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

Wednesday November 30 2005 - Tired Legs

The gig the previous night was pretty cool. The band was actually called The Long Beach Short Bus and was comprised of former members of Sublime. They played a mix of reggae and head banging rock. A weird mix and not something I'm going to get hooked on but it was pretty good live. I left Buffalo Bills at 2:00am and grabbed a pie and chips, I am on a health kick after all.

I took the day off boarding today. My legs were feeling tired and I decided to just have a nice chilled out day. One of my jobs was to go to Westbeach and hunt out some new snowboarding pants (trousers) and jacket. The gear I have at the moment is good but a bit old and showing it. It's also nice to have a change and something a bit cooler, i do half of my drinking in bars in my snowboarding gear so it's bad to be looking like a skier, which I do kinda in my five year old snowboarding kit. After trying out a few options I popped for a new Burton Ronin 2L Jacket in black and Burton Shaun White Cargo Pants in black denim - a wicked little combo!

I also spent a bit of time adjusting my bindings. I'm going to be looking to use my 156 more as a freestyle board and less as a replacement rock board as the snow improves so I changed my bindings to 12 degrees at the front and minus 3 degrees at the back, this slightly duck stance allows easier switch riding to practice 180s easier and also provides a more stable landing on jumps.

Ben, Bron, Justin and Shannon (Ben's old school friend in Whistler for a couple of days) came round in the evening. We scoffed some yummy fried rice cooked up by Justin and played scrabble. Ben had to go to a 'lead hand' convention of some sort so left early. The four way scrabble was fun, I managed a respectable second and first place with points of 110 and 141 (bring it on Birchy!).

Tuesday November 29 2005 - Gullys Cliffs and Ledges

Justin had got four days off and we were looking forward to riding together for the first time in ages. I met up with him at the bottom of the Whistler Gondie, grabbed a coffee (JB had hot choccie) and got the 25 minute gondola ride up to the roundhouse. Justin mentioned Ben's blog had been updated and was well worth a look, I haven't seen it yet but no doubt it will be good knowing Ben.

We were meant to be meeting up with Kat and her new friend Marika at the Roundhouse. I did a circuit round looking for them but couldn't spot them so Justin and I headed out. We really started well with us both getting loads of powder and air on our warm up. We were both pretty excited about the day ahead. The was about 10cms of fresh snow which felt good.

We were heading down to Harmony when I spotted Kat and shouted out. She stopped and Justin and I hooked up with her and Marika. From Harmony we headed down the back of Whistler mountain. There was some really nice powder and we were all riding pretty hard and fast. I did a few rock jumps and we all really enjoyed the fresh snow. Marika turned out to be probably the best rider of the group naturally but as Kat and I had more days under our belt we rode a bit harder. Justin was buzzin too, he had a big grin on his face for the whole morning!

We did some more Harmony runs and then headed down the ridge I had found the day before for a good long powder run. We then hit the roundhouse for lunch. After lunch we decided to find a way off Harmony Ridge into one of the bowls to get some deep snow. We opted for Kaleidoscope. The visibility was poor though and it was a bit chopped up. So we traversed across the bowls and headed for Gun Barrels. Kat and I had done them before and were probably the best gladed runs we had found. We went into them but started to run into a bit of trouble. To cut a long story short, Justin went down quite a few large rocks on his backside, I rode across a few tree branches bridging a deep gully and Kat and Marika had to take their boards off to hike off a ledge! Nevertheless we all made it down safe and sound. The lifts were closing so we all downloaded on the Whistler Gondie.

Beer always tastes a bit better after you've scared yourself so we had no choice and out the theory to the test and went for a few in the GLC at the bottom of the Gondie. Our boards were a bit tattered and bruised after finding too many rocks in the powder but we were all stoked anyway.

I'm actually writing this live for once, i.e. the same day as it's happening, so the day aint over yet. Tonight there are a few of us going to see a band called Sublime which has been described as a cross between the Doves, Jack Johnson, Bedouin Soundclash and others which I fail to remember - my review will be published tomorrow!

Post-note - read Ben's blog and it's kept me laughing for a good two hours so far! You gotta see the Hansel pics!

Monday November 28 2005 - Lost

A relatively late start, I was due to meet up with the gang at the Roundhouse for 10:30, I got there and nobody else was there yet so I went and grabbed a half-price 'Alpine Breakfast' which was sausages, bacon, hash browns and toast. I scoffed that and Amy turned up. She said that everyone else was having a lie in and we were to meet them at 11:30. We headed out for a couple of runs. I headed into the trees on my warm up expecting to meet amy as I came out of them a bit further down. I waited around and realised she must of headed down the cat track to Harmony. I went back up Emerald and spent the rest of the morning cruising around on my own. I don't mind riding on my own; I get to go at my own speed and where I want to go but I never push it or go too far out of the way just in case something happens. Anyway, I found some good spots and some secret powder so I was happy!

I went to the roundhouse for lunch at 12 and grabbed chicken noodles and a cookie. I was just about to grab my board and call it a short day when I heard my name being shouted out. I looked around and saw Miranda. She had hooked up with Amy so I decided to do a few more runs. I took them up Harmony and through the powder I had found earlier. A couple more runs later and Miranda went to get some food, Amy downloaded to Creekside and I downloaded to the Village.

I had a quiet one that evening. I'm enjoying feeling healthy again so it;s nice to get an early night and stay off the booze. It helps my snowboarding a lot and that;s what I'm here for. So in the spirit of good health I went out and grabbed a Big Mac, cheeseburger, fries and a Mc Flurry for my dinner! I ate them whilst watching a couple of episodes of Lost on DVD - kinda apt for the theme of the day.

Sunday November 27 2005 - Day of Leisure (Riding Day 14)

My first attempt at Snowboarding photography.

Today was my rest day. I'd had five days straight riding and my legs were telling me to take a rest so I did - being 31 does have it's drawbacks. I chilled out for most of the day at home. I spent a total of seven hours in my pjs wandering around the house. I cleaned some of the house and changed the bed clothes, built the guest book on this website and generally chilled out.

It was snowing in the morning but the sun came out in the afternoon so I decided to take the camera to the park on Blackcomb. I had to travel past glacier creek on the way so popped by to see Justin at his hut. I think he had a pretty quiet day at work. I got a few photos and headed back down the mountain. I enjoyed surf photography in the summer so I want to try out snowboarding action shots. My first session was a learning experience, a bit like surfing photography, it's all about anticipation to get the right shot. You can get in closer to the action though so I'm looking forward to seeing if I can improve in the future.

