Stuff and things
Well I haven't posted anything again for a while, but this time through laziness rather than lack of news :)
Two weeks ago we had a period where it was raining a lot but snowing a lot at the top of the mountain. On the Sunday night of that week it also snowed a bit from top to bottom, and they opened the top lifts again. I was pissed off then because I was scheduled to have Monday to Thursday off that week but on Sunday afternoon they changed it so that I was in on Monday and Tuesday, so I missed the fresh snow again.. dammit.
Then the next Thursday it dumped 30cms overnight. They had only forecast something like 5cms so since then I've been paying much less attention to the forecasts because it seems like they don't know what the hell is going on. It came down very quickly because when I came home at about 2 in the morning it had only just started snowing and by the time I got up to go to work it had stopped again, but anyway I had to wait until the next Monday until my next day off grrrrrrrrrrr.
On that Monday and Tuesday I had a couple of sweet days riding. I went up with Yuki because she'd been out the day after it dumped 30cms and said it was only so-so, so I said right I'll show you some cool places to go :)
On the Monday we went over to lakeside bowl on Blackcomb which was closed due to avalanche risk, so not wanting to risk my pass (because if they catch you riding in closed areas they can revoke your lift pass) we headed up to Blackcomb glacier - you have to take a t-bar to the top then walk for maybe 15 minutes (well you can walk for as long as you like and drop down on either side of the mountain, one way takes you through or around a permanent closure area then you drop into the 7th heaven area, the other side is all the glacier but there is a huge area to pick your line down). We stopped after the walk and had a cookie picnic, but unfortunately I had forgotten my camera because I was rushing for the bus.. I took a couple of pics with my phone camera but I haven't checked them out yet so it's quite possible that they're rubbish, if not I'll whack them on here later on!
The run down was sweet as, on the initial traverse (in an effort to find untouched lines) I hit quite a big rock and bailed, which was quite funny, but fortunately I didn't damage my plank. The snow was a bit hard but there were some fresh patches still, the run out was pretty dodgy though, which I guess is why they had a big sign saying, "EXPERTS ONLY!" at the glacier entrance - it was a 30-45 degree slope which was largely sheet ice, and I haven't had my board edged for maybe 7 weeks? :) so that was interesting..
On the Tuesday we went up Whistler and hit Whistler bowl, which again is all off piste and pretty gnarly (which incidentally Al, if you're reading, is how you spell it ;P), the run down off the peak chair is a proper black run, but it was great fun because there was lots of soft snow and metre high moguls, the kind of run where if you fall you cartwheel down it :) which I did. The runs down in the bowl were great fun but the exits back to the piste were VERY sketchy. The first time was a steep slope with lots of rocks and trees and bad coverage, which required crawling and jumping down some sections, and the second time we came the other side of the stream through beautiful snow and scenery but hit a very steep and densely packed tree line. There was only one track which went underneath a big pine tree where the ground was totally exposed, so I thought there's no way I'm taking my board over that, so I took off my board and attempted to climb down next to the tree whilst holding onto some shoots which were poking through the snow to one side. I got to the bottom of those and then lost my grip on the branches, so pitched forwards and started sliding down a steep slope headfirst backwards clutching my board in one hand and thinking, "uh oh". I couldn't stop but fortunately I came to rest before colliding with anything.. I looked back up and there was a perfect path of snow between the trees for about 10 metres that I'd slid down. Anyway I shouted, "WAIT!" to Yuki (lol) but she decided to walk back up a way, cross the stream and come down the same side we had the first time. I carried on down to where to other run down came out but was a bit shaken and was annoyed that we'd separated (you should NEVER go out of bounds alone and hiking in deep snow takes a long time), but all was fine though! It was pretty tiring and by the time we got back to the lift it was time to go home.
A couple of weeks ago I went to play basketball with some people from work, they have a staff gym night every Friday. It nearly killed me! Seems my legs are stronger but my fitness is still just as bad :)
Last night we had a staff party at one of the mountain restaurants called 18 below up at base 2. It was a beach party theme so everyone was invited to bring their best beach costume! I came home after work and put on some shorts with my shirt and fisherman hat (you know the one) but then though f*** that it's freezing so put my trousers back on :P
We had free food (shepherds pie!!) and a couple free drinks (4 for me) and then we played........... bingo. I thought, 'what the hell are we doing sitting in a mountain restaurant playing bingo'. I won one game at the same time as another guy so we had to do a zoolander style walkoff to see who would take the prize. I surprised myself by going for it despite only having had 2 beers at that point and I blatantly spanked the other guy's ass but they decided diplomatically to award us both with a prize :)
The best costume competition was comedy - the guy who won stripped down to just his speedos and started dancing around but they did a runners up competition too so we were shouting for a guy called Gary who had come in a wetsuit and was carrying a surfboard (lol). After the party finished we walked down the piste to Merlins, which was also comedy because most people were wearing shorts, a couple of guys were wearing flip-flops (or "thongs" if you're retarded), it was pretty icy and very cold! Myself and Graham managed to sledge some of the way on a piece of cardboard, but then my shoes started filling with ice so we had to scrap that. Anyway after a couple of pitchers of beer and a jaeger bomb (a glass of redbull like stuff with a shot glass full of jaegermeister in the bottom, which f***s you up like vodbulls :)) I was done so headed home under the pretence of going boarding in the morning, except here I am now on the couch as I have been all day!
2 Comments:
Knarly dude. I like the image of the walkoff!
FYI, they are called thongs here. Nowt else. I'm sure they understand 'flip flops' but I feel a right t**t saying it. Almost retarded.
ooooh yeah miss you too ;)
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