I'll keep it short and sweet

I will keep this post short as i am running off battery at Calgary Airport.
I want to make sure i have battery for the flight home and incase i need it at the other end for any reason.

Any how the day has sadly arrived that i had to leave Fernie. The coach trip was a little emotional as we left but it seemed to go fairly quickly one the way to the airport.
We have checked in and am now awaiting the plane to arrive so we can get on it!

Anyhow onto more important issues; yesterday was D day or Dean Day as we got to know it.
I wont beat around the bush, I did it!
It was very tense but i passed the skiing and the teaching (teaching i thought was borderline), but who cares i got the outcome i wanted. It took a while to sink in infact i dont think it has yet!

Anyway i am on way home now so will see you peps very soon.

Laters

A good day on Level 2

That's now four days of the dreaded five completed. I have had Dean and Jens for two days apiece.

Today like the other three wasn't too bad. I had a chance to practice my teaching a bit more today and it needs practice - more than i will get on the course that's for sure. I didn't do to badly overall and got some constructive criticism to work with from Jens so that should be OK tomoz. We will see ahy. I feel fairly confident about my skiing as i am being pushed for performance which is not part of the Level 2 standard.

After seeing an outsider called Richard pass his teaching today when we all thought he was deemed to fail it gives me a bit of hope. He really was not that great and his skiing wasn't up to par either but he already had that so he now level 2 qualified - crazy!

I am also keeping fairly chilled about the whole thing which is good, and just trying to relax and do what has gotta be done.

This means that i have only got about 4-5 hours left skiing now for the season and that's on course so it won't be amazing skiing, not that it could be in these tropical temperatures anyway; we are skiing in 15C to 21C every day these last 5 days. Its truly silly.

In a little over 17 hours i will know the final standings and find out whether my season will bring me the result i want!

Here's to hoping ahy!

Laters people.

Well thats Day 3

Well that was the third day done and dusted. I still have no real idea of how i am getting on, however in my feedback session this evening Jens did say to me that my skiing is on standard and if i keep up what i have been doing then i should pass the skiing section. It just depends on the teaching coming up tomoz and Sunday - arrrgggghhh!

Other than this though nothing much else to report, we went to the Curry bowl for dinner tonight and then came back and chilled for a while. I had to say gdbye to Will, which was sad as i had become quite good mates with him in the last couple of weeks, with him being in my lessons and then the first part or my Level 2 course.

Any hows hope alls well back home cos it aint long till i return doh!

Laters people.

No news is good news right?

Well i have nothing new to report from yesterday. The Course went into day 2 and came out not knowing much more - my skiing has changed and Dean pushed me for performance today. I cant interpret this to say i am doing OK or not. Tomoz the teaching starts so here's the bit i aint looking forward to! Oh well let see what happens.

One thing that did come out of the day was Will passed his skiing by the skin of his teeth and so now has level 2. Also it was Dangerous Paul's last night so that was a bit sad to say goodbye as i have been with him since day 1. Oh well that's what happens at the end of the course!

Laters peps.

One Day Down, Four To Go

Apologies for not posting yesterday - time just ran out.

It was the NonStop fancy dress day and the last full day for a large number of people.

In the evening we had our farewell dinner which was a bit sad but we had a great laugh with some awards and prizes being given out. We also watched some videos and slideshows containing pics of our time here. It was amazing to see the changes and remember some of the crazy shit that has gone on. I hit bed fairly early though as i started the dreaded Level 2 today.

It was an early start to register and then get underway. The skiing conditions this morning were some of the worst i have skied since i arrived - it was like skiing on concrete!
Any how the day went by and to be honest although my style of skiing has been changed drastically again, so far it doesn't seem to be going to bad. I haven't done the teaching part yet, that is later in the week and the bit i am not looking forward to.

After a quickish tech session and a one on one with my instructor we returned home this evening to a very empty lodge. Brendan left today so i now i have a room to myself - yeah! Alot of others have left as well and it seems really wierd to be honest - like a ghost town! Any how i went out to Boston Pizza with what remains of the gang for dinner, and then came back and did my reading for course tomoz - whoop!

Laters peps.

I didn't come skiing to get sunburnt!

What a day in more ways than one!

Firstly it was the last day of our Race Coach Course.
Thankfully there wasn't quite as much theory to be covered today and we got out on the slopes within an hour i think. This was kinda good and kinda bad cos we had been told yesterday to pick which level we thought we were from a rating system and then pick an exercise to cover and demonstrate to the class.
I though after my abismal day yesterday in the classroom that i should show some effort and not be timid by getting my exercise in first. So i did, i thought it went ok but my assessor didn't do what i asked - while everyone else did - this worried me but i thought he is French Canadian so maybe he didn't understand? Anyway that got that out the way! phew. the plan of going first backfired though when others got away with doing nothing as they had the same drill! Oh well.

We broke for an early lunch and went out again for a ski off after wards to allow our assessor to decide whether we were good enough to pass. After a run of short radius, medium radius and mixed radius turns we hit the griz bar to wait for the enevitaable and get sun burnt in the ridiculous weather - about 14C, as it wasn't worth continuing to ski it was rubbish. Eventually it came to that time and we were handed our results - Whoop Whoop - i passed just Level 2 to do now.

When we returned back to the lodge me and some of the gang hit town in tshirts to do some browsing for hotdog day. The temperature and sunshine is wierd.

We had dinner in a big congregation about 6.30pm and chilled for a bit after that playing games you usually play on the beach in the summer!

Later in the evening me and Marky went down to the river to do some night photography. Wicked, it was nice although only a couple of the photos are worthy.

That brings me to this very point; goodnight peps, speak again soon - i'm into my final week!

Where did my weekend go?

Well i say where did my weekend go - did i actually have one in the first place? errr NO!
After feeling absolutely wrecked from winter camping getting up yesterday morning bright and early to start my Race Coach Course was not a welcome sight! But i managed it along with the others that were up for it!

We registered with the external examiners and got on skis not long after. this was actually because they had forgotten to bring the books up from their hotel and so needed to fetch them. After a mornings ski improvement or more as i like to call it (in prep for level 2) - detuning, we headed in for lunch. They certainly made it short and sweet - no doubts there! The reasoning for this became clear after lunch as we entered a 1hr and a half tech session. To round off the day we did some more skiing and wrapped it up with a little more indoor theory - long day. Last night not alot happened for me - but that was cool - i needed an early night.

This morning wasn't quite so bad and my cough, cold and ulcers didn't seem so bad - deceiving little buggers that they are! To be honest later in the day i was in agony! Oh well i manned up and got on with it!

Unsurprisingly we started off this morning with yet more theory - yahoo! What a tit i made of myself as well, when all i needed to do was paraphrase something for the class i just seized up and couldn't say anything. Not good. I felt like a right imbecile. Two hours of theory anyhow, then we went for a ski.

We did some crazy sh1t today - i don't think i have ever skied like this before; very fast and not turning much down the hill - wicked what a buzz. Sorry mum but i love skiing on the edge - its so much fun; if you don't fall that often, you ain't trying!
A little more skiing this afty before another hefty theory session at two hours, hard work to stay awake!

The bus ride home was a welcomed end to the day to be honest. I was rounded out with a trip to A&W's awesome food providing joint - not! Then a return to the lodge and a chat with some of the gang.

Thought for the day: do i actually want to teach skiing? hmmmm

Laters people

Winter Camping

Yesterday was probably my most varied day i have had.

Lessons didn't go to well in the morning, Jens kept having a go at my skiing and to be honest made me feel like sh1t. It seemed like there was no way i would ever pass Level 2 next week.

I was well down beat for most of the morning, wondering also whether i should go on the winter camping in the afternoon of if i needed all the instruction i could get.
Anyways we finally broke for lunch and went to lizard creek. After a mass luncheon a few of us just chilled out in the lounge before we headed off for winter camping.