Justin came round about 7pm and we went to the Longhorn for a few beers. It got pretty busy in there as all the Blackcomb lifties were out on a party. A few familiar faces came by so it was fun. The evening ended up at the Crystal Lounge for some acoustic music. It's a really nice bar and a good change from the 'spit and sawdust' decor of most of the apres bars.

Saturday November 26 2005 - Gone Bowling!

Yet another 7:00am start. Mountain FM informed me that there was another 5cms overnight so I got up with enthusiasm, albeit a little wearily and tired. I grabbed my Canyon and headed for Whistler Gondie for 8:00am again. This was Kat's and my 13th day of riding so we were a bit nervous something might go wrong - i'm not normally superstitious but I was looking forward to getting past this marker!

We queued for half an hour after which the lifties told us that the gondie had broken! There was a courtesy bus to the Creekside Gondie or we could just go up Blackcomb. We had our heart set on Whistler mountain and most people started heading up Blackcomb so we took the bus to Creekside. We eventually got to the Roundhouse. Kat's goggles had cracked so she wanted new ones from the shop at the Roundhouse. The trouble was the retail staff were stuck on the broken Whistler Gondie.

She rode a couple of runs misted up, and she was starting to get a bit grumpy about it - with good reason, snowboarding without vision is just asking for trouble! We decided to try a run on Harmony with the intention of heading back to the roundhouse after one run to try and sort out Kat's goggles. I got to the bottom of Harmony and saw it was closed. I waited for the others. Anna and Kat eventually came down and told me that Ben had taken a stack and hurt his stomach muscles. I took off my board and walked up to find him. I met him walking down with his board in one hand and stomach in the other. He said he had fallen over his heel edge and crunched his stomach as his legs came over. He said he had heard something snap whilst doing it - possibly a torn muscle - ouch!

I grabbed his board and walked with him to the closed Harmony lift, there were lifties there so I assumed that they must have a radio. They did and they called ski-patrol. Unfortunately though we were told that the majority of ski-patrol were also stuck on the broken Gondie! I waited with Ben for a while whilst the lifties made him comfortable with a chair. He would have to wait until ski-patrol could come and help him. I made sure he was OK and left and walked back down the cat-track to where I had left my board. Anna and Kat were still waiting. we cruised to Emerald and then up to the Roundhouse to sort out Kat's goggles.

We had covered a lot of Harmony in the last two days and as the chair was closed we looked to go somewhere else. I had my heart on the relatively extreme West Bowl Zone accessible by the Peak Chair and also the Flute Zone which you could also cross from the Peak Chair. I had ridden the West Bowl Zone eight years before and had the most memorable bowl ride of my life and wanted to return. Also the Flute Zone opened last year and is essentially a huge backcountry bowl you can only access after a 45 minute hike. So this is what we did.

The trip up the Peak chair allowed us to scope out and decide on the run we wanted to do. It was a cold and clear day so we could see all of the West Bowl Zone. We opted for the steep but relatively untracked eastern side of Whistler Bowl and then saw we could hike a small steep upward pass half way down cutting across the ridge to Surprise. It was a pretty extreme route requiring a 6ft vertical drop into the bowl and having to take the board off to cross the rocks over the ridge into Surprise. The powder looked wicked so we decided the risk was worth it.

We started the descent nervously but we all made the drop without a hitch. The powder in Whistler bowl was sweet and I threw in quite a few turns avoiding getting too much onto my edges whilst leaning back to cushion the powder under the board. I got a real buzz from the run and hit some nice fresh tracks. I made it first to the ridge and nervously took off my board in the deep steep powder. Taking off your board on a steep slope is a dangerous activity. Firstly if you lose your board it can quickly gather up speed and be dangerous to people below and secondly anyone is going to struggle getting down a steep powder slope without a board. I walked through the snow, up the ridge and the narrow upward gap between the rocks and clipped the board back on. Kat and Anna did the same and we were all rewarded with more untouched pristine soft powder.

Surprise was fun, I cut down a chute on my heels and then ripped it to the bottom with a straight board. I was stoked again! Kat and Anna also got down well and made some great tracks. We all gathered at the bottom of the Peak chair all very pleased and pumped we had successfully made a pretty extreme run. We were hungry for more so went up the chair again.

This time I mentioned the Flute zone and so we decided to cut round the back of the peak of Whistler mountain to link to burnt stew trail and the onward trek to the Flute Bowl. The route round the back of the peak required us to go out of bounds again. It's risky as it's not patrolled but it's one of the best ways to get freshies.

We got to the avalanche control gate which was also the entrance to the Flute zone. We could see the bowl and it looked huge and untracked - perfect! We did the long and sometimes steep hike up the ridge of the bowl. It was a pretty hot long walk which took us about 50 min's in total. We all got to the peak pretty tired. We all wanted to rest for a bit but the ice cold 'white out' clouds were drifting to us through the Garibaldi Provincial Park so we didn't have much time for pause. There were a couple of skiers up on the ridge and we chatted with them about the best way into the bowl. Most of the ridge couldn't be dropped off due to large cornices hanging over the ledge. We spotted two ways in. One was a toe edge traverse into a relatively friendly chute into the bowl and the other was a 6-10ft near vertical sitting heel drop straight into the bowl. Neither were through the cornice so as long as our edges held out as we dropped we would be fine. Kat and I opted for the heel edge drop but we advised Anna to go for the easier toe edge traverse.

We all made the entrance into the bowl without error. I dropped on my heels for about 15ft before the gathering powder under my feet slowed me down. It was pretty intense but tons of fun. I threw in a turn onto my toes and immediately realised I had my wrong board! Putting in such a steep turn in deep powder requires you to go round the nose of your board very quickly. If the nose sinks into the powder, the movement is much slower and as the board is pointing down for longer, more speed is gained and control is lost. My 156 simply didn't have enough nose for the job and each turn was pretty hairy! After getting down the vertical part of the bowl, it leveled out enough to start riding the powder instead of traversing. This was awesome! This was proper 'balls-deep' powder and it was amazing to lean back and silently glide with speed whilst a big cloud of powder is thrown up behind as you carve a wavy path through the snow. We all made it to the bottom without falling and with each of us making our own completely fresh track in the powder. We all looked back at our wavy tracks with big grins on our faces!

