A nice finish.

The forecast was wrong again. We woke up to no new snow on the ground but we were heading up anyway of course.

The day started off with some groomers and some exploring in the trees. It wasn't all that great but there was still some fresh lines about albeit not all that light and fluffy.

Then about 11am it started puking hard out. The main gully run out that we had been hitting since we had been here was covered and when I put my hand down to feel what had fallen I think it almost came up to my wrist. It lasted about and hour or so and just refreshed everything.

So it was all go again after lunch. Still not as good as the first two days but still really fun. We kept hitting our favourite two runs that we lapped on the powder days and it was still good. We got fresh lines too which is pretty amazing on a Saturday afternoon at a ski hill.

The sun even came out for the last few runs which just opened up the vis and gave us some nice views.

Typically is has been snowing pretty much since the hill closed which means tomorrow will be nice too. We have had a good run but it's always hard to leave on the eve of another pow day!

It's going to be another long travel day. Two flights and a few transfers that will probably be about 15 hours or so of sitting around. It's a small price to pay though.

So the obvious question on a trip like this is which was your favourite. Not an easy question to answer.

The best skiing was the catskiing in Revelstoke. But you would expect that since I paid the big bucks. Steep, deep and fresh. Totally the best day skiing ever.

But the best skiing on a ski hill is probably going to have to go to Rusutsu. It's a close thing between Mt Baker and Rusutsu though. I remember Baker as being generally steeper and the snow was amazing and deep. But it probably got tracked out a bit quicker than Rusutsu. Here you can ski the same area over and over and over and still get amazing fresh turns. Also I love skiing trees and all the good stuff here is trees.

Every place had it's special attributes though and I was lucky enough to find the "white room" many times in each one.

Now it's time to start planning for the next trip....

Groomers are fun too

We woke up to blue skies and no new snow today. Not exactly what we needed for continuing our powder quest. Nevermind I don't mind hitting the occasional groomer, esp with they are still corduroy. The groomers are pretty wide so big fast turns are the most fun.

There was still powder to be had of course. Ducking into the trees showed us some slightly heavier snow, and some of the slopes facing the wind had been affected a bit too. But with a bit of searching in different areas there were still lots of pow turns. Just not as epic as yesterday.

Also the legs are starting to feel it. End of a long trip and the last few days have been pretty full on too.

I rode with Bruce again today. We spilt off and regrouped throughout the day depending on which runs were calling our names. It's a good system.

All we need now is for some more snow tonight to finish things off with a bang. It is in the forecast but i'm not sure if it will hide the tracks from today. You never know though.

Tonight I decided to head over to the indoor pool at the resort hotel across the road. Rusutsu has this massive resort complex with an amusement park, lots of restaurants and activities for the family. The shopping area is set up like a european city, it's very strange but maybe also very Japanese.

Anyway the pool is a wave pool so we had a bit of fun on that. Plus it also has a waterslide. The main reason for going over though was the spa, hopefully it has made a difference on the muscles. One last push tomorrow.

The gift that keeps giving

Another incredible powder day at Rusutsu. I'm not sure on the figures since I can't seem to find any (even on the Rusutsu website) but I think "plenty" would do.

It snowed pretty much all day in varying degrees of intensity. Generally the vis was slightly better than yesterday though and maybe the wind had dropped a tad.

The mountain still has tracks on it, so the snow hadn't completely filled it in but it didn't really effect things too much. Still plenty of deep turns.

Overall I probably had a better day today than yesterday. We managed to ride with some of the other guys from the hostel and they showed us some of their favourite lines. Nothing too secret, just variations on areas we were already riding.

We only really skied two areas all day, they were just too good to bother with anything else. I did the first few laps on my own and then continued with the others once we hooked up. Bruce was also pretty much back in the thick of things too which was cool. We did hit up some other sections the boys had discovered during their time here but the only once each.

If the snow keeps falling for the next few days then Rusutsu is headed to the Hall of Fame in it's first attempt!

No photos today, too busy riding ;O)

Rusutsu Ichiban!

Today would be our first day in Rusutsu. When I planned the Japan portion of this trip I always had Rusutsu on my mind. Actually it was the main destination with Niseko being a fall back incase the internet was just full of lies.

We got a Ski Japan transfer from Niseko to our new accommodation called the Powder Lodge. It's bascially a big guest house, only one set of bathroom facilities for the 6 or so rooms. A very house feel to the place.

We pretty much got here and headed up the hill, probably started skiing about 11am.

Rusutsu is made up of three mountains. East, West and Isola. But Isola is really the only one we are interested in, it's the biggest and has all the good tree runs. We headed straight there and got started on what turned out to be a pretty amazing day.

Powder and tree runs is what was advertised and that is what we got today. Some crazy deep turns too. Hooray!

Most of tree runs I found today ran either side of the lift lines. Mostly into a valley that you could take out or onto another run. Overall it was easy to naviage and i only got stuck once.

Actually my first few tree runs I was worried I was going to get lost or end out having to walk out but after a while I realised it's pretty much all good.

Also compared to Niseko there is no one here! Strangely enough some of the people in the accommodation were commenting that it was a little more crowded! Go figure. There were definitely less people tracking up the trees than in Niseko so that was good news.

I skiied a few hours in the morning on my own then caught up with Bruce for some runs in the arvo. He was back in the trees and enjoying the pow; it was good to ride with a buddy again.

We managed to get some video going on this one line but the best run of the day was left to the end of the day. Basically a run from the top of Mt Isola through the trees into the valley between Mt Isola and East Mt. Big spaced trees, nice and steep and bottomless pow turns. Epic run.

The valley between Isola and East Mtn.

In one foul swoop the crust in Niseko was forgotten and we have our fix of that famous Japanese pow. If we left now I would be happy. Unfortunately for us we have another three days.

Last day at Niseko already!

We had planned 3 days at Niseko but lost a day on Sunday so today was it. My plan today was to try and ski in all four areas of the resort. Bruce came out again today too, unfortunately the visibility was quite low this morning so he decided to wait out the morning to see if it improved.

I headed over the Hanazono first up and the vis was actually good over there, esp on the lower chair and in the trees. I lapped strawberry fields a few times and got some nice turns in there. Then I decided to try and head over to the other places.

It was always going to be a tough one cos lots of the upper chairs were closed due to the winds. I did make it across to the third area called Niseko Higashiyama. It was pretty much deserted there and lots of the chairs were running. Only the Gondola and a few lower chairs and they were all going at a snails pace. I did find a few nice pow runs though so I was happy.

My final goal of reaching the 4th area Niseko An'nupuri didn't happen. The vis was pretty non existent up high and I couldn't find the bus stop for the free bus. Next time.

I finished the day with a few runs down Niseko Hirafu (where our accommodation was). It was pretty tracked but still heaps of fun with lots of soft snow still about due to the white out conditions driving people away. That was another good thing today; no queues ;O)

I finished up the day about 4pm cos I needed to make sure I could find an ATM. Bruce pulled in about half an hour later! I guess he must be finding his legs again!

So that was Niseko. Our timing was off but it was still fun. Hopefully Rusutsu will give us the amazing pow that we are craving.

You can sleep when you are dead

I was up at 7am this morning which means probably only about 4 hours sleep. It didn't matter though. We were here for one thing and that was to ski the pow. I looked outside and it was pretty clear; with all this snow about it could be a good day.

Breakfast is included in our package in Niseko so I managed to get Bruce out of bed for that but he crashed out again after that, I said I would check back with him at lunch to see if he was coming up.

