Period: November 2005 | December 2005 | January 2006 | February 2006 | March 2006 | April 2006

Saturday December 31 2005 - Village People

Today was a day off due to tired legs. Dave and I went for a walk in the village to look for bindings and board bags. We then met up with Gav for a coffee - or actually in my case a heart attack hot chocolate loaded with fresh cream! We also bought $130 of beer and spirits ready for a few people coming round to warm up for New Year's Eve.

Our crowd with a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman (unmounted!)

Dave and I chilled out at home in the afternoon and cracked open a couple of beers at 3:30 to celebrate the UK New Year. I got a UK happy new year call from Liz at 4:00pm. Justin, Kim and Dane came round at 7 and we picked up on the drinking - creating very drinkable but very strong black russians. We drank and played Balderdash until about 10:30pm and headed into town. The village party had already started and we joined in the celebrations boogying in the square until 11:30. It was really cool, the music was great and it was snowing quite heavily with everyone dancing outside.

We went and grabbed a round of drinks in the Crystal Lounge and then headed back outside into the square just before midnight. We joined in the countdown, boogied some more and then went back into the Crystal Lounge for more rounds of drinks and shots. There was quite a groovy band playing which was a Canadian guy on guitar and an african guy on bongo drums. Despite our requests they wouldn't play 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'!

We all stayed in the lounge until 2 and then went to the Pie Shop to cure our drinking munchies. I had a chicken and Rosemary pie and a Cheese, Potato and Steak Pie - delicious! It got to about 3 and the crowd was hanging around the shop, my homing beacon switched on though and headed home and straight to bed. It was a really fun NY.

Friday December 30 2005 - Ridge Drops

Another early start, Gav, Dave, Kat, Miranda and I headed up Whistler mountain as it opened. There was plenty of new snow but it got cut up very quickly due to large amount of people on the mountain. We tried to get up Harmony but it was closed probably due to avalanche blasting still going on. I also noticed that I had damaged my new C60 bindings on my board. It must have been a compression break as I had gone up Crystal chair the day before. The damage looked bad but they still supported my boot so still useable. As we made our way to Emerald, we caught up with Justin, Dane and Kim.

Gav headed off on his own and the rest of us went to the Peak chair to find some steep powder. The drop in was pretty sketchy and icy but we all managed it albeit with every one performing some of the drop on our butts! We traversed Whistler Bowl, crossed the ridge over to Surprise and then each found our own freshies cruising down to the Peak Chair. We were all pretty cautious due to the Rocks. Kim had a bit of a trauma as she found herself perched on the edge of a cliff but was fine after a little hike back up!

We did a few more runs in the Symphony bowl powder then met Gav for lunch. After lunch we all split up. Justin took Dale and Kim on a few more chilled out runs and Dave accompanied Gav on the green runs as his leg was starting to feel the abuse. Kat and I went to explore Harmony Ridge. The visibility was excellent and we had spotted freshies on the Symphony side of the ridge in the morning. We cruised the ridge and spotted a few tracks down the Symphony side between Sun Bowl and Harvey's. We followed them and found untracked steep powder and had easily the best runs of the day. It's reassuring to know that even on the busiest days of the year fresh untouched powder fields can still be found in the afternoon. We then decided to check out the steep double diamond drops into Harmony Bowl from the other side of the ridge. The first one we did was Camel Humps, we checked out Harmony Horseshoe but it was very scary with rocks and ice so we went further and down McConkey's. Both times we also found a favorite little spot just before GS which is three little drops in a row, it was soft powder so was easy to straight line all the way down all three.

The legs were tired in the evening but I met up with Anna, Kat and a few of their lifty mates and went to Merlin's for a couple of beers. It was pretty busy in there even though it was the day before New Years Eve - people must have been warming up!

Thursday December 29 2005 - Broken Ben

This morning was a pretty good result with seven people turning up at the lifts at 8:15. We all headed up Blackcomb. Gav and Ben went off to the green runs whilst Kat, Justin, Justin's two friends from Oz - Dane and Kim (apologies for any incorrect names, i'm useless with em) - and I headed through the park. We hit the jumps, boarder-cross and half pipe. I got by far the biggest air I have ever had when I went pretty fast off one of the jumps. I scared the life out of myself but was pretty stoked at the same time. The park was awesome though - soft snow and very quiet as it was so early.

We then headed off to Glacier and Crystal before lunch hitting the ever good Rock 'n' Roll. We did the run a few times then met with Ben and Gav at the Rendezvous. We also met Dave on the way up who had decided to give his dodgy leg a run. He seemed pretty high on Ibuprofen!

We all decided to stick together after lunch and all started to head down to Crystal Chair. Kat, Dave and I headed off and waited at the chair but no-one else turned up. We went up the lift and then headed down and back up Excelerator. On the way up Dave commented on ski-patrol attending to an injured person we looked round and I spotted Justin stood next to them. Our hearts sank as we saw it was Ben on the ground. We went straight back down and found them. It turned out Ben had broken his arm and was being strapped up. We all stood round whilst he was being sorted. Justin got the whole rescue thing on video. Ben was then taken off the mountain by ski-patrol.

We were all a bit numb after the incident - although Dave still seemed pretty high on the Ibuprofen! Gav, Dave, Kat and I decided to call it a day and rode to the base of the mountain. We grabbed some beers at the GLC then headed home. I was tired and after a hot tub I had a cat nap for a couple of hours.

We all arranged to meet later for a curry. There were nine of us. The food was great but Gav found out the difficult way that Canadian curries are different from UK curries - my vindaloo was about a quarter of the strength of his chicken tikka masala - I'm sure I saw smoke come out of his ears whilst he was half way through it!

Wednesday December 28 2005 - Rock 'n' Roll

I got up early excited about all the new snow we had. I arranged to meet up with Kat and Base II and we headed up Blackcomb - first stop Rock 'n' Roll!

We covered a lot of ground today. It was so much fun and the best day's riding in ages - there were loads of drops and jumps, we even discovered some new ones. We only had one trip up the Glacier and spent the rest of the time at Crystal. The powder was soft and deep in places and all the landings were soft. Also, because Crystal is off the beaten trail it doesn't get so busy. We saw the queues at Jersey Cream though and they were huge.

After grabbing a beer and 20 cent wings at Crystal I headed home. Gav and Dave were crashed out in front of the tele watching american football. Dave was still injured and Gav took the day off. They had been to Merlin's to watch the Liverpool vs Everton match earlier in the day though.

I put on the movies that everyone slept through the previous night - The Exorcism and the Fantastic Four. The guys went to bed early again. I cleared up then crashed about 10 ready for an early start and hopefully good runs again tomorrow. The texts I received suggested there would be about ten of us going up in the morning - it's an 8:15 meet though so it remains to be seen how many will make it!

Tuesday December 27 2005 - "You Ride Alone?"