The hike out of the bowl was along a path through the bottom of the bowl, jumping streams and through trees. We eventually got back to the bottom of the Burnt Stew Trail very tired but very happy. It had been an awesome and very adventurous day. We all were hoping Ben was OK though. We all had to download back into Creekside as the Whistler Gondie was still broken. We got the bus back into the village. We all sat on the bus absolutely knackered but still buzzin.

I went into the village and picked up my T6 and dropped off my Canyon for a wax and edge sharpen. The board technicians had done an excellent repair job on my T6 and unless you knew about it, you couldn't see the repair.

I got home and phoned Ben & Bron to see how Ben was. He had been ski-doo'ed off the mountain and was at home recovering. Bron said he was feeling a bit better which was great news and which hopefully meant he had only pulled and not torn the muscle. Fingers crossed! I showered and then chilled out for an early night. I was torn between going out and drinking whilst on a buzz or collapsing with tiredness! The latter won the battle and hit the sack early.

Friday November 25 2005 - Powder Day

I didn't sleep so well during the night, the rain was coming down pretty hard on the roof of the house. I woke up at 7 again for another 8:00am start. This is the best way to avoid crowds and get fresh tracks. I heard on Mountain FM that there had been 10cm of new snow on the mountain so I decided that today would be the first day to take out my 'peak-to-park missile' - my Burton T6 163 snowboard. I met up with Kat, Andrew and Ben at the bottom of Whistler Gondie, grabbed a latte and got in the gondola for the 25 min ride to the Roundhouse on Whistler mountain.

There was tons of fresh snow on whistler and we cruised around the Emerald chair switching between piste's through the trees and cruising the untouched powder in the unpatrolled areas. We were really biding time waiting for Harmony to open so we could get fresh tracks through the bowls.

Harmony eventually opened at about 10:30 after all the blasting had finished and we were some of the first people up the lift. On the way up we saw huge areas of untracked powder fields, we recognised an excellent run from the day before which still hadn't been touched at all. Basically it was through unpatrolled areas and the route was to turn right off the Harmony lift, cruise through the narrow entrance to Little Whistler Bowl, cross Pika's Traverse, rip through Back Bowl, cut through trees at Die Hard and dodge the rocks down Chunk's Choice - basically a ripping run down 4 black runs with everything you need; powder, steep traverses, trees, rock jumps and straight line vertical speed. We managed to complete the full run without anyone going before us, so totally untracked, un-groomed and pure soft powder!

We were absolutely buzzing. Ben had an awesome ride. He's a relative novice on a board but he did it all including the knee trembling near vertical traverse at the top of the bowls. He was completely stoked!

We headed up Harmony again and did the same run all over. This time there were our tracks plus others so it was a bit more cut up. Nevertheless it was fun and as were all full of confidence we flat-lined some pretty vertical parts of the bowls, there were plenty of 'woohoo's from our group of four. I pretty much lead the group down, my T6 living up to it's reputation as a very quick board.

We were nearing the end of the run and I was still in front when I jumped off a snow covered boulder on to what seemed like a snow platform, I landed from about 3ft and heard a might crunch - it was actually a snow covered pointy rock. I cringed and carried on down. I got to the bottom of Harmony and took my board off to check it out and my heart sank - I had took a huge divot like gauge out of my board, all the way through the base to the honeycomb aluminium core. I was gutted, there were bit of the base sticking out and the core looked trashed. I carried on riding for the rest of the day but more careful mindful that any sort of rock over the gauge would easily make the damage worse.

After downloading from the Whistler gondie I took my injured board to the Tuning Center under Longhorn. They all gathered round to look at the damage and had a very long techy conversation. The outcome was that as it isn't a wood core board they couldn't use P-Tex but would have to completely dry the board and core and use a hard plastic to fill the divot. The head guy was going to do the work. I left partly relieved that they knew what they were talking about and the top guy was going to do the work.

I chilled out in the evening and watched Hitch on DVD and grabbed an early night ready for another early start and more powder.

Thursday November 24 2005 - First day on Whistler & Stack of the Season

In an attempt to start feeling healthy again, I managed to get 9 hours sleep and got up at 7:15 for the opening day of Whistler Mountain. Ben, Bron, Anna, Andrew and Kat were all meant to be meeting up too. Ben & Bron sent a text to say they were staying in bed and I couldn't find Anna & Andrew so Kat & I hit the slopes. The Whistler Gondie took about 25 min's to the top and we were some of the first people on the mountain. We picked our first run down and did the usual first hard and fast run to warm the legs up. It was going well, finding powder pretty much straight away.

I then went over a roller on the Jolly Green Giant and immediately lost it. I'm not sure what happened but Kat said I just slammed down onto my back when I hit a sheet of ice. All I can remember is hitting the back of my head hard on the ice, becoming disorientated, and then realizing I was going down the slope pretty fast on my back and upside down. At one point I went over a roller and took off and then landed again on my back. I then started to realize what was going on and tried to dig my heals into the ice to slow me down. I eventually came to a stop and sat up to make sure everything was working OK. I could see double and there were stars in front of my eyes, my coxick was really hurting too. I gingerly got up and made it to the bottom of the Emerald Express lift. I sat on the lift with my head and back hurting and so went to the Roundhouse to sit down and get myself together.

After half an hour and a couple of pancakes I felt good enough to go out again. We did a run down to the Big Red Express and then headed to Harmony for the rest of the day. The snow up Harmony was good and we found plenty of powder, some good bowls, chutes and couloirs. We also tested out the new 'Flute' area, although that actual bowl was still closed. I really enjoyed the afternoon riding, the steep slopes of the bowls are my favorite riding conditions - traversing steep powder and then pointing the nose of the board down the slope and flying through the deep powder leaning back and cruising around rocks and trees.

I headed home for 3:00pm and cleaned the house. The guys came round and we headed to the Mongolie Grill for tea. I was invited to a Thanksgiving party but I still had my cold and the whiplash headache was kicking in. I want to start feeling healthy again so gave my apologies. The Mongolie Grill was nice albeit expensive. The idea is that you pick your own meat, fish, veg and sauces and they stir fry your food whilst you watch. You pay for your food depending on weight. I ended up with the heaviest at just over a kilo uncooked! I had a lot of prawns though so got pretty good value as all food is half price during the week at the moment! I hit the sack at 11 for another good eight hours sleep.

Wednesday November 23 2005 - Double Figures

Today was my first 8:30am meet-up for a little while. My cold wasn't getting better at all so felt as if I had no energy when my 'Mountain FM' wake up call went off at 7:15. I met up with Kat at the bottom of Blackcomb and we did a few runs down Springboard.