Four hours isn't a bad amount of sleep to have, I felt fine actually. I'm sure the brisk mountain air and clear skies helped though. Trouble is it looks like everyone else had the same idea. Apparently the lines were as big as they get; and they were massive.

Once I did get to the top I was treated to some nice views of Mt Yotei though. I thought I better take the opportunity to take some photos of it cos i'm sure every other day is going to be snowed in ;O)

As you might expect the Japanese skiing experience is slightly different from skiing in other places. Some interesting points that come to mind.

- They seem very averse to risk. Some of the big tree sections are considered backcountry areas and has some strict rules surrounding them. This is a well known fact to anyone researching skiing in Japan though so it was no surprise. The reality of it is that there are plenty of trees to ski so I didn't really find it an issue.

- The lifties are very courteous. They are intent on making sure the chairs are devoid of any snow. Thankfully most of the chairs are detachable high speed chairs (although generally a little older than the ones in North America) so they have plenty of time. On the couple of occasions I rode a fixed one they were so focused on cleaning the chair that slowing the chair down ended up taking a back seat which resulted in it crashing into my leg; I made sure I helped out with that task from then on

- Most of the more modern chairs are hooded which says something about the weather they have here. They generally had older chairs here though, even some singles. I didn't see any tow ropes though (thank goodness)

- They make lots of announcements over loudspeakers which are attached to the lift towers. Most of the time I can't understand a word, it's a combination of english being a second language and the massive echoing effect.

All of these things enhance the experience of skiing in a foreign place I reckon. But culture wasn't the reason for coming though!

Unfortunately we were not seeing Niseko at it's best today. The was snow about but the wind and the morning crowds had really dealt to my powder dreams. Plenty of potential though.

Niseko United is actually 4 different areas, I only skied the Grand Hirafu side today, my favourite was the Hanazono area which is over the ridge from the village I was staying in. It had a nice "backcountry area" called Strawberry Fields. Some nice snow in there.

Bruce actually managed to come up for a few runs after lunch but the ankle is still not 100%. I suppose there was only a small chance it was going to recover before the end of the trip. We did some runs down the greens and then called it at about 3ish.

So an average first day, mainly exploring the place. Hopefully we get some more snow tomorrow.

More fun and games at the airport

We had been told that the check in for the our 1840 flight would open at 11am today. That would work nicely cos then we could check in and our bags and be free of them for the rest of the day.

Of course that was never going to work when they were still having weather problems in Sapporo! So we decided to check our bags into left luggage and find something to do. I managed to find a Laox store in a nearby mall (only two stops on the train) so we headed there to kill a few hours. Laox is a duty free electronics place like the one we bought our cameras from in Tokyo. This one wasn't as big though. That didn't stop purchases from being made though! Bruce managed to find himself a BB firing Desert Eagle pistol to go with the BB's he got on the last visit to Tokyo. We'll see how customs goes with that in his luggage!

We killed more time buy having lunch there too but when we came back at about 3ish it was still on hold.

Sometime around 6ish they made an announcement that check-in would be commencing at 6:30. Promising stuff. The flight was rescheduled for 9pm. Of course this meant we would be getting in quite late to the airport which made me wonder about our pickups. We decided to go anyway.

The flight finally got away about 9:30, I pretty much crashed out for the duration of the 1:40 flight. When we got off the plane we could see why there had been problems; there were big piles of snow everywhere. I suppose we are lucky we got here today at all.

Then while we were waiting for our luggage, an announcement comes over the intercom that there isn't any transportation from the airport tonight (it was about midnight at this stage) and everyone will need to sleep in the airport tonight. They had set up a room upstairs with blankets etc.. Thankfully for us the Ski Japan people were still there and they still had a bus for us. TOTAL relief! I didn't fancy losing a nights sleep on the airport floor.

The bus trip to Niseko was still a 2.5 hour journey though. The bus was full too so I'm sure no-one was completely comfortable but i'm also sure we were all loving that we were on our way.

By the time we got to our room it was about 3am. Asleep by 3:30am. A long, long day.

Kudos to the Ski Japan reps for lasting the distance with us.

Is this a plane or a rollercoaster?

We had a three planes to catch today and we decided to make and early start. It was another bluebird day so we were going to get some nice views again.

We managed to get onto an earlier flight to Seattle which gave us more buffer to catch our next flight to Tokyo. I spent most of that buffer trying to find someone to change my assigned seat to an aisle seat but since the plane was configured 2/4/2 I shouldn't have bothered!

We were lucky enough to have the on-demand entertainment system again. I watched three movies this time. Some real classics ;O)

Enter the Dragon and Goodfellas. Also Bee M0vie which was quite good.

This is a photo of Bruce watching Message in a Bottle, some romance thing with Kevin Costner. A strange choice I'm sure you'd agree!

The last half hour of this flight was worth mentioning. Probably the most intense turbulence I've experienced in a plane. Some quite big movements for a sustained period. Bruce was fully breaking out the white knuckles but at least he managed to keep his breakfast down which is more than could be said for a few of our neighbours. The sound of someone dry retching isn't the most pleasant noise! I was starting to feel ill too by the end but I think it might have just been the horrible buttermilk biscuit and egg breakfast. I was happy to get off that plane though!

We had one more flight to catch but unfortunately due to heavy snow all flights in and out of Sapporo got cancelled. This meant we were stuck in Narita for the night. Pretty gutting since we only have a week up there in the first place. But of course it's good too cos that means that there is plenty of snow about!

We are staying in the International Garden Hotel in Narita for the night (out of our own pocket since it's a weather thing rather than an airline thing). Dinner was pot noodle from a mini mart next door to the hotel and then I crashed. A long day.

We only managed to get onto the same 1840 flight tomorrow so I''m not sure what we are going to do all day. We'll have to see what there is to do in Narita...

Van again.

Not much to report today. Pretty much got up early and drove to Kelowna. Caught our flight to Van and am now sitting in the hostel about to go get some sleep ahead of what will be the longest travel day yet.

But I need to give a little mention about the great vehicles we've had. I've had three cars this trip and they have all been pretty cool in different ways.

The first was a standard Toyota Corolla, but it was my first experience of Sat Nav and it was very positive.

Then we got the Sat Nav-less GMC Envoy. It was brand new of course and in the end sort of grew on me. A bit of a wallowy thing to drive but it is an SUV after all. It did get us everywhere we needed to go though, over some pretty snowy passes too.

Our last car was the Ford Fusion. This one had all the bells and whistles and best of all we got those bells for zero down and zero every month! The Sat Nav wasn't really needed on this part of the journey but we used it anyway. The satellite radio worked much better than in the GMC and we grew to appreciate having one channel whereever you went. It also had Sync (powered by Microsoft). I played around with this on the last day and managed to hook my phone up to it via bluetooth and got it to read text messages out to me. It could also stream music from my phone via bluetooth too but that didn't actually work that well.

That will be it for cars on this trip. Next car I'll be driving will have the steering wheel on a different side. Hope I can remember to keep left....

More rest and sayonara...

I decided not to ski again today. Another bluebird day in Rossland meant no new snow and groomers didn't appeal. Would have been a good day to break out the skis again today though; even though Red is known for it's trees there are actually some nice wide runs to play on too. But since my ski boots are back in NZ I decided to just take a snowshoe walk instead later in the day.

So mostly packing today and organising.

The snowshoe walk ended out being an exploration up Monte Christo and down Snake (which is a mountain bike trail). It was fun trying to follow it down and checking out some of the buried stunts.

So that was it for Red. A few good byes and a yummy prawn curry for dinner at Trinas and off too bed.

