After a cancelled flight coming out, I have now experienced a cancelled flight heading home due to the volcanic ash cloud hovering over most of Europe. I guess that’s another thing we have to thank those Icelandic’s for. I finally got on a flight out of Seattle back to London, and so I have been to Seattle twice now in this trip.
Something was definitely up with the US border guards though, as both times I have entered the US, they have acted in almost a jovial manner and have smiled.
So it’s back to the UK to get a job and give up the dream of being a perpetual snow bum, something I never thought I would actually relish (getting another job that is). It has been one of the best 3 months ever, and I really can’t express how much fun it has been despite the failure to get my CASI level 2.
To top it all off, I have been upgraded on my flight back home.
Kicking Horse
A fairly sluggish start to the day got us up to Kicking Horse by about 9.30am, and after purchasing our lift tickets we got on our first gondola at 10am. A short warm up run and Stairway to Heaven chair set us up for a short hike up to redemption ridge and a nice steep drop in to a nice long powder run. Thirty minutes later we got to the bottom again for an energy drink stop and another go, coming straight down this time to complete the entire 1200m vertical descent without too many stops.
Around 1.30pm the entire mountain was closed for an inbounds avalanche, and when we got to the bottom there were a lot of people being downloaded off the Golden Eagle Express gondola. Half day lift tickets were being handed out as compensation for closing the mountain, and since we were pretty much exhausted anyways we exchanged our tickets ready to tame the horse tomorrow.
The sheer steepness and size of this mountain is unbelievable and probably one of the finest descents in the world. Riding 1200m of vertical powder and moguls takes quite some time and a considerable amount of energy. We will be back tomorrow.
Day 2 at Revelstoke didn’t quite live up to Day 1, but there was still 5cm of freshies and most of the snow from the previous day hadn’t been tracked out.
Still riding only the Stoke and Ripper chairlifts, we had a day of riding some of the finest glade runs ever. It seems likely that the next time I come back here, there will be a few more chair’s opening up some more terrain. There is a plan which seems to include installing at least another 20 chairs on the mountain.
The drive between Revelstoke and Golden is some of the most amazing mountain scenery I have ever seen with huge snow covered mountains on all sides. A time zone change as we drove through Roger’s pass meant that we lost an hour when arriving in Golden, BC. That didn’t stop us hunting down a bargain Travelodge and heading out for some well deserved bacon cheeseburgers and a couple of beers to ensure we got a good nights sleep.
Revelstoke is still in its early days of development and only has 4 lifts; one of which is a magic carpet.
We just happened to arrive at the perfect time, for what the locals described as the best day of the season. There was 30cm of fresh snow and, although the mountain was limited to the top section of the mountain due to the unseasonably warm weather, the snowboarding was amazing. Two chairlifts covered an enormous amount of terrain, and the tree runs seemed endless. By the end of the day we were knackered and deserved the beers we had in the Rockford bar, which had only opened in December 2009.
Woke up this morning in a dodgy motel in Vernon, BC, ready for a day’s riding at Silver Star. Despite some promising looking weather forecasts there wasn’t any fresh snow, although at one point it started snowing but it didn’t last that long. The terrain at Silver seemed to be a lot steeper than that of Big White, but the resort is a bit lower and the temperature was a bit too high at the bottom making the trails a little slushy and slow in places.
Only a 140km drive after skiing , taking us past countless lakes, the houseboat capital of Canada (I don’t remember the name of that place), and we have arrived in Revelstoke, estimated to be one of the new school resorts to compete on a world class level. Luckily for us it is raining at the moment in the town (at 500m) so it should be snowing at the top.
Woke up this morning in Rossland after eating one of the finest burger’s ever in a restaurant called The Garage in Rossland, BC. It was a bacon and mushroom cheeseburger and it knocked the socks off the Sam’s burger, which is no mean feat.
Red mountain is one of the best mountains I have ridden. The resort actually is made up of two peaks, Red and Granite mountains, and Granite mountain is perhaps the best of the two mountains. You can actually ride 360 degrees of this mountain, and the tree’s are very nicely spaced meaning all the terrain is fair game. The steepness is very good too, and I would have liked to have spent a few more days on this mountain to really get the most out of it. The only downside is that it is warming up too quickly and so there is a lot of slushy snow. I estimate this is going to be the theme of this road trip.
We finished off the day with a long road trip from Red Mountain to Vernon, and decided to go the long scenic way taking in a ferry ride in the process. In hindsight the ferry was not as picturesque as we had all imagined and we added an extra 200km onto our journey and perhaps wasted a few hours driving. There is some awesome scenery in this part of the world though.
So it’s all finished. Eleven weeks of CASI instruction to become and snowboard instructor, and I have attained a Level 1 and part of Level 2. I failed the teaching component, and so will go re-sit this component in Blackcomb on the 8th April.
Friday night was spent in Snowshoe Sam’s and only 15 out of the 45 people on the course were heading home. Many people were staying on in Big White until the 11th March when the resort closes, but I am out of here straight away on a road trip with Nick, Andy, and Hamish to hit some of BC and Alberta’s finest ski hills.
The trip has been amazing and everyone will take something away from the experience, whether it be improved skiing or snowboarding, or the ability to teach people how to snowboard. I guess most people will have a combination of both to look back on with fond memories.
It’s off on the road for me now. Goodbye Big White.
So the pain of the last 4 days of CASI Level 2 exam is over. I don’t have the results yet, but the course was enough to have me pretty stressed out for the last few days. At least now I am officially on holiday from now on, and there is a big road trip coming up hitting some of BC and Alberta’s finest ski resorts. More news about the results to follow….
The CASI Level 2 exam started today, and the snow conditions could certainly have been better. There is about 1cm of new snow on a bed of sheet ice and there is no new snow due until the exam is over. One of our SnowSkool group has slipped over and broken her wrist today and is now in Kelowna Hospital having it fixed.
The pace of the exam is slower than expected, and I am in a group with 3 SnowSkool’ers and 3 others who either work in the resort or live in Kelowna. We are covering most of the material that we have covered in the past 4 weeks, so it is very much revision for me. Our examiner is Jeff Chandler, who is the author of the CASI manual, so I am hoping that some of his boarding brilliance will rub off on us all. He is probably the best boarder I have seen ride.
Only 3 more exam days to go….
After a big Friday night at Gigi’s beach party and a day of constant snow, Saturday morning was an early start with everyone hurrying to get a piece of the 18cm’s of fresh powder in the glorious sunshine. The Ridge Rocket had at least 200 people in the line up when I got there at 8.30am after skipping breakfast, and most people were heading straight for the T-bar which broke down just as I joined the line.
A few lifts later and we were back in the powder though, dropping cliffs off the side of Grizzly (not the best landings ever) and heading over to Gem Lake for another incredibly long lift line.
Had to refuel for the day with two burgers at Raakels for lunch, and a burger at Sam’s later after the last Telus Rail Park Jam later in the evening.