I took Gav up Whistler mountain. His snowboarding instructor from Christmas Day had recommended he try Burnt Stew Trail so that's where we headed. The lift queues were huge - the wait at Harmony Chair was about 30 minutes - it was like waiting for a ride at Alton Towers!

There was tons of new snow. We set off down Burnt Stew Trail and I decided to cut through Symphony bowl into the powder. It had snowed tons over night and the powder in there was lush. Gav followed me in but unfortunately he got stuck. We were carrying our walkie talkies and we agreed to meet further down after Gav had dug himself out. Whilst I was riding through the powder I came across three Japanese guys who seemed to be having a lot of fun. I cruised past them quite slowly and they all gave me big smiles. They spoke in broken English about how much they were loving the powder and asked if 'you ride alone?'. I said no I was with a friend. It would have been loads of fun to have ridden with these guys I reckon - absolute nutters in their big baggy loud snowboarding clothes, gold teeth and bling golden goggles and snowboarding hardware. I assumed they were offering me some company anyway - I couldn't think of any other reason why they showed so much interest!

Gav and I met up again and headed down the cat tracks to the green runs that would take us to the bottom. I think Gav suffered a bit on the cats - they can give a bit of thigh burn! Basically we only did one run all morning- from the top of Harmony to the bottom of the mountain - about a mile vertical. But it took about three hours!

Gav strolled home and I decided to take a trip up Blackcomb to check out Crystal. That area is wicked with new snow - my favorite. I popped into the Crystal Lodge whilst up there and got some free waffles off Kat who was working there :-) and then cruised Rock 'n' Roll. The run was in prime condition and hardly touched - it was actually closed and I ducked a rope to get on it. I then headed back down to the base of the mountain and walked home in the happy knowledge that Rock n Roll would wait for tomorrow.

I quickly showered and changed and Gav, Dave and I went for a stroll in the village. We stopped off at Tapley's for a couple of beers. Tapley's is a sort of spit and sawdust sports bar where they constantly show ice hockey. We took a seat and the server came over - her first question was to i.d. us all! Heh, heh, Dave and I were well chuffed being 35 and 31 respectively! We said we didn't have i.d. but she allowed us to buy beers anyway.

We then phoned around to see who was available for some food. Bron and Kat showed up and we all went to Milestones for dinner. After we went to Rogers got some movies and chocolate and headed home. All of us were pretty much asleep after 15 min's though - the movies would have to wait for another night.

Monday December 26 2005 - Sticky Snow

Dave and Gav were already up when I woke at 7:15 - they were experiencing the joys of Jet Lag. We headed to the slopes for about 9:00am. It was lashing down still but we were hoping the freezing level had dropped and there would be snow on the mountain. We got to the top and it was snowing and it looked ok. We decided to warm up on Jersey Cream. It was apparent pretty quickly that there wasn't any base under the snow. The rain from previous days must have washed away the previous snow.

The trouble when there isn't a base is that when your board sinks into the snow it starts hitting whatever there is on the surface of the mountain - mud, rocks, logs, squirrels, marmots etc. This made the riding difficult to control. We decided to go through the terrain park as there would be a base there as it's probably the most maintained area on the mountain. Dave and I hit a few jumps and cruised down the half-pipe. We looked for Gav at the bottom but couldn't find him. We hung around for about 45mins and then went to Rendezvous to look. We found him there.

We noticed the Crystal area had opened so we cruised over - it's normally quieter and collects new snow pretty well. I like it there because you can jib your way down - i.e. slashes off the banks and jump off rock jumps and other little hits. We got part way down Rock n Roll and Dave took a bit of a tumble. It didn't look too bad but he managed to twist his ankle and calf pretty badly. I think the lack of base may have made his board stick causing him to twist. He gingerly made his way to the Gondie and downloaded. Gav and I carried on down and rode to the base.

The rest of the day was a write off. We spent about 9 hours in front of the television eating junk food.

Sunday December 25 2005 - Christmas Chill Out

Gav got up early for a snowboarding lesson whilst Dave and I chilled out. We checked the weather and saw that the freezing level had climbed to 2500 meters which meant it would be raining all the way up the mountain. Kat texted to say that they had closed all the alpine lifts due to high winds as well so it wasn't worth going out.

We went for a wander to the market place. First stop was Westbeach. Dave was after a new shorter freestyle board. There was also a rumor that they had blundered on an ad in the Pique and they were honoring the sale of 2006 Option Black Tusk snowboards reduced from $550 to $129! I asked the assistant and he said they had one left - a women's 153. I bought it anyway! I'll either sell it on to someone I know or e-bay it for a profit. It's a wicked little board and for £75 cheap as chips! Dave bought a 2005 Forum Devon Walsh 153 for a great price which was 60% off.

We then grabbed some coffees in Blenz for an hour or so and then headed home for the sofa again. Gav came home about 3:30 and was stoked about the progress he had made in the lesson. He had learned to turn properly and was starting to do little ollies.

We ordered a couple of Dominos pizza home deliveries and put on a movie - Robots - which I slept through. Dave and Gav played scrabble whilst I updated my diary.

Saturday December 24 2005 - Slush, Turkey & Darts (Riding Day 32)

The forecast wasn't great - a high freezing level and rain. We headed out on to the mountain regardless. Justin came round about 9:30am and we headed out to get Gav kitted up and to get the lift passes. Justin could get discounts so he helped Gav. I have three boards so I lent Gav one of them and so all he needed was boots. It turned out that it would be substantially cheaper to buy boots than renting for two weeks. Gav ended up just renting for one day then buying boots at the end of the day.

Most of the lifts were closed and the Gondie was only going half way up Whistler to midstation. We were limited to just one or two runs so all we did was those three times. The snow was very soft and wet. But it was a good warm up for the boys.

We headed to the GLC for a couple of of Apres jugs of beer and some food then went to the shops to get some gear. Then it was home for the sofa and a snooze.

There were quite a few people heading to Merlin's for Christmas dinner in the evening so we joined them. It was my first Turkey of the year and was great - I also think it was my first vegetables since arriving in Whistler! I played a bit of darts - Killer and Cricket and then we headed to Tommy Africa's for some drinks and bopping. It was a fun night - everyone was on good spirits and fair do's to the boys - they lasted until pretty late without falling asleep on their feet!

Friday December 23 2005 - Vancouver

I picked up a hire car from Avis at 9:00am as I was picking Gav and Dave up from Vancouver airport in the evening. The guy next to me in the Avis office got upgraded to a Hummer which would have been awesome but I got a Chevy Malibu.

I picked Ben up at 10:00am and we headed into Vancouver for a day at the shops. It's very difficult to get anything in Whistler except for Winter sports gear. The weather was pretty horrible so we decided just to go to the Pacific Royal mall in North Vancouver. I bought some headphones and walkie talkies but Ben bought virtually the entire contents of the mall as they were a bit short of gear at their house.