It was great to be back here again. I mentioned to a few friends this place is definitely a humbling sort of place to ride. Steep trees definitely show you where you are at. It's inspiring though, makes you want to get better.

I'm also super lucky that although there has not been any significant snowfall while I've been here I've still gotten in plenty of fresh tracks thanks to my touring buddies. It worked out well since I wanted to do some touring while I was here. Big thanks to them.

Tomorrow be be the start of the final leg of the search. Can Japan live up the the hype?

They call him Bruce

Another blue sky day today. And it was Bruces first try back on his ankle. So it was off to Southern Comfort in Paradise for us. It's a beautiful wide run that has some steeper sections in it. All tree lined of course and the trees are also lots of fun when there is a bit more new snow about.

Unfortunately Bruces ankle didn't think it was fun and basically didn't really hold up to the test very well. We did that run and then Rino's Run and out.

An expensive test but in the context of the trip it was a necessary thing. I had fun too, riding switch down the greens and trying out butters; I still suck at both.

So that was it for Bruce at Red. Of course that didn't stop him from buying up hard at Red Mountain shop! At least he'll look the part.

I did 4 or 5 runs on Red after that though to try and get more value out of my ticket. I have always wanted to try and carve a full circle and Main Run on Red is a good wide run to do it on. I tried it twice and probably got to about 230 degrees? I also did a few runs down Hole in the Wall which was hard and not that nice. Cliff had some softer, funner stuff down below as did War Eagle trees.

But overall the hill is pretty tracked out though so I am contemplating not going to the hill again tomorrow. We'll see of course!

On the seventh day we rest

Finally a rest day. So nothing to report really. Bruce and I went to Nelson and had a look around.

Bruce is still nursing his twisted ankle but tomorrow looks like it might be his first day back. We'll go up the hill anyway and check it out anyway.

It will be groomerville since no new snow is forecast for the rest of our stay in Canada, but on the plus side the sun is out so in the arvo things should soften up and we might have some spring skiing on our hands.

Fingers crossed.

DL's again!

Yes, I was going to take the day off but I couldn't turn down a chance to ride again. Kelly and some of her friends were going to ride the hill and do some short hikes so it was back to the hill again.

The plan was to do a run down Wolf Ridge and then maybe a run down DL's again. Both are pretty short walks and this time we were all on snowshoes except Lee who was borrowing a split board for the first time.

It was pretty busy at the base area again today thanks to the long weekends but as usual the lines at the lifts were pretty short (not that we rode them much!) . We were also blessed with nice blue skies. It may as well be blue bird if it's not snowing right?

The walk up to the top of wolf was okay, not too steep and it was over before we knew it. We got some nice views of Old Glory and Mt Roberts from the top.

The run down wasn't bad. Soft but a little baked? I'm not sure of the terms for it actually but it was still good. The run down took us to the road that takes you to the top of Roberts. Apparently it's been groomed, it's pretty sweet actually. Hard enough to boot pack up if you wanted, a bit of an easier walk than the way we went yesterday.

DL's produced the goods again today. There was definitely signs of more traffic today but there were still plenty of fresh lines in there and the snow was still great. I took a nice tumble in my first few turns but got more into it after that. I probably took a similar line as yesterday but it's hard to tell! It was a great run anyway, it's so cool that we are still getting fresh lines days after a snowfall.

After that we decided to check out a hut on Route 66 on Red. This one didn't have a stove or anything like that but it did have a hammock!

We ended the day with a couple of runs down War Eagle trees. There were some pretty big moguls on the top section but it got a bit softer further down which made it worth the second run.

Another cool day on Red Mountain. Definitely a day off tomorrow!

DL trees

A later start today. By the time I got to the hill it was almost 11am! I was planning to do some lift runs before making a run or two down DL trees near Mt Roberts with Presley, Richard and Ryan.

When I got to the carpark though it was totally packed out with cars. I'd say a few factors contributed to this.

1. It was almost 11am.

2. It was Presidents Long Weekend and Family day long weekend.

3. The BC cup races were going on.

Anyway i ended out just driving all the way home again so I could meet everyone at midday for the tour! Luckily the hill is only a few minutes drive.

I managed to get a half day ticket this time so it wasn't so bad that I wasn't actually riding the hill much. The road to DL's starts half way down a traverse to an area called exhibition. There is a little bit of traffic on that traverse but most weren't going up. DL himself passed us on that traverse which is sort of funny considering which run we were about to hit.

The hike up to the set off point wasn't actually too bad. I didn't time it but it was a lot shorter than the hike yesterday. Like the name suggests DL trees is a tree run, they are all quite well spaced and is reasonably steep, especially at the top.

We were some of the first up there today so we got untracked runs on pretty nice snow. Definitely worth the short hike up.

I decided to leave the boys to it and try and get in some runs on the hill instead of slowing them down for a second run! I managed a run down in the Oil Can area and then I did one of Red down the right of War Eagle / Poochies. The top of Poochies was pretty moguled out but the bottom had some soft snow. Oil can was fun also but also pretty tracked.

The hill definitely could definitely do with some more snow but it's still lots of fun out there.

I'll probably take the day off tomorrow, I think the legs could benefit from it!

Backcountry

The lifts were working again today so the call was to head up Record Ridge and ski down to a cabin that Presley had been helping with called the Juicy Hut. Have lunch there then head up Mt Roberts and ski back down to the hill.

It would be another day on the couch for Bruce since his ankle wasn't up to it.

Presley and Christine were on their splitboards and Richard was on his skis of course so this time I would be the only one on snowshoes. The morning started off nice blue skys but was due to close in and start snowing this arvo, as it was we got off the hill just in time.

Once again I was the slowest but this time I had a small excuse that I didn't have skis to slide along the flats with. But honestly I don't think it would have made a difference.

The walk up took a good couple of hours. We got some great views of the hill and some of the surrounding mountains of the way up. Also the trees up there were just laden with snow, it was great!

The run down was pretty sweet. Untracked pow through the trees. A decent vertical down too, got in some of my new favourite heelside turns in too. I have overused the the "whiteroom" label in this blog but it could probably be applied here if I needed it to be ;O)

The hut was much smaller than the Teepee hut but it was still cool. All the usual stuff was there, stove, chairs etc. It was also pretty buried in snow! You could probably ski right past it if you weren't looking for it.

We had quick lunch in there and then headed out again.

I was getting pretty tired by this time so I opted to just do a run down from a saddle on the way up to Mt Roberts. The others headed up to the summit.

I had a little moment while getting ready for this run. I put down my board and it almost slid away down the hill. I had to jump at full stretch to grab it but I hadn't zipped up my jacket yet and had to spend the next 5 minutes shaking snow off my fleece! Doh.

The run down was nice but when I got to the Paradise Chair it was closed again. Red has apparently been having a few problems with power this year. So it was a short walk up to the southside road cat track.

The snow had pretty much set in by this time but I had time for one run on the hill so I went down an old favourite, Roots / 3rd Slides. There were still come nice sections in there but my legs were pretty much done so that was it for the day.

Back in Rossland

So finally get to catch up with Richard in the morning. The plan today was to head out for a bit of touring but there had been a electrical problem which had crippled all the lifts at the hill yesterday and today Motherlode was still out. So we decided to go cross country skiing out on Nancy Green Summit out to find the TeePee hut.

I decided to rent some skis to make sure I had no equipment issues but i forgotten how much this activity makes my feet hurt! And of course I'm not the most skilful at it anyway!

