Weekend in the USA

All the talk of global warming has got a bit tedious but i am certainly seeing the effects here. I know we have come to Canada in spring but i expected much colder harsher conditions than we have been experiencing. There are pros and cons to this other than the imminent rising of the seas and the dilution of the gulf stream which will plunge the UK into a permanent winter. Here it has meant that snow levels are even lower than last years disastrous levels. That said we are still enjoying our skiing. It isn't as nearly as epic as i had hoped but compared to NZ it is still pretty special. The lack of snow though has produced a massive advantage. That being that the roads are so clear. As we drove out of Vancouver with our little nissan laden with skis and suitcases we had to drive quite a way until we saw the inevitable "carry chains or have good winter tires" road sign. We don't have either and i was obviously a little concerned as we have planned to head off into the Rockies. We have been lucky though and the only icy/snowy roads we have encountered were on our way up to Big White. Luckily they had just had an 18cm dump of fresh okanagan powder. The drive up was a little slick but we made it up no problem. The resorts here are so much more money than the hills we skied in Utah but when people offer you tickets in the parking lot and save you $50, it really helps! So with our scalped tickets we headed off into the fresh powder. I skied like a man possessed with the fear off falling or hurting myself pushed right to the back of my mind. Such soft fresh snow is like skiing while wrapped in cotton wool. I flung myself off anything that resembled a jump or ledge and shit myself on a huge jump which i thought was a lot smaller. I nailed the landing though and rode off whooping and hollering with delight. Kate had never skied in such new snow and was way too tentative. In deeper snow you have to let yourself go and trust your technique. The fresh grippy snow slows you down but you have to work harder to turn. She struggled on our first run and said she didn't like it. I laughed and told her to just go for it. Kate tends to almost hockey stop each turn to control her speed which is near impossible in deep snow but once i got her carving a bit more she was away! We had such a good day and even my crash into a tree couldn't dampen my spirits. It was pure comedy as i flew over this ridge and landed on a steep which shot me forward at, quite literally, break neck speed. I tried to slow myself but knew a hockey stop in the deep snow would just shot my head first down the hill, so i traversed the slope pointing my skis more uphill. Gravity wasn't my friend in this instance though as i ran out of piste and clattered into the branches of a pine tree by the side of the slope. I collapsed into the deep snow which cushioned me nicely. As Kate cleared the ledge a woman who had seen my spectacular stack asked her if we were together and that she should check up on me but when i emerged from the tree pissing myself laughing, she knew i was OK. Her concern was further extinguished when she skied up to me and noticed a piece of tree sticking out of my goggles like some sort of pine mono brow.

Big White was amazing. Great snow but a bit crowded by Canadian standards. It is spring break here though so that explains it (screams "SPRING BREAK!!" and throws an egg from my car at a passer by - just like what happened to my mother in law in Florida. It left a nasty bruise!). Brighton is still our number one place with Big White now a very close second.

The icy conditions on the roads continued as we left Big White and headed straight over to Rossland. It is a tiny little town sunk down in a snow filled valley just north of the USA border. Not exactly Kelowna in its glamour but still pretty quaint. They have a ski field there called Red Mountain which is famous for it's gladed tree runs. We suffered the next few days though from our exploits at Big White and although the lift passes were free, we never made it up the hill. We had only planned to stay a day there before heading off to Fernie but ended up spending that day in our room aching, popping pain killers and muscle relaxants. In a quiet moment in Kelowna i had joined an internet poker site so Kate also joined and we spent the whole day playing poker. I managed to double my $30 bankroll in about 20 minutes in a cash game so was well pleased but have since lost most of it and decided to just stick to sit and go tournaments. You can win a lot of money playing cash games but you an also lose a lot. Having not played online, other than Facebook (where i have over $6 million in fake chips), i need a bit more practice i think. I came second in a sit and go and won $16 but other than that i have only had a few cashes. Kate has started to do well and has also had a few cashes. We are sticking to very small stakes at the moment so anything we win isn't exactly gonna allow us to run out and buy a new porsche!

So we headed to Fernie and settled into our last hostel of this trip. It's all hotels after that. Now i'm not a snob, i lived in van for a year for Christs sake, but the hostel we stayed in in Fernie was a bit rough. No, it was actually OK but i think our room was above the sauna! Man it was baking in our room all the time. I opened the window one night but had to close it when it started snowing on our gear. The heat was a problem at night but what was worst was the constant stench of ganja! I know that Canada has quite relaxed laws and opinions on marijuanna use but it was relentless. I'm sure it had an effect on my eating habits too as every night i lay in bed craving brownies.

Fernie was our first real mountain town and the ski resort is was only a few miles from the town centre. It was a pretty little town with the usual ski and snowboard shops. I took the opportunity to demo some skis i have had my eye on for a while. Back when i bought my skis in Canada a few years ago i looked at some Volkl Gotamas. They were out of my price range but since then they have been redisgned. Skis are actually cheaper in the UK than in Canada but back home we have a distinct lack of ski resorts so i thought I'd give them a try. We headed up the hill after 4cm of new snow but the conditions were terrible. The lower half of the mountain was an ice rink but once we kept above the mid mountain it was pretty good. The demo skis worked well but I'm not sure i want to part with the money just yet. Plus I'd wait til i was home anyway as they're cheaper but they would just sit in the shed til next winter. No point.

We were woken this morning by a knock on our room door informing us we hadn't checked out of our room yet. We looked at each other both thinking we still had another night. After a quick check of our trip planner on the laptop though we discovered that we should already be on the road to Montana. Oops. We hastily got dressed and packed and left. To be honest i was pretty glad to leave our hostel, especially since it smelt like a Amsterdam coffee shop.

So we have now arrived in Whitefish in Montana. The drive here was the most stunning scenery we have passed through yet since leaving Aoteroa (NZ). Huge glacial lakes, big pine forests and the odd deer crossing the road. Pretty sweet. We are just here for the weekend before heading back up to Canada to Cranbrook. Hopefully there will be a few end of season dumps of snow over our last few weeks here. Well, if the snow does start to thaw we can always play online poker. It's a win win situation either way.

Peace

D

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