The snow had turned to solid ice on the North side of the mountain. It was a nightmare to get down with big lumps of ice rock strewn down the piste. Instead we decided to hang around the terrain park for the rest of the day. We tried the jumps a few times, venturing a little faster and therefore further and higher off the jumps each time. I also did a small rail for the first time ever.

I headed down the mountain, walked through the village, checked my post and got home about 4:00pm. Ben and Bron came round and we then did a bit of shopping. We then chilled out at my house with Justin until 7:00pm when we went out to the Brewhouse for a half price burger dinner. I got home about 10:00pm and crashed straight to bed pretty exhausted still suffering from my cold.

Tuesday November 22 2005 - Sun & Ice

I got up, turfed everyone out of the house and met Ben, Justin and Bron at the base of Blackcomb at 10:30. We went up the mountain for some very limited boarding.

Only a couple of the runs were useful due to the lack of snow. Any snow on the slopes had also turned to ice. So the only runs that were any good were those that had got some sunshine during the day. It was still a glorious day though. We did a couple of runs and then I split from the others so I could get down to the village in time to call Liz. I chilled out in the afternoon and grabbed a bbq chicken pizza from Domino's for my tea and sat and watched the worst movie I have ever seen in my life - frostbite. I caught up on e-mails late in the evening and then went to bed.

Monday November 21 2005 - It's Hansel!

Moi, aka Hansel on top, of Blackcomb Mountain.

Another lie in, and another day off snowboarding. The slopes were getting very icy and so the runs very limited to those which get some sunshine. So instead I met up with Ben & Bron at 10:30 at the Four Seasons ski concierge and we headed up the mountain to Rendezvous in our civvies for some lunch and to take some photos.

The standard weather pattern for the last week was cold and low cloud in the village and clearing late afternoon as the sun burned threw. Today was no different. However, just a short distance up the lift and you get through the clouds to glorious sunshine.

We grabbed some grub at the Rendezvous and sat outside admiring the view. I walked past some dudes sat outside and I heard them say' hey it's hansel', I thought about saying something but just smiled and walked on. But that was now the theme of the day for everyone. We came back down to the village and Ben went back to work. Bron came round for tea and watched Zoolander as I fixed up bindings on my yet un-ridden in Whistler 'peak-to-park missile' T6 in anticipation of some new snow soon.

Dave, Bron, Ben, Justin, Kat and Amy came round later on and we sat around, had a few drinks and chatted. Ben & Bron headed home later on whilst the rest of us went to Tommy Africa's for the 80s 10th anniversary night where Benny Benassi was the DJ. I came home about 12:30 and went to bed. Dave, Amy and Kat rolled up at the flat and woke me up at 3:00am. I let them stay over whilst I went back to bed.

Sunday November 20 2005 - Day of rest.

Sunday was a day of rest. I got up late and headed to Auntie Em's cafe for a breakfast burrito. I was hoping the cafe would serve up pancakes, waffles, french toast etc but it turns out it's a bit of a health cafe, which I was disappointed about. I chilled out in the afternoon and headed to the Crab Shack in the evening for their chicken wings night. BAsically you can buy wings for 10 cents each. I had ten and a pint of beer then headed home about 10pm for an early night.

Saturday November 19 2005 - A whole bottle of Vodka into 6 glasses?

I met up with Kat at 8:30 and we headed to the top. As it's the weekend, the Crystal Chair was due to be opened to we hung around that area until they opened it. The Crystal Chair opens up about a quarter of the mountain which is otherwise inaccessible without a hike. It also gets good powder so it's always a good idea to get there early.

We rode Rock n Roll three times, hitting good drops and some nice jumps - it was bags of fun and without anyone on the runs at all. It's amazing that only eight days in to the season and it's so easy to find untouched runs which other people don't seem to know about.

The temperature at the top of the mountain got to 11 degrees and so it was pretty sweaty riding. We sat and ate lunch at Glacier Creek outside in t-shirts. It was gorgeous weather. Some of the runs were becoming very bare, my board was getting more and more cut up. The snow was very soft though so loads of fun. We eventually downloaded from the mountain about 2:30.

I decided to have another dinner party in the evening. I invited quite a few people - I was expecting 7 but in the end only Kat and Amy made it with everyone else either struck down with colds or had to work as the mountain had opened early. I cooked noodles, which I managed to burn and we drank wine and then Vodka. Unbelievably the liter bottle of vodka was polished off in only 6 glasses of Cranberry and Vodka. We headed to Tommy Africa's at midnight for some dancing and more vodka and cranberry juice and then came back for a hot tub and wine after. I eventually crashed about 4:00am All in all a very heavy night! I'm getting too old for this!

Friday November 18 2005 - Loadsa Riding.

Another very early start, I met up with Ben at the base of Blackcomb at 8:30 and we headed up the Wizard. It was another beautiful day and not so cold. It was noticeable that the snow line had risen considerably - all the sunshine had started melting the snow quite a bit.

We warmed up on Springboard as usual and then headed to Jersey Cream. The runs were pure ice! It was virtually impossible to stop on parts of the runs. The bulletproof hard pack was causing Ben a few problems so we decided to take a rest until the sun started warming up the ice. We grabbed a latte and a cookie each at the Rendezvous mountain restaurant and read the morning papers and chatted for a bit. A couple of runs more and then we downloaded on the Magic Chair to the base of Blackcomb. I was clipped by another rider on the way down, which made me fall over - that was the first time I was hit and hopefully the last for a while.

I then met up with Kat and Anna and went back up the mountain for the afternoon. Kat and I hit our secret runs whilst Anna went off on her own. We also ducked a rope and found the Children's Adventure Park - this was closed but had been tracked with big bomb holes, drops and jumps - very very surreal riding!

The guys came round in the evening, Justin whipped up some Tacos and we sat around chilling and playing cool music until Ben turned up. We decided that we could open a pretty cool bar in Whistler, most of them play soft rock and are very 'spit and sawdust' type places. We recon that we could open a place that plays cool chilled dance music, well decorated and have girls serving cocktails on roller-skates - watch this space! Ben came round about 9ish and we all sat round and watch National Lampoons Christmas vacation. I slept through some of it as I was very tired. The guys left about 11 and I hit the sack.

Thursday November 17 2005 - R&R.

Plenty of 'blue-bird' days in Whistler this week.

