November 2004

Powder Days

Today was my first true powder day. 10cm of new fluffy snow landed last night, and the first few runs of today were absolutely magical. It literally feels as though you're floating above the snow, as though you were on a hoverboard (remember those from Back to the Future II).

Oh, and also before I forget, I also managed to land in a little creek. The problem was, I didn't see it till the last minute, and I tried to jump it, only for my board to wedge into the other side of the creek. I then rolled over, and I was literally being suspended upside down from my board. Anyway, 15 minutes of thrashing about trying to unclip my bindings and leash upside down later, I finally completed my run, but not before I was receiving crap from pretty much everyone that I knew.... OH the humiliation....

The wait is OVER!

Two days ago, there was a gift from God. 31cm of fresh powder fell meaning the mountain could start opening lifts up for us to ride. Yesterday, I went out and did 7 runs before having to work. Chris and I have a running bet to see who will have more days of boarding (min. 4 runs a day to count) and total number of runs over the season. Looks like it's neck and neck at the moment.

As for my riding, by the end of today, I managed to start going edge to edge again, rather than just shovelling snow the whole time. So, I'm just about back to where I left off at Thredbo last year. Oh, and my body ACHES. I don't suppose I'm going to get much sympathy for that though, especially from the boys back home.

Another interesting observation that just came to me is that this American Thanksgiving is the first time in 3 years, I am NOT at Waylon's parent's home in Arizona.

Anyway, will try to take the camera out on the hill over the next few days and hopefully I'll be able to take a few good photos of us riding (although I might wait until there's a bit more sunshine first).

Which OS / File extension are you?

In reference to my geekness, I had to find out what file extension and operating system I was. The results are below, although I ran the OS test twice, because I got WinXP first time around. *shudder* I'm not sure which result is worse. Thanks for the link Jack



Which File Extension are You?



Which OS are You?



Which OS are You?

Killing Time

OK, so today's a bit of a slow day at the internet cafe, so I can blog a bit more.

The other amazing thing about living in a ski resort without any tourists is that you get to really know a lot of the staff. Right now there's not much to do up here at Big White except wait for snow so everyone goes out every night. It's quite a good little social network that's going on right now. It seems like Poker games and drinking games are sprouting up every day to relieve the boredom.

Speaking of boredom, the power was cut off for 5 hours last Tuesday, so I went for a hike with a few of my roommates up the mountain. Take a look at the photos I took of the massive cliff bowl that has a new chairlift this year:
http://foobar.trikarso.com/photos/cliffchairhike

The human body is a wonderful thing

Yesterday was one of the most sunny days I'd seen for a number of days. As a result, I found myself walking to work in nothing more than a t-shirt. Sure, it was a little bit chilly, but nothing that was unbearable. You could imagine my surprise when I found out that not only was it -5 outside, but during the course of the day, the snow clouds rolled in, meaning my trek home would be in a snow storm. Yes, I walked home in a t-shirt through a snow storm.

The reason I'm relating this little bit of information is, if it was -5 degrees back home, you wouldn't even think about geting out of bed. But over here, if its -5, it's almost like a heat wave. It's amazing how quickly your body adapts to the surroundings.

Halloween

Ouch, my head hurts. Who would've guessed that Halloween was such a big deal up here? You know it's been a good night when you've lost your phone in a foot of snow. Photos here: http://foobar.trikarso.com/photos/Halloween or if you want to print them, here: http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=14wrttx6.jsreoze&x=0&y=-q4td98

Anyway, now that I'm working at an Internet Cafe, I have LOTS of free time to blog online, so hopefully the updates will be coming more regularly.