Gav and Dave took about an hour to clear customs and immigration and they eventually emerged about 7:00pm. We drove straight back to Whistler. We were all pretty tired so after chatting for about an hour we all crashed.

Thursday December 22 2005 - Brrrrrrr

Last night was a bit of a sleepless night - let's just say my cooking didn't really agree with me - and leave it at that! I still managed to get up and was at the gondie at 9:30. It was pouring down in the village and even half way up Blackcomb mountain. By the time Kat and I got to Glacier Creek we were soaking wet. But by the top of Jersey cream the rain was snow. So I guess the freezing level was as forecasted - about 1500m.

We did a fast Jersey Cream warm up run - the new snow was pretty deep but a bit soggy and sticky. We noticed 7th Heaven was open - the first time of the season so we were hit by curiosity and headed down the cat-track to check it out. When we were there a week ago it was no where near ready. But as it's pretty high and there had been torrential rain in the village in the last few days, there was a good possibility of powder.

The wind at the top was howling and it was very cold. It was snowing hard and that combined with the wind caused a pretty severe white out. The top third of the run was very difficult with visibility extremely poor. But then as we got further down, we found more shelter and tons of powder.

We chatted with a guy from Wellington NZ on the way back up. He hinted that the Everglades tree runs were awesome with waist deep powder. We headed down there - it was tricky finding the area due to the visibility but when we got there the powder was amazing. It was as deep as any snow I had ever been in before. I had the wrong board for powder so struggled a bit, having to lean right back to get the board to the surface.

We got the lift up for the third time and we were with the Kiwi guy again. Just before we got on the chair, ski-patrol said that they were closing 7th heaven due to the extreme winds which were increasing. We would have to go over the glacier or cat-track to Rendezvous. The chair was being run extremely slowly due to the gales. It was so cold and the chair was swinging wildly. We got about three quarters of the way up and they stopped the lift. We were stuck for about 20mins with the chair swinging in the strong winds. We were all getting very cold and starting to worry about it. All our clothes had frozen up, our lips had frost around and any exposed skin was turning very red. We looked like those people do on movies when they're stuck on mountains or in the North Pole or whatever. We were all shivering pretty badly too.

They eventually started up the lift again and we got to the top. My feet and hands were numb and it felt like my exposed skin was going to fall off. The saga wasn't over though as we had to get off the top. The visibility was only a couple of meters and the wind so strong it was almost impossible to walk into it. We eventually got to Rendezvous and got inside as quickly as possible to warm up. They were serving free hot chocolate and so we had a couple to start feeling alive again.

Enough was enough and so we rode to the bottom of the mountain. I went home and decided to do a spring clean. Dave and Gav arrive tomorrow so I wanted to make sure the house was in good nick for when they arrived. It was also my last night of the season having the house to myself so a night in on my own was in order. I have lived alone since April and that is about to change for the foreseeable future. I grabbed a pizza, maltesers and sat down to a night on the sofa in front of the tele. I think I'm gonna miss it!

Wednesday December 21 2005 - Total Body Conditioning

The weather was pretty much the same as yesterday - not too cold and very wet. No one even contemplated going up the mountain. So I met up with Ben and Bron for a coffee for a couple of hours then went home where I was expecting Justin to turn up about 2:00pm.

I had had my eye on a pair of Coldplay tickets on E-Bay and the auction was finishing at 2:00pm. I put in my bid and lucky me I won them! They are playing in Vancouver on the 26th and 27th of January. The tickets are for the 26th and are directly in front of the stage on row 19 - very exciting!

Justin came round - we hung around for about an hour chatting and then headed to the Meadow Park sports center to do "Total Body Conditioning". I didn't like the class as much as the "Core Fusion" one we did before but it was busier and it gave the legs a good workout which is a good job as they aren't really being used on the mountain much at the moment with the lack of snow.

Bron came round about 7:00pm and the three of us chatted for a couple of hours before Ben came round after work. I made everyone pasta and then Ben, Justin and I played Texas Hold 'Em poker until midnight. Bron crashed on the sofa, she had had a couple of beers after work and it had caught up with her. They all caught a cab about midnight and I hit the sack in anticipation of going up Blackcomb tomorrow to see if it's any better than Whistler was.

Tuesday December 20 2005 - Wet Wet Wet (Riding Day 30)

I arranged to meet Kat at the Whistler Gondie at 10:30 and went up the mountain. It had rained pretty hard overnight in the village and all the paths were super-slippy as the surface water had frozen. It was almost impossible to walk up the slight inclines through the Northstar complex.

It started raining again as we rode up the Gondie. We got to the top and walked out of the Roundhouse into miserable wet weather - a bit like the UK normally is in November! It wasn't even that cold! The snow was pretty slushy too. We decided to get as high as possible and as Peak was closed, that meant Harmony.

The view from Harmony lift was horrible - mud slides and bare rocks everywhere! We decided to try burnt stew trail off the top of Harmony. It was very difficult to see the trail because as soon as any speed was picked up, my goggles became like a car windscreen in the rain without windscreen wipers - almost impossible to see through. The snow had become very sticky too. It soon became apparent that it was pointless to be on the mountain today so we headed back to midstation past Harmony and Emerald. The conditions were so bad I'm not counting it in my Riding Days tally.

Kat and I went to the Crystal lounge in the afternoon for some 20 cent chicken wings and met up with Holly and her friend. We had a couple of beers to console ourselves, food and then I headed home. I crashed out and slept through Black Hawk Down and then about another hour afterwards too. I then watched some junk on tele, ate some Frosties and eventually went to bed. A bit of a damp squib of a day!

Monday December 19 2005 - R&R

I woke up at about 11 and had a super chilled day. A lot of people have Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off work so I took the opportunity to be very lazy! I watched a bit of tele, went to the supermarket, had a nap and watched a couple of movies - Waterboy and Stander. That's about it - nothing really very interesting!

Sunday December 18 2005 - A long walk...

I decided to have a quiet day today as nobody was available to go out riding. The forecast was set to change from Monday and so I wanted to use the opportunity take the camera up Blackcomb to take photos on the Glacier. I headed up the lifts about midday. It's four lift rides to the top of Glacier from the village and you climb a vertical mile to get there. Once at the top it was a beautiful day but the wind was very strong at the top of the mountain.

I took a few shots at the top of the Showcase T-Bar then I traversed across the very narrow and very scary path to the top of the Glacier run. It's a huge hill, very wide and very long. It was incredibly windy at the top. I took my board off, found some soft snow and planted it upside down digging the bindings in the snow to secure it. I sat down to make sure I was balanced and started taking photos. I was framing a shot down the glacier when I saw a black dot traveling down the hill. My heart sank, I looked round and noticed my board had gone!

I watched as my board traveled unassisted all the way down the glacier run until it became a tiny black dot then nothing! I had two choices; either walk down the steep long glacier or go and try and find some help. The trouble was that as the lift to the top is a T-Bar, you can't download from the top, you either have to snowboard or walk! I checked the condition of the snow on the glacier and I found I could get a good footing and it wasn't too icy. So I decided to hike the glacier to the point I last saw my board.