I slept in till 11:30 after a bad nights sleep with my new cold. Today was my day off so I chilled out and did a few jobs; washing bedding, cleaning up and buying a few groceries. I also got hooked up with internet at home to save on the extortionate prices they charge in the cafes at home. It was another lovely 'blue-bird' day and the village was in sunshine.

After chilling out at home for most of the day, I hooked up with Ben, Bron and Justin for dinner. We went to the Dubh Linn Gate pub at the base of Whistler mountain. This was our first proper meal out and it was intended to celebrate us all getting getting everything sorted for our seasons in one way or another. We stuffed ourselves full of food and played 'killer' darts for most of the evening. We were all pretty evenly matched but Justin and I teamed up against the Davies's and some pretty fierce competitive darts ensued! Justin finished the evening as reigning champion.

I got home and hit the sack relatively early in anticipation of a good weekend on the mountain.

Wednesday November 16 2005 - Burn Ullr!

I was riding with Kat again today and we met up at 8:30 at the Wizard. Kat said I looked knackered, which I was and to be honest I did have trouble getting out of bed. I've always been enthusiastic about getting out of bed for either snow boarding or surfing but my commitment was really put to the test today! We warmed up on Springboard again, and Kat duly ripped it up!

I had mentioned to Kat that we had found powder off Jersey Cream the day before so we headed to that part of the mountain. We ducked the rope and headed for the avalanche control zone like we had the day before. This time though we kept high through the trees, jumped a creek and dodged rocks and were rewarded with a great track and plenty of soft powder just under the glacier runs. The views were stunning again with visibility across the coastal mountains but the village and valleys shrouded by mist.

We did 5 or 6 runs along the same part of the mountain which gave us good access to some really nice black runs which were relatively untouched. We felt so lucky to have found a 'secret' spot. Because Glacier Express hadn't opened for the season and Crystal Chair was only opening at the weekends we had this part of the mountain to ourselves. We only came across a pair of skiers who were hiking and one group of boarders all morning. It was the best morning of riding we had had so far. It just goes to show that enthusiasm even when you're so tired does pay off!

We met up with a couple of Kat's friends for lunch and then headed to the Terrain Park in the afternoon. We were just going to scout it out, which we did, but we then decided to give the jumps and boxes a try. I had never done any park freestyle riding before so this was a first for me! Kat went first on a box which she did with ease and then I tried an 'easy' short low box at the bottom of the park. I pulled it off without any trouble and was well chuffed! I got a bit of a buzz from it so we decided to take the painfully slow Catskinner chair back to the top and give the park another go. This time we both completed the bigger box, the rainbow box and a jump built on to one of the rollers, I managed to get over them all, the landings off the big box and the rainbow box were a bit shaky but I pulled the jump with ease. I was well chuffed and we went down the mountain for a well deserved jug of beer. It turned out to be one of the best days snowboarding I had ever had, we were both pretty stoked!

I met up with the gang and we went to Base II to worship Ullr - the god of snow in the evening. Ullr had been worshipped at the beginning of each season for some time, except for last year when Whistler ended up having one of the worst snow records in it's history! So this year Ullr worshipping was back on the agenda!

It was good fun, Ullr was a big wooden model of a big scary Viking sort of monster with a sword and shield. There were free hot dogs, hot chocolate, cider and cookies. There were a couple of bonfires which people crowded to keep warm and where skis and snowboards were ceremoniously burned. A rock band played followed by fireworks and more burning! We all headed down to the village after for jugs at Merlin's. I was absolutely cream crackered so dragged myself home at midnight happy that I had worshipped the god of snow and had an awesome day of riding.

Tuesday November 15 2005 - Gang Busting.

I met up with Dave and Justin at 8:30 at the Wizard Express and headed up to Rendezvous where we warmed up on Springboard. The run is normally groomed corduroy at that time of the morning and is usually super fast. It didn't disappoint and gave the tired legs a good test. Justin was riding my 12 year old Generic 159, it was a 21st present from my Dad and Grandparents and hadn't been ridden for about 5 years. He brought it out of retirement in style though. He enjoyed the flex on the board and pulled some good jumps and eased into his 180s.

After warming up, we headed to Jersey Cream. The run has been closed all week but it's easy to duck the ropes. Powder can still be found around this part of the mountain and it's still serviced by the Jersey Cream lifts even though many of the runs are closed. The three of us had fun hopping creeks and finding powder in the trees. Justin and I did go a bit wayward at one point though and found ourselves throwing our boards over and then trudging through a creek which was too wide to jump. No doubt the pics will appear on Justin's website at some point soon.

We met up with Ben and Bron at Rendezvous at midday and then spent a bit of time with them. It was Bron's first ever go on a board but she took it well and seemed like a natural - many people when they first start spend most of their time on their butt and when they ride they look like they are squatting over a toilet but Bron looked very natural and didn't fall much - a very promising start.

After spending a few more hours on the slopes we all headed down to Merlin's for Nachos and 10 buck jugs. It got a bit too much for me, I was super tired at this point. We all headed back to mine and crashed and watched the Thin Red Line on video.

Monday November 14 2005 - A Blue Bird Day.

I arranged to meet Kat at the Gondy at 8:30 so a got up at 7:15 - my normal start time for a full days boarding. I pulled back the blinds and it was the most stunning day. There wasn't a cloud in sight and the sun was starting to rise over Blackcomb Mountain and shining on the mountains behind Stoney Creek. I ate my Frosties and headed to the lifts.

The riding was fun. There wasn't much open as they closed the Crystal Chair and the Excalibur gondy for snow making. I guess there is less people on the mountain during the week and so they have to prepare for the busy weekends. But nevertheless the runs that were groomed were corduroy and lightning fast. Kat showed her ability and absolutely ripped it down the first run, I was struggling to keep up and my board was rattling hard and I was getting plenty of weightlessness over the rollers.

The ride of the day was around Jersey Cream. The slopes were basked in sunshine and started softening up so it was excellent grippy fast riding. We grabbed half price lunch at 12 and then did a few more runs before heading down. My legs felt strong which was promising.

I went swimming in the afternoon - i did my obligatory 40 laps front crawl, had a hot tub then a sauna. I gave the car back to Avis and then headed home for a nice quiet and relaxing night on my own with a movie and some cookies - honest! I wanted an early night as Tuesday would be the first day with all the guys out on the slopes and I was looking forward to the fun.

Sunday November 13 2005 - Sleepy.

Sunday was a lazy day. I got up very late feeling the effects of both a a hard weekend boarding and a heavy apres session of the day before. I walked into the village at about 1pm and did a few jobs.

