November 27, 2005
The Ache
Lots of exciting updates, okay not exciting, but updates.
Friday was spent skiing with Mark up on Whistler, fairly average conditions and nothing much of merit to talk about. Ads, Mark and I went to Merlins at the base of Blackcomb in the evening and got pleasantly drunk, finding a half empty paint can on the way home we took turns in trying to sell it to innocent parties in the village, Mark put up a sterling performance to one couple who were on the brink of taking it until they saw me and Adam crying with laughter 10 yards away.
Was up at 8am on Saturday hungover like a loaf of bread to aim for the first full day for a while, and boarding. I was with fellow beginners Laleisha and Adam (who has an astonishingly good attitude to boarding, if you fall over, get up straight away - it seems to be working as he's progressing remarkably quickly), 3 runs down the green on Blackcomb and several bruises later I was beginning to feel slightly more confident about the whole thing. Since there was a few cm of new snow and I was bruised all over I strapped on my skis for the afternoon and took Adam out on a few difficult blues which should have killed him but he got it suprisingly well.
We sat in the bar from 4pm for some apres and were joined by the staff of the restuarant at the top of Blackcomb, or more we crashed their party and stole their beer and nachos but it was a good laugh, so much so, I left at 9pm to come home to bed...
Up again at 9am Sunday to the pleasant suprise of an inch of snow outside the window, riding on my own I went up Whistler for 11am and dropped into some of the bowls straight into fresh powder - being alone on the lifts is a great experience, I met and spoke to about 4 or 5 different groups of people. I can honestly say I've spoken to more random people in the past 4 weeks than in my entire life, Whistler and its locals are incredibly friendly and open which the tourists all seem to adopt upon arrival. Not to mention the number of people you see regularly in the village, be it locals or seasonaires who you don't really know but will stop for a chat. Do that in England and you'd get stabbed.
Sunday night, I ache ALL over and I'm finding myself hoping it doesn't snow overnight so I don't feel the urge to go boarding tomorrow as I really need a rest. Man cannot ski for more than 5 days solid, it's not possible.
Izzy is making a big roast and lots of people are coming over this evening, always a good way to spend a Sunday evening. Oh and it's locals night at the Longhorn which is an even better way to finish spending a Sunday evening.
39 hours on the slopes - will add to the list of completed runs later.
Posted by Mark at 5:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 24, 2005
I got a $50 board put your hands up!
Okay so I just bought a snowboard AND bindings from a big clearance sale for $45 ($5 off because I knew the nice chap in there) and it's actually in pretty good condition, the bindings are a bit shot at but for the price its an astronomical purchase.
A few of us went up Whistler today for opening day, the base was a bit thicker than Blackcomb but still icy on top and not a great deal of fun so was back down within 3 hours (running total now 29.5). Snow is forecast tonight and we already had a good shower of rain in the village which is often a good sign.
I'm going to go staple my bindings to my plank now and am contemplating a day on the ole board tomorrow.
Posted by Mark at 7:51 PM | TrackBack
November 21, 2005
When the ice falls down it's the end
After going out last night and getting back at 2am with plans to meet people at 10 this morning and do a few runs I got up bright and early only to be stood up. Anyway it didn't matter since the snow on Blackcomb is really poor now, ice and slush, so bad I NEARLY FELL OVER would you believe it?!
The weather remains incredible, inverse temperatures and blazing sun so instead of giving the edges of my skis something to complain about I sat on the deck of the restaurant sunbathing for an hour. 26.5 hours on the slopes and I think that's it for this week, no snow is forecast until Friday/Saturday and although Whistler opens on Thursday I'm reliably informed there is an inch of ice covering everything there too.
My iPod broke again, I actually set the RMA stuff with Apple this time now though.
Posted by Mark at 1:16 PM | TrackBack
November 19, 2005
Loads of new photos
I couldn't be bothered to add them to sets and they are all a pretty random selection of nights out, scenery and other generic pictures. Any full size ones of me are available on request.