We met everyone @ 3 @ the bottom of the timber chair. We headed up not long after with huge bags and loads of gear. Then it was a short ski to get out of bounds and an absolutely exhausting hike to the area where we were building our caves. Then we started the building or more like digging actually cos that was what it was. We started the process by flattening/trampling a circle about 10ft across. Then piled alot more snow on top to make a dome. Meanwhile John dug a pit about 8 ft deep at the front to start our entrance. One we had gone far enough down we started to dig in and then up - all bloody hard work. Over the period of 5 hours we went from a flat piece of ground to a cave about 60cm tall, 6 ft wide and about 6 ft deep. I have never dug so much in my life - it was like building a sand castle the size of a large car!

Eventually it was finished and we joined everyone by the measly fire to try and warm up a little. In the end though we just hit the sack - literally. To be honest i didn't sleep to badly. The only issues i came across was the fact that my pillow rolled away in the middle of the night.

We woke up early this morning to see what was happening - Louise had had a very cold night and was like an ice block unlike me and John who were fine. It was fairly chilly and so getting changed/back into selopats and jacket in a space as small as i described was a challenge. Also our boots had quite literally frozen and getting them back on took ages and is not easy when you cant sit up and only lie on your side.

Any how after about an hour of faffing we got to the point where we had skis on and were ready to go. Feeling like a Sherpa with a huge bag on my back we skied powder covered steep terrain back to the piste. Once on there it was great as no one had been done the run yet so we had virtually fresh tracks - wicked!

Strange as it sounds i would do the whole thing again it was great fun!

At this point breakfast was in order and so we hit the day lodge for some much needed nourishment. I indulged myself with waffles, syrup and cream - yum. After breaky we got the bus back to the lodge where we freshened up and chilled out - i was absolutely cream crackered. In the afternoon i went for a ponder to town and did nothing else - just rested knowing that i had my coaching course starting tomoz.

Will let peps know how that goes.

Jens master to Jens disaster

Well what a mixed day i have had.

It started off this morning with quite a good time. After the first two days of Jens being really hard and no one in the group really happy with the instruction things started to improve today. We have had quite a big dumping of snow over the last two days, quite possibly the best skiing days of the year so far and we haven't been able to free ski in it!

This morning however Jens started to chill out a bit and let go - he got us skiing some awesome tracks and jumping off cat tracks - it was wicked.
Sadly however it wasn't to last and this afternoon he went a bit mental with the syncronised skiing competition we did.

I will round up quickly because the mentalness of the last 12 days or so has kicked in and time is very short, days left are limited. i am finishing this post about 6 hours after starting it.

There was a fashion show tonight for hot dog day (retro day) with some wicked clothing modelled by instructors and nonstop staff, it was hilarious - picys will follow; i seem to always say that!

Just had to pack for winter camping and is now very late - sleep deprivation is a big issue!
Will be sleeping in a snow cave on the mountain tomoz could be interesting as well as cold. will let you know. With that in mind there will defo be no post tomoz - hope to catch up with you guys again on Friday.

Speak soon

The Almighty Jens

Today was very usual for a Monday morning. Getting up seemed liked a chore but once you get going it ain't so bad.

With only just over a week to go between now and my Level 2, the pressure is on to be up to scratch for the course in both the skiing and teaching departments - at the moment i am no where near sure that i am going to pass to say the least.

One good thing that did come out of today was that i got the Yoda of Skiing; Jens. He heads up the course out hear and is a skiing God. He will be one of my course conductors next week so if i can please him this week then i know i am in with a good chance next week.
In general skiing was OK today with good and bad moments. Quite knackering though!

To top it off we had a tech session this evening which lasted the best part of 2 hours - far too long.

This left me little time to get ready to go out. I was invited by Louise to join her, her Dad and Patrick and Mark for dinner at a local Sushi house. I have never had sushi before but i can know say that i really enjoyed it and would happily go to a sushi house again.
We had a wicked evening and a great laugh - it was good to talk to people who knew what 'the rock' was!

Will keep you posted on skiing developments this week as and when i can, it is going to be a busy last couple of weeks!

Laters, peps

Now I've skied the USA

Well it was only a short trip but one i am glad i did.
The start yesterday was even earlier than the one from the week before, but wasn't to hard to get up strangely even after only five hours sleep - had to watch the F1 qualifying on Friday Night.
We were on our way by 7.30 and the trip went fairly quickly except for delay at US border control. They are so bloody rude and picky - we decided we didn't like them!

We arrived at Big Mountain about 11ish so decided to have breakfast and lunch all together with the aim of skiing the rest of the day in one go. After scoffing a strange form of spag bol, i hit the slopes with Andy, James and Tom. To be honest i felt crap from the start - i had taken my carving skis instead of my powder ones and paid the price because most of the mountain had a nice little dusting of pow pow which grew to much more in certain areas. This just meant that i skied rubbish and got quite frustrated!
On the positive side what i saw of the mountain i liked quite a lot - i thought i was better than both Red and Castle from the two weeks before. My best run was probably the last where i felt like my short radius parallel turns were great. We actually stopped skiing about 3.30 and chilled with a drink or two in the humongous day lodge.
About 4.30 ish we got the coach back to WhiteFish and found the hotel. It was quite like the accommodation at Red but it was OK. After a freshen up me and Rich went to look for possible dinner. In the end we grouped up with a bunch of others and headed to supposedly the best restaurant in town. We had a wicked evening and a great laugh - with pretty good food to be honest. We racked up a bill of about US$1100 in the process!
After this we hit the bars - some stayed later than others. After an hour or so chatting to host Jenny i headed back once i had seen others pack it in at about 11 ish.
I tried to watch what was apparently quite an exciting opening race of the season for F1 but America don't like that sport so i couldn't and watched the Incredibles instead!
Rich stumbled through the door about 2 and others returned all through the night till about 7 this morning.

Today we just chilled around town. It seemed to expensive to go up the hill and ski for 1/2 a day for $60. I did loose count of how many times we walked around the streets cos after breaky - which was some wicked french toast we even walked a few kilometres out of town to Whitefish Lake itself. I will upload picys in the next couple of days if i can find time. Even after this hour and a half detour we still had time to waste. Eventually back at the hotel people started to appear and we got on our way after picking up some stragglers at the ski hill. This was about 6.00 ish. After a stop on the way we got to Canadian border control who were much nicer than the US version - unsurprisingly. Then it was a straight drive back to the lodge where i chilled and watched a movie with the gang, before writing this and will soon be hitting bed.

Important week this week so gotta push hard for the Race coach this weekend and then the dreaded Level 2 next week - aaaaarrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh.

Laters people.

On the way back to norm

I will try and make this another one of my briefer posts.

I haven't posted for the last couple of days simply because not a lot has gone on. Since my fall the other day i decided to be cautious and take a couple of days off from the skiing routine.

Today i returned to the slopes and had one of my best days on the slopes so far despite the cold and icy conditions. Things just seemed to click today. While all this was going on the first group of level 2's completed their course today. Amazing only a few failed to pass which i view as a good thing for them and me. With the high pass rate it looks good for those of us taking in a week or so time.

Any how i am off to Whitefish US, tomoz so have to get up ridiculously early and need to try and sleep with the level 2's celebrating in the corridor - laters peps.

Oh dear yet another wipeout

Will make this quick as i have to catch the bus in a few minutes. (I am writing this on wednesday but talking about tuesday if you catch my drift)

Yesterdays skiing wasn't to bad - the runs were very icy; particularly down the bottom.
Skiing yesterday was based on ski improvement and i think we achieved it. Everything went well till the afternoon - where i decided to follow Ron(our instructor) and jump off a cat track. I landed the jump without a problem, but then shat myself when i saw the condition of the snow 20 yards ahead. Somewhere in that melee i lost it and had a nice wipeout although curiously i lost both my poles and my skis stayed on?

The evening was consumed by dinner which wasn't to bad - a very cheesy lasagna and yet more pool and a couple of very obscure games of Jenga; Mark likes to twist the whole tower as he removes bricks!

Surprise Snow

Well you would expect it with the weather we have been having over the last few days but we actually had about 15cm of snow over night.

This meant that my early morning lesson was a little interesting as it was powder on top with ice underneath and this caught me out on a few occasions!
In places however the snow was superb and the real powder skiing feeling came over me as i made nice neat short turns in pristine pow pow.