I met up with some of the guys at 4pm and had some half price food at the GLC. We then came back to my apartment for home baked cookies and we watched The Croupier on video. We got a call from Justin at about 8pm from Justin who was at the Longhorn. All the lifties had found out whether they had passed their lift exams so there was a big party, it was also meet and greet night there for all mountain staff. We headed up but there was a large queue. We waited for about 50mins but got fed up so went to the nearby Irish bar for a couple of vodka and cranberries. I then headed home about 11:30pm for bed and an early start boarding on Monday.

Saturday November 12 2005 - Collision!

This was the first day riding without a hangover! Justin came round and picked me up and we walked to the Excalibur gondy for 8:30am. We cruised around the quiet groomed slopes at the top of the Excelerator chair for the first hour. Then we hit the Crystal chair and found powder around Rock 'n' Roll again. The riding was great fun and as we were at a similar standard we covered a lot of ground in the first couple of hours. Our legs were still tired from the day before so we headed to the Glacier Creek building for food and refreshments at about 11:30. Food was half price so we tucked in!

We headed to the Crystal chair again in the afternoon and sniffed out the powder some more. My back leg thigh was starting to burn so I headed back along the Blackcomb Glacier Road cat track to the Excalibur Gondola to download. The cat track was quite busy. Getting down it was tricky as it was busy but you needed to keep speed up as there were flat parts which you need speed to carry over. I was passing one boarder on the right and I shouted right as I approached but as I started passing the person cut right causing us to collide. We both feel quite hard and after I spent a second to check I was OK I turned to the other boarder. She seemed OK but her back foot binding had broken. We tried to fix it with a spare screw but it was the wrong size. After a little while we both made the remainder of the track to the gondy. She introduced herself as Amy and I caught the gondy back to the village with her and her two friends Kat and Mindy. We all went to the GLC bar at the bottom of the lift and had a few jugs of beer. After a while I went home and got changed. We all agreed to meet up at Longhorn at 9. Justin also came along. We had a few more beers and went to a club until about 2. After 11 hours of drinking I crashed on my sofa. I woke about 7 and then went to bed where I slept until 11am.

Friday November 11 2005 - POWOW.

Blackcomb mountain opened for the season today and so I made arrangements to meet justin at 8:15am at the base. I got up at 7:15 with hangover, scoffed some porridge, a pint of water and a cup of tea and walked the 20mins to Blackcomb. I hung around until 8:45 then got the wizard express up the mountain.

It was snowing pretty hard and it was clear the snow line had dropped since last weekend. It was looking promising. I spoke with a local guy as we went up the lifts, he was very friendly and talked about how he was renovating his condo. I got off the Solar Coaster (without falling off this time!) and then headed down the mountain in hunt of powder. I didn't have to go far, there was plenty of it.

The mountain was a lot quieter than the weekend before and wasn't as chopped up. I ducked a few ropes and ended up at the Crystal Chair lift. They were seeming to be preparing to open it so I asked them how long it would be until it opened, they said about 30 min's.

I headed down a few other closed off runs finding good powder but also rocks and ditches and then headed up the Excelerator lift and back down to Crystal which by then had just opened. I chatted to a couple of local people on the lift and asked which would be the best run, they mentioned 'Rock n Roll' could be fun. So I got off the lift and headed to Rock n Roll as advised. The slope was roped off and there was only one ski track and a couple of board tracks that had ducked the rope. I decided to go for it, ducked the rope and started cruising the powder. It was lush! The run was long and undulating, and the powder was deep and soft. I cruised and down with a huge smile on my face! There were bouncy little humps, big carveable side slopes and wide open parts to rip right through the middle. This was one of the best single runs I had done in years!

I was getting down to the bottom of the run and wondered if I had gone too far, it seemed like I had run further than the Crystal Chair that had taken me to the top. Eventually I connected to the road and joined up to the botto of the Solar Coaster. It turned out I had cruised down one of the longest runs on blackcomb which was covered in hardly touched luxury deep powder! Amazing!

A couple more runs and my legs started burning and weakening so I downloaded back to Blackcomb about 1:30pm. I walked back to my condo and Justin turned up about 10 minutes after. We hit the outside hot tub for a little while and then went in where Ban & Bron turned up with KFC. We played some more Scrabble - Bron won - and then they headed home. I pledged myself a recovery night in so I could turn up fresh for snowboarding on Saturday.

Thursday November 10 2005 - 50 Buck Boards.

I went round to Brio for 1:00pm to check out again the Dodge Caravan we were thinking of buying. Both Ben and Justin got held up at work so we sent the owner, Steve from Switzerland, home again without a buyer. I went home and put my feet up until Ben came round about 3. We chatted and decided not to go ahead and buy a car, the insurance for six months would cost almost as much as the car and we decided we should just try and get around without transport, it may be harder getting to the sports center but the busses are pretty good here.

The evening was fun, I pre-cooked a big pan of pasta in anticipation of everyone coming round for tea. I drove to pick everyone up at about 6:00pm and whilst out, we all decided to stop by the Discount Gear shop as 50 buck boards had been advertised. Ben & Bron both managed to pick up a board and bindings set up for 50 bucks each (£25)! Ok the boards weren't exactly the latest technology but they were both in solid condition and for that sort of price you can't go wrong!

Ben, Bron, Dave and Justin then came to mine where we ate pasta, drank beer , chatted and then played scrabble - which I won - until 2:00am. I had to get up at 7:15 to get the first lifts out of Blackcomb, not exactly great preparation for my second day's boarding.

Wednesday November 9 2005 - Be-a-bum.

Another pretty quiet day. I slept in until 10:00am which I was grateful for as this was by far the latest I have slept and it also meant the jet-lag was wearing off.

I had my second interview with Club Intrawest at 11:30 which went very well again except that I had a call about 2 hours after the interview saying the visa was an issue and therefore no cigar. This pretty much meant any avenue is closed to get a working visa for the summer and therefore I will officially have to be a bum! Although the extra cash would have been handy and I would have had the opportunity to meet people, I can now get on with concentrating on snowboarding and photography & web publishing instead. I'll try and set goals for myself for the winter so I can keep myself challenged.

The rest of the day was chilled out - I spent a couple of hours with Dave before his interview, we went to the Amsterdam cafe for a drink, checked out an internet cafe and then headed over to Blackcomb where he was having his interview. We had a little walk around Chateau Whistler and grabbed a coffee in the bar. I caught up on news with the FT and then headed home. I then went for a swim, struggled a bit through my 40 laps and then headed home for pizza and a marathon of the West Wing.