Posted by Mark at 8:06 PM | TrackBack
November 18, 2005
Boarding pt. 2
Teehee I was linking turns after 2 hours of boarding today, which is particularly pleasing as I knew if I sucked I'd have struggled to keep my interest but as it stands I'm basically fine to hit the greens as of Sunday (day off tomorrow). I managed to nab an hours free lesson from some teacher lady who was on the nursery slope which helped a great deal with figuring out how to distribute my weight, apart from that, it's the same as skiing. The boots are a lot more comfy though.
It was Marks birthday last night so after playing Kings Cup for about 4 hours we headed into town and did the usual frolicking about a poor club, much humour and hundreds of photos later we got back at about 3am only to be up at 9am still drunk. Happy times. Anyway, photos will be coming soon I suppose.
24.5 hours on the slopes.
Posted by Mark at 5:45 PM | TrackBack
November 17, 2005
Snowboarding you say?
Okay I'll admit it, I'm bored of skiing BUT WAIT only because there are 8 slopes open at the moment and I have ridden the same terrain for the past 2 weeks. Thus I have invested heavily in the sport of snowboarding and tomorrow I will be teaching myself the fine art. Update on number of bruises on my butt tomorrow...
Posted by Mark at 7:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 16, 2005
Completed runs list
Okay I'm set up to work from home now, except LOOK, I'M NOT! Its 11am, I can probably have the emails answered by about 12 and go up the slope, but there isn't much new snow and no one else is up there, hmm what to do what to do. I took part albeit after everyone else had consumed about 3 drinks in a game of Kings last night, there were a lot of drunk people in our house by midnight.
I'm spending more and more money on new equipment, fleeces, goggles, hats, basically everything I brought over is fine for a weeks holiday in Europe, but not top range enough to use every day. I also took my BRAND NEW USED ONLY 5 TIMES skis into the tune up place yesterday and the guy nearly choked when he saw my edges and I explained they were new. I guess I should have taken heed of the "Pre-season conditions, rocks and trees on slopes" notices and bought a $50 pair to play in this week.
Anyway I did another 3 hours yesterday, so up to 19 and I compiled a list of runs completed so far, as I decided I wanted to have done every (ignoring the Double Diamonds for now) run by Christmas. A piste map is available here.
Runs complete to date:
Greens.
Easy Out
Jersey Cream Road
Greenline
Blues.
Ridge Runner
Rock n Roll
Zig Zag
Buzz Cut
Honeycomb
Cruiser
Ross' Gold
Jersey Cream
Cougars Milk
Wishbone
Springboard
Blacks.
Gladed Skiing
Black Magic
Catskinner
Posted by Mark at 11:15 AM | TrackBack
November 13, 2005
Sunshine and fresh powder
I'm up to 16 hours now, yesterday we headed up the mountain at around 11am after what is a really long walk to my locker at the base of the mountain, stuck around until 3 riding some lovely slopes round the less busy side of the mountain and I definately felt like I'd improved, I guess back to the level I was at the end of last season.
Overnight we had an 11cm dump which luckily I caught the tail of after going up at 1pm with Sarah, the sun came out just as we hit the peak and the view was spectacular. Coming down nicely powdered runs with the sun flashing through the trees really reminded me why I'm out here, just wish I had my camera so I could make you all jealous.
Posted by Mark at 7:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 12, 2005
9/600
Okay so the plan for this season was to get 600 hours up the mountain, after last weekend (3 hours) and today (6) I'm well on the way and because this is such an exciting countdown/up and a really FUN idea I will keep the updates going on here.
The mountain was awesome today. I shared the day with Gwen freezing our arses off on the lifts and sweating our way down a fair few slopes, barely any lines, a couple of really good runs down in the afternoon on a substantial base with 3-4 inches of powder, and my legs ache a lot less. Epic fall number 1; tried to do a jump, leant forward on my skis, tips of skis got stuck in snow, Mark detaches and slides down the mountain on his face. I actually got a fat lip from skiing...?!
Tomorrow is more of the same we're heading up at 10am (a rather more reasonable starting time I feel), hoping to slam home in the double figures.
Our house has somehow become a hang out spot and there is rarely a time I come back from work/town and there isn't some random body warming their feet on the kitchen floor or partaking of some high quality Canadian television. I am still unsure as to if this is because the people actually like us or that we live in relative luxury compared to Staff accommodation, the latter is probably most likely.