We went out with Presley and Christine; it was great to catch up with them again. As usual I was the slowest one but thats no surprise. There are lots of these huts all over, they are a good place to warm up and we generally make them a destination for lunch or something. They vary in size but this one was a reasonable size.

We made it out to another hut them headed back. Going back down the hill is a total lottery and usually consists of lots of falling down!. It's lots of fun though and it's just so nice being in this outdoor environment.

We just chilled out that night and watched Aliens and ate Misty Mountain Pizza. Yum.

Okay, not quite....

I woke up to a reported 27cm dump and clear skies. It was futile to resist. I changed the shuttle from 10am to midday and grabbed my gear.

The first run down perfection to the lift had already run alarm bells for me. It sure didn't seem deeper than the previous powder day of a mere 22cm. I dismissed it as a misjudgment on my part. I got my ticket and headed up.

The big winds had closed pretty much all the lifts but it didn't matter to me since I only had time for a few runs. I did four top to bottom runs on the Ridge Rocket before I called it. I caught up with Dean, Michelle and Lester for one chair ride up and they confirmed my suspicions that they had changed the report to 16 cm overnight! Dumb!

They were good fun runs, I was launching off pretty much anything I could find and it was mostly untracked but I found myself dismissing it as average! Looks like my snow snob training is complete ;O)

I made it back in time to see Penny off and then got packed etc ready for the shuttle.

Now for the third portion of our trip. Rossland and Japan. It's started off with a little bonus. We headed down to pick up our rental and managed to get a Toyota Matrix. This has a nice fold flat back area which is great for snowboard etc. The trouble is that it's only 2WD and it had all weather tires on it. We went back and they suggested a Ford Fusion (which is like a Mondeo) for 80 bucks more which had AWD. We checked it out and it had leather seats, sat nav, satellite radio and a V6 engine. We took it and got all those extras for free! I suppose it makes up for not getting the sat nav in the last car!

We checked out a few shops in Kelowna first (didn't by anything) and then set off for Rossland in the dark.

The roads were pretty good, actually worryingly dry actually! The funny thing is that the sat nav was playing up bad for a while, telling us we were driving into lakes etc! We ignored it and got going.

By the time we got to Rossland it was almost 10pm. I did a little drive down main street for Bruce and we headed to Richards. He had gone to a friends so we unloaded and pretty much crashed out.

Not sure how the snow will be since all forecasts seem to point to a dry spell while we are here. We'll see.

Last day at Big White.

Yep this was it. From memory I think we got a bit of snow again but the vis was clear this morning, almost blue skies.

Penny decided to take the morning off again and Bruces ankle had turned out to be a minor sprain so I headed out to Gem Lake with Dean, Michelle and a rejuvenated Lester! We decided to take a run down Falcon before heading down the Blue Sapphire again and it turned out to be the right choice. We got mainly untracked snow ghost runs which turned out to be so good we did it a bunch more times! Good times.

By the time we decided to head over to Gem Lake the Blue Sapphire had lost all its shine. I suppose the clear day and new snow had brought out a few locals to track the place out a bit too!

I think we ended out taking Kalinas down the whole way today. We ended out coming down the right hand side of the lift and it was much less bumpy. A good run though.

I headed back after that so I could ski with Penny for the last afternoon. Everyone else stayed on for another run. We were probably all going to hit black forest in the arvo anyway.

The skiing in the arvo turned out to be a bust. Maybe it was my slightly tired legs. It was probably a combination of that and the runs having a few "new snow" bumps on them. When you technique is as shaky as mine it doesn't take much to throw it.

We took a few runs down Millies with Jarrod and Melissa who were on snowboards but I was over it pretty quick! So Penny, Melissa and I decided to take a run down to Happy Valley and Jarrod was going to try and find Dean and the others.

So that was it. Back to the room to start packing.

It was Pennys birthday dinner tonight so we headed back to the Copper Kettle again. Once again the food was great and once again I was too full to have a proper desert! (also once again the bill was huge!) A good meal though. A few good byes and back to the house for more Jerry Springer....

Gem Lake (finally)

We got a smattering of new today but the big news is that Bruce, Dean, Michelle and I finally made it over to the Gem Lake area. The vis wasn't looking that great but the winds had died a bit so we decided to have a look regardless.

It turned out to be a good call.

The reason we hadn't been over here yet was we had heard that the snow coverage was pretty low and it was generally crap over that side. But you have to see for youself sometimes.

The trip over involved a visit to the Powder Chair and a run down the Falcon chair also. This was optional but due to the terrible vis there we missed the run past. In the end though the fog turned out to be the savour cos it probably kept a few people away (or maybe it was just empty on the hill again!)

We took a run called Blue Sapphire down to the 1km+ cat track to the Gem Lake Chair. It was really wide and tree lined. It was groomed with the snow over the top so it was nice fast fun. It also had some big rollers you could launch if you had the balls. That was excellent. The cat track wasn't all that bad either cos you could keep good speed.

They have a nice little log cabin warming hut over here and you can also just drive here and park up. The actual chair is apparently 2.5km long. It seemed like we were on it forever! On the chair ride up we could see some of the reasons for the rumours. Some of the runs still had lots of little trees poking out all over the run. They will need to trim those next year I'd say.

We took the blue run (Kalinas Rainbow) from the top and then popped into a "Caution, Skiing not recommended" run called Talons Claw. The coverage turned out to be fine, there were lots of big features to navigate on the run but it actually was lots of fun cos Dean was looking to launch himself of anything he could.

Unfortunately Bruce came unstuck here and twisted his ankle. He took a break down at the hut while we took another run down the same.

We all headed back after that; I was going to try and catch up with Penny and Bruce needed to sit down!

The afternoon consisted of more snowboarding for me since penny still sore for her fall the other day. I rode with Dean and Michelle again but since I'm writing this a few days later I can't remember where!

Sunday, we rest

Well not completely.

A few things scheduled for today. First see Darren off. He slept on the couch since he was too boozed to climb into his top bunk! He caught his shuttle at midday.

Then it was time to spend some coin on a frivolous resort money spinner: Snowmobiling.

We had been talking about this since before we left NZ. It ended out just being Dean, Michelle, Bruce and I. Penny fell over the night before and had a sore bum and pulled out at the last minute; a wise choice since it was quite a bumpy ride. Lester was still sick and Jarrod decided it was too much.

We ended out being in quite a big group but I think it still worked out okay. The sleds were pretty new I think, Arctic Cat 660 or something like that. Plenty powerful enough for us I'd say, I saw the speedo max out at about 80kph on the flat.

We were mainly on groomed trails since the powder was quite deep. Dean found this out by bogging his sled in some deep pow a few metres from the groomer.

It took a while to get used to the handling. At first I was sure there was something wrong with my sled since it didn't seem to turn and it tracked all over the place. I definitely didn't feel in control. But by the end we were all going for it. Getting air off the rollers and leaning into the corners. It ended out being heaps of fun.

The next activity on the calendar was to try tubing at the"mega tube park". It involves sliding down a hill in special tire tube. Not quite up to the level of excitement of the snowmobiling but much cheaper ;O)

Dinner after that at the Copper Kettle Inn which is proving to be our favourite place to eat. I finally tried a Xango desert. It's a cooked pastry thing with banana and other stuff served with maple walnut ice cream. It was nice but i'll be having a chocolate sundae next time!

The weekend is here!

On this trip that really means one thing. Time to take some time off from the slopes. No significant new snow so it's an easier decision to make.

Penny and I decided to check out a different side of winter life. Snowshoeing. Big white has nordic and snowshoes trails as part of the resort so it's easily accessible. Penny needed to hire some shoes but other than that trails are free to use.