Blackcomb Glacier - feels like the top of the world.

It took me about an hour to get to some rocks which was my reference point for where I last saw my board. I checked around the rocks and didn't see it, I looked further down the glacier and saw it - I was very relieved - it looked like it was in one piece! I hiked for about another 15 minutes and got to my board - I checked it over and it looked fine - phew! I strapped in and proceeded down the mountain with huge relief!

I was taking photos further down the valley when a guy passed by and asked if it was me who had lost my board - I said yes. He said he saw it flying down and was heading straight for the rocks, he said it seemed to get knocked at the last minute and just passed them by, he said it was going so fast it would have been trashed! He managed to pick it up further down the mountain and secured it. I was very thankful and we both laughed about it! In 12 years of snowboarding I've never lost a board. It was definitely a freak event and a leash wouldn't have helped, I'll just remember to have it strapped on at all times when taking photos in the future!

The evening was fun. I went to the Keg pub where the Brio staff housing were having a party. That's where Justin, Ben, Dave and Bron live. I had a few Martinis with a Kat, Justin and Bron and then Justin, Kat and I went to Garfs for the Hed Kandi party. There were lots of people who I knew there including people who I hadn't seen in ages, a couple of the L Word guys and people from Brio. It was tons of fun - I danced all night - the music was by far the best I had heard in Whistler so far. It wasn't really a glamorous night like most Hed Kandi parties - Garfs is a bit of a dark dingy place and so it felt a bit underground but that was cool. The DJ played a few of the Hed Kandi classics including Higher Place by Peyton and Let the Beat Hit Em by Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam. At the end of his set he got a massive cheer - the crowd seemed to love the night.

Saturday December 17 2005 - I hurt!

I woke up at about 10:30, tried to lift my head off the pillow and got a pain through my neck as a result - whiplash sucks! I then tried to lift out my leg and got more pain - dead leg. I then tried to put weight on my right knee and ankle and even more pain - everything had twisted. My body didn't feel as if it belonged to me - it was in pieces!

Dusk in Whistler is stunning.

I decided to stay in bed and dozed until 2:00pm. I eventually made it out of bed and down the stairs and got stuck into to the ibuprofen bottle. I hung around until 5:00pm, doing as many jobs as my body would allow and then went for a walk in the village to get some dusky mountain shots. I had wanted to get some for a few days whilst it was still clear - clouds, rain and snow are forecasted from monday for the foreseeable future.

The whole feel of the village has changed in the last week. When I first arrived the village was spookily quiet. You could walk through the middle of the village in the middle of the day and just see one or two other people. Everyone started to get to know everyone and most faces became very familiar. I never saw anyone at the Northstar houses. Then mid-november it started getting a little busier as the season started up, but there was still a village atmosphere - very friendly and local. Almost everyone who you walked past in the village looked you in the eye, smiled and said hello. I also started to see one or two other people around the Northstar houses and they were always very friendly and chatty.

In the last week Whistler has changed completely. The tourists have started arriving in droves and feels much less friendly - people don't smile and say hello and are much more 'clique'. There are big groups now too - Northstar had about 80 loud californian college kids last week and a large group of indian/asian people arrived yesterday. Yesterday was the official start of the peak season too so prices have gone up in a lot of places but the key to that is to have a 'Whistler Card' which you can get as a local and offers loads of good deals around the village in restaurants, gear shops and places like the cinema and the video shop. I think that I was lucky to arrive when I did as virtually everyone I met were here for the season and so all were like-minded, friendly and meeting people and making friends was easy. If someone was to arrive by themselves now I think they would find Whistler a little intimidating and a lot harder to meet local people.

Anyway, I chilled out in the evening with a BBQ chicken Dominos pizza and a couple of movies - Mr & Mrs Smith and The Longest Yard. Just what the doctor ordered!

Friday December 16 2005 - I just wanna survive

I got up to Rendezvous for 9:45 for our freestyle snowboarding lesson. The group was made up of Kat, Justin and me. Freestyle snowboarding is basically anything a bit showy - so jumps, spins, table, box & rail slides, half-pipe and ground tricks such as nose slides. I hadn't really practiced it much before - some people love it but I have always enjoyed exploring the mountain and finding new tracks. By doing that you do do jumps and drops but I've never really done any type of spins and only went on a box for the first time a couple of weeks ago.

We met the instructor who was a complete dude - "yo braa" - "totally awesome" - "radical" and "super-good" made up about 50% of everything he said. He seemed to know what he was doing and had tons of experience so he was credible enough. He asked us what we wanted to get out of the lesson - my goal was pretty much survival! Freestyle riding hurts, falling off rails, landing jumps badly and ground tricks going wrong is pretty much standard stuff when learning.

Firstly we tried nose & tail slides and buttering , these are fun and help board control and balance. They are something you can do and practice whilst just normally snowboarding.

We then moved to the park and we were taught board sliding boxes - that's when you ollie onto a long raised narrow platform and spin the board 90 degrees so you slide along facing forward. I fell off of course and that hurt but not too bad. We then took the same to bigger boxes and rails - raising the stakes. My success ratio was about 50:50 so was hitting the ground a lot! All the features (boxes, jumps & rails) are rated according to their difficulty - S, M, L & XL. We moved onto a L box which was long, high and had a steep downward incline so you finish off it faster than you start - quite scary. I ollied (jumped) onto it and slid about halfway before losing it and rag-dolling over it and then sliding about 30 meters off the end cart wheeling It hurt so much! I hit my head (I was wearing a helmet), twisted my ankle and gave my self a dead-leg. I was in pieces!

We carried on after I managed to make myself move again. We went to a 'L' jump. It had about a 10-15ft ramp up it, about a 12ft table-top (a flat section on top after the ramp) and then a steep drop off the other side. The idea is that you shouldn't land on the flat bit but on the steep drop on the other side. It's much better on the legs! Our instructor took us to the jump and set us off high enough up the hill to gather enough speed to clear the jump. It was bigger than I had ever done before. I went for it, ollied off the ramp to get more height - I cleared the table top and landed safely on the other side - phew! The other guys said I looked pretty good too. I was pretty stoked after the disasters on the rails.

We then went to a spine jump where you take off almost sideways and land on a vert on the side of the jump. It looked pretty scary. We managed that one too, getting good air - loads of fun! Then we went to the "Superpipe". This was an extra big half-pipe built for the Nokia world championships the previous week. Our instructor showed us the way down and we followed him. We didn't get air off the lip but it was tons of fun and I felt pretty natural through it.

I had found my niche - jumps, drops and the half-pipe but definitely not rails and boxes - although I'm determined to practice them in the future.

In the afternoon we went for a jib down ridge-runner and our instructor showed us tons of great spots for jumps and drops. We also did loads of slashes off high banks. I really enjoyed this - I think I prefer natural to man-made freestyle features.

