it opened and got loads of fresh powder up there too! We did loads of runs all of which were great... although I did find myself stuck in bum-high snow without gradient on a couple of occassions and had to trash my way through it back onto a slope. Very hard work! I had a bit of a tumble at around mid day so decided to head home to apply ice and take some ibuprofen ahead of the pain. It was quite a spectaular flip but I came out well enough to ride home and all is fine.

Last day off tomorrow before work on Friday... it may be another lazy one with maybe a couple of hours on the hill... we'll see how much it snows tonight... over 1 metre in the last week so things are getting good!

Posted by SK at 05:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Paddy and I did indeed make it out to Dusty's the other night... though they had slyly made the ribs huge this week and the last one wasn't actually eaten until today as we ended up taking a doggy bag :o)

Yesterday I was on my lonesome on the hill... after going up Whistler first off I had to go back down due to fogging between my lenses and I went and got a warrenty replacement. I then headed up Blackcomb instead and did my little run down the glacier again which wasn't in quite as good a condition despite fresh snow as there were a few more people on the mountain.

Last night we all went along to uncle Chris's and Erica's for a delicious roast beef dinner and some lazing infront of his huge tv! It was lovely :o)

Today was back to work day for me... a slightly odd day, quite busy. I served Sarah Chalke from the tv show Scrubs though I didn't realise it was her! One of the boys told me afterwards... he was a giggling wreck and a bit starstruck! What do I have to say about my brush with stardom... well, she has small ankles... her feet aren't smelly, she's a good skier and she was friendly :o) I think Paddy and Ben are a bit jealous as she's a bit of a hotty!

Well work again tomorrow then a fun New Years night at a party tomorrow... but not too much fun as I have a 7am start on New Years Day. :oS

Have a great New Year everyone!

Posted by SK at 07:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Paddy and I had a marvelous day today! We headed up Blackcomb at about 10.30am with my friend Hannah from work. Sadly Hannah had to leave us after one run as her goggles were fogging between the lenses and she went to get a warrenty replacement.

Paddy and I did loads more runs including one brilliant run down the glacier... the powder was even better than yesterday though visibility was about 10m so you couldn't get a good idea of the speed you were travelling at... but the snow is so deep its like a big pillow if you fall over. You just lean slightly back and bounce along the snow! The road out from the bottom was a little rocky and I managed to make a hole in my board but luckily not too deep... work's fixing it for me tonight (free of charge :oP).

Paddy and I might be going out for ribs tonight as they are the Wednesday night special at Dusty's and they are yummy :o) Tomorrow Paddy is working and Nuggles is not feeling too hot so I'll probably head up the hill on my lonesome.

Posted by SK at 05:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over a week since I posted... Katharine left us on the 23rd after a somewhat more relaxing holiday than she had anticipated due to the injured wrist. We took her out for a Thai meal in Thai-one-on and she also did lots of shopping, went tubing and had a foot massage during her stay so I think she had fun anyway. Upon her return to the clinic for a 2nd xray it still showed no fracture but a possible compression... so we took her up Whistler mountain for one final day of snowboarding!!

Christmas day was somewhat "unchristmassy" here as we were all working... I'd have to say it was one of the lower ranking chrismasses as getting up at 6am before anyone else to catch a bus to work at 6.30am for a 10hour shift is not fun. The fact that very few of the customers wished us a merry Christmas didn't really help either. Ed and I did have a lovely evening though and cooked ourselves a roast chicken dinner - however by the time we had got home from work and prepared, cooked and eaten it we were exhausted and fell asleep! I am NEVER going to work christmas day again! I got my all-you-can-eat turkey input earlier last week at Ed's work Christmas party which was pretty good fun... I have to wait til January for my works party!

Boxing day I had a split shift so I worked 8am til 8pm with a 3 hour gap (turned out to be until 8.30pm due to annoying late arriving people). I couldn't be bothered to take my board and boots into work so I decided I would take out some skis instead! Blimey... making the change from snowboarding to skiing hurts - especially in poorly fitting boots! Its also quite frustrating as I'm pretty able on a board now and to take a big step backwards is quite scary as you want to go faster but have no control! I did one big run from the top of Whistler to the bottom and decided that the pain in my legs was enough to stop me... I'll have another go one day but I think its sometimes best to stick to what you do best!

Snowboarding today was brilliant! It was also my 20th day on the hill - whish is pretty good going! (I think I'm on track for my 100 days this season still). After word of snowfall on the peaks and deep powder on the blackcomb glacier I headed up with two work mates! Its was fantastic - the glacier is a great big bowl filled with powder! The snow was really good today although some of the on-pieste runs were in need of grooming as moguls were developing. My legs were certainly aching by the end of the day! I'm taking Paddy up to the glacier tomorrow so should be in for another day of fun! Can't wait!

Merry Christmas everyone! :oP

Posted by SK at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am halfway through my "Friday" - that being the day before my weekend which happens to be Monday as I work Friday to Monday. I am exhausted and can't wait for these next 3 days off! Especially as it's just started to bucket it down with snow! Going to have some pow tomorrow!

So whats happened since my last post... Katharine had a great day snowboarding on Wednesday in her first lesson. She was starting to link turns and so was moved up to level 2! I spent the afternoon riding with Paddy up Whistler and we got a couple of high-speed runs down the icy pistes to mid-station.