Sadly though it didn't last till even lunch time, by which point the temperature had hit 10C and the area in front of the rental shop was suitable for water skiing.

I came home at this point and wrapped up a few things that needed sorting and spoke to the rents and Han again. Other than this though it was dinner and a mediocre film called Pride and Glory; if you haven't seen it don't bother!

Laters People.

Castle Mountain and crapy internet

To be honest this week has been a fairly average week in terms of goings on.
The snow has been rubbish and therefore skiing hasn't been great, but as we keep being told 'you have to be able to ski all terrain in all conditions!

Yesterday was the earliest getup i have had since i have been out here; the shocking hour of 6.50am. With that i had to be on the bus by 7.15 so as i snoozed my alarm there wasn't time for breaky. The journey to Castle Mountain was fairly uneventful, its about 1h30m. I slept a large proportion of it until i woke up finding my head bashing against the window which i was lent upon.

After sorting our selves out we headed up the smaller of the two mountains to find it extremely icy and not much fun. We decided after a couple of runs to move to the larger of the two mountains to see what it was like. The snow was better - where there was snow. It was very sparse particularly towards the top of the mountain. There was so much bare rock it looked like the surface of an outer planet not a ski hill; serious navigation was required. After a couple of runs we came in for a drink followed by another run and then lunch.

Once we had satisfied our hunger needs with chilli-fries for me we hit the mountain again and decided that the snow on the big mountain was shocking (like velcro) so went back to the smaller hill and skied some runs there. We also took some pics so will upload those and the videos when the internet conection is stable enough to upload without cutting out.
At this point we decided enough was enough and hit the bar as it was baking hot and it was turning into waterskiing rather than skiing.

When Adam returned from the hospital with Louis in one piece after being crashed into we headed home. This took a little longer than getting there probably cos i remained awake for most of it taking picy's.
I was so knackered when i got back i couldn't be arsed to go out to get food so had cereal instead. The only other thing of note to happen last night was our epic Jenga game which lasted a full 40 minutes and we actually completed it - we ran out of blocks.

Today has been much more chilled in comparison. Slow start made the phone calls to the best of the canadian internet's ability and caught up with the peps, mother especially considering the day. Other than that i have surfed the net, watched a NASCAR race - silly racing, done my washing and waxed one pair of my skis. This evening we went to Rip and Richard's for dinner and had a great laugh talking about two people on course who are prolific liers and dig their holes deeper by the day until we blow it all to pieces later this week - hilarious!
That brings me to here -->.

Laters peps.

Temperature is just right for frying bacon

Well so far this week it has been fairly chilled. Not a great deal has gone on since the excitement of Red Mountain.
As previously mentioned I did have an extra room mate who ended up staying an extra night but all has been sorted now and things are back to normal - a bit quieter and more peaceful than before.
Instruction has been tougher this week. With people taking their level 2 next week there has been a big focus on teaching and improving our skiing technique for the 4 things we are going to be assessed on; Snowplough, Intermideate Parrelell turns, short radius turns and Freerun.

Today i did my first bit of shadowing, which was well cool and very useful. It was good to see an actual lesson taking place and the instructor taking it, Sarah was very good and aloud me to demonstrate stuff and asked what i would do at one point, which was kinda scary but she was really good about it and i demonstrated well so that was cool.

The down side to this week though has definately been the temperature. It has been so hot this week that most of the snow and ice around town has melted.

P.S. Sorry meant to post this yesterday (Friday) but got carried away with something i guess.

Laters

Right an update as i have promised on the weekend.

To be honest there wasn't anything major that happened it was just alot of little things some good and and some bad that made it quite a wicked weekend.

We left on Friday morning and headed for Red on two coaches. Sadly i managed to pick the party bus and unfortunately the seat right next to self appointed DJ - Paul, who decided to play music at full blast on his Bose Sounddock all the f***ing way, all 5 hours of it. Pardon my French but that really pissed me and a number of others off.

Anyway after a stop at the Kootenay Brewery on the way we arrived in Red about 6 ish.
The accommodation was awesome - for some reason i didn't take any picy's but it was 5 star condo's i had my own room and we a had a private hottub; awesome. I was sharing the flat with Louise, Nicki and Christine although Christine ended up not staying in our condo, so we each had a room to ourselves.

The food they provided that night was terrible and could have been prepared and cooked by a monkey in a better way than they did. But we are kinda used to it now!

The following two days skiing were actually very good. It snowed the entire time we were there and the skiing was awesome in places, and excellent virtually every where else. The accommodation was right on the slope so it was a 50 yard walk to the lift in the mornings.

As i mentioned yesterday the accidents just keep coming and the weekend was no exception. One of the snowboarders got some 'absolutely awesomely brilliantly humungos air and landed on his shoulder completely destroying it - he got back to the lodge this evening and is in a really bad way - extreme sports ahy - what can one say!

Btw parents if you thought the lifts were antiquated here in Fernie dont even consider Red Mtn in Rossland as a holiday destination; their lifts are prehistoric!

Anyway sadly Sunday evening came around and we left to return home. The fun was only just beginning! I swapped coaches for the way home and that was a good thing. Firstly no music, secondly i wasn't then in the coach which got stuck going up one of the long passes and at a few points ended up sliding down the road, even with brakes and snow chains on! This meant we sat in the same place on this incline for well over an hour until the guy from the gritter truck who had driven past several times finally rescued the coach drivers from their misery and put the snow chains on the other coach which didn't have winter tyres for them.
So the journey ended up taking 7 hours! Lovely.

The skiing from the last couple of days has been good - we continue to get snow and conditions tomoz should be good as well. Level 2 is coming up fast and i only started to feel today that i was getting back in the swing of things after a whole week off, still got a way to go yet before i am at pass level.

Anyways i am currently awaiting the return of people from the pub celebrating Paddy's day cos i know its gonna get roudy in here with every one wanting to talk to Johnny or me as PJ is currently doing.

Laters

We have gained a cripple!

Well actually more than one - four have been put out for the season in the last week alone. A smashed shoulder, a badly ruptured shoulder, a broken leg and details of the last to follow.

Before you start worrying mum none of the cripples are me!
My issue has resolved itself and i am back skiing - just need to get my confidence back - my skiing is rubbish.

The person in question is Johnny English - no jokes - that really is his name!
Whilst night skiing last Thursday he fell on his leg which had taken a battering earlier in the week on the rails in the park. This lead to him getting a blood clot in his leg and being transported off to hospital. He has since recovered to a certain degree but is completely bed bound for at least a week.
The problem is that he lives in a house and cant walk at all. So after watching a film this evening i came up to my room to find that ideally they wanted to move him in with me and Brendan.
I couldn't say no seeing the pain he is in. So we did.
There are now two people asleep in this room as i type!

I was going to fill you in on the weekend but that will now have to wait until tomoz in case i am keeping Johnny up with my typing!

So sorry for all the happy news but thats how life goes sometimes!
Will try and get a Red Mountain update in tomoz, till then,

Laters people.

Just back from Red

Hey peps, its 10 to 1 in the morning here and its been a very long day. We have just got back from Red Mountain where we spent the weekend. After a 6 hour coach journey i am absolutely shagged!

We had a wicked weekend and quick a bit of crazy stuff happened. Thoughts and stuff to come in due course.

Sorry for not posting last week major internet probs - it looks ok now though. With this in mind i will put a bit of an update and whats happened in Red in a post tomoz - cos i need some sleep. Hope all is good back home and speak soon to ya soon.

Right so I will try and get something posted

It seems that i only have to not post for a couple of days and some of my readers get cranky! I haven't really posted now since Wednesday and the comments have been coming in!

So for those of you that need to know what has been going on hour by hour; tough you aint getting it, but here is an update from the last few days.

Firstly and most importantly is the snow. We have had quite a large dump over the last few days (when i last looked at the website it had totaled something like 77cm over the last week).

This basically meant that the skiing has been awesome in general and overwhelmingly good in places. Going back as far as Thursday, i skied in the morning and tried to ski in the afternoon but something in my right shoulder was saying NO NO NO! So as much as i didn't want to come down from the waist deep powder i decided that to try and save myself i should rest up.
So much happens here i cant remember where we went for dinner that evening but it might have been the lodge where i am staying - not sure.