Tuesday November 8 2005 - Waiting for the weekend.

I woke up early again, I think the jet-lag still hadn't fully left my body. I had a pretty quiet day, I spent a bit of time on this website in the morning and then the guys came round in the afternoon. Justin chilled out here with the movie 'Swordfish' whilst Ben, Bron and I popped into the village to mosey round the shops and hook up to the internet. I didn't buy anything but I did find a very cool redneck hat. It could well be my next purchase!

We all went round to Anna & Andrew's new flat in the evening where they cooked us dinner. We sat around chatting until about midnight. The topic's were pretty intellectual and we covered the evolution of invention and innovation, man's comprehension of space and the morality of artificial performance enhancers. We also covered adult and toilet humor earlier on in the day so the level of conversation pretty much averaged out over the course of the day. I got home about midnight and had an early-ish night.

The snow line has now dropped to the village.

Monday November 7 2005 - Night Snow.

The day started with another interview - this time with Club Intrawest. It would be a front desk position at their property at the bottom of Blackcomb. I didn't come away too inspired by the position but it could be an opportunity to help me get the visa I need to do photography work. The interview went well, having interviewed a lot in the past I pretty well knew how it would go although their were some tough questions like ' what sort of people don't you like working with','how would your ex employees describe you' and the best one was 'give us one reason why we shouldn't give you this job'.

The second interview was with Cougar Mountain photography. The guy was very praiseworthy of me but said he had just filled his last photographer position. He said he would hire me immediately if someone left so that was pretty positive.

I went for a swim at the sports center. The figure skaters were training on the ice rink, I've never seen it in real life and it was pretty amazing the amount of control they have on the ice. We then had some sweet chili sauce tuna pasta cooked by Bron. After I went to Tapley's Bar with Justin. We had a couple of beers and then headed to the 80s night at Tommy Africa's. I headed home about 1. Whistler was quiet and was like a winter wonderland so I took the opportunity to take some night photography for an hour before heading to bed about 2am.

The Brewhouse Pub back dropped by the mountain.

Sunday November 6 2005 - Getta Job?

Although the slopes were open, I had a number of interviews for jobs. The work i'm looking for would to help me take something i'm interested in a little further over the next couple of months. So far my enquiries had taken me down the photography route. I had an interview at 11:30 with One Earth Photography who provide services to local tour companies. The interview went really well and I got excellent feedback. I was told that I would be given a staff photographer job if I could get a visa before the end of the month. So that became my new goal!

Basically I have to secure permanent employment somewhere to obtain a visa. This is not as easy as it sounds as the new employer has to prove that the job was advertised and that they couldn't fill it with a Canadian. Pete from One Earth gave me some advice on how to proceed and so I went to a job faire on that day to try and pursue this. I secured interviews the following day with Club Intrawest and Coast Mountain Photography. Getting screened by 18 year old was kinda funny given the amount of senior interviewing I had done in my career!

After the job search I headed down to Brio to see Bron and Justin and test drive a van. We're looking to buy one and share it so we can get about to the city, squarmish, function junction and the sports center when we need to. I also have secure underground parking which we can use. We test drove a Dodge Caravan - a seven seater van/people carrier. Very cool! It was pretty good and we secured a conditional price of CAD 1,600. We just needed to check out insurance, the cost of winter tires and a new windshield.

We grabbed a burger at merlin's at blackcomb and then Bron, Ben and Justin came back to mine and we watched Snatch and some gory Yankee tele before I dropped them off at home about 11. On the way home a bear ran across the road in front of us - RARRRR!

Saturday November 5 2005 - First Tracks!

I slept through the alarm until 8:00pm. I had half an hour to get ready and head to blackcomb for the opening! Fortunately I had already set my board up a couple of days ago so I just through on my gear and left the house with Justin still crashed on the sofa. I felt pretty ropey but I got to Blackcomb for 8:30 to see the first people up the wizard express chair lift.

The base of Blackcomb was a good buzz; there was music playing and people whooping and cheering as they were whisked away up the mountain on the lift. Unfortunately, there was only one lift open and apparently about 5,000 people had turned up. I had to wait about 45 min's to get on the lift - the lift queue was like those for a ride on the roller coasters at Alton Towers.

The snow at the top of the mountain was awesome. The bashers had done some great work on the slopes and there was plenty of sections of powder to be found. My boarding was a bit dodgy - I even fell as I got off the top of the lift - something I haven't done for years, although I blame the hangover!

The sun was burning through and it was an awesome days boarding. My legs were tired, i fell quite a bit , the queues for each lift were about 20 min's long and I put a big gouge in the bottom of my board after ducking a rope and going over rocks but I enjoyed my riding and it was one of the best days I had ever had on the mountain.

That night was a welcoming week dinner where I sat on a table hosted by Nick Davies for Mayor and also some more Ozzies and, spookily a girl form Jersey! Food was veggie lasagne and then cake and I met a few more people; Ellie from the Gold Coast and Heather and Jackie from Nova Scotia.

After dinner we headed into Tapley's bar for a few beers. The Canucks were on the television and the atmosphere was fun. I was still suffering from jet lag and was struggling but after a few hours we headed to see Roger Sanchez. The music was excellent but I was suffering and after a couple of hours dancing I headed home to bed.

Dave & Bron - Cocoa makes you crazy!

Friday November 4 2005 - 99% Cocoa, 100% Drunk!

I got up and headed into the village to get tickets for the Roger Sanchez gig on Saturday at Tommy Africa's. The overnight snow has settled a little in the village with a light dusting over the trees and roofs of buildings. This was great news for the lifts opening on Saturday.

Other than a few little jobs, I had a pretty chilled out day . I stocked up on wine and beer for later as the guys were coming round for dinner and a few drinks. They all turned up at about 6:00pm and we cracked into the red wine. Ben & Bronwyn had met up with another Ozzie couple, Andrew and Anne and so they came along too to make the numbers to seven. Dave & Justin cooked some delicious rice and pasta dishes and we all crowded round my dining and tucked in whilst we kept on going with the red wine. Dinner finished and we started running out of wine so Ben & I decided to head to the Marketplace to stock up. We also had the request for chocolate, dave asked for strong chocolate so we headed to the IGA and got a good mixture of Lindt - extra creamy, 70% cocoa, 85% cocoa and 99% cocoa.