We went for a couple of well deserved beers and tapas at the GLC before I headed home to get ready for the L Word. I really struggled to get out of the house. My leg felt like it was ready to fall off. I got the the Chateau Whistler and sat around for about 5 hours waiting for the filming. They had to re-write the script so not much was happening. I got the opportunity to chat for ages with the casting agents - Loralee and Natasha. They sub-contract on loads of movies filmed in Vancouver and were really interesting. It got to about 1:00am and we were called down to a chalet where they were filming. The shoot was a fondue dinner so I had to pretend we were having dinner. It wasn't as much fun as the previous time as everyone was tired and a bit bored. I was OK but hurting bad so I swapped e-mails with Loralee and Natasha who offered future work in Vancouver if wanted and made my excuses and headed home at 2:00am.

Thursday December 15 2005 - Beautiful Day

I took the camera up Whistler mountain today. Ben and Justin also came up. It was very icy and so Ben took it easy on some of the green runs whilst Justin and I took a trip around the mountain taking photos.

Some of the most amazing views can be found at the top of Harmony chair. From the vantage point you can se across the Garibaldi park, flute bowl and Blackcomb. We hiked a little hill of Harmony and took photos. Justin decided to start doing back flips and belly flops into the powder - I got some really funny action shots - no doubt these will appear on Justin's blog soon!

After cruising around a little we grabbed lunch. I can't ride too fast with the camera because if I fall it would damage both me and the camera so it was a pretty mellow morning. We sat and had lunch for an hour. They were doing L Word filming outside the roundhouse, all they seemed to be doing was scenic shots though. Ben was pretty tired and started to drop off so we decided to call it a day. Justin and I rode to the Midstation and Ben got the Gondie down. Justin and I went to get Hed Kandi tickets for Sunday and then I headed home.

Great views from Whistler Mountain

I had been invited to the 4Seasons Christmas party that evening. Kat and Amy work there and they could invite guests so a few of us went along. I got ready and headed to Monks bar for a couple of drinks. I didn't want to drink too much that night as I had a freestyle snowboarding lesson the next day and wanted to be on half decent form.

We got to the 4Seasons and got stuck right into the food. It was buffet food 4Seasons style - i.e. excellent! The first buffet table was 'oriental' with loads of different rice, noodles, meats, dim sum, sweet and sour chicken etc. I had a plateful, went and scoffed it and came back to the next buffet - Italian. This time loads of pastas, pizzas, garlic breads etc. Again, another plateful scoffed and I returned to the next buffet - Roasts. This time it was a huge joint of beef cut into steak sized portions, meat balls and potatoes, Guess what - yep another plateful scoffed and I returned for the next - Sushi! I filled up on the Sushi table and went and scoffed that too. I was obviously pretty full but only one table left to be conquered - pudding! A plateful of lemon flan, chocolate mousse and bread and butter pudding and I was golden! Ahh, but it seemed like I had missed one - the cake table! So I had a big slab of cake and I was done!

The party was pretty dull except for the food - it was a bit of a corporate affair with employee of the month, quarter and year and manager of the month, quarter and year awards etc. Then there were departmental dancing competitions, so they ended up playing the same song about 10 times over with drunken people dancing badly. I was pretty bored by the end of it. But at least it meant I had an early night full of carbs for the next day's snowboarding lessons.

Wednesday December 14 2005 - Another quiet one...

Another day off for me today and slept through until about 10:30. Ben & Bron were due round late morning so I did a few jobs - washing etc. They came round and we chilled out for a few hours chatting and had some lunch - bron prepared a chicken and chopped up avocado and other salad stuff and we made our own sarnies - i hadn't had a sandwich since I arrived in Whistler - pretty strange but true.

We went for a walk in the village in the afternoon, I booked up park and pipe freestyle lessons for Justin, Kat and me for Friday and bought my 15 buck HL park pass which you have to sign your life away for. We grabbed a coffee and had a chat at Blenz, we also bumped into Dave who I hadn't seen in a while - he was pretty excited he had just got tickets for Hed Kandi for Sunday - I'll have to get mine - good funkie dance music in Whistler at last!

We then went to the video shop and rented out 40 Year Old Virgin and Amityville Horror and then the IGA for pizza and cookies. We also got Justin round and had a movie night. All in all another quiet day to let the knees rest - bliss!

Tuesday December 13 2005 - A quiet one

With tired knees and icy slopes, I decided that maybe I should take a couple of days off. I've hit 25 days already so am ahead of schedule to hit the big 100 by the end of the season.

I got out of bed at about 10:30 and went and met Ben and Bron for a coffee in Esquires, I had the most delicious seasonal mandarin orange hot chocolate. We sat and chatted for a while then headed to Rogers video shop to see what cool DVD's we could rip, err sorry, I mean rent. Ben & Bron were hungry and I fancied going for a swim so we parted directions and I came home to get my swim stuff. I got the bus to Meadow Park and did the usual 40 laps. My fitness is definitely dropping off. I did the laps OK but went slower than I would have done in the summer. It's fair to say that surfing is many times better for fitness than snowboarding and apres beer and chicken wings!

I had a walk through the village in the afternoon and went to enquire about freestyle park and pipe lessons later in the week. I had two huge jacket potatoes for my tea, watched Coach Carter on DVD then laid on the sofa watching junk american tv until midnight - bliss!

Monday December 12 2005 - Ice Ice Baby

I had an early start as I wanted to go to the Mountain FM & Westin Hotel sponsored community charity breakfast. The event was held at the Westin Hotel in Whistler and you are asked to bring a non-perishable food or new toy which will be collected and given to less well off families in the area.

The event was fun with a huge breakfast spread, local school kids singing christmas songs and Mountain FM broadcasting from the lobby of the hotel. I had gone to Cows the previous day and bought a soft cuddly cow to donate. It made me feel more christmassy and it's good to contribute to the local community. And I got to meet the Mountain FM breakfast time DJ Mike Ciccone who wakes me up at 7:15 most mornings on my radio alarm clock to get me out on to the slopes.

After breaky I went up Whistler mountain with Kat. I was going to take my camera out and get some photos but it was super icy and overcast so I dropped my rucksack off at the day storage at the Roundhouse. After a couple of runs we decided to go to the yet unexplored 'Peak-to-Creek' side of Whistler accessible from the Peak Chair. It was an unpatrolled area and so deserted, which was cool. What wasn't so cool was the amount of ice and rocks. It was very bare, baron and so not much fun. It took us a while to get back to top of the Creekside Gondie and after I grabbed my rucksack and headed into the park. I just wanted to take a few photos around the jumps. Silly me though decided to hit a rail and I slammed off onto my back with the rucksack on - fortunately the camera survived.

I headed home about 2:00pm and chilled out in the afternoon, having a three hour cat-nap. Justin phoned about 6 and we decided to go out to Milestones for dinner with Ben and Bron. I hadn't seen Ben and Bron in ages - Ben had been working pretty much flat out either at the 4Seasons ski concierge or programming.