Friday came round and teaching the rents was back on the agenda. It was interesting to see the change in their skiing from the weekend before. To be honest i was happy with what they had done; a few reminders and we were back on track. Considering the conditions they skied the day very well. Mum is skiing very well indeed and has really picked up the stuff i have passed onto her, she is now skiing like a rocket! Dad has improved as well he just needs to ski with a bit more confidence. Its actually to long ago to remember where we went for dinner that night.

Saturday brought more snow and more surprises. I thought i would take the rents to some places that they hadn't been before to experience more of the mountain. This is where i got a shock and asked them if they wanted to ski some powder off piste; i was expecting a very definite no but i got exactly the opposite. So off we went and they took to it brilliantly, tiring as it was. I was so happy - i had the rents doing something i never imagined that they would and they wanted more! So that's what they got - we had a wicked time and got some wicked pictures over these few days.
After having to rescue Dad from a fall i discovered my shoulder was aching like hell so we actually called it a halt early - doh!
After a chilled afternoon the rents picked me up and we went to one of the posher restaurants in Fernie for dinner called The Old Elevator. This was as i had been told really good - the food was amazing, though my steak didn't quite match the one from Lizard Creek earlier in the week, but thats being picky! Their Iced Tea was very good though!

Sunday was a day of rest and we just chilled out by rents coming to the lodge for breakfast, browsing around town and sleeping in the afternoon! They picked me up later and we went to the Italian up on the hill which i though was OK but dad in particular didn't rate it. Not like back home!

I didn't ski on Monday to try and give my shoulder a better chance of healing and ended up back in hospital! You will be glad to know however it wasn't for me. Louise had suffered a concussion the day before and was told by the head ski instructor to go to hospital to get it check out, so i went with her. The rest of the day was just chilled (in more than one way it was -30C ish on the hill) and i met the rents for dinner at corner pocket in the evening which was very nice. They seemed to have had a reasonable day skiing considering the conditions.

As i write this on Tuesday i am once again not skiing for further recuperation and to avoid what is an uncomfortably cold -35C or below outside - horrible. I expect to meet the rents later for their last night here.

Christ that was a post and a half!

Laters peps

Update

I thought i would post a little note. We have been having a major problem here in fernie with the Internet. It has been really temperamental and i haven't been able to get a post online. I am taking tomoz off so will try and get a full update online then.

Laters peps

I am gonna have to employ a blog writer!

I know i seem to go on about this all the time but i just don't seem to have any to write my blog at the mo. This is possibly quite evident in the sparseness of the posts from me, hence my point of having to employ someone to do this for me.

Anyway - onto matters of the last couple of days. I have been back in lessons as normal and we have been having snow. It isn't all brilliant but some of it is nice to ski on - the snow yesterday was very random there were patches of lovely powder and in other parts it was like skiing through glue. Yesterday evening parents wanted to try out curling so we went for dinner @ 'The Pub' with Louise and then headed to the curling rink. For a couple of hours we had quite a laugh although i did end the evening with another aching body after a trip on the ice! Oh well i knew it this morning cos my back absolutely caned!

Despite this i got up and went skiing as per norm and had a reasonable day - although i wasn't rating tuition this week as Jono is really slow; he talks alot and doesn't ski much - to hinder matters further for some reason we joined another group so there was 12 of us instead of the usual max of 8. Oh Well the afternoon brought some racing which was different - i drew with the guy i was racing 1-1. Tonight i went with the rents to Lizard Creek Lodge for dinner. it was superb the steak i had was one of the best i have ever had. Delicious.
After a quick boot check for mum i came back to the lodge to finish off my day!

Laters,

No Time = No Posts

As you can possibly tell from the lack of posts over the last few days i have had very little free time on my hands. I have spent most of the time with the rents helping to educate and improve their skiing. It appears to be working to some extent but we still have some work to do.

Today i went back to skiing with my group and the rents skied on their own however by pure chance we broke for lunch at exactly the same time so that meant free lunch - handy!
Skiing today was a little slow and very technical - it was also very wet we are having alot of rain at the mo - what is going on!

Not much else to report - went to 'Rip and Richards' tonight for dinner with the rents and had a nice burger and then came back and chatted with peps for hours! Then wrote this,

Laters

Teaching the Rents

Sorry for not posting yesterday, just with the rents being here and it being Dads bday time ran a little short.
It was the first day on the snow yesterday with the rents and i was teaching them how freaky - it just doesn't seem right telling my parents what to do. I have to say though that they progressed well.
In the evening we went to Corner Pocket - a nice restaurant on the mountain for Dad's bday. To be honest it was scrumy especially the scallops.

Today i went to the rents hotel for breaky and we made some calls home. Kinda forgot my boots so we had to go back to the lodge to get them after breaky. We were up on the hill for about 11 and went straight into lessons with the rents. Mum seems to have picked things up a bit quicker than Dad - no offence thats just how it is! They are both improving though and its quite challenging for me cos i have to constantly assess, evaluate, create drills and evaluate again and do more drills as nesscessary. They seem to be geeting it though and i pushed them a bit harder today and both of them coped fine.
Any how this evening we had dinner at the lodge and went to the hockey game - Mum loved it although she was disappointed as there were no fights!
I know have to do a bit of reading in readiness for tomoz so that i know what i am teaching the rents.

Laters people.

Heels over Head

What a day this was setup to be. It started off by making contact with the rents a couple of times and finding out that the road had been opened and they were setting off. It then turned slightly downhill when my boot liner for my right foot refused to go in and took me forever to sort out both at the lodge and at the ski hill.

When i did finally get underway i just went for a nice easy run and saw on the way up the Deer chair a run which had hardly been touched, covered in powder - i had to lay my mark so i went down skiing what can only be described as heaven!

With air temperatures around -20C without wind chill i warmed up before lessons started in the Day Lodge.

Anyway lessons got underway with Simon as Colleen was ill, which was awesome cos i really like his teaching style. We skied powder and trees all morning - beautiful!
Just before lunch though the day changed for good. We were travelling along a traverse to get to a run, but it is very rocky in places - skis and rocks dont miss btw so i tried to avoid one particular patch. This is where it went wrong; badly wrong, although my memory of the event is vague i have been told that i tried to get back onto the traverse path but never made it! Instead i went backwards down what was described as a very steep slope, the first thing that came inton contact with this slope was my head or helmet and then i somersaulted backwards losing a ski in the process again smashing my head on the snow. I then ended up lying faceup in the snow not at all with it; i briefly tried getting up and realised i couldn't - that was when my instructor became alittle worried and rapidly came and joined me. After doing the first aid course at the weekend i realised that i had suffered big concussion and was entering shock - not good, i was also very concerned over my neck and back.
This meant that the next 40 mins were taken up by ski patrol being called and them placing me on a spinal board and into a sleigh (better known as a blood wagon!). I then endured a 10 min ski down the mountain in the freezing cold and wet and before i knew i was being lifted into the back of an ambulance. From here i was carted to hospital to be checked over and xrayed. Nothing happens rapidly over here and the hospital was no different. Fortunately about 3 hours later i had the all clear and was picked up by Jenny our ski host and taken home to the lodge with no more than a raging headache!

I made a call to the rents and agreed to meet them for dinner. We did a little shopping and returned to their hotel for a very hot indian where i relayed the days events to the rents as mum looked on in disbelief! Oh the things parents think you are doing when you aint!
Anyway good to see the rents and looking forward to skiing with them tomoz.

Laters peps - my head hurts it needs a rest!

Oh the Irony

Right so it hasn't really snowed since i got here and the week it does happens to conincide with the rents arriving. That's great in the bigger scheme of things cos we will have nice snow to ski, but it has caused one problem. When it snows here it snows hard and unlike Europe the transportation system isn't top notch, which means that the only access road is so exposed at a point called Crowsnest Pass that they have closed it because of visibility and high winds. Parents arrived at this point about 20 mins after it closed - it hasn't been closed once in the 7 weeks i have been here!
So they are stuck there only about 70 km's from me!
How bloody annoying; the chances of this happening are over 1 in 3500! Oh well, i will give them a ring in the morning and review the situation.