After dinner fun continued with chocolate tasting and more and more red wine. The chocolate tasting was fun - the 85% was pretty serious stuff but the 99% was like eating black ash! It had the bitterest taste, very difficult to swallow and made the whole of your mouth black! It even carried a health warning that it shouldn't really be attempted without appreciating the 85% cocoa first! The evening carried on till about 2am. By that time we had had two spewers who had christened the toilet and Justin had crashed out on the sofa. Everyone left except for Justin and I went to bed and set my alarm for 7:30 to get up for the first day of boarding this season in Whistler!

North Star and Northlands Boulevard pre-snow 3/11/05.

Thursday November 3 2005 - Rednecks & Pool Parties

Another morning of jobs completed - when I say jobs, nothing too difficult - I went to the jobs center and printed off my 'Resume' to hand into the Pinnacle hotel for a Night Audit job - good money and wouldn't get in the way of snowboarding daylight hours. The lack of visa may be a problem though. I'm not sure that an audit job would be the sort of this they would pay cash under the table for but it's worth a try i guess! I also got a PO Box so people can post stuff to me and ermm, my last job, a new snowboard! I had been promising myself a new freestyle board for a while and I even put off buying a surf board in the summer for one and after looking a bit I eventually picked up a new 2004/2005 season Burton Canyon 156 at half price.

I drove the guys down to Squarmish in the afternoon. The town is on the Sea-to-Sky highway from Vancouver to Whistler and is the nearest industrial town. We needed to get a few things - I was in the market for a multi-region DVD player for the house. Although surrounded by beautiful mountains, Squarmish is redneck central. Comments like 'keep driving, don't stop' and 'they gotta increase their gene pool' were heard from the passengers in my car! We grabbed some Enchiladas for lunch and went to Canadian Tire and a couple of other big stores and headed home. My purchases consisted of 10 coat hangers, a roasting tin and some kitchen foil! But we did have quite a lot of fun trying on huge snow and gum boots in the stores. I'm not sure how the locals took our behavior.

Justin and I checked out the welcoming week pool party in the evening. Basically it was about 100 kids playing in the pool; swinging on the Tarzan swing following girls into the hot tubs and playing pool basketball. I was chatting to the life guard and I mentioned to her that I felt old for this sort of thing. She said that she was also a youth worker and did these sorts of things now and then and that it was for young adults not kids. All the events are for 18-29 years olds! I said exactly - too old! I got my fill of cookies though and headed home.

Wednesday November 2 2005 - Snow Is Falling

I awoke late - about 11, looked outside where there was a light dusting of snow on the trees outside the window. I picked up the guys and headed to the sports center. I did some lap swimming and headed into the hot tub - pretty lazy compared to the others who went and did a full weights session. There was also drop-in hockey playing on the ice which was fascinating to watch - it was a friendly practice so not that brutal but very fast and pretty impressive skating none the less.

I chatted with a couple of locals in the center, Jen the lifeguard and Shannon who works in one of the gear shops in the village. Both were very friendly and it seems most people you meet are always willing to offer advice and very open and genuine. The buzz was that the mountains were opening early due to a big dump of snow over the last couple of days. It turned out this was true when WhistlerBlackcomb issued a press release around lunch time saying that Blackcomb would be open over the weekend and then full time for the season the following friday! Amazing, about three weeks early - fantastic news!

After doing a few more jobs in the afternoon like getting a PAYG mobile cell phone and applying for a couple of interesting jobs, we headed out to another welcoming week event - a social event organized by LUNA - a 19-29 yo club offering alternative alcohol free nightlife - ok I admit probably not the best night out for a beer thirsty 31 year old but it was OK none the less and spending time with the new gang was cool.

Tuesday November 1 2005 - Meeting People Is Easy

I awoke very early due to jet lag. This was quite useful though as I had a bit of time to unpack before I headed out into town to start getting myself set up for living in Whistler. I also read in the paper that it was welcoming week in Whistler, kind of like fresher's week at university, for all newcomers. There are events all week to help people settle in, find out about what's in the village and meet people. The welcoming week events kicked off with a pancake breakfast in the main hall of the Whistler fire station, not to be missed! I headed into the village, it was half raining, half snowing and I noticed my winter jacket got it's first dusting of snow - yay!

The pancakes were great and I smothered them in the obligatory maple syrup, it really does taste great and even better when in Canada! I met a few guys, Ben, Bromwyn, Justin & Dave. The first three being ozzies and David a kiwi. I hung around there for a bit and also met a local guy called greg who sorted me out with all the info I need to potentially go surfing on Vancouver Island. After spending a couple of hours drinking coffee I was well wired but I had met a cool few guys.

I hung around with the guys all day, I checked out their staff accommodation, they checked out my pad, we went down to Function Junction in the car to the re-use it center to buy some household gear for the winter. I bought Mah Jong & Scrabble for four bucks. We drove down to the Meadow Park Sports Center where I bought a six month membership for swimming, pilates and the gym. It also entitles me to play 'drop-in' hockey if I wanted! We then went to the job center where I checked out a few opportunities - it will be difficult to get anything without a visa but there may be something fun, even if it's volunteer work on the mountain.

In the evening we went and watched a snowboard movie in the 'MY-Place' center in the village. It was another welcoming week event, i was lagging due to the jet lag but it was fun. I headed home for about 11 and crashed.

BA Flight No. 85 Heathrow to Vancouver

Monday October 31 2005 - Goodbye Jersey, Hello Canada

Grabbed a taxi to the airport, said goodbye to Marie at the airport and with a kiss on the cheek from Ella I was on my way.

The journey to Whistler was long but fortunately pretty uneventful. Luckily I managed to blag great emergency exit seats on the long haul flight to Vancouver and slept well for seven of the nine hours. I also sat next to a really friendly lady who lives on Vancouver Island so we traded stories of where we were from. With a couple of meals, all that sleep, it soon felt like I was in Vancouver. I picked up a white Pontiac Pursuit from Avis at the airport, drove through downtown Vancouver and up the 2hr sea-to-sky highway in to Whistler.

I got to Whistler about 10:00pm, parked up and headed into my Stoney Creek Northstar condo. I was pleasantly surprised by my new temporary home. It's slightly bigger than I expected, very well furnished and very homely with great finishing touches like a real gas fire place, power showers, a jacuzzi, cable tv, a well kitted out kitchen and good home entertainment equipment.

I dropped my gear and headed into the village for an hour. It was halloween and though the village was generally very quiet, there were quite a few dressed up halloween revelers outside the clubs and pubs. I grabbed a local free newspaper and headed home for my first night in my cool new home.