Dinner was nice and it was cool to catch up. I came home, checked my e-mails and found I had one from the casting lady from the L-Word - I was wanted back on set Friday for a "It may be late into the eve but kind of sexy and fun. The scene is a dinner that turns into a party" scene. What am I letting myself in for????

Sunday December 11 2005 - Part One - In Heaven.

I went boarding with Kat today. I got up about 8:00am and hit the slopes for about 9. We headed up to Blackcomb. We wanted to do the Glacier runs today.

To get over to the Glacier you can either take the Showcase T-Bar or hike over Spanky's Ladder and down the double diamonds. Showcase was open so we headed up the T-Bar. Loads of snowboarders hate T-Bar lifts as they're a type of lift designed before snowboarding became popular and were designed for skiers. Snowboarders have to ram one end of the horizontal T either between their legs or behind their back thighs. I learned to snowboard on dry slope using a T-Bar so didn't have a problem using it but it still a bit painful between the legs!

From the top of Showcase, we hiked to pretty much the summit of Blackcomb mountain where you can drop off the back of he mountain and snowboard over the huge glacier. It was good fun and very beautiful, the sun was out and the wind was causing snow to blow off the peak which became lit up by the low morning sunshine looking like a bog flame was lit on the summit. The snow was less than ideal, very crunchy and hard. The stunning landscape made up for the snow conditions though.

We met up with Mariko at Glacier Creek late morning and then we went back up Showcase. Kat had had her eye on Pakalolo, a little chute through the cliffs on Horstman Glacier. We traversed the Glacier to get there. Whilst we were doing that I pointed out a hut which I knew was the top of the 7th Heaven Express lift which comes up the other side of Blackcomb servicing the 7th Heaven zone which hasn't opened this season yet. 7th Heaven is a stunning area which is half above and half below the tree line. It gets the sun all day and is on the side of the mountain less prone to snow collection - hence why it hadn't opened yet.

We decided to give Pakalolo a miss and hike to 7th heaven instead. It was a bit of a lung buster but we made it to the top. The views were absolutely stunning. We could see the whole of Whistler mountain, the garibaldi provincial park and 7th Heaven was laid out beneath us with no one else there - it was all ours!

We flew down with loads of freshies. The snow was a bit crunchy but it was fun nonetheless. I got a couple of pretty good jumps over some of the rollers and loved the fast run down. The Sunset Boulevard run out was horrible - solid black ice and rocks - the sort of ice that it's difficult standing on without falling over. We all caught edges once coming down and we were all scared our lovely snowboards were getting ripped to pieces by the rocks. We eventually made the end, did another run and headed home.

Saturday December 10 2005 - Insomnia

I woke up at 3:00am and couldn't sleep. I eventually nodded off again about 8:00am so binned the early start today. I woke again about midday. I did a few jobs around the house and then went out to Milestones for some grub.

I invited a few people round for pre-going-out drinks. Kat, Anna and Amy turned up. Most of the other guys work weekends so weren't up for a Saturday night out. We all drank Bacardi and chatted at my house before heading to the Savage Beagle for some dancing. The club was surprisingly quiet given that the village was pretty busy over the weekend. But they played some OK music and I boogied until about 1:00am when I left and headed home to bed.

Friday December 9 2005 - Super Cute?

I had arranged to meet Justin at the Gondie at 10:30 so I had a bit of a lie in and met up with him. Anna was also going up the mountain so she joined us in the gondie. We chatted with an american guy who was on holiday, he fishes in Alaska and was pretty interesting.

Justin and I headed off for a few runs. I put into use all the riding skills I had been taught over the last three days. It has made a real difference, I can now ride a lot faster in total control, even over bad ice. I'll try and keep using the techniques and not get into any bad habits again.

Justin's toe binding strap broke so we spent a little while in the tech hut fixing it. After, we headed to Harmony and cruised round the back of Burnt Stew Trail keeping high. We found a pretty neat cornice which was ripe for dropping off. It needed a little hike but it looked worth it. We unstrapped our boards and hiked up. It was 3 degrees alpine so it was a bit of a sweaty hike up. We cooled down at the top and then did the drop. We both nailed it and were pretty stoked.

We cruised Harmony for a bit longer then headed to the Roundhouse for some half price food. The deal finishes for me on 16th December and it seems that every day leading up to that date I get more and more food, I think I'll probably end up eating there all day on the 16th!

We did a run down to the Midstation after lunch. We both ripped it down super fast. I was a bit naughty and went pretty fast past one of the speed control guys and got great air over a roller right next to him - oops! I didn't get stopped so I guess it was ok, I was in total control and it was super busy so I guess he just let me go.

I read that there was a funky house DJ at the GLC for Apres so Justin and I went for a jug of beer. The music was good and they had video highlights of the Nokia board-cross finals that had taken place on Blackcomb that afternoon. It was a great atmosphere and it was very tempting to hang around for longer.

We were just drinking up when a lady gave us a piece of paper detailing some auditions going on for extras on a US and Canadian prime time TV show filming next week. I thought it would be fun to go along so we did. Justin didn't want to audition as he was working but I thought I would give it a go. I filmed out a form about me - height weight, color eyes, hair etc. Then I had my photo taken and then I had to talk to the casting girl. She said 'oo I think we can use you a lot - super cute' that made me laugh. So it looks like I might be on tele soon!

Thursday December 8 2005 - CASI Day 3 - Exam Day

We met yet again at 8:30am at the base of Blackcomb. Everyone was very nervous and going through there lesson plans. It was made pretty clear that the standard was pretty high and only those who have done the work will pass. It's not difficult stuff but the lessons have to be done the CASI way and so each one has to be learned in detail.

James, our CASI examiner, asked who wanted to go first. I said me, I like to get things out of the way and don't really like following others. I was given 'side slipping' as my first examined lesson. I thought it went OK but I wasn't confident I had hit the required standard.

I had to be a 'student' on a couple of the other examined lessons throughout the morning, we had lunch and then we started the second round in the afternoon.

Yet again I volunteered to go first and this time I was given 'beginner turns' as my lesson. I tried to iron out the teaching mistakes I had made the following day and I thought I had nailed this lesson pretty well. I did it to the letter of the CASI manual and spotted all the errors the students were given that I had to correct and provide feedback.

I was relieved that I had finished my teaching exams but wasn't confident I had passed. Everyone completed their lessons and then we were finally assessed on our riding ability. We were required to come down springboard performing 'perfect' turns. It was a steep section and very icy - a good test! I carved down well and that gave me quite a bit of confidence.

James went off to the Marriott and we were told to meet up there after an hour so he could write out the examination evaluation forms. We all did a couple of runs and did a couple of boxes in the park for fun.

We got to the Marriott at 4:00pm, given a group debriefing and then asked to meet James one by one to be presented with our results.