We started off on a multi use trail so we saw some nordic skiers, some snowmobiles and we also passed the sled dog kennels, very cool. It was all pretty groomed up to this point but we did also hit some deeper snow on one of the snowshoe trails. It ended out being quite a workout! So much for the rest day for the legs!

The afternoon was more chilled though so we made up for it then.

It was Darrens last night tonight (and a Saturday night) so they some of us headed out for a last drink. I wasn't one of them of course! But I it apparently ended out with Darren dancing on some tables in Snowshoe Sams. A very rare sight indeed!

Another rest day scheduled for tomorrow, weather dependant of course.

Back on the skis

There was a little snowfall last night but not enough to get me back on the board. I managed to get the newer fatter looking rental skis this time around. Head Big Easy, still 160. Not sure I noticed much difference but that's to be expected I suppose.

The wind was up today so some of the lifts were closed so we still haven't been over to ride the Gem Lake chair. I'm starting to wonder if we will ever get over there!

Today consisted mainly of runs down Sun Run and Millies Mile (both green). I'm starting to actually feel a bit comfortable on the greens but as soon as it gets steeper everything is still very dodgy!

I tried a blue today with Darren that ended out being an ungroomed one with some moguls on it. I sucked. Need more practice.

Rode with Michelle, Darren and Penny today. Dean actually took the day off cos he was too broken. Most of the other were having the day off also.

Pretty easy day overall I suppose. I think I am almost ready for my next ski lesson now. I'm happy cruising on the greens but I get lost beyond that.

We went out for dinner that night too and probably had the best meal we've had so far. I think it was the Copper Kettle Pub? It's underneath the White Crystal Inn anyway. Meals were big and the deserts were really nice. Not that I had one cos I was too full from my meal!

Probably going to have the day off tomorrow unless it pukes.

Big White powder day

A bona fide powder day today at Big White. I woke up to 20+ cm overnight. It was always going to be a fun day.

I decided to snowboard the whole day. Rode mostly with Michelle, Dean, Bruce and Jarrod again. Darren made cameos but was learning how to ski again thanks to the pow.

The vis wasn't the best as usual so we decided to hit Black Forest again. It was blowing a gale up top and the traverse over to the chair required more speed than usual but once I made it over I did a run down Millies Mile and it was a nice layer of pow over the groomer. It felt SO fast and i must have been one of the first down there cos I got to lay fresh tracks.

Eventually caught up with everyone else and we did some more runs down the groomers. Lots of whooping and hollering, spraying each other and trying to launch off anything and everything. Good times. We eventually started heading into the trees and continued to find fresh in there. To top it all off the vis had come right too!

Ended out having a slightly early lunch and then headed back out to try Powder Chair where we had had success yesterday. Trouble was the vis had gone again so we decided to do runs off the Snow Ghost Express. It turned out to be a good choice. We found some great snow there and the pitch was a bit better than Black Forest. We continued to find stuff to launch off and just played around in the powder till the lifts closed.

But it wasn't destined to end there. Night skiing was on tonight so after a quick apres beer we suited up again and headed out at 5pm! Penny came out for a run this time and Melissa did too.

5pm isn't quite dark yet and only a few runs were open but it ended out being much much better than I expected. The main run open was Sun Run (a green) and it was pretty tracked out but we just ended out bombing down it doing speed runs. I whipped out the camera and was doing some filming too.

Then we headed to the terrain park. The border cross was still full of powder so we hit that a few times and then did a run on the rails. I managed to cack myself on the very first one but managed to tweak out a little board slide action on the rest. Lots of fun.

This will probably be our best day at Big White I'd say. And although it may not the deepest or the steepest I've ever had it's probably one of the most fun days on the snow I've experienced.

The visibility returns

I was back on the snowboard today. The conditions were much better too, the vis was back and we had a little sprinkle overnight.

I rode with Dean and Michelle today with cameos from Lester in the morning and Bruce for the last run of the day. Darren was also testing out his powder prowess.

We started off on the Alpine t-bar. It wasn't too bad of a run but the snow was pretty windblown and it wasn't all that steep up there.

The Powder chair was next and produced the best tree run I've had here so far. Some steep sections and all fresh. Dean was also pretty stoked with it. Of course we couldn't find that stuff again!

We hit that chair a few more times and although we didn't find that line again there was a nice little bordercross type section on the way back to the chair.

I was keen to check out the Black Forest runs on my board this time. The trees weren't all that steep but they were lots of fun. Very pumpy and pretty well spaced. I did a run along Millies Mile which was excellent fun and another down Cougar Alley trees.

After lunch we did a little more exploring and ended out doing a run down Snow Ghost Express. Pretty tracked but still okay. The rest of the day was back at the Powder chair which probably meant it was the best runs of the day.

A good day on the board overall. Showed me some of the fun parts of the hill. It also stayed clear all day which helped alot!

Probably going to be back on the skis tomorrow to try and consolidate some of the "progress" I've made.

More skiing

I was onto my second day of skiing today but decided to try and meet everyone for a few early morning speed runs on the the much advertised groomers. Trouble was the planned meeting didn't eventuate so Bruce and I too some runs on our own first. We headed up Rocket Express but the other renowned Big White attribute was also rearing it's ugly head. The white out. Vis was much worse than yesterday and just got worse as the day got on. Bruce and I too a couple of runs and then caught up with Darren for a few more. But after that I headed back to hop on the skis. Bruce hopped on the couch meanwhile!

Penny didn't last long today cos the vis was terrible by the time she came out. She ended out taking a few runs with Melissa.

We took a break for lunch today but I headed out again that arvo and continued on Millies Mile and even ventured onto some of the Blues on the Black Forest chair. This was the only real option on the hill I think cos most of the runs were tree lined and the vis was okay.

I am starting to make a little progress I think on my skiing which is pleasing. Still only the the groomers of course but feeling a little better about it. It's fun learning something new.

Bruce, Jarrod, Dean and Michelle were all boarding today today too. They were doing runs off the same chair as I was.

Tonight we just kept it low key. It was the first night of night skiing for us but we chose not to participate this time cos the weather was so crap. There will be other nights.

Instead we popped over to visit the others at there place. It's quite nice, maybe a little more up market than ours.

Hopefully tomorrow brings some better visibility. The long term weather forecast doesn't look good but what do they know anyway!

First day at Big White

I've decided to ski the first two days here. Penny and I decided to get a two day pass in the end since the savings on a bigger day pass were minimal.

It was a bit of a later start since we had to organise skis etc. Lester was meant to met Michelle at 8:30 but slept in till about 11 I think! Ryan and Dean hadn't got there gear yet since it didn't fit on the plane so they had a late start too (apparently it's a common thing)

Back on the skis for the first time i was going to always be sticking to the greens for a bit; try to remember stuff. I managed a nice fall at the stop of one run but nothing hurt! We mainly kept to the Black Forest Express and the Rocket Express chairs. They are mainly blue and green there. Really wide open, tree lined runs. Visibility was okay so far too.

It was cold though. My fingers were friggen freezing. It was a pretty casual day skiing wise. Taking it easy really. Skiied with Penny, Darren and Bruce came out in the end also. Jarrod spent the day on skis but probably won't return to them this trip.

It was Jarrods birthday today so we went out to Raakels (or something). Had burgers and Jager shots. But the main highlight was we ended out getting carried away with this punching machine thing. There was another group of guys wailing away at it too. A good money spinner. First just Bruce and I started but in the end we said all the boys had to do it. I managed to clock the biggest I think but my shoulder was pretty sore after!

The call was for an 8am start tomorrow for first runs....

Apparently it's the Snow

We woke up to a fine day which was just want we wanted cos we were driving to Kelowna today. Only 200kms or so past a few lakes and a couple of small towns. Some good views.

We arrived in Kelowna about 12:30 which meant we missed catching up with Melissa. So we had a few hours to kill anyway. First thing was lunch. Some of the others had been taken to a place called White Spot, a burger joint that is apparently a Canadian institution. It's called White Spot Triple O's, the triple o bit came from some car hop short hand which meant lots of extra everything. I thought it meant the onion rings were special (so I bought some) but it wasn't that.

After cruising and down the main drag where all the main shops were we spied a board shop. Bruce wanted to by some new jeans so we pulled in. Before you knew it Bruce had bought himself a new snowboard! An Arbor Element, very nice. We did get some jeans for him in the end too.

Met everyone at the airport and got our shuttle up to Big White. Didn't quite work out the way I had planned. I thought we would all be on the same shuttle but we weren't. Travel agent typically f'ed it up. Oh well.

It was well dark by the time we got up to the place but we made it and it is going to suit us I think.

Caught up with Dean, Michelle, Deb and Ryan after that at a Snowshoe Sams.

Pretty much a transition day but great to catch up with everyone and see what had been going on.

Cat Skiing

So i guess there is snow up here after all! Well there wasn't any doubt really!

Today i went cat skiing for the first time. There really isn't any way I can not rate that as my best ever turns on snow. The snow was deep and we got into some good terrain too. Some steep chutes, open steep faces, deep and steep trees and even some hucking!

We had a full cat and mostly they were skiers. There was one other snowboarder. Most of them would probably be faster than me although i was maybe about the same level as the snowboarder. There was also one Aussie dude there that was struggling with the pow but he only slowed the group down once, every other time we beat the cat to the bottom.

I sort of felt rushed a little all day, basically trying to keep up with everyone. It didn't matter once we were actually skiing but riding with good skiers will always give me that feeling since they are always ready before you and you are rushing to strap in and make sure you have a good run for whatever traversing you have to do. It didn't really impact much though.

The weather actually cleared up for us after initially looking like a white out. We had blue skys and great vis. It allowed us to track out some open faces whereas we otherwise woudl have been in the trees all the time.

Skiing open powder faces is so relaxing, i was going for big speedy turns rather than lots of little turns. Heaps of layback heelside "white room" turns. Most of my toeside turns usually ended up being setups for more heelside madness. I do recollect one toeside where I noticed a big roost, but you only get the faceshots on the heelside.

Since we had a big group i was crossing tracks every now and then but on the open faces especially you could find whole fresh sections.

A couple of runs really stand out. One of the first where we just all fanned out and I got 5 or 6 bouncy fresh turns. A really steep open powder face, the first few turns the guide was saying were probably 45 degrees but with all the pow it was no problem. And on of the last tree runs. The spacing was nice and the snow was really deep, amazing.

Also I probably did one of the biggest hucks I have done in a while. All the guys were rolling into this natural jump so I did too but carried in way more speed that I really wanted to and ended out launching huge. I landed but almost hit another guy who had wiped out. Crazy

So in the first two stops of the trip I've skied what might very possibly be the best days we'll get and succeeded in reaching the goals i set at the beginning of this thing. A job well done.

Heading to Big White tomorrow which will mean a change of gear, I'll be getting out the skis and trying to get some technique happening on the groomers.

Baker withdrawal.

Well I suppose comparisons would be drawn regardless of the pointlessness of doing so. It hard to fight the urge.

But the massive snowfall in town didn't really correspond to what we had hoped for. It seemed it was a case of you should have been here yesterday.

This is the first year the resort is open and they only have two lifts but plenty of vert already. Lots of newly cut runs and some of them pretty steep. The lodge is all new of course and not that big yet. They are still building the village proper down below which will eliminate the drive up we had to do today.

So we were greeted with a pretty tracked out hill actually. Still soft snow around but you could feel the hard below. The big downer for me was my feet were killing me today. Not entirely sure what it was but probably a combination of doing groomers again for the first time and the length of the runs. Whatever it was my feet were ruining any chance of enjoyment.

Vis was also a little issue but that forced up into the trees. No problem. The boys started to really get the feel for tree skiing and were actively seeking lines in there all the time. I found some nice wide open turns in the north bowl just beyond the avalanche rope, probably the best runs of the day in there for me.

It was an up and down day really. The morning pretty much sucked, a combination of withdrawal and tired, aching bodies I think. We started to get into it in the arvo though and got an appreciation for what this place is about. My last run of the day seemed to go on forever; my legs were DONE but the runs keep going on and on and on.... I decided that I really don't like steep groomers, just don't trust the edge that much, maybe it's just that I suck at them!

Nothing much else happened, it had to be an early night since we were all getting up early so I could go catsking!

Oh Canada....

The good thing about a good snow year is good snow. The bad thing I suppose is that that snow also falls on the roads.

We were used to some hairy road conditions for the drive up to Baker but then we were in for some more during our drive to Revelstoke. The first part was going over the Coquihalla pass. On the way up it got progressively more and more snowy, heaps of trucks stopped along the side putting chains on. I started to wonder if we were actually going to make it! Of course I'm exaggerating here cos it's probably just another snow day for local Canadians but was getting hairy.

We eventually made it and stopped in Merritt for some A&W. I think the boys appreciated this particular brand of burger. Jarrod took over the rest of the drive and got lumped with driving into Revelstoke in the dark, snowy night. I'd say he was concentrating pretty hard, I decided it was just better to go to sleep!

Once in Revelstoke though we were greeted by a VERY snowy city, the snowbanks were big but the main think was the roads were covered in snow. It definitely made us feel better about leaving our now beloved Mt Baker.

I also had a brush with the law this night. Pulling out of a gas station we decided to nip the wrong way up a one way street. The road actually looped around and who should we meet coming the other way? The RCMP. Thankfully he let me off!

We all went to sleep that night with the snow PUKING outside. I could see it out my window cos I had to leave it open cos once again my room was like a sauna! Anyway we had high hopes for tomorrow.

How deep?

I forgot to look at the snow report this morning but we were speaking to some guys in the spa today and they said over 20 inches in the last two days. It was definitely deep.

I didn't get onto Chair 6 again today and the goodness in the Canyon area, it was open but you needed backcountry gear and a partner. They did open it in the arvo but I didn't see that till later.

Instead I made do with some runs on Chair 8 and Gabl's off Chair 5. It's nice and steep there and I got some nice turns.

Having skied here 4 days we have already found our favourite runs by now. Mine included mostly lift line on Chair 4, 5 and 8. We also found some nice turns around Chair 3 but you needed to walk about 5 metres in fresh pow. It was quite deep and Jarrod had a few problems starting. Bruce was into it though and although it was short there were some nice deep turns in there; total white room heelside turns.

So today is our last day here so we skied till our legs fell off. I was definitely finished by the last few runs but you just can't finish early when there is so much snow about. To be fair it was getting pretty tracked by the end of the day but it's still fun.

It snowed again all day and there is more forecast for tomorrow. It's pretty hard to leave when conditions are this good but we have our schedule... Mt Baker has definitely lived up to the hype. Revelstoke has a tough act to follow.

Have I found it already?

There was always a chance I suppose. Mt Baker has a reputation for massive snowfall; it has a world record for the most snowfall in a season. We can't really have asked for a better start to this trip, bascially we have been skiing powder every day.

Today we got 7 inches overnight, and it PUKED all day to boot. All the way up I was wondering if we would actually be able to make it. I'm glad we did cos it was pretty great. The bummer was that Chair 6 was closed due to high winds which meant the remaining terrain would get tracked hard but that's okay.

We started off with a quick run on the green. I got a total white room turn ducking under the "no jumping" rope. It would be one of many. Bruce got stuck on this first run, that would also be one of many!

Then it was up to Chair 8. I took off for a few quick runs and in the end we all went at our own pace, the best way to do it on a powder day. Because it was so stormy the vis was pretty bad sometimes; but of course it was fine in the trees.

I ended out checking out some new terrain off Chair 5 and Chair 4. Found some really nice pitches, mainly lift line runs. It was pretty tracked but still plenty of soft stuff. Also found a nice tree run on the last pitch to chair 8.

Caught up with Bruce and Jarrod again later in the day and finished off with a few runs with them.

Easily the best day of the trip so far. The powder was definitely good. About thigh deep when you're ploughing though it on a flat part. The question now is will anything top this? If it snows again tonight then maybe....

Baker Day 2 - New Discoveries

Well the big dump never arrived and we woke up to "trace inches" as the snow report. There was still a light dusting over everything though and some plenty of new places to go exploring in.

We managed to get up to the hill a bit earlier this time and the carpark was much less full. Apparently for a Monday it was a bit busier than usual but the rest of the week might be better.

Chair 8 was the call for a start. Top to bottom. We continued on for a couple more runs and then Jarrod had to go into the lodge to warm up. So decided to check out Chair 6 which is only black runs; Bruce decided to come with me. There is some nice terrain here and with a big dump it would be pretty epic, some nice steep pitches into an area called Canyon.

Anyway Bruce and I decided to keep it simple but I couldn't resist some powder stashes and we ended out in a flat area filled with powder. It took us a little while to get out of there but once we did we found the terrain park. It's only the beginners one but it's still fun; a few boxes and a couple of jumps.

Jarrod kept doing runs on the green while we extracted ourselves from the powder and we finally met up with him in time for lunch.

The rest of the day was mainly done on chair 6. I found some nice runs into that Canyon area but it's a bit worrying dropping into there on your own not knowing where I'm going. So I either followed other people or stuck to what I know. It was good to know what was down there though.

Definitely a good day.

It pretty much snowed all day today and on a drive down to Maple Falls it puked hard, Bruce was driving; his first time. He made it there and back successfully but as we pulled into park in front of our apartment he almost hit another parked car; he must have just missed it by an inch! It's the last time he's driving.

Mt Baker delivers

Oops. Sleeping in of the first day isn't a good start! Nevermind. We got up and headed to the hill about 9:30!

I looked outside and there was no new snow on the ground or on the car. Oh well, we can hit up the groomers and warm up the legs right? Well i was sort of right and sort of wrong. They did have a snowfall last night (about 11 inches in 24 hours) and there was plenty of fresh around it seemed. The combination of it being a weekend and our late start didn't help me in my quest to have the best days skiing of my life but Bruce and Jarrod probably had it today.

We played around on the green runs first up and got some nice powder sections. Bruce and Jarrod were both getting used to being in powder but were loving it. We also did a lot of runs on Chair 8 and hit alot of the blues up there and tried to find as much powder as possible. I ducked into the trees now and then and found some little turns.

As usual i was feeling like an unco first up but by the end of the day I was starting to feel it a bit more. Plenty of time to get into it though!

By the end of the day Chair 8 was well and truly tracked and our legs were also fully done. It was a good day. We got some killer views of Mt Shuskan and played around on a little banked slalom.

There is more snow due throughout the week so hopefully we will get in some good turns. There is no snow on the ground at the moment but as I've learnt that doesn't mean much.

Fingers crossed.

Crossing the border again.

Last day in Van. I got up and met Jarrod and we both walked down to pick up the car. Hertz failed me on two counts this time around. The first was that the car didn't have sat nav and the second was that it wasn't quite as big as I thought it was going to be. We got a GMC Envoy, it was brand new (only 41 km on the clock) which was a small consolation but since I was so in love with the sat nav I couldn't be turned. Anyway we got a map in the end so we will make sure we don't get lost somewhere in BC later on.

We met up with Dean and Michelle first up at the West 4th board shops. Michelle was buying some new pants. Then we carted everyone up to MEC again so I could finish buying stuff there. Met up with Deb and Ryan who be at Big White also.

About an hour later we were done and some quick sightseeing was in order. My plans of using the GPS to find everything was gone but we managed to get to a very cold Deep Cove. I'd seen it better but today it was rather cold and slightly windy. Then we headed up Mt Seymour. On the way up it started snowing pretty hard out; quite cool. The boys were pretty stoked. We went up to the CBC carpark and did the full on tourist thing of getting out and throwing around snow! Everyone does it once I suppose! Then it was back down and off to Mt Baker.

We decided to follow advice and head to the Sumas border crossing, it was meant to be less busy and it was. The only delay was when Bruce and Jarrod decided to take photos at the border and had to get there cameras checked for incriminating photos.

The Mt Baker highway seemed really remote, just farm land. We managed to get to the office in Maple Falls just before it closed and carried on to our accommodation in Snowater in the dark.

It's a total palace really. Everything we need, heaps of room, flat screen tv! It's park of a "gated community" and has shared facilities like pools, and squash courts. I plan to head down to the river and do some exploring later too. Totally glad we paid extra and didn't stay in a dingy old motel. I guess we are just getting soft in our old age!

First day of snowboarding tomorrow!

Back to Canada for now...

I drove back to Canada today. Slept in though so didn't quite make it away as early as I had planned; must have been tired.

First order of the day was to check the coverage of the tennis Kirsten had recorded for me on Tivo. It was in HD and her flatmate had a massive LCD. The picture was real nice ;O)

Caught up with Kirsten for breakfast and she gave me a quick tour of her workplace. Pretty cool. Two gyms, soccer fields, pool, climbing wall, tennis courts, running tracks etc... I would never leave work!

Then it was full steam ahead for Vancouver. I was trying to make it back before the rental car place closed since I didn't know what the parking would be like around the hostel. I was aiming for 5:30pm but didn't make that time cos of the traffic in Vancouver. Thankfully I got the time wrong and the place closed at 6pm.

Once I returned the car I lugged all my shopping and bags back to the hostel. I must have looked like a homeless person but no one took a second look since there are so many other homeless around!

Caught up with Dean and Michelle for the first time tonight. Went to the Railway Bar and caught a bit of the solo piano accordion act that was playing that night. It was an "interesting" crowd, full of unusual characters.

Had two beers and that was it. Bedtime. More shopping tomorrow!

I love Sat Nav

Today I was going to drive down to see Kirsten in Portland and raid the Nike Employee store again. This time I got a car with Sat Nav. I have learnt to love this. Basically it let me drive around without having to worry about where I was going, like having a local person in the seat next to me telling me where to go. Brilliant. It allowed me to cruise into Portland and find pretty much anything I wanted.

The drive down wasn't as bad as last time, i didn't encounter massive traffic jams going through Seattle like I did on my last visit. It's a long drive though and I had to stop a few times to get food etc to keep me awake.

The damage at the Nike store wasn't too bad but I could have easily spent more. The had a ton of golf stuff in there. Clubs and all. Luckily I hate golf ;O)

I also stopped at a few other places, generally soaked in the views and caught up with Kirsten. All worth the 500km trip down.

The longest day; Toyko to Vancouver

Last day in Tokyo was pretty much a write off, we had time for breakfast and a quick visit to the market in the nearby temple area and then we had to leave for the plane. The big change this morning was that it was snowing! A total contrast to the last couple of days.