Thursday, Paddy and I had a brilliant day. We headed up Blackcomb to eye-up the snowboarding grand slalom that Nuggles was entering with some friends (and won by default as he was the only snowboarder!!) We did some runs and Paddy had a monster crash but walked away unscathed. We then headed to Whistler for the marginly better conditions and did loads of runs and had a really good time. I was sent into orbit when I rocketed over a huge mound but I managed to land it and control myself before the trees! We got down only to find that Katharine had landed on her wrist towards the end of her lesson and was heading to the Clinic for an xray. Not good. The doctors all thought it was broken but the xrays show nothing... so we are waiting to see if it improves so we can get her up the hill again.

Since then we've all been working and its really starting to get busy now the schools have broken up. Nuggles and Katharine went to investigate the newly opened tube-park the other day where you sit in tractor inner tubes and go down variously graded tracks. They said it was wicked so I can't wait to go! K has spent the last couple of days chilling (Whistler sadly lacks non-physical activities). Hopefully she'll be up the hill again soon! We're thinking of going out for a meal tonight - possibly the mongolie grill again - mmm.. yummy :oP

Posted by SK at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh my god. I just had my work "season opening party"... mexican themed... and it was mad! Took Paddy along as my "significant other" (as work puts it). Quite tipsy now... although they underestimated the British drinking ability.... I think as most of the Brits headed on to another bar when the beer ran out. We stayed and had some quality conversations with the managers though! It was great - there was mexican beer and drinks and mexican food too which was really yummy! We even had three amigos playing their guitars and singing and we all danced around them mexican style! I forgot my camera but will be getting photos off my workmates.

Paddy and I have just got in... we were greeted at our front door by three racoons! Quite exciting as they are the first ones I have ever seen. The one just stopped still and watched us and we could tell from the distinctive white and black face markings what it was. Sooooo... cute!

Kathrine arrived from the UK last night for her 11 day holiday! I gave her the tour of Whistler today and got her fixed up with snowboard hire ready for her lessons which start tomorrow morning and afre over the next three days. Katharine and Ben are still out living it large tonight. We believe Ben took Katharine to the cinema to see Narnia but we will find out where they ended up later!

Posted by SK at 12:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday Paddy and I had another day of fun on the slopes, again just heading down the easier runs to practice our skills. This time I was trying to ride switch with varying success (mostly bad!) and I hopped over a few jumps. The board was still feeling slightly alien but it got easier each run. We rocked down to the mid station several times. We had a slight hiccup with Paddy's board where the repair work he'd had done failed but we popped into Summit and got it patched up. The jammy begger managed to get his 3rd free wax so far (this time a hand wax). He has no excuse for being slower than me now! ;o)

Yesterday I had my first split shift at work - I worked from 8am until 8pm and got a 3 hour break in the middle to go riding. I went up for a couple of hours and went over a few more jumps and improved slightly at switch. The guys at work gave me some advice about my binding set ups so I'll try that out next time and see if it helps.

Today I had intended on heading up the hill, but ended up sleeping in and then giving the house a good tidy up in time for Katharines arrival. Still waiting on some fresh snowfall and the weekends are busy so I figured it was a good day to have a rest :o)

We're going to buy a Christmas tree either tonight or tomorrow! Nuggles hired a car and went down to Vancouver yesterday with a friend and bought lots of decorations and things... It's all getting a bit Christmassy in Whistler so we're going to join in!

Posted by SK at 07:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been a while since I last posted so I'll try not to write too much of an essay :o) On Thursday last week Paddy and I headed up Blackcomb mountain to see what was happening up there and cruise down the steady slopes. It was freezing! We're talking -13*C cold! We managed to stick it out though and stayed up there for a good 4-5 hours! (Paddy stayed a little longer than I did). The following day I headed up Whistler on my own and wore an extra layer to stay warm... annoyingly I got a slush puppy brain freeze after two hours and headed down with a big headache! Both mountains were a little icy but pretty good fun still.

I worked all weekend so nothing much exciting happened. Work is gradually getting busier as more and more holiday makers are coming to town. The snow has been falling on and off all week so things are looking good. The village is white over and is looking really christmassy with all the lights. Paddy and I took some photos the other night so I will have to put them on the web soon.

Yesterday Paddy and I had a fantastic day! We went up Whistler for 9.45am and stayed until closing at 3.30pm. We were storming down the slopes and did most of the blue runs on the one side. It was a gorgeous clear blue day and we wished we had taken the camera as the views across the mountains were amazing. Conditions were a little icy but we have found that if you just go straight down with as fewer turns as possible then you are fine! hehe! We ventured into a powder bowl and I had a rather unforunate incident where my little short rock board couldn't quite handle the particularly deep snow and sank! A short walk for SK!

Last night I had 3 hours of training at work - a ski company came in and gave us some selling tips. It was followed by free beer and table tennis in the shop. My work is so cool :o) Found out that next week we are having a staff party in the shop which is Mexican themed with free drinks and food (tacos and tequila etc). Got to find something to wear!