I was third in line. I wasn't confident at all and pretty anxious. Fortunately I had passed - I was stoked! The pass rate seemed to be about 65% and I know that one of the guys who failed was a better rider than me but fortunately my concentration and work over the last three days had paid off.

We all decided to go to Merlin's at the base of Blackcomb to celebrate. The Marriott was actually quite a distance up the hill at Base II and so we all decided to ride down the base of Blackcomb in the dark as a celebratory run. It was wicked. Lance lead the way - he's by far the best rider and has been a US instructor for years - he needed his Canadian qualification for insurance purposes. We ripped it down there. We couldn't wear goggles as it was too dark and so we were all had tears at the end of the run from the speed! We were all absolutely stoked!

We had Nachos and beers for a few hours and then parted. I went home, got changed and met up with Kat and Justin at Milestones for a few celebratory cocktails. People said they were meeting up at Garfinkles so we headed there about 10:30. I didn't see any of the other guys but ended up happy dancing all night anyway! The music was extremely diverse, ranging from Motown, Heavy Metal, Hip Hop and Blur! I didn't care less and danced anyway. I got home about 2:00am really chuffed.

Wednesday December 7 2005 - CASI Day 2 - Lesson Practice

Day two of the CASI course was long and quite hard work. We had to take all the theory and skills we had learnt from the previous day and put them in use.

We all did two lessons from the progression - I taught the Pendulum and Traversing. It went OK and I got good feedback but I wasn't sure either were at the standard required as I missed out some of the CASI technique. We are being taught how to teach snowboarding the CASI way and even though things you do might not be wrong, if it's not the CASI way then you fail.

The riding technique also came along well. I took the pointers I got from day one and put them into use. I could definitely feel an improvement in the control and speed of my riding so even if I failed the course at least I would take that away.

We watched two more videos at the Marriott afterwards, about the required riding standard, all the different types of turns and also the CASI 'toolbox' i.e. the tactics you can use to improve any of the fundamental riding skills.

We were then debriefed on our riding and teaching for the day and told how to prepare for the exams the next day.

I got home about 6:00pm and had to write up lesson plans for each of the six progression lessons. That took me a couple of hours. It was Anna's birthday and I was invited out for beers at the Crystal Lounge followed by Buffalo Bills. I went and had one beer and a piece of birthday cake at the Crystal Lounge and came back home for about 10:00pm. It looked to be a bit of a promising night out and so felt like I was missing out but I was pretty uncertain about the exams the next day and so got an early night in preparation.

Tuesday December 6 2005 - CASI Day 1 - Skills & Progression

Today was my first day of the Canadian Association of Snowboard Instructors (CASI) training. It's a three day course with continual technical evaluation and then a teaching evaluation on day three. The qualification is the first step on the ladder to allow you to officially teach snowboarding in Canada and it's also recognised worldwide.

Level 1, which I'm doing over the next three days, progresses to demonstrating and teaching intermediate turns. This covers 75% of all snowboarding teaching done in Canada. Levels 2 to 4 then cover specialized areas of snowboarding including advanced carving turns, powder riding, tree riding, freestyle skills and fixed binding racing.

To pass you have to demonstrate the ability to perform a minimum skill level of perfect intermediate turns and then the ability to teach all levels from absolute beginner to intermediate rider.

The day started at 8:30am on Blackcomb and we were split into four groups of seven students. In the morning we covered the elemental skills of stance & balance, pivoting & steering, edging, pressure control and timing & co-ordination. We were taught a couple of exercises for each of these skills that we could use to help students to develop these skills. They ranged from conventional skills such as switch riding (riding backwards), ollies and nollies (springing off the back or nose of the board) to more innovative exercises such as motor boating, headlight on knee, stop & hop and top gunning. All of these were really useful to know and will help my own riding skills too.

We grabbed lunch at the Rendezvous and then the afternoon was focused on 'progression' or the ability to take an absolute beginner rider all the way to performing intermediate turns. The order of progression is; Basic Mobility & Safety, Side Slipping, Pendulum, Traversing, Beginner Turns, Novice Turns, Speed Control and Intermediate Turns.

Our riding standard was also reviewed and assessed to see if we met the minimum standard. I was a little nervous as even though my riding ability is quite high, I will have developed some bad habits over the years and the minimum standard is the ability to perform technically perfect intermediate turns. The feedback that I got was that my front side riding was a bit lazy and I wasn't aggressive enough with my hips, I had to straighten up my back and push out my hips to gain better edge control. I was also swinging out the back of my board in turns and not getting on my edges early enough and carving the turn - a common mistake. But all in all I was assessed as a strong rider. Hopefully I can iron out these couple of flaws in the next two days.

We headed off the mountain and to the Marriott hotel at 3:00pm and watched videos on the riding standard and teaching children. We also had a demonstration on board setup. Finally we had one on one feedback sessions with our examiners.

It was a pretty intensive day with lots to learn. I got home about 6:00pm pretty tired. I grabbed a bowl of porridge, did an hour or so of homework and put on a DVD. I didn't see any of it as I dozed off on the sofa. Not a bad thing as hopefully it will help me to be fresh for day two of CASI tomorrow.

Monday December 5 2005 - Lost

Today was a lie in and so I got up at 9:30 meeting up with Anna and Kat at 10:30. We grabbed coffees and headed up Blackcomb. We decided to have a bit of a chilled out riding day. All of us had tired legs, aches and pains and together we made a pact to take it easy.

We warmed up down the icy Zig Zag and then went up Glacier Express to be able to get across to the Crystal area as the Crystal Chair was closed. We cruised down from Glacier and hit our favorite Rock n Roll. We were to do this again and Anna and Kat went ahead. I wasn't concentrating, going too fast and overshot the turning to Glacier and ended up back down at Excelerator. I thought that maybe I could catch them up so headed up Excelerator, ripped down to Glacier and then traversed as fast as I could to Crystal. I knew that they were talking about Ridge Runner so I went down there as fast as I could. It was very icy though and even though I was going as fast as I could, I was at risk of losing control. I was still riding my Canyon and the edges and base were totally shot up after all the rocks I've hot over the last couple of weeks, This meant my edges weren't biting the ice and I was at risk of falling on my butt at every heel edge turn. I got down Ridge Runner as fast as I could but I didn't catch them. I went over to the park as I knew Kat wanted to check out the boarder-cross park. I hung out there for about 30 min's and then downloaded to the village.

I popped into Spicy Sports as I had read they were doing half price tuning. As my Canyon was now only half resembling a snowboard after being chewed up so many times by the rocks, I treated it to a full tune. I got home, made a jacket potato and then did some paperwork - paying old Jersey bills and my ICAEW fees - loadsa fun! I was listening to the radio and the headline was that a 18 year old american tourist had tried a jump on blackcomb yesterday and landed wrong. He was rushed to hospital but passed away after a few hours - very sad news.