BTW the skiing was awesome today and weather was blizzard like.

Laters

Pow Pow Beautiful Powder

At last, we have only been here about 7 weeks but it finally snowed in reasonable proportion on Monday. Enough that we could actually measure a mere 12 cm. Everyone at breakfast was like little kids - so excited! When we did hit the slopes the skiing was superb. Apart from the incident where i collided with Amy on the first run, the day was brilliant; skiing powder on piste and in the trees Awesome - that was so what i came here for and we have got a small taste of it.

The day also had some other good news; Brendan had been let go from hospital briefly for a visit home. It was only brief though as he had to go back to stay the night however.

Today (Tuesday) we awoke to a similar scene as the morning before with snow falling. There wasn't quite the hysteria that was there the day before, but excited people certainly were.
After my morning warm up run i decided to use my normal skis as it was quite icy on the lower slopes but that was a bit of an error as we just ended up skiing powder virtually all day; it was good practice though. Also for the second time on this course, whilst being videoed today by Colleen i stacked it - beautiful - it was quite nice though as there was a foot or so of powder to land in!
Other than this the day was wicked but hard work - skiing powder is hard going. There was also a large number of crashes and drop out today on the course as a whole but i am glad to report me and my group all came through unscathed.

This evening i went climbing for something different to do and it was nice as alot of people didn't bother because they were recouping from today or preparing for tomoz with more snow forecast.

With all the snow, parents have time it well - they are here tomoz and cant wait to see them, hopefully they wont get stuck at Crow's nest pass just east of here, which closes under heavy snow with avalanche warnings.

Not looking forward to tonight as Brendan is now back in the room but on a drip every 4 hours this means i am gonna get woken up at 12am and 4am great - me not a happy bunny!

Anyways laters people.

Three days in one

OK so the title of this post is probably a bit misleading but i have three days to write about and only have time for about a quarter of a post!

So a brief catch up of whats been cooking this weekend.
Friday started of fairly relaxed and i certainly didn't rush to get up after the late night before. My intentions were to spend the day doing the reading for the first aid course i had today - oh how that went out the window.
I ended up browsing round town with the boys and falling victim to the sales. Knowing i was going cat skiing on Saturday i couldn't resist the mix of Passing Level 1, the big discounts and a pair of skis i loved the look of. oops!
For those wondering why - they are a different type of ski for skiing different types snow and doing tricks on, there is logic to my madness honest - lots of people have two pairs!
Anyway the only other thing that happened on Friday was an evening of hockey which was good despite the Riders losing 4 - 3.

Saturday was something entirely new. An early start was followed by a 40 min bus ride to the Fernie Wilderness Lodge. Here we were kitted up and grouped into our Cats. The process is slow to get going as the cats only travel about 5 km an hour and are very bumpy. It takes about 45 mins to get to the mountain. When we arrived on the mountain we did a quick avalanche transceiver test and then travelled another 15 mins to the top of the mountain. Here we unloaded and following our guide let loose in the back country, skiing the amazing terrain. During the day we did about 8 - 9 runs down different areas - it was superb, the powder was not at its best but the experience was still awesome. There were some spectacular wipeouts from everyone involved, some made it onto video or picys. When i get them i will upload some for you to see. Even with breaking down and not having great pow pow its an experience i cant wait to repeat.

When we did get back to the lodge later in the evening i just chilled and did the reading for the first aid course i had today.

On that note today has been fairly straight forward; i woke early for a Sunday and slowly ate breakfast happy and content that i had just had to walk down the corridor to the training room. How wrong i was, i read the note again @ 7.55 to discover that it was actually at the college so we bombed it downtown to get there and made it by 8.15.

The training went from 8 till 5 but was actually quite good fun and very useful, the instructor was very good as well. Happily at the end of the day we had an exam which i passed and can now add trained emergency first aider to my list of qualies. Two in a week - cool.

Anyways peps dinner was from the Macy D's tastealike and a bit of hockey followed. Then i wrote this and am now sleeping in prep for tomoz - the start of Level 2!

Laters

No Post

Sorry people there is no mail today. I have just not had time to deliver it. There is news in the mail and it will come - hopefully tomoz. Lots to update on and possibly some picys too. Hopefully tomoz as i say - all depends on how the first aid course goes. Till then, laters.

Mixed Emotions

What a day to say the least.

It was the final day of our level 1 assessment - oh my god it had arrived already!

To say the least i was more than a little nervous.

Anyway off we went and got underway; Chris was really good - he tried
hard to put us at ease it worked some what. It wasn't that far into the
morning before i had to do my bit of teaching - the bit of the
assessment i was really not looking forward to.

I seemed to do OK with my teaching bit and only got given some
constructive points at the end as to how to approach things - it was
certainly better than the day before!



We broke for lunch and i was fairly happy at that point - things had gone OK.



After lunch we reconvined to pick up where we had left off and i was
expecting to have to teach again at some point in the afternoon -
slight nerves again! What am i doing trying to do this for a job?? The
afternoon passed by and before i knew it we were mucking around doing
360's and sking backwards - i had not had to teach again! Chris being
the type that he is likes to finish early and so we did - we went
speeding past a couple of groups on our last run which left them
bemused as it was the last thing that they expected to us to do - we
knew we had finished though they didnt - brilliant!



I went for a couple of runs after we wrapped up before heading to the bar to await our results.



The time seemed to go well slow while we sat around waiting for our results.

Bout 5.15 we were all called down to the Day Lodge below the Griz bar
and stood in groups. Then we were given the dreaded envelopes

I opened mine to find a CSIA badge - that was all i needed to see - i
had done it - i was now a CSIA Level 1 Ski Instructor whoop whoop!

The elation was brilliant - the moment was one i will remeber for a
long time to come; the four days of hard work had been worth it.
Handshakes and hugs a plenty we were well happy.

Sadly not everyone passed - some expected it and to others it was a
shock - kinda felt a bit for them but i am here for me and as harsh as
it sounds as long as i do what i need, thats all that matters - i cant
ski or teach for anyone else!



Back upstairs in the Griz it started to get messy and the legendary
event of table sliding took place with a few brave souls. This
basically involves striping naked and sliding down a 50ft table covered
in beer! Brilliant. I will leave the mind boggle over the other details.



The bus came to get us about 6.30 ish and here the news wasnt so good.
When Jenny eventuallly managed to quieten down 60 ish drunk people she
passed on the latest news about my roomy Brendan. The new on him had
kinda got worse - although stable he had contracted Meningitis to go
with his Pneumonia. This had inplications for everyone particulary
those who had been in close contact with him - like me! This lead to an
hour or so of chats and screening back at the lodge. Eventually after
all this i had dinner and just wanted to chill - but the OGS had a
PARTY!



So off we went - i actually drove Brad's car there so that he didnt
have to walk - he was the one who injured himself back in Kimbelery and
i was the only sober one so nominated driver.

AFter the biggest party at the OGS there has been i headed home about
1.00ish - i was knackered from the week, and hit bed on a day of random
yet brilliant emotions.

Level 1 - Day 3

Well i slept well last night except it wasn't in my bed or even in the lodge.
I moved out and slept in the spare room at Louise's house as Brendan was well ill and i did not want to catch what he had.

This meant an early start to today as i had to walk back to the lodge to get dressed and ready for skiing today but i managed it. Skiing today wasn't to bad - however my teaching was a bit rubbish! This Level 1 malarkey ain't to easy - it seems to have caught everyone of guard. In fact is being a ski instructor worth all the hassle? Anyways i managed to do a bit better today and hopefully tomoz will bring a welcomed relief and a pass - we will see!

Anyways when we got back this evening Brendan wasn't in the room but we had a tech session to go to so this took priority; quite long and quite boring but eventually it finished. I returned to the room to find Brendan not around and thought i had better find out what was the status quo being his room mate.

I managed to see Adam at reception who then told me that he went to the doctors this morning who sent him straight to hospital with pneumonia! Not good; yet someone else in hospital! He has been keep in over night for observations. Someone else had surgery today on his left knee after destroying it on Friday in the powder, so the total is going up. All this means i have a room to myself - kinda weird!