We made it to the airport with only a few minor hassles but with some luck and some local help we got there in plenty of time. We planned to take limited express but ended out on a different train that stopped heaps more; not a big deal.

Travelling into the US is always a hassle and this was no different. We all got questioned about our travel plans and then Bruce and Jarrod got called for a random baggage check!

I ended up with a window seat again but the nice surprise is that this plane had little TV screens on it! Nice! Definitely helped pass the time. This one was a night flight so didn't really get much sleep...

The second flight for the day was on an old turbo prop plane operated by Horizon Air. Very much a budget airline. I was in row 9 but still at the back of the plane. A window seat again but this time I was glad cos the views we got from teh windows were great. Also the air hostess was a crack up, a young girl but really sarcastic, very funny in a strange way.

We were all pretty zonked so thankfully we caught a taxi right to the hostel. The same price as what we would have paid for the bus but no walking with our massive board bags.

Now into "operation no jet lag". We headed to the shops. MEC and the board shops. I bought a few things but Bruce kicked it into high gear and got some boots and a bag. One thing we were noticing about Vancouver vs Tokyo straight away was how dirty Van is. Butts all over the place and chewing gum etc...gross.

By the time we got back it was dark so the only think left really was some well earnt shut eye.

Tokyo Day 2 Amendment

Just before I forget again (although I'm not sure how I could!) Between the visit to the first market and to Ginza, Bruce and I took a ride on Thunder Dolphin in the amusement park right next to the Tokyo Dome. There were hardly any people riding it so we got to sit at the front. It was pretty cool and it had this MASSIVE 80 metre drop at the beginning. I think I spent the rest of the ride recovering from it!

I love rollercoasters!

Tokyo Day 2

Today was dominated by consumer goods and retail, things were always going to head in this direction so it was useless to resist. 

It didn't start this way though.  First on the agenda was Tsukiji Fish Market.  This is really an early morning activity and turning up at 10am means that we basically get there in time to see everyone packing up for the day.  We still sort of got a feel for the place though, lots of activity and a few fish bits still about.

One interesting thing we saw was smoked fish shavings being sold.  It smelt great and I could probably just get a bag of the stuff and just eat it.  We also found people queuing to get into the sushi places for some morning sushi, I don't think we were brave enough to get involved in the world of high pressure ordering so we decided to leave it; also we were full from out usual breakfast of rice and meat.

It was onto Ginza next.  Or maybe it's more acurrate to say Bic Camera in Ginza because that is where we spent most of our time.  Bruce and I both bought cameras, I got a rather cheap Panasonic and Bruce got and overseas model Sony.  The guy helping us had good but basic english which maybe contributed to the length of the sale but i'm sure the decision making powers of Bruce and I combined probably had a bearing too.  Anyway he stuck with us for the whole time we needed him so he earned his commission.

So plans to go to Odaiba when out the window and we decided to take our tired legs back into the direction of the hostel.  A stop in Akhibara was made again for some more retail therapy and then we all finally made it back to Asakusa.  We haven't really left again today and have just been checking out the local area.

One of today highlights was checking out Rolly; a new device from Sony.  Bascially it is a portable music player which dances to the music.  It was doing a demo at the sony building in Ginza.  A very cool but pretty useless item, probably won't be seeing that in NZ!

Tomorrow is going to be cut pretty short cos we have a plane to catch and with a 3 hour checkin etc we only really have an hour in the morning.  Canada here we come!

Lost In Translation

So, we're actually taking the search to Japan since this part of the world is renowned for it's powder.  The airlines dictate that we have to fly via Japan in both directions so we are doing a sightseeing jaunt on the way up.

I'm writing this in Sakura Hostel in Asakusa with a dwindling battery as I have found out that my adaptor isn't suitable for the holes in the wall.  Stupid.

A run down of what has happened so far then.

Plane ride was okay.  The much hyped (well, hyped to me) screens were quite reasonable but i didn't actually find myself watching any movies.  I played the games briefly and managed to pull a 4 move checkmate on the medium level of the chess program.  Also ended out in a window seat so kept disturbing a poor Japanese guy every time I wanted to get up or go and pee.  Jarrod scored a nice seat in the exit area, i'll be after one of those next time!

After surrendering images of our index fingers and mugs at customs we headed for McDonalds for some grub.  Thankfully this wasn't going to set a tone for the rest of our culinary experimentation but it allowed us a little airport exploring which was fun.

My initial worries with finding our way with the subway and lack of english speakers has quickly been allayed since we found our way to the Capsule Inn in Akihabara with pretty much no problems.  We picked the Kensi Skyliner and then onto the Ginza.

The capsules are actually pretty spacious areas (for me anyway).  Plenty of room to shift around in your sleep etc.  The TV worked but I didn't try the radio.  The pillow was an interesting item, fully of large round beads but reasonably comfortable.  The biggest pain about the capsule hotel is the fact that everything is spread all over the place.  Lockers (which were miniscule) etc on a different floor and the bathrooms were too.  The actual capsule room itself was really hot too, at least initially. It was an interesting experience I suppose and I did get some sleep so mission accomplished.

We made the trek to Sakura Hostel in the morning and dumped our luggage.  Then took a wander around the local area. 

First order of the day was breakfast.  We decided to go local and popped into this place that served rice and stuff.  To order you get a ticket from a machine (which thankfully had pictures on it) and then sit at the bar.  I got a nice rice thing with some meat (and an egg on it), also Miso soup and green tea.  580 Yen I think.

We then headed to Sensouji Temple and checked stuff there.  Bruce and I got a prayer thing from and tided it on the thing.  I got Good Fortune and Bruce got Extremely Good Fortune.  I wonder if there are actually any bad ones.....

After wandering around the surrounding markets, we checked into our hostel and then headed back out to visit La Qua and Thunder Dolphin and also visit Shinjuku.

Thunder Dolphin did not disappoint.  Bruce and I sat in the very front.  We were one of three people on it....  The first drop was the best.  It was an 80M drop and it was pretty much vertical at one point.  I actually had to close my eyes; it was intense!  The rest of the ride was also pretty good but the drop made it. 

We continued our foray into Japanese cuisine by choosing a place called Ginkingo (or something) over KFC.  We also convinced Jarrod that this was a better plan.  They served what looked like meatballs but there actually seafood based and mostly empty!  It was okay but Jarrod couldn't do it and went back to KFC!

By the time we headed to Shinjuku we were already pretty tired.  We did a very quick look around but headed back before really exploring properly.  We actually spent most of our time in Bic Camera I think.  It had all sorts of cool gadgets and what appears to be extremely cheap digital cameras.  I'll have to do some more research and see if this is really true or not (they are about half price) since everything we have been told told us not to expect that.

Anyway, now we are pretty zonked.  I'm rocking it in my single room so I shouls sleep well.  Tomorrow, the Fish Market, Ginza and Odaiba?  We'll see how the legs feel at the end of the day this time!

PS. checked the Mt Baker ski report and it does seem like there might be some more snow coming; good to hear!

Where did I come from?

I first heard about this trip via an email from Jarrod on the 26th of June 2007 mentioning the intention to visit the great white north this coming winter. From there a three week trip to Whistler and Big White has morphed into a 6 week ski resort safari to see if these ski magazines are just telling lies to sell ad space...

It's been a typically detail driven process for me to come up with the final itinerary. I'm positive that I became impossible to understand during this time, but hopefully this obsessive planning will luck me into the some of the best skiing of my life.