Justin and Bron came round in the evening and we watched Batman Begins on DVD. My CASI starts tomorrow so no booze for me tonight!

Sunday December 4 2005 - Zzzzzzz!!!

Another 8:15 start. Kat and I headed up Blackcomb again. It was the 25th anniversary of the opening of Blackcomb mountain so we headed up with some nostalgia. A couple of warm up runs and we decided to give Glacier another run. It was very cold again, about minus 12 and the wind added to the chill. This time we headed left off the chair, passing the closed entrance to Spanky's Ladder and down through the Heavenly Basin area. It was a pretty cool run albeit littered with rocks. We found clean paths all the way down and although the powder was a bit chunky, it was powder none the less. It was snowing pretty much all day and as we can now find quiet spots on the mountains at the weekends, we managed to find our fair share of freshies.

We grabbed lunch at Glacier Creek, saying hi to Justin who was working at the hut. After lunch we headed to Rock n Roll - our favorite playground. It has a great combination of drops, jumps, powder and is relatively untouched as most people head to Ridge Runner from Crystal Chair.

We got the Gondie back down to the village but half way down at Base II we decided to get off and walk down to Merlin's. We spotted that there was snow at the bottom off Blackcomb and so strapped on the boards and ripped down the bottom of the hill. This was the first time of the season that we had snow boarded to the base and even though it was closed and we thought we were going to get told off, we enjoyed it and did it in the best spirits of the 25th anniversary of the opening of the mountain!

Kat, Justin and I had apres beers and massive nachos at Merlin's. I was stuffed and hiked The 10 min's home about 6pm. I crashed on the sofa and slept for 3 hours. I then woke up for an hour and went back to bed about 10pm and before long I was soundo again. I must be getting old!

Saturday December 3 2005 - Brrrrrrr!!!

Back on the slopes today, I met up with Kat at 8:15 at Base II gondie and we headed up Blackcomb. I had fixed and adjusted my board bindings the previous day but it became evident pretty quickly that I had set them too far back. Although the set-up would probably have been excellent if I was riding powder, the lack of new snow and the inability to 'steer' the board around the nose made riding very difficult. It was also cold - minus 11 degrees in the village and minus 14 degrees alpine - brrrrr!

We did a quick run down from Glacier express. It was my first time up this lift as it only opens at weekends. Horstman Glacier was pretty steep. groomed and like a big road. This is perfect for skiers but a bit dull for snowboarders. The glacier was beautiful though and the glacier blue color of the ice was evident. So after I had adjusted my bindings on the mountain at Glacier Creek, we headed to Crystal.

Rock and Roll was fun and we also hit our first gladed run - Arthur's Choice. The gladed run was a mistake, too many branches, tree stubs and tree trunks either just under the surface or poking out of the snow. Gladed runs, i.e. between the trees, requires quite a bit of work as you're continually picking your line through the trees and continuously moving the board along that line. The problem today is that the snow wasn't deep enough and all that hidden wood kicks the board out of line along the path and you end up heading directly for the trees ouch! Fortunately I didn't hit any trees but there were a few face plants along the way!

We finished up about midday and I headed home to chill out. I was pretty tired but went into the village to do a few jobs and get some groceries. I came home, had a sleep and put my feet up on the sofa for a quiet night in.

Friday December 2 2005 - 'CoreFusion'

I didn't sleep so well the night before and there wasn't anyone out riding today, so those factors together with sore knees kept me off the mountain. I gave Justin a call to see what he was up to and we decided to go to Meadow Park sports center to do some Pilates.

Justin came round about midday and we got the bus to the sports center. We were there a bit early so we went up to the gym and did a 25min run. The Pilates class had been changed to something called 'CoreFusion'. It sounded like you need a PhD in physics to participate but in actual fact it was a cross between pilates and circuit training designed specifically for the core of the body i.e. back and stomach. These muscles are very important for flexibility and injury prevention on the mountain so we joined the class enthusiastically. It was a pretty tough workout requiring flexibility, balance and strength. After 45mins we were pretty tired but both thought it was worthwhile. We hit the hot tub for about 20 min's and then headed home.

We mucked around with photos for a few hours then Justin headed home. I had a night in, watched Rocky and hit the sack about 11. I didn't sleep until 1:00am though. For some reasons my sleeping patterns are not so good at the moment.

Thursday December 1 2005 - Hard Riding

Mountain FM woke me up at 7:15. It took me about 10 minutes to get out of bed. It's pitch black at that time of the morning. Luckily the house is always warm so I don't have to get out of bed to a cold bathroom. I put on my cool new boarding gear, scoffed a bowl of Frosties, ate my first choccy from my Simpsons advent calendar and headed to the Whistler Village Gondie. Kat, Anna and Justin were waiting. Justin went and grabbed the coffees and then we headed up the mountain. It was the coldest day we had had so far and was about minus 11 in the village, colder up the mountain with a bit of a wind chill - ideal for testing out my new clothing!

The day off had helped my legs and they felt pretty strong. There wasn't any new snow but I have got to know the mountain well over the last couple of weeks and can always find powder if we want it. I don't know if that will be the case later on in the season as the mountain gets busier and it all opens up but in the mean time it's very handy now having local knowledge.

We all rode well together. A group of four is ideal as it's small enough to get around the mountain fast without waiting for people whilst you can have lots of fun mucking around with everyone. I had spotted some almost un ridden snow around Harmony the day before. I checked out the access points from the lift as visibility was good. We turned right off Harmony, through Little Whistler and Back Bowl. It was bags of fun and we found trees, some small chutes, tight tracks and plenty of good deep powder.We did the run a couple of times and we were all pretty stoked.

We met up with Miranda and Ben for an early lunch at the Roundhouse and then headed back to Harmony in the afternoon. Ben revisited his fateful cat-track for the first time since his accident. His confidence was low but he made the run without hitch. He wasn't with us for long as his stomach wasn't fully healed and he didn't want to risk another stack. He had been taking lessons that morning so had already had a good days riding.

We also found fresh tracks around Old Man and Franz's Meadow albeit with a hike through a stream to get back to Franz's at the bottom. It got to about 2:30 and my legs were starting to feel tired. One of my binding straps had cracked, Kat's Zip had broke and also one of her binding clips. I think the cold had contributed to the breakages with everything being very brittle. I'm glad to say that I hadn't felt the cold much at all that day and my new cool jacket and pants had also turned out to be highly functional too!

We downloaded into the village, Anna & Justin headed home whilst Kat and I went to showcase to get replacement parts for our bindings. Showcase were pretty good on this occasion and gave us the replacements free of charge. There were quite a few people in there getting equipment fixed which may have backed up my theory about the effect of the extreme cold on the equipment.

Kat and I grabbed a beer and some 20 cent chicken wings in the Crystal Lounge and then I headed home very tired. I slept on the couch in front of the Hockey on the tele for a couple of hours, showered, did a couple of jobs and then hit the sack.