I am back in Whistler, and so is the snow. Saturday was spent travelling, so counts as a rest day! During the 2 weeks that I was away there was very little snow in Banff and there was very little snow here in Whistler. But on Saturday it snowed and it snowed again today which made for an excellent first day back in lessons on Monday. I have started my training for my Level 2 exam, but it was pretty much just a day of having fun and shredding around. We did lots of tree runs and I pushed myself by taking on more drops than I normally would. Not too many crashes that day, but with the snow back it is a lot less painful even when I do stack it.
I have also been working on being able to shifty. (This is where you shift the board in the air and then bring it back under you to land, but without spinning.) It is a fun trick and you can try it anywhere so I am really enjoying learning it. Also, unlike a lot of spins you don’t have to crash a lot in the process of working out the trick – so I really like it for that reason.
The last 6 days have seen me ride Lake Louise, Sunshine, Whistler (twice) and Mt Baker. Mount Baker is an awesome resort with lots of steep runs, more snow annually than Whistler and chair lifts with no safety bars. Tuesday started at 3.15am with my room mate’s alarm going off as he still hadn’t packed. At a far more sensible 3.45am my own alarm went off and (though technically still asleep) I got myself up and ready for our 4am pick-up. Then after loading the two cars with 13 people, 13 snowboards and a ton of snowboarding gear we set off for America (home of the brave). Unfortunately I was in the back seat and the door for the back seats were now blocked by 6 snowboards so I had to get into my seat via the boot (trunk). At least it is was only for four hours. By 7.30am, after a stop at Tim Hortons and a sunrise, we were at the boarder of America (land of the free). For the non-US, non-Canadian contingent there was the usual delay at customs whilst we all pinky-sweared that we weren’t dictators or wannabe despots and then they let us in the country for the day – but they did charge us $6 for the privilege. Oh and we weren’t allowed to bring in more than $100,000 so obviously we had to leave that behind as well.
Finally through customs we set off for our destination – Mt Baker, home of some of the greatest snowboarding terrain on the planet and scene of over a foot of snow in the last 24 hours. Also, the sun was out (and probably had his hat on too). Perfect conditions. As we pulled into the car park Anthony (director of pro-ride) got a call to say that his wife was in labour and was on her way to the hospital. So we went riding. The conditions were incredible and the runs in Mt Baker are really steep, with loads of cliffs, chutes and gullies. Plenty of snow to help smooth the landing when failing to use your snowboard for your landing. There were a total of 13 of us from pro-ride charging the slopes in Mt Baker, and given the fact that Anthony had to leave any time we had to make the most of every second. Approximately every hour Anthony announced that we only had one more run, but finally at 12pm the fun had to stop as he got the call that the baby was well and truly on its way. So we raced to the car sorted out the gear and everyone in Anthony’s car set off for Vancouver to try and get there in time for the birth of his daughter. Fortunately I was in Lance’s car and the 6 of us got to stay and ride the afternoon in Baker as well. Although a lot of the best snow was tracked out, there was still loads of goodies and we had an epic afternoon before setting off on the 4.5 hour journey back to Canada. Then, as if life wasn’t good enough already, I woke up the next day and I was in Whistler and went riding. All day. Only 3 and a bit weeks left of this, so I better make the most of it!
I have added a few photos from Mt Baker – click here to see them, or just head over to my Picasa site to check them out.
Oh, Anthony made it to the hospital with 30 minutes to spare before the main event. He used the same video camera that he had been using to capture our snowboard trip to capture the birth of his baby. Congratulations to Karen and Anthony.
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