Anyways people by the time i next post i will have news of whether i have passed or failed my level 1 which may change my plans for the next few years - kinda crucial day tomoz then i guess.

Laters,
J

Avoid the lurgy and try and pass Level 1!

OK, so that's day 2 of Level 1 complete. I have to say though it ain't going as positively as i was hoping.

Things aren't generally going to bad except i keep being pick up on my stance which isn't a good thing, considering this is an ongoing evaluation. What does slightly bemuse me is that the other instructors haven't told me this or tried to correct me in previous weeks. The issue that i am having is that i have to change it to how he wants to show the assessor that i can, but it is very hard when it feels so wrong!

Just to add to this slightly crap day, i have had to 'move out' of my room as Brendan has gone down with a virus so i am trying to avoid this at all costs especially over these two days - i do not want to screw my Level 1 up over a virus that someone gives me! I may already have it but i am gonna give it my best shot to avoid it. With this in mind i am probably gonna try and sleep elsewhere tonight, maybe at Louise's house where there are spare rooms. Its a bit of an extreme thing to do i suppose but i just wanna be cautious especially this week.

Anyways on a lighter note i am just waiting for some people to join for dinner as i am starting to get hungry. I have some videos and pictures which i will try and get posted later this week so you can see a bit more of Fernie! Hope everyone is OK back on the rock and anywhere else you are reading this.

Laters people.

I've been a good Boy!

Sorry guys; i haven't been posting much of late but there is reasoning behind my case.
As my mum will be proud to hear i have been putting homework before computers!
I may not always have done it in the past but i am setting out to correct my wrong doings!

With this in mind the lack of posts in the last few days isn't because i have forgotten its just that all the spare time i have had has been taken up reading the Manual. It may well be the case over the next few days as well as my course progresses. We get given reading to do each night for the following day.

In general though the assessment is going OK so far - not to difficult but semi challenging at the same time - trying to change my stance which i have been told was OK? - weird but nothing seems to make sense; one person tells you one thing then the next another!

One other piece of news is that the trans Atlantic voyage that i was considering is a no go. Went to a meeting for it today all eager to sign up and give it a shot but the dates don't work. I need to be there in Antigua virtually the day our course ends and as i am staying a week then it ain't gonna happen so i have passed after thinking on the logistics of it all - oh well, next time! Might please mother though!

Right that's it for today, catch you dudes later.

A so so day

As i have the time i though i would write this post with more than an hour of my day left!
I have had another good day skiing but am absolutely knackered - this week has been very intense with a lot of skiing and some serious mileage clocked up.

This morning we did some more teaching practice and i felt a little more comfortable today doing explanations in front of the class.
After lunch which we had as a group at Lizard Creek Lodge - very nice btw we went up the mountain again to do the facelift in Lizard Bowl again - the same one we hiked up yesterday but actually using the drag lift today. It was so violent that my arm nearly went up the lift with me not attached to it. Anyways when i did reach the top there was some nice powder skiing to be had, but its a bit of a trek for such a short run.

One other notable from today was i started to feel instructor like as i actually took two kids up a chairlift - yes mum a bit of responsibility! It was kinda wierd talking to them as they came out with some classic quotes about numbers and populations of Calgary where they both came from, loved it though and i got them off safely which was the main thing that worried me the entire way up!

Just finishing this now much later than when i started it and gonna get my stuff ready for photography tomoz. Laters people.

What a wicked day!

To be honest today was probably one of the best days i have had since i got here.
Everything seems to have just been brill.

It started off with the usual issue of getting up which seems to be getting harder and harder the longer this week in particular goes on. But with breakfast and all that rubbish out the way it was awesome.

We started off our lesson this morning with a lesson! We had to take our class in pars and teach them something - scary. Somehow me and Rich did manage it although i did cock up slightly - i suspect more practice at this needed and will come tomoz.
After this though we went off skiing and practiced our free skiing which was lot more fun and we made good use of the powder - some of the runs were superb. I also feel i am really starting to improve particularly off piste and in the bumps.

After yet another lunch at Kelsey's we hit the slopes again for an afternoon of free skiing. We started off by hiking from the top of Bear chair to the top of Facelift, which is an absolutely knackering 330ft vertical - rents i will show you when you come!
From here we hit some beautiful powder and had a wicked afternoon skiing bumps powder and anything else the mountain could through at us.

On return home it was an early dinner as we had a social to attend just over the road in the form of curling. Its so cool - i want a curling club in Jersey! Its so hard to do but when you get it right its so competitive and fun that i want another go. We had a great evening and i would class it as a rousing success although what some of the others got up to was interesting!

I have included a little movie from when we were mucking around at the beginning for your enjoyment.

Here's a couple of pic's while i think of it from the facelift earlier today, and one of the curling rinks.

Homework - what!

I will make this post fairly quick simply cos i am knackered.

The last two days have been absolutely ridiculous skiing. But strangely i have been loving it. Ron has been taking us through some of the stuff we need to know for our level 1 next week and i am getting happier about the skiing part - it is the teaching part that is worrying me slightly - actually alot.

Anyhow on a lighter note, this afternoon we did some more free skiing ie skiing steep terrain with trees and powder and it was awesome. They opened up one of the bowls and so skiing the powder was challenging but fun. The other thing that i have improved on in the last couple of days is skiing bumps - i am actually starting to really enjoy it - despite the fact that i Sh1t myself sometimes when i look at the steepness of the run.

This evening i had a quiet one to start doing my homework; reading the CSIA Manual and recoup a bit after a hard days skiing.

Laters people

Its that damn thing called time again.

Sorry people it has been a couple of days since i last managed to get a post written.

Time just seems to disappear far to quickly round here. I cant believe i have been gone over four weeks already. Scary ha!

Yesterday i had my first 1 - 2 - 1 with Colleen. The hour and a half went really quickly but i felt i learnt so much and picked up some useful info.

It was also the first day with my new boot setup - which was a little uncomfortable but i was told to expect this so i will see how i go over the next couple of days.

I finished early yesterday to enable me to get my parcels from the post office before our tech session.

The tech session was on our level 1 which scarily is only a week away.
To be honest quite boring!

The dish of the day was bangers and mash - not bad.

To finish the evening we hit 'The Pub' for a few drinks pool before hitting the pillow.

I will fill you in on today, tomoz as i am knackered and need bed soon!

A chilled weekend

After a mental day on Friday i decided that i would spend the weekend doing the chores and getting a few things sorted.

I started off Saturday quite chilled although i was woken up earlier than i would have liked as Brendan didn't have a good night with the pain in his chest. He ended up going for a visit to the hospital.

Meanwhile i decided to get my boots seen to as i have been feeling a bit of movement in my left boot in particular. A trip to ski base for some custom foot beds (innersole) i hoped would solve the problem. They required a few hours to tidy them up so i popped into Overwaitea (that's the local super market!) to get a few essentials. Walked home and had a quick chat with dad then headed back to pick up my boots.

Brendan had returned by this point with a lot of drugs and the news of having a broken rib which explained his discomfort.

The evenings entertainment was the Ghostriders playing Creston Thundercats followed by chilling out in the rec room.

Today once again i was awoken by Brendan fairly early but it meant i git on with the chores. I got on with the washing while talking to rents and Han. The rest of the day was very uneventful.

We went to Macy D's for dinner and on the way saw some deer in the road on the way. Later it was another trip to the rec room for some pool and fusball.
We tried a movie but didn't succeed as we had no sound so i gave up wrote this and hit bed!

Laters people

I'm Coming Back to Canada!

Bit of a strange title but i have just filled out my Bunac Application for a working Visa for next year and got acceptance via email straight away. SO one way or another i am gonna be back here next year working doing something - aaarrrggghh! Freaky

On another note today i was on the Avalanche Safety Training field day. The morning was pretty easy going - skiing around and having fun in the couple of inches of pow pow that had fallen over night, and continued to come down.

