Roadtrippin'

Firstly, let me prefix this post by telling you my proud news: that I am now a fully qualified Level 1 Ski Instructor! Who'd've thunk it? I didn't mention I was taking the course because I was worried I'd fail. However, somehow I managed to blag my way into CSIA membership with my, frankly, barely adequate skiing abilities. I was so proud when I got my badge that I blubbed like a baby.

So, I've been a-roadtrippin' again. A last minute drop out proved fortuitous for me, when I got the opportunity to join 2 of my flatmates, Kate & Chelsea, along with 3 of my fellow Sunshine employees, Jono, Marlie and Brianna, on a trip to Fernie and Castle Mountain; Jono was doubtless excited about the prospect of being the only male escort to 5 lovely ladies.

We were picked up at 5am on Monday - there went my much looked forward to lie-in - and began our drive to Fernie, around 4 hours away. We arrived super excited to discover that they'd had a good few centimetres of snow overnight, with yet more
falling. The cool thing about Fernie is that it feels so open and varied. At Sunshine you pretty much go up, do a run back to the village, go back up, do a run back down to the village ad infinitum, whereas with Fernie you feel like you can go anywhere - up this lift, down that run, up the T-bar, traverse across, back up - and don't need to go all the way down to the base until you're good and ready. We found a fabulous run across a powder-filled bowl, down a tree run to a natural half-pipe etc., which we did over and over, and it was snowing so hard that by the time we got back up our tracks were covered, so we got fresh tracks on every run! So nice. We stayed at Fernie for day 2, because even more snow had fallen and we didn't want to miss such a good powder day.

Now, skiing in powder is very different from skiing on packed snow or groomed runs, requiring a totally different technique, and it's not something I've had much experience of, and thus I found I skied like a total gimp. I fell over all the time, lost one of my skis under 2 foot of powder at one point, and generally struggled to keep up with the others I was with - all of whom are snowboarders incidentally - but had a ball nonetheless. As Megan pointed out to me when we caught up on the phone: it's all about getting from point A to point B and having fun. Whether you do it with much in the way of style and grace is largely irrelevant. The really good thing about powder is that if - or in my case when - you fall it in, it's virtually impossible to hurt yourself!

Day 3 we went to Castle Mountain, which Gravy and Laura et al. had visited a few weeks ago on a massive powder day (something like a foot and a half of fresh snow overnight) and had had (and I quote directly) "the best day's snowboarding EVER". My expectations were therefore high, so I was slightly disappointed to find that it was a little too sparse on the snow side and a little too generous on the ice, particularly high up the mountain. We began our day doing the Chutes - oh yes, excellent choice guys: start the day with a double black diamond wind-swept sheer drop covered in ice, when we'd all been skiing/riding for 2 days and were aching and bruised. Nice. After only an hour we stopped for a drink and Marlie, Kate & I decided to go and do some nice easy runs off the Huckleberry chair. At one point we went to get on the lift and as we shuffled forward we collided with each other and I dropped my pole. As I bent to retrieve it I ended up getting my ski caught in Kate's snowboard binding and we all toppled over. They stopped the lift to avoid hitting us with it. If this wasn't embarrassing enough, the next time up the woman asked if we wanted her to slow the lift down for us? Giggling, Marlie replied "I know it looks like we've never done this before, but it's my 7th season and she's an instructor!"

On our penultimate run I found the most amazing route through the trees, with lots of fresh powder to be had. I grabbed the girls for our last run and urged them to follow me to find the good stuff. Somehow - and I still have no idea exactly how -
I managed to stack it on a tight turn around a tree and fell over, ending up face first in the snow, with my legs and skis tangled upwards behind me in the tree. I saw Marlie approaching nearby and tried to call out to get her attention, but was laughing so hysterically I could barely speak. By some miracle she spotted me and came over. I asked for a little help and in reply she gave a one-word demand: "Camera!" We carried on laughing all the way back down to meet the others.

The 3 day's hard physical exertion and a 4 hour drive back found us exhausted and I was desperate to collapse on my bed, have a shower and an early night. It was not to be: on entering my bedroom I found that the Beaver Boys had had a little a fun at our expense whilst slighty inebriated the previous evening. My bed had been turned upside down, as had my bedside cabinet (scattering its contents liberally across the floor) and my chair. Thank goodness my wardrobe and computer desk had been spared; the sofa, microwave, toaster and television (now unwilling, or unable, to show us any red, rendering all persons bright blue) had not been so lucky. Kate's room had been similarly violated. Suffice to say, the 'hilarious' reaction they had been expecting was not forthcoming but, being the nice person I am, I've forgiven them now.

All photos from the trip available here.