Today I have made the upgrade to my new board (The Ride Kashmir) as the rocks are slowly being covered up and I get free repairs at work anyway! It is totally different to my rock board which (if I may say so myself) I was getting pretty good on! This board is incredibly stiff and is also 5cm longer so it was really weird to ride and I have to use my whole body to initiate turns on it. It's a board for a more advanced rider so I am going to have to grow into it. I was out with Paddy and Nuggles today... they were working on riding switch (backwards) so it gave me a good opportunity to get familiar with the board. By the end of the day we were flying down the runs again. Tomorrow I'll see how it handles on the narrow cat tracks! Met up and did a run with my work mates Hannah, Jez and James at the end of the day - Jez and James look to be very good... Hannah is of a similar standard to me so we'll probably head out together again sometime which'll be fun.

Tonight we may be hitting the town. That or a house party at one of Ed's workmates. We shall see.

Our friend Katharine from the uni climbing club arrives on Monday night for 11 days of Whistler fun! She hasn't boarded before so I think she's going to have a great time! We're certainly going to enjoy showing her all the sights!

Posted by SK at 05:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's very odd... it must just be a shock to my system... but three 10hour shifts totally killed me! I can't wait til I have 4 in a row! :oS

Work was good, it was a little quiet and at times terribly dull but we all managed to have some good laughs. Ed and I have also both taken advantage of my monster discounts... Ed got a knee support and I got a face mask both at half price... not bad!

On Saturday night one of my workmates had a house party that Ed and I went along to... his house is huge! 13 people live in it and there was well over 100 people at the party! We didn't stay for the whole thing (it went on til 4 in the morning apparently) as we both had work the next day but we stayed til 1am and got in some around the world ping-pong drinking game style - very funny!

Yesterday was my day off... "Uncle" Chris's parents Allan and Helen who I haven't seen for ages have been staying with him and so came to Whistler for the day and took Ed and I out for lunch at the Brewhouse and then had a wonder around the town. It was good to see them again and they've invited us to go over to PEI (Prince Edward Island) next year if we get the chance!

Today all three of us headed up the mountain at 8.30am with my work mate Emily who skis. We had a fantastic day - the snow was great following 2" of snow the night before! We met up with Ben's friend Sam and he joined us too. Emily was pretty good on her skis (though the spray from her twin-tips managed to plaster me with snow) and she took us down our first black run through some powder and it was brilliant! We did pretty much all the blues and went through some powder to the sides of the pistes where we could.

Ed and I are about to be banished from the house as Ben is entertaining a lady friend and cooking her dinner... he wants us out . We're going to head to Dusty's in Creekside for a few beers.

Posted by SK at 07:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The boys both headed off to work at 7am this morning... I had a nice lie in until 9am and relaxed a little. I was slightly put off by the rain outside but by 10.30am I decided it was about time I went up Whistler again despite the aches. Did a couple of hours riding, visibility was poor as it was snowing heavily but the slopes were in mostly great conditions.

I did quite a few different runs down to the Emerald Express chair lift and decided to head down as I was slowly seeing less and less. On my run back down to the Creekside Gondola I yet again had a run in with some ice and did the neck in once more, this time with a nice crunchy noise!... I'm starting to think I'm a bit of a liability case and that my neck is determined to be broken by the end of the season! Got back and iced it and took some ibuprofen in the hope that it will be semi mobile for work tomorrow!

An evening infront of the tele is in order me thinks :oP At least it's snowing so we can hopefully look forward to some good snow next week :o)

Posted by SK at 04:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Proper work" as termed in my last post wasn't as scary as it might have been... the shop was really quiet! No more than 20 people came in to hire skis and snowboards (or rent even - they don't say hire in Canada). Over the 2 days works I spent most of the time stickering stock items with prices including what must have been several hundred pairs of socks... only to find one of the three of us doing them had made a mistake on 10 pairs and we had to go through and check every pair! Soooo... dull!

I went out for drinks after the first day of work with Ed and Jez (the lad from Shropshire) at the Longhorn pub then Ed and I foolishly went out to The Crab Shack for the most wrong meal ever. $5 for a Pint and a Pound... that is a Pint of ale (which was nice) and a pound of the most sickly disgusting wrong chicken wings ever! They were horrible... but we ate them with determination... and then had to quickly leave as the sight of the people on the table to our left ordering seconds was too much to take! But that's what you get for 5 bucks.

Tuesday we did nothing much, Ed and I had a wonder around town as Blackcomb mountain’s in a poor icy state and in need of more snow. We did however make yet another trip to the Mongolie Grill for lunch as the 50% off offer ends this week. I know... we are very greedy!

Yesterday Paddy and I went up Blackcomb despite warnings that it was really icy up there... we did two runs and then gave up! Paddy rather impressively decided to go down one run on his back head first giggling all the way!

Last night Paddy and I went out to Buffalo Bill's "night club" to meet up with some of my work mates. We had a really good evening, I'd not been there before but it was a pretty cool place. Canadian music is all pretty good with hardly any cheese and the big thing about going out in Whistler is that everywhere is no smoking so you come back from an evening without stinking - it's great!

Today Ed and I headed up Whistler Mountain for it's opening day... we weren't expecting much as Blackcomb is in such a state but we were happy to find it was great up there... a few icy spots but mostly good... even with some powder in places! I managed to try and kill myself again... this time I caught a heel edge whilst manoeuvring an annoying woman and was sent into orbit and I came crashing down onto my head... luckily I picked up the helmet this morning! Also managed to bruise my ribs in the process but it didn't stop me riding for a few more hours, I had to keep going to keep up with Ed... he has a nice video of me taken just minutes afterwards but I seem to be with it despite mild dizziness! Ed also has some wounds to show... he attempted his first box in the park today, well... 2 of them both which both resulted in some nasty scrapes and were very funny!