Time for sleeps.
Posted by Mark at 12:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 6, 2005
Ouch,
I'm so out of shape I can barely walk my calves hurt so much. Oh and the Canucks lost. Bah.
Posted by Mark at 2:26 PM | TrackBack
November 5, 2005
...
Well the first day skiing went pretty well, I headed up to the base at 10am to join the epic queue, there were 4 lifts open and about 8-9 runs, 3 of which were groomed. Finally at the top met up with Mark and hit a black run straight away, maybe not the best idea but I just about made it down. It was really busy and lifts queues were running into 30 minutes, we managed a few more (lesser) runs and grabbed some lunch, things work slightly differently than Europe in the food department - instead imagine a cross between McDonalds and a school canteen. Sandwiches from now on.
A few further runs in the afternoon as the slope and lifts had got a lot quieter and then finally an ungroomed black which was a fatal mistake, I fell over and hurt my knee and took several chunks out of my brand new skis while trying to navigate trees and rocks. Oh well. Also everyone on the slope appears to have my skis which I guess means they're pretty good but it's also a bit annoying as theirs are all rented and I bought mine.
Off to watch the Canucks give the Flames a good beating now.
I took a banana up the slopes with me and it got squashed in my bag.
Posted by Mark at 5:09 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 3, 2005
It snowed on my head today!
A good deal of snow has come very early and the lifts open Saturday, the earliest opening ever. The forecast for the next 6 weeks is as expected so the 50-60cm they have on the slopes right now will make for a perfect base.
It even snowed at our house today, typically as soon as I stepped outside it turned to rain.
Have done 2 days at work, the email support is as mind blowing, wait no, mind numbing as to be expected but there's a whole load of development to be done on the site and that should keep me occupied on the quiet evenings. I actually did a bit of development today for someone back home and almost felt like I had been missing it. Maybe it was because I was overlooking a huge snowy mountain while I was typing...
Posted by Mark at 8:15 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
November 1, 2005
Condo Video
As presented by Adam: LUXURY
Posted by Mark at 6:03 PM | TrackBack
OH GOD
Posted by Mark at 10:43 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Trick or Treat?
After finishing being mad with myself for not going down to Vancouver until Friday and thus realising I was going to miss both gigs I wanted to go to I was fortunate enough to share the journey with Gwen, Iz and Jenelle, the 3 hour trip spent watching the first 3 episodes to Veronica Mars for the fourth time, wonderful. A 20 minute walk across the city in the rain later and we're all hanging out in bedroom owned by a random Aussie who had offered to put us up for the night and take the girls to a house party involving school girls and free kegs the night after (I am still kind of disappointed I missed it). Sushi and drinks followed, but really, a British bar and a Hostel bar populated by gap year-ers, Australian hospitality has a lot to answer for.
By 2pm I was in Victoria after a pleasantly long ferry trip which rounds Vancouver Island literally metres from the shore in places, the view really is rather spectacular and I am once again looking at it now on the return voyage. I didn't see any whales though, nor bears, seals, wolves, snow giraffes.
Slipping into the familiarity of hanging around with old friends was a real treat and just what was needed to lift spirits and what I am dubbing pre-season boredom (tm). Unfortunately all were recovering from a heavy Friday night and I had to rouse Angela from bed (yes, at 2pm) in order to give me brief enough instructions to haul my ass and baggage up there. Managing to drag Eri, her housemate Cathy, Ange and her friend Alan to the pub (literally across the street) on the promise of a few drinks degraded into drinking until sometime around 3am, the aforementioned familiar company probably the catalyst for what was a great night out.
Suprisingly un-hungover I ventured out to explore Victoria in the rain on a Sunday, needless to say it was pretty quiet and while I can appreciate in the summer it would be rather beautiful, everything had been bludgeoned by the grey sky, so I went shopping.
An early night followed a game of Trivial Pursuit and before departing we paid Erica a visit in Soup Etc. I now have a 7 hour journey back to Whistler and work starts on Wednesday. Happy Halloween!
Posted by Mark at 12:20 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack