Just over two weeks after departure, Vancouver is now our home for a few days. A pretty unbelieveable couple weeks. After trying to out-run the -49 celcius in the prairies, we landed at out friend Henry's in south western Alberta to get our skis fired up at Castle Mountain. Lots of fun on the hill and touring the back country off the resort with Miller made for a killer start to the skiing adventures. Lots of apres, including a wood fired sauna, drinks at the "T-bar" (haha) and homemade ice cream. 
From there it was a short trek to Fernie to stay with friends Kathy & Andy. Home became 6 days by the Elk river with views of the resort to the west and Mt. Fernie to the north. We toured the back country at a place called Tunnel Creek with snow flinging out of the sky all day. Summited the mountain mid afternoon and began snow stability and safety checks en route to one of the most epic powder runs of my life...knee to waist deep and by the end my legs were on firrrrre! Wish I had a helmet cam. Damn.
We were able to catch up with some old friends at the bar (Alex, Spankster, etc) and re-live some old (and somewhat foggy) memories of Fernie. Scott prayed for snow when we arrived in town and it clearly worked as it snowed the majority of our time there. We continued trekkin' around and were lucky enough to have a day with Andy and his friend on their snow-mobiles. With skiis strapped to the packs we were able to cover some serious turf and managed more fresh turns. The next day was spent resting the legs and dabbling Burt's Bees on the nickel sized blisters. Fun comes at a price I guess.
After packing a fair bit into our short stay in Fernie, we waited out some cruddy road conditions before heading to the hot springs. After a soak, we drove north to Golden and were forced to sit it out for the night while they bombed for avalanche control in Rogers Pass. We didn't mind as we were looking forward to seeing it in the day. Sun up, we hit the road in decent time and made our way through the pass to Kamloops. We opted to skip the Coquihalla and come down through the Fraser Valley. What a crazy drive. Almost as crazy as the one lane, gravel, cliff side, logging road to the hot springs. All that much more rewarding. Miller also taught me some Spanish on the drive as my one Paul Simon tape got pretty annoying after about 4000 kilometres. (Note to self: get more tapes for the car or upgrade to CD).
We arrived at my brothers in Vancouver last night feeling pretty good. Miller is off visiting friends at UBC and I went out exploring the city. Looking forward to the last few days in Canada before flying out to Australia on Jan 29th to hook up with Scotty and Lu for some surf and sun! Almost time to trade in the skis for the surfboard.
Much love to all. Thanks to everyone for a good time so far, and heads up to everyone on the hit list.
Cheers
From there it was a short trek to Fernie to stay with friends Kathy & Andy. Home became 6 days by the Elk river with views of the resort to the west and Mt. Fernie to the north. We toured the back country at a place called Tunnel Creek with snow flinging out of the sky all day. Summited the mountain mid afternoon and began snow stability and safety checks en route to one of the most epic powder runs of my life...knee to waist deep and by the end my legs were on firrrrre! Wish I had a helmet cam. Damn.
We were able to catch up with some old friends at the bar (Alex, Spankster, etc) and re-live some old (and somewhat foggy) memories of Fernie. Scott prayed for snow when we arrived in town and it clearly worked as it snowed the majority of our time there. We continued trekkin' around and were lucky enough to have a day with Andy and his friend on their snow-mobiles. With skiis strapped to the packs we were able to cover some serious turf and managed more fresh turns. The next day was spent resting the legs and dabbling Burt's Bees on the nickel sized blisters. Fun comes at a price I guess.
After packing a fair bit into our short stay in Fernie, we waited out some cruddy road conditions before heading to the hot springs. After a soak, we drove north to Golden and were forced to sit it out for the night while they bombed for avalanche control in Rogers Pass. We didn't mind as we were looking forward to seeing it in the day. Sun up, we hit the road in decent time and made our way through the pass to Kamloops. We opted to skip the Coquihalla and come down through the Fraser Valley. What a crazy drive. Almost as crazy as the one lane, gravel, cliff side, logging road to the hot springs. All that much more rewarding. Miller also taught me some Spanish on the drive as my one Paul Simon tape got pretty annoying after about 4000 kilometres. (Note to self: get more tapes for the car or upgrade to CD).
We arrived at my brothers in Vancouver last night feeling pretty good. Miller is off visiting friends at UBC and I went out exploring the city. Looking forward to the last few days in Canada before flying out to Australia on Jan 29th to hook up with Scotty and Lu for some surf and sun! Almost time to trade in the skis for the surfboard.
Much love to all. Thanks to everyone for a good time so far, and heads up to everyone on the hit list.
Cheers
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