Tonight is going to be spent recovering... tomorrow I'm on my own as Ben (He is still here though he's been working lots hence the lack of references!) and Ed are at work. I'll have to see what kind of condition I'm in before heading up the mountain again! Back at work on Saturday, should be fun as it's American thanksgiving weekend. :oS

Some more pictures of todays riding are in the photo album and there are also some videos which I've added links to on my homepage in Videos which are hosted on Ed's website here.

Posted by SK at 07:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The lazy day went out the window when we heard conditions were much better today and Ben and I decided to head up Blackcomb mountain. Paddy closely followed an hour or so later after he decided that his knee could take it and he had got bored of playing Perfect Dark on the N64! Conditions aren't great up there as we haven't had snow for almost a week and there are some muddy rocky bits. There were some really nice groomed runs though and it was well worth the trip up! At the request of family members there are more photos up in my photo album - enjoy :o)

Tonight we are thinking of a cinema outing to watch Harry Potter! Tomorrow I'm doing my first "proper" day at work and I'm in 8am til 6pm - Should be fun! I'm doing 3 10 hour shifts this week so not up to full time yet - don't want to shock the system too much!

Posted by SK at 05:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Completed my training yesterday... the two days were alright bar a few boring videos! We basically had a load of ski and snowboard companies come in and talk about their products which we sell. We managed to bag some free t-shirts and bits and bobs so that was pretty cool.

After yesterdays training we were issued with our uniforms (well... tops) which are blue and pretty nice. We then headed off for a "shop crawl"! Pretty wicked - There are 3 stores in Whistler - one main and two smaller ones in two hotels. We treked across town from the main to the first small store where we were greeted with big bins full of ice and beer and after a few headed on to the other where we were greeted by two equally bountiful goody boxes and we continued to get merry all at Store expense :o) We then headed on to a bar where we were all bought pints and then we bombarded the Mongolian grill and feasted. I was quite shocked at how I managed to eat 700g of meat and minimal veg - I beat a few of the blokes! There were 30-40 of us so it was all pretty lively! Lots of the staff are from the UK and we were taking the mickey out of our fellow Canadian co-workers for the things they say and vice versa... was really funny! For-sure.

Below is our new staff photo from the website! See if you can spot me :o)

The totally random thing is that I was chatting to one British guy there called Jez and asked him where he was from... he said "ah, some place you probably won't have heard of called Shrewsbury"!!!! How funny is that! He said he'd also met another guy from Shrewsbury when he was in Vancouver... small world!

Well... having spent the whole day being lazy (still awaiting some more snow on the hills) Ben and I are having a cozy night in and maybe watching a film and battling on the N64... It seems Paddy has finally managed to sway his seemingly dull workmates to the darkside and he's out drinking this evening! All good and we await the stories :o)

Posted by SK at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It was my 2nd day of work on Friday and I left Paddy to ride the slopes alone. I was expecting to be doing my painting as mentioned before... but to my horror... "we're going to keep you in the store until the morning rush is over"... yikes! I was quickly shown the ropes of renting out gear... fitting boots, adjusting skis/boards and filling out paper work. After shadowing a few of the others through a few sales I had a go myself and it wasn't that scary at all - certainly made the morning go by quickly! :o) Manager says he's going to give me some free gear for my efforts so far with the logo (I haven't decided what I want yet though)... skis could still be up for grabs if I do some more work though :o)

Saturday Ed and I hit the slopes and had a wicked time! Only bad thing was Paddy had a run in with some ice and hurt his knee and shoulder in the afternoon so we headed down a little early but we had done all the runs by then anyway. I managed to only fall over a few times and my neck was fine... I was really pleased as down one run I was leading and we were going pretty fast and we managed to lose everyone else!

Saturday night it snowed (and snowed!!!) a good 11cm and so we all excitedly rushed up the slopes for the powder on Sunday (Paddy drugged himself on some ibuprofen before hand as he couldn't resist!). The village was white over and the snow up Blackcomb mountain was fantastic! It was Ben's first ride of the season and he picked it all up again straight away and was cruising down at a pace! We had lunch up in the mountain restaurant and then did a few more runs to pretty much tick off all the open runs and then headed home to sleep!

Today, I have been up on the slopes for my first solo visit! Paddy's got his first day at work training. It was pretty cool though not as many lifts were running. The sky was blue and I could see for miles! There hadn't been any new snowfall so it was all pretty icy and I wore my helmet... it was a good thing as although some routes had been groomed, quite a few were all over the place and though they had been easy when they were all powdery, in the ice they were horrible! Met a lad on the lift who was just here for the day and he asked me if he could follow me down some runs (I had explained that I wasn't that great but neither was he) so we went down a few runs together... however he took a turn down a run where there were no lifts running and said he'd cut back but never did so I lost him!! Hope he's not still lost up there! I think he will have ended up at the lift anyway somehow. :oS It was quite nice riding on my own - I could take my time and practice my technique. Some of the runs were pretty good today and I had some all to myself! Called it a day after I had done most of the runs and things were getting a bit too icy. Now going to have a lazy afternoon :o)

Posted by SK at 02:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

... of a sort! I spent the day decorating one the smaller Summit stores (there are 3 stores in total). Was a pretty cool day and the guys n gals I'm working with are all really nice. Having trouble remembering names though! When half a dozen people surround you and start spilling names life gets difficult! I found it a bit weird the bosses asking me if I'm "logo Sophie"... It appears I'm now famous! Going to talk to them about colours and some changes some time soon so it seems they kinda liked them. I'm heading back there tomorrow to start painting having masking taped all the edges today. My neck is almost better (having been totally immobilised for 4 days!) but I figure the extra days "rest" will do it good and I'll go snowboarding Saturday and Sunday (and Monday and Tuesday maybe!).

Went out to the Mongolie Grill the other night with Ed and Ben (A "family" outing!). Cool place where you have a bowl and you fill it up with all the meat and veg you want from a huge selection, then pick all the sauces you want and add them to the bowl... you hand it to the chefs who weigh it and cook it on a huge circular hot plate table thing. You pay by weight and this week its half price so I went a little overboard with prawns, venison, beef and cashew nuts and felt extremely full and unable to finish the last bite! We then went and washed it down with a few pints over a couple of games of pool at the Longhorn. Sweeeet. We did come scarily close to a little furry friend on our stroll between the restaurant and the Longhorn. Yes we saw a bears bum in the bushes! Then it ran around a bit and I was "oooo... I don't like this" and generally a bit worried so we quickened our step to the pub before it lost interest in the bin it was investigating.

After my day at work today Ed and I got some cheap "rock boards" at $50 a piece (25GBP) with free bindings (though crap ones) that we can trash this weekend rather than risk any damage to our new boards. They are ex rental ones from some one off evening sale thing at one of the local stores. Mines a bit rubbishy I think but it'll do for the rocks!

Hoping the snow is going to be as good as last weekend if not better! Forgot to say the other day but on the chair lift going up we saw a deer and her 2 bambies running in the snow, it was sooo... cute! Sadly I didn't get a photo though.

Had a phonecall from "Uncle Chris" the other day and we may be in for another home cooked treat this weekend which we are looking forward to! His parents are over who I haven't seen in ages so it will be good to see them again... So hopefully in a few days we'll have some more to report following an excellent weekends boarding and socialising and BC fun!

Posted by SK at 08:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well... the fears weren't totally justified... Paddy gave me the frights yesterday with talk about using the chairlifts... I have done this plenty of times on skis and to be fair it's not too difficult on skis... but on a snowboard, now there was a new challenge! One foot strapped into a one and a half metre plank of wood sat on a chair is not so bad... its the getting off the chair that worried me! I managed it just about, with a small tumble within good clearance of the lifts the first couple of times... then I was on a roll :o)

We got to the ski lift for 8am and the queue was at least 100m long. The lift was due to open at 8.30 but due to chanting and the throwing of snowballs they gave in and opened at 8.15am :o) There was a big cheer from the crowd as todays date is the earliest the lifts have opened in 20 years! Apparently we may be in for a good one!

We finally got up the mountain for 9.20am. Paddy and I were a little unsure of what we would find up the mountains what with warnings that we shouldn't use new boards on the new crappy snow but what we found was really deep powder that hadn't been touched by piste bashers! It was amazing! Not all the slopes and lifts were open but we got a good 5 hours in without taking the same route twice by taking variations!

I did my fair share of time sat on my bum for the first run managing to put in a few turns in around the masses of people. We were only able to go on blue routes which are harder the European blues and more like low end reds - they are steep! Paddy seemed to remember what he had picked up on his trip to the Alps last winter and looked pretty competent inbetween the occasional monster crash! By the end of the day I had pretty much caught up with him and was putting in quite a few turns... I think I just lack the kamikaze instinct he seems to have!

One downer of the day... one of my more spectacular falls of the day seems to have resulted in mild whiplash! I'll probably find out the full extent of damage tomorrow but for now it just aches like crazy! I think Paddy's cart wheeling fall and my "oh dear I didn't intend on a 4 foot sideways jump" falls are probably the winners. All good fun!

One other funny thing... no matter how ace you may be, attempting a rail on your first run is not always a good idea... How on earth one man managed to totally miss jumping onto the rail and instead slam down with one leg either side on a snowboard and severely jeopardise his manhood within the first 15 minutes is beyond me! We had an excellent view of the wonder-move from the chair lift on the way up - cringes all round!

Posted by SK at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Feeling a little apprehensive about tomorrow now... me, on a snowboard, probably on my arse for much of the time, on a mountain crammed with LOADS of people, on the few slopes that are open... yikes. Should be ok - I'm hoping all of my little snowboarding experience will flood back to me, but we shall see. The lifts are opening at 8.30am until 3pm so Paddy and I are going to destroy ourselves. Ben is unlucky and has to work both days this weekend so won't get to go boarding, but it's not long til the 11th when it opens for good anyway.

The buses and village are rammed with people running around with snowboards and gear they are getting ready for tomorrow... the place is really coming to life! It's going to be scary busy up there.

Scary moment this evening... got a phonecall from work asking me if I could work tomorrow as today had been super busy. "Ummm... welllll.... I was kind of going to go snowboarding.....". They are letting me go snowboarding but will give me a call if they are desperate, told them I'll do Sunday morning if they want me, I have some training in the afternoon. They said they would go snowboarding if they could so told me to go for it! lol - working on a super busy weekend without training sounds somewhat scary - could be interesting if I do it.

Paddy and I went to the climbing wall again today, despite extreme pain from my blistered fingers I have develeoped whist going there. I managed to traverse the whole room today, Overhangs and all! Think I am improving as is Paddy who can probably go round the room twice. < paddy> "Now there's an idea!" < /paddy>

I shall no doubt be posting tomorrow to tell you all of my adventures on the piste... or at work perhaps :oS Either way is scary!

Have a good bonfire night everyone! We'll be missing the fireworks here :o( Hope everyone at home has a good party and it doesn't rain on you! :o)

Posted by SK at 07:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Scattering of snow in the valley this morning! Yey :o)

Other news... aparently they've found Avian flu in birds in Canada - but they say it's nothing to worry about :oS

All excitement here!

Posted by SK at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's for sure... the ski lifts are going to be fired up this weekend! We are all doing little dances of excitement and the Snowboards are being unpacked and tuned! Not sure what it's going to be like up there... got some glimpses through the cloud today and the snowline is quite low. Hoping theres enough snow not to totally trash my board in the first two days! Got my lift pass today - along with a cheesy SK mug shot on it, Paddy got his too and is very upset he looks like a "pin head" on his photo due to the incompetence of the camera man! Not sure which is better :oP

Not much has been happening here... Halloween was rather uneventful for Paddy and I - a combination of no costume inspiration and VERY heavy rain led us to abandon events and Ben was off out with his work mates anyway. Ben went out as a zombie (pictures are on Paddy's blog) having had relatively little pain due to dental extractions, though perhaps the costume reflected how he was really feeling! He had a good time despite the lack of alcohol intake (anti bio fun). Paddy and I got down to some serious Rome watching - really enjoying it but not for the weak hearted (lots of blood, sex and gore). Think it starts in the UK on bbc two this Thursday (?)...

Whist Ben has been continuing his work training (this boy better be good) Paddy and I have been beasting ourselves in the climbing gym! We think we are both getting stronger already, though my hands could do with several thousand manicures before they returned to semi normal state. The climbing wall is (like everywhere else at the moment) fairly quiet so we have been getting lots of routes and traverses done and getting our moneys worth from our memberships.

Ed and I have also been going crazy on ebay... we have bought ourselves an N64 games console and some games to provide some "waiting for the next pay day" evening retro gaming entertainment. We figure we'll sell it when we're done and maybe even make a profit.

Not sure if work will start early if the resort is opening early, haven't heard anything so will have to see whats happening. Sent some logo designs for the shop to the manager and he seems to be pleased with my efforts, have to wait til he's back off his holiday to have a chat about them though.

Posted by SK at 12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Shocked today to find out our 30 day bus passes run out... didn't realise we had been here so long!

Had quite a cool day today... Paddy and I headed to the indoor climbing wall for a couple of hours in the afternoon. We joined up the other day for one months membership at vast expense to help fill the time during our boring spell of unemployment. We absolutely beasted ourselves today and were totally exhausted! I think we may have to give it a day til we go back and allow ourselves time to repair! Quite a small wall but really quiet and plenty to keep us busy. Friendly people there too so all is good.

Following our exercises, we decided we deserved lots of calories so headed straight to the brew house for a nice pint of ale and some crispy dry ribs followed by burgers! Half price grub deals are sweeeeet here at the moment!

Whilst Paddy and I were destroying our bodies with hard work and nice food Mr Nuggles was enjoying his day somewhat less - in the company of the dentist... it appears he has an infected wisdom tooth and all 4 are to be wipped out on Saturday - yikes.

Paddy is all happy about receiving his new laptop in the post today - I very much doubt Nuggles and I will hear from him for a while :oS We all got prezzies in the post today though, I got some new funky headphones so am listening to loud music whilst masterminding logos for work - still nothing brilliant but some ok ones to work on.

Whistler is slowly reaching its capacity... huge amounts of people on the buses today all searching for jobs at the job fairs. Loads from Australia and the UK. So glad we are all sorted already! Apparently Whistler Blackcomb (the company who owns the mountains and who Ben and Paddy are going to work for) are interviewing 2000 people this week... crazy! Went out the other night and it was absolutely rammed - gave up queuing for the one place as the queue was so long.

We are all getting to grips with the Canadian lingo, Ben is doing especially well learning from his mates at work... The funniest has to be "Aboot" which is how they say about, so a roundabout is pronounced "round-a-boot". For sure man ;o)

Posted by SK at 06:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After a stressful week... I have a job! I actually got offered two jobs today - both in ski/snowboard sale/rental shops but I chose to work in the one which is right by the gondola base. The job sounds really cool and I get awesome discounts - 25% off wholesale - crazy! I also get to dress casual and may even wear a beanie to work! lol. The job doesn't actually start until mid November when the lifts open but until then the manager has set me the task of coming up with a new shop logo and if he likes it he'll give me a pair of new skis! sweeet. I'm really looking forward to the job :o)

Paddy has accepted his job at ski-school today and Ben has started his training for guest services which is 2 weeks long :oS Paddy and I have been wasting many an hour watching series one of Desperate Housewives which Paddy is quite a closet fan of) and are moving on to series one of Lost which arrived in the post yesterday. Going to see what all the hype is about.

I saw a most unusual dog today (my interviewer brought his dog along)... a Mexican cross between a german shepherd and a chihuahua..... pause and think about this for a moment..... it was soooo... cute! No hint of ugly chiwawa but just a scale model of a german shepherd! I want one! I am actually becoming rather dog-broody as there are so many lovely friendly dogs here in Whistler. Paddy is chuckling at me as I write so I'll move on :oP

Other news, I have a black eye... not sure why, it has just appeared. Ben suggests Paddy has been beating me. lol - he could try! Kinda hurts though so not so funny.

Posted by SK at 06:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lets start this post with the negative news... I didn't get the job I wanted... but nevermind - I've already had an interview today in a snowboard shop and I've handed my resume out in a few other places. Fingers crossed.

In positive news, the snow does seem to be building up on the higher slopes and the ski lifts are due to open slightly earlier than originally expected. That will also mean any jobs I go for will be starting earlier too. Completely kitted up ready for boarding now so I'm all ready for it!

Got some more furniture in the house now (care of 'Uncle' Chris) so we now have a sofa and a tv - luxury hey :o)

Last weekend was thanksgiving so we went to Chris's and got stuffed with Turkey and yummy veg cooked by his wife Erika! T'was grand. We also headed to the turkey sale where I got my bargain snowboarding pants (Yes Ange - it is acceptable to call trousers "pants" over here :oP) and some thermals. Ed was a jammy bugger and got a free $50 voucher at the door, Ben and I were slightly jammy and got $5 ones.

Unemployment is getting a bit boring now and we are running out of things to do. We now have Lost series 1 dvds on their way to us in the post as well as Desperate housewives... on top of all the downloads.

Nothing else to report, not even any bear sightings this week!

Posted by SK at 07:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saw another bear in the village today! He was eating tasty berries from a bush and seemed quite happy :o) The security force sent him on his way by scaring him off with gun shots. The bears have to be discouraged from coming into the village else they become more likely to attack and then have to be shot.

Had another slow dull day, there really isn't much to be doing now apart from job hunting. I had my interview on Thursday and it seemed to go alright. I don't find out if I've got it until Thursday so there may be lots of other applicants for them to check out. They went through what the job is with me and it actually sounds pretty cool. I could be working in one of 9 stations around the resort (including 2 on the mountain-tops) selling ski and snowboard lessons. They give you plenty of time off to snowboard and ski and really encourage that you get out there as much as you can. All sounds pretty good. Only downfall... the work doesn't actually start until mid November. I may try and find some other work to occupy me until then.

Ben got his job as a Guest services host but Ed has to keep on hunting... loads of other jobs available with the mountain though so he's going to have an interview for another position.

This weekend is thanksgiving. We have all kindly been invited to have a turkey dinner with Chris and his family which will be lovely. :o)

There are lots of sales on in the shops for thanksgiving... the resort holds a big "Turkey Sale" inwhich they sell off lots of ski and snowboard equipment cheap so we are off to that first thing in the morning :o) Should be good.

I shall post again when I am all turkied-out! Gobble-gobble-gobble!

Posted by SK at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Been a while since my last update... this is because not much has happened really... we've been settling into our new surroundings and applying for some more jobs.

We all had our stage one interviews at Intrawest (The big company who owns the mountains) and all passed through to the next round. Ed got thrown onto the same job application as Ben for Guest Services Host as it seems they don't need any ticket boys at the moment. The job I've applied for is not actually on the phone like I had thought... Like Guest services it is a job behind one big long help desk counter only selling ski and snowboard lessons so it's not quite so bad - I'm not shut in a dark room at least and will get to meet people!

The boys have had thier 2nd stage interviews today and mine is tomorrow. They think they went alright but don't find out whether they've got the jobs til tomorrow. All terribly exciting. The job interviews over here are uber-evil - they ask you loads of "what would you do if you were in this situation" and "descibe a time when you had to overcome a problem against all odds"... I'm sooo looking forward to it :oS

We had some snowfall on the mountains the other night, not very much but it brings hope that the snow season will be better than the last one (which was terrible). Apparently the weather is much more "normal" this year and it is already a lot colder than it was this time last year. So we are hoping for a great one! Can't wait! Our house is situated a 10 minute walk from the nearest lift! It is also right on Alpha Lake where they apparently set up an ice-rink each year - might have to buy some cheap skates :o)

So yeah... we are just passing time at the moment. Even if we get the jobs they don't actually start for another 2 weeks so we have a lot of time to kill... I've bought myself the Desperate Housewives DVD boxset to occupy myself - also been watching series 2 on the internet :oP The boys are looking forward to watching them - lol

On another note... we have discovered that unlike its neighbour, Canada is EXPENSIVE and it's internet shopping sites are lame :o( Maybe we need to search harder...

Posted by SK at 04:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm sitting on a chair! Yes... that's right... we have furniture! It was aquired in a slightly odd manner... I have never in my life had to gut a landlords son's house whilst his son was in the next room in the shower! We took a lot - table and chairs, a bed, balcony furniture, two comfy chairs etc... crazy stuff.