The afternoon however was another cup of tea. I am not sure i have ever been so physically exhausted in my life. Digging all the pits for snow observations and tests then doing the find and retrieve exercises using beacons in waist high snow was physically knackering.

Just chilled this evening after all this, and watched National Treasure 2 in the Movie Room.

On a slight downer casualty No. 2 of the course took place in Kimberley yesterday. After catching an edge and sliding at high speed into a Floodlight with his knee Brad is out for the rest of the trip and has a year of recovery to look forward to. I kinda know what that is like!

Laters people

Carving up Kimberley

It was an early start today for our trip to Kimberley Alpine Resort.

All breakfasted and on the buses by 8.00 we were on our way no long after.
The trip lasted an hour and a half, and to be honest being cramped up that long aint exactly comfortable.

Our lessons took place as usual just in different surroundings. The view from the mountain though was stunning - you could see the whole of the rockies across the other side of the valley.

The skiing today was absolutely brilliant though - the rolling hills are superb for carving at high speed down - awesome! I loved it and so did the rest of the group!

The ride home this evening was interesting with crowd surfing pile ons and other crazy stuff going on in the bus - good fun.

Other than this though we were all so knackered that we just headed for bed - ready for tomoz.

I get it now!

There might be a lack of snow but i had a fantabulous day!

What didnt make sense at all yesterday made alot more sense today.

I am making this a short post because to be honest i am knackered after todays racing salom course. It was also very hot today - not good - exactly what we dont need.

Anyways off to Kimberley tomoz so somewhere different to ski.

Hitting bed early as we have to get up early.

Laters people.

I've been framed!

Well not alot to report today it was another day of skiing!

What wasn't a surprise was that we had no more snow over night and we had a sunny day.

The reason for the title was the fact that Tuesday is our video analysis day. So today Colleen videoed us doing some different types of turns. Yesterday we started to pole plant properly, so i wanted to get this right for the video. Sadly it all went badly wrong and while doing the short quick turns i pole planted in the wrong place and planted my face in the snow - on video!
Brilliant.
Will have to try and get a copy for the £250 they offer on You've been Framed!

Apart from this we tried some other stuff to do with Pivoting and turning but i just could not grasp it! Better luck tomoz hopefully.

This evening i had climbing again which was great fun but bloody hard work after a hard day skiing. After that i returned home and chatted with Steve and Captain Moscow aka Ross for a bit before writing this and going to bed with a stinking cold still hanging over me and my Roomy; Brendan - hopefully it will go by tomoz (fingers crossed). Will let you know.

Laters Peps

We had snow!

OK so it wasn't much but anything at the moment is welcomed!
It seems to be getting harder and harder to get up now days - another issue of not enough hours in the day!
With the layer of snow hitting the slopes this morning was well nice and quite strange as there was no constant grinding of skiing on ice!
We also had a new instructor this morning - Colleen, what would she be like?
To be honest we were all expecting her to be quite laid back and technical compared to Bruno last week. How wrong we were! She threw us in at the deep end and we had a wicked day, apart from my mega wipe out - which i don't even no how it happened - but that shin bang came back right away!
Apart from that the day was fairly chilled, dinner was interesting though fish with a strawberry jam! RANDOM
Late now - Laters peps

Lazy Days are so Good!

Sorry peps, i haven't exactly been keeping up with the blog very well the last few days.

Its been the usual case of time just disappearing on me and not having enough of it to write a post. This is even the case when i haven't been skiing. I haven't skied since Thursday but i every time i say i need to add to my blog something happens and i don't achieve it.

So as some of you have been saying i being slack not posting every day - not naming names Mum and Mart, here is what has been going on in the last few days.

Friday was a classroom session on Avalanche Safety Training (AST). My god it was so long and so boring. We saw a gazillion pictures of avalanches and their trigger points; the first few were intriguing but after the umpteenth time of seeing the same thing it was quite OTT. The video was quite cool but again was a little long. The theory behind snow, how it forms, the different types of layers and weather effects seem to drag on as well! There was a big sigh of relief when the instructor finally said that's it!

Friday night was hockey night so we headed over to the Fernie Memorial Arena to watch the Ghostriders get their buts kicked 5-1, not a great nights entertainment - oh well.

Highlight of the day was definitely the pool party after the hockey. Being the boring sod i can be i didn't get in the pool - cos it was freezing and i rather enjoyed the humour of watching Hannah and Brad go in virtually fully clothed. The highlight came when the Snowboard Host, Adam came down after the receptionist tried to lock up at lock up time only to find a party going on in the Rec Room / Pool Area and had the shock of her life. Adam said he would stay and look after the place until 11.30 but not long after 11 Tom decided he should go in - fully clothed, wallet, beer and mobile included. Superb!
That though brought an abrupt end to the Party and our night!

Saturday was a chill out day for me as i was not doing the activity that was going on. I did make use of it though to get some things done that i have been meaning to for a while. I went to town to buy my ski waxing kit and some general groceries. Then came back and did the frightening thing of waxing my skis for the first time! It's rather disconcerting i have to say to watch the ski bend out of shape as you apply the wax and then run the iron over the skis to spread it out. Fortunately it appears i did something right cos they have bent back and are ready to go for tomoz!
Apart from sitting around chatting to various peps the afternoon disappeared without incident till dinner time.

It was a double whammy of hockey this weekend so a quick dins was required - bring on A&W's (a McDonald's predecessor). Papa burger was good - kinda! Then off to watch the hockey - what a game - plenty of rough and tumble and what a win for the Riders - 4-2 on Penalties.
After the game i came back to the lodge and chilled in the Rec Room for a while playing pool and chatted after that with the gang in Paul and Marks Room. Just in case i ha vent detailed enough; AFTER THAT i watched the first set of the Aussie Tennis Final and AFTER THAT i went to sleep!

Pow - Pow

Today i have nothing more to say other than POWDER!
Skiing the pow pow was absolutely brilliant.
Need i say more than i want more - bring it on!

Snowplough is so hard!

Snow snow snow glorious snow. We woke up this morning to light flurries of snow!
By the time we had reached the hill it was blowing a hooley and pouring with snow. Yeah!

Instructor stuff started proper today and we went back to the basics!
which end of the ski is the front, which is the back, how to do up your boots and how to ski in a straight line then sssssnnnnnnnnnooooowwwwwwwwwppppppllllllloooooouuuuggggghhhhhh!
When trying to do this it really is hard as we are so used to parallel skiing.

Also today we had our first video session; its so wierd to watch myself skiing - but useful at the same time.

This afty we went powder skiing for the first time - it was awesome and the snow was amazing even though there was only 5cm ish of it - loved it and cant wait for tomoz.

This evening we had a tuning session for tuning our skis and looking after them. Closely, to closely in fact (only had time for starter and pudding at dinner!)by my first climbing class at the college. Great fun - loved it.

So if that wasnt enough i am going to bed to get up nice and early hopefully for lots of powder skiing!

Laters people.

OK so it is insanely cold here!

Not going say more than today was the coldest i have ever been.
-30C without wind chill is ridiculous and it was about -35C with the windchill; thank god for the sunny day.

Skiing was great and very challenging as well as fun, like skiing without skis!

Praying for snow tonight and hopefully it will be right for once.

Chillout Day

With nothing on the agenda as such today i spent it doing chores and stuff.

Went shopping for food, did the washing and wanted to phone home, but the whole of fernie lost telecoms today so couldn't access internet till late this evening - bugger.

Wont bore anyone with more boring details; will write again tomoz after day 3 of lessons.

Laters

So it does get really cold over here!

After yesterdays chill things only got colder today. Approx -25C is pretty chilly and even the instructors were suffering saying that it aint normal to be this cold.
Great so its bloody freezing and and it aint snowing - what is going on? I came to Fernie cos of its infamous 'powder' - well i would like to see some please as i have been hear almost two weeks and i haven't really seen snow.

We picked it up a bit today with Bruno our instructor who is from Wales btw. Started pushing ourselves a bit harder and it showed - we all had falls at some point or other.
We watched the cardboard derby for a bit as well - hilarious; you are aloud to use cardboard, duc tape and string to get 4 people down a hit as quick as possible. I have put a video below.