We also now have pots and pans we bought from the "Reuseit" centre. This place is unreal - you can buy everything there from pots, pans, cutlery, plates, tvs, bed linen to clothes... It was all a bit foul really and everything we got had to be carefully vetted first and then washed several times! We can at least cook now. :o)

Ed and I have applied for our first job interviews this morning and Ben is hot on the trail looking on the web now. Not terribly exciting - Ed is trying out to be a lift ticket salesboy (hehe) and I'm going to try and get a job selling ski and snowboard lessons (equally hehe). Don't think I will last the whole year as a telephone sales girl but it starts straight away unlike most of the jobs here which don't start til mid November so it'll do for now til I find something better.

We went out for sushi last night as it was Chris's last night in Whistler having spent the last year here. It was tres yummy but I did avoid the raw fish unlike the boys. Hired some movies and monged :o)

Weather has turned from lovely to foul and is now somewhere inbetween. Things can only get colder and hopefully whiter :oP

Posted by SKippy at September 30, 2005 10:03 AM

Posted by SK at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thanks to Chris (family friend) who's local we have managed to sort ourselves out with some accomodation for our stay in Whistler and guess what... it's cheaper than accomodation in Nottingham and includes all heating/electric bills and we're currently cunningly able to wifi internet off one of the neighbours til we get set up! Sweeeeeeet.

Only slight glitch... no furniture and I am currently writing this whilst sat on the livingroom floor! Hopefully get ourselves kitted out with some stuff this week. Really nice location though so looks like it'll be good.

Now only have jobs to think about... hmm... feeling unkeen, but it is going to have to happen... ;o)

Ooo.. we saw a bear tonight in the centre of the village! Quite funny - I thought some armed robbery was going on what with guns being fired etc in the centre of town but it turned out to be people chasing off the bear. Smaller than i expected but still don't fancy meeting one one-on-one :oS

Posted by SK at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, after a day in Vancouver I headed up to Whistler on the Greyhound bus with Ed struggling with loads of bags as I had bought myself a board, boots and bindings in the sales. The board has a disgusting picture on it, but is a pretty cool one apparently and was half price. I also have really cool storm trooper boots! lol :o)

I survived!

Spent one night in the Youth Hostel before squeezing in with the boys at their mates. The hostel was in a really scenic location but was a bit too out of the way. Whistler is pretty Disney world like but seems good, have to wait ages for the snow yet though. :o(

Stress levels are rising as we hunt for a house and some jobs. Hopefully we should be all sorted and moved in some place by the weekend :o)

Well, over and out guys... houses to hunt for... speak soon

Posted by SK at 01:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, I've arrived!

I was awake for over 2 hours yesterday! Got up at 5am to start my journey to Manchester to fly to Heathrow then to fly to Vancouver and arrive at the hostel at ~ 6pm Vancouver time (8hours behind).

It was a bit of a nightmare getting my 5 bags through customs, out the airport, on to a bus, halfway up a block in the wrong direction (due to crap directions from bus driver) only to find Paddy waiting for me where the bus should have dropped me off :oS

The hostel is nice, free internet access and nice showers :o)
Shared my room with 2 chinese women last night... who were quite weird but have left now... Looks like I may be spending a few more nights here as I have nowhere else to go now... I found out last night Ed and Ben's mate apparently doesn't have enough space on his floor for 3 people, so I'm stuck in the expensive hostel til Ed and Ben find us a house :o( All sucks a bit really... we'll see what happens I guess.

In the next post... Find out if SK survives the streets of Vancouver!

Posted by SK at 07:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Less than 1 day to go and time is ticking fast. I seem to have an uncontrollable buzz... I'm high. lol - I can think of cheaper ways to get your kicks than a cross atlantic flight but none half as cool! I think a strong drinking session before bed tonight is definitly on the cards else there is no chance in hell of me sleeping!

I'm having minor (possibly major) issues with baggage limits, but I'm hoping the traditional wink and a smile will solve all my problems when I get to check-in :o) Else I'll have to leave the skis and boots behind which would suck very slightly. I've just had my hair cut which will help with the charming should it be required :o)

I still have a loads to sort/do before I leave... so watch this space to see if I do actually make it over there! I certainly don't see myself winning any awards for Miss Organised of the century - no, I could never take that one away from you Paddy ;o)

Had a weird dream the other night... I randomly get upgraded to business class and end up sitting next to a male god... I'll let you know if it comes true... I'm personally banking my money on the usual fat dribbling aging male taking up half of my seat as well as his!

Well ta ta for now, ttfn! So-long suckers!

Posted by SK at 06:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Excellent - Visa has arrived so my flight is now booked and the count-down restarted... fly Wednesday - SK adventure time :o)

The packing begins...

Posted by SK at 07:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Damn this waiting, it makes skippy blood pressure rise... this Canadian visa is taking for-ever!!!!!! Reading the embassy website, 78% go through within 2 weeks... I guess I'm in the 22% forever bracket...

POO.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed they haven't lost it! :oP

The counter may have to be updated one of these days... watch this space, hopefully I'll be out there soon ;o)

Posted by SK at 05:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have recently added (with the help of Paddy and his masterful php lessons!) a countdown timer to the website to count down the days (and hours minutes and seconds!) until my hoped departure date to Canada with Paddy and Ben!

Still waiting for the visa to come through in time... but fingers crossed!

Posted by SK at 06:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)