This afty we did some crazy stuff, but great fun including a mountain bike track through the trees - fast and narrow, with little way of stopping! Had a drink in the Griz bar at the end of the day or a Starbucks hot chocolate in my case and am now chilling writing this before spending more cash to pay for my extra activities.

Later there is the first massive party at the OGS - should be mental. Will let you know tomoz how it goes!

One last thing while i remember here are a few views of Fernie and Mt Fernie:

Oh 'Shin Banging' really hurts!

As usual time just disappears and i don't have enough time to write what i want on my blog.

Any way Friday was first skiing day of the course and it was bloody freezing.
Went up the mountain before the meet at 10 and it was absolutely freezing -19C without windchill, so when skiing down it was like, well, cold!
Buying of a balaclava was a must and then we set off in our preassigned groups.

On the second run down i got track crossing so wrong and well had a mega wipeout - was quite proud of it actually. But at the time and still does my shin really hurt/s cos it got slammed back and forward in the boot hence the expression shin banging.

Hopefully all will be well for tomoz though.
The rest of the day was taken up with lunch bit of fun skiing a couple of talks back at the lodge and an awesome hockey game - it was like a war zone plus the Ghostriders won 4-1. The evening ended with lots of chilling and me writing this!

Laters

Fine days do exist in Fernie!

I woke up this morning to snow!

Unfortunately when i say it was snowing i mean lightly but that's better than none at all i suppose. Catching the 9.30 bus we were on the snow by 10. It was nice to have a little fresh snow to ski on rather than the ice and rocks that we have had for the last few days.

On the other hand the temperatures this morning were absolutely downright absurd! On the way up the Timberline chair my fingers literally felt like they were falling off. I had to break for a hot chocolate to get them back to a reasonable temperature. The worrying thing is it isn't cold yet - the forecast for the weekend changes by the day but the latest i have seen is -23C for Saturday!

Trying to catch up cant remember much else from today as it is now two days later so i will end this post here!

I think my skiing is improving

Well as usual i don't seem to have enough hours in the day to write and update a post for the blog.

Today has been quite good skiing wise although quite cold.

Have been blasting out some runs with Malin and the gang and really enjoyed myself - my skiing was much better today than yesterday - i was sitting down on my skis like i was permantlely going to la toilet! Today much more upright and better skiing for it.

Did do some damage to the bank account though; in readiness for the cold snap this weekend decided that i should replace my old selopates with some new 'ski pants' so that i dont freeze!

For the rest of the day it has been chilled and ate in at the lodge for dins.

Late now.... laters peps

There just aint enough hours in the day!

Well i would love to try and keep doing this more often but i just never seem to have enough time.

After going for pizza last night at the local 'Boston Pizza' we returned to lodge to chill.

Today has been good as well. It started with a very rushed breakfast in the lodge cafe consisting of pancakes and syrup - nice! Then a quick dash to the bus to get on the hill.

Had slight issue when i arrived in that one of my bindings had moved and i couldn't get my boot in - fortunately a friendly chap at the slope side rental repair shop solved the issue. Gotta tighten the bindings though as doing a jump today i landed it sweetly and still my skis came off!

Up on the hill though for the first time it was sunny at the top and the view was awesome:





This evening when we returned from a full day on the hill - i hit the hot tub and sauna - that was so nice. And this evening went to 'The Pub' for dins before heading to the OGS (Old Grocery Store) for a chat with the rest of the gang - all in all a good day.

Ice Hockey is SO cool!

Things happen so quickly here i forget to mention everything. Today has been another wicked day.

After yesterdays fall i was pleased to wake up this morning and find that my leg hardly hurt at all. So i just went out as usual and skiied a normal day. We continued exploring the mountain today and came across some interesting features, although at times you couldn't see a thing in the cloud.

It was Steve's first day and we had a great time cruising around the runs showing him the areas we knew.

This evening we went to a McDonalds wannabe for dinner and rolled up to the local hockey hall to watch the Fernie Ghostriders play the Creston Thundercats.

Move over football and Rugby this sport is way more interesting, its fast and exciting and as a male exciting cos they are really rough and even fight each other; no pussies here!

After the match we hit the OGS house for a party which went on well into the early hours. I had a great time meeting people and observing the crazy goings on!

Wicked Skiing

After a gentle and chilled first day on the slopes i just ran out of time to post last night when we returned from a Thai restaurant and 'The Pub' to write a post, but that is gonna happen.

Oh bugger - Day 2 skiing and i have done my first piece of damage. Had a fall today and hurt the calf and shin on my right leg: oh well hopefully it will be OK in the morning.

Other than this the skiing stepped up a notch today - going much faster and down stepper runs, which in all honesty i loved. The Swedish girl; Malin is a skiing godess and trying to follow her and keep up with her is great if a trifle wild!

I would like to write more in this post but i gained a surprise roommate today (Steve), and he has gone to sleep, so cant make much noise!

Oh btw i bought my skis today - ouch, will fill you in more tomoz.

Laters people.

I dont like the exchange rate!

Well after the party that we attended last night the whole ethos of Non Stop became clear.
Lots of drinking partying and general fun! I called it a halt after a 23 hr day just before the police arrived to tell them to quieten down!

Today was a little more leisurely but we were still up and going by 8.30 ish and in Mugshots for not long after 10 for a full breakfast Canadian style.

After this it was time to hit the shops to make some purchases - skis and a helmet. Unfortunately after walking into the first ski shop we came across i was slightly shocked at the price of skis; about CAD$1000! But they are kinda essential so have to be bought. I have lined up to try out some skies tomoz, going bright and early at 8 to collect them! Then the fun begins!

I also went on the lookout for a helmet today. After trying on a million and one Giro helmets to find one that fitted me and my goggles i eventually went for a white Smith one. Quite like it after being unsure to start with.

Still suffering from the jet lag slightly and currently think its early in the morning when its no where near - struggled a bit at the party at the lodge we had tonight. Met Louise for the first time out here today as well, doesn't seem like she having much luck at the mo though as she was brought down the mountain today by a ski patrol and that's after being in hospital earlier this week!

With the lack of sleep a major issue and early start tomoz i will sign off for today here.

Night

I have arrived

Just a quick post to let all know that i have arrived safe and well. Been to a house party this evening and am now going to bed after a full 24 hrs on the go - no sleep.
My body thinks its 7.40 am on Tuesday but actually its only 12.40 am - weird!
Will up date with more details tomoz.

The Yotel Hotel Cube

Well today was finally the day - my three months of fun has begun.

Checking in at the airport gave me a small surprise as the bags that i finished packing this morning were obviously heavier than i thought. Slightly over weight; some re packing required!

The flight was all ok and had no issues getting as far as the transfer. Interesting system though they have got setup at Heathrow Terminal 5 - Its kinda on its own- getting to the other terminals isnt well labeled or as straight forward as it could be.

When i found it at Terminal 4 the Yotel was probably the most interesting thing of the day. Check in is easy, when it works second time round. Then the laugh of the room size becomes apparent. I knew it was small from the price i paid and what it said on the website but i struggled to get my bags in the door and when in they take up half of it! Inspite of this though - for a few hours sleep though its great. Below is a little video of my room!

Here We Go - Almost!

Well that time has so nearly come. Its almost the day of departure. I still have a few things to pack but most of it is there thankfully.

Just booked the hotel for tomoz so i know i have somewhere to sleep tomorrow night thankfully, then we are go on Monday for the long haul to Canada!

Anyways still got things to do and bits to pack as well as sleep all before an early start tomoz so i will catch ya later.

A week to Go!

With the leaving date now less than a week away i felt like it was time to start my blog.
The aim of my blog is really to be a bit like a diary i suppose with hopefully daily updates on what i have been doing, how i have been getting on, any pictures i take and any crazy videos that get recorded! I hope to try and make it a little humorous where possible so it aint just another dull read!

Things really are starting to come together now with final last minute bits and pieces being bought and i would like to say packed but they are still sitting on the bed in the back room as my bags are in the post on the way to me. Hopefully they will get here on time; Fedex doesn't know my parcel exists yet!

Well that's the latest from James HQ so i will sign off my first post.