crystal chair fun

last week me and jamie headed up the glacier express and crystal chair on the blackcomb mountain for the day, exploring, finding some good snow and just generally messing about. It was such a nice day, sun shining, nice and warm and it was so much fun!

Epic Super Bowl Burgers!

The Scene;

Super Bowl Sunday, 20 minutes until kick off, feet up and the beers are out and ready... when me and Mads get the best idea ever. 'Let's make the best burgers in history to eat during the game'. Genius. So, a quick pop to the shop later and we're ready to get going!

Cheese topped buns - check, 1kg of mince - check, bacon - check, cheese - check, tomatoes, lettuce and onions - check, gherkins - check, ketchup and mayo - check and finally, chips - check.

With the chips in the oven and after a bit of prep work and some seasoning, 2 of our 4 quarter pounders were ready to be cooked.

While this was happening, i got on with frying the onions and Mads prepped the other two burgers. (Obviously, because it was Super Bowl Sunday he wasn't wearing any trousers.)

With the chips done, burgers cooked, bacon fried and veg ready, it was time to dish up...

...and finally enjoy...

...with plenty of beers and the Super Bowl.

We got round to the second one about an hour later. I genuinely thought i might have had a fat induced heart attack. So amazing.

Vancouver Canucks Vs Nashville Predators

on the 26th of January me and Jamie went to see the Vancouver Canucks (who are now 1st in the whole NHL league) play the Nashville Predators at Rogers Arena. We arrived at the game with an hour or so to spare so we decided to take advantage of the cheap, greasy, fatty food. Amazing.

We sat down in the 19,000 seater Arena for the build up to the game, which was everything I expected it to be. Flashing lights, loud music, a massive disco ball, jumbo screen action, organ playing, peanut sellers... you name it! Then after a 5 minute light show the game got under way.

 

The first period saw the Canucks soak up a fair amount of pressure but manage to finish the first period at 0-0. The first intermission was filled with yet more musics, light, jumbo screen action and a game of pee-wee hockey! The second period was much the same as before but with the Canucks starting to get more and more into the game as it went on.

The second intermission was even more crazy than the first, obviously more lights and music, along with mascots dancing, the ice girls strutting their stuff and even a t-shirt gun came out, firing all over the place!

The third period turned out to be much more exciting, with Vancouver going 1-0 down after one of their players was injured on the floor after taking a stick to the face. They pulled it back to 1-1 and eventually took the lead to make it 2-1 at the final horn, not after a full stretch block by the Vancouver keeper with the tip of his boot with 26 seconds to go however. The crowd went mental!

 

It was such a good atmosphere, and it was so good to watch, definitely going to go again if we get the chance. The highlights are here if you wanted to see. 

23rd Jan, Jamie's 19th

the 23rd of Jan saw Jamie turn 19 and finally be able to drink here in Canada. 

We started the day off with a ski up on the 7th heaven chair in near bluebird conditions. 

We skied through Xhiggy's meadow a few times and decided to hike up a ridge just outside of the boundary. Although we decided that's what we would do, both jamie's and joe gave up after a minute so i ended up going it alone. I got gorgeous views a great powder run that lead to a homemade kicker for my efforts though, so definitely worth it!

In the evening we hit it pretty hard, pretty early, jamie especially... So after many beer pong games, fifa drinking games, pyramid and lot's of picking on jamie...he was out for the count. Being the caring friends we are, we made sure he was looked after till morning though.

Happy birthday pal!

rain vs. bluebird

for about the past week the weather has left a lot to be desired. It's only been around -1°C up at the peak and above 0°C down in the village which the rain doesn't turn to snow...it just stays as rain! 

So, it's been just a little bit grim and it's left the slopes a little icy. Not ideal.

However today things definitely took a turn for the better! Gorgeous sunshine and not a cloud in sight, conditions named by the locals as 'bluebird'. 

Fingers crossed for more snow and definitely more sun!

million dollar ridge

last week we had over a 100cm of snow in about 4 days, literally the nicest snow i've ever skied in. Every day it was a race to be one of the first up the mountain and to find the untracked 'pow'. But, before you know it everywhere has been skied....well all the obvious places. 

To find some fresh powder we decided to go up to 'million dollar ridge' , one of the 'secret spots' that only the locals know about and how to get to, lucky someone had shown us where it was and how to get there. So we traversed across the mountain and ducked the rope taking us outside the ski area boundary, into the backcountry and onto the million dollar ridge. 

I can honestly say it was the best day skiing in my life. Skiing through untracked knee deep powder, through the trees, down drops and with no other people in sight.

a drop on the million dollar ridge, it was bigger than it looks!

The plan was to ski down through the trees, cut back into the ski area onto a ungroomed piste, back out into the trees and then back in again to ski to the bottom of the mountain. It worked perfectly the first time. Wasn't the same story the second time!

Second time round the 4 of us headed off just the same, skiing through the trees in the perfect snow. We first lost Gregg....and then Mads, leaving me and Chris to go it alone. Neither of us really knew where we were going, only that we should hit a piste at some point if we keep right. But we didn't. We didn't keep right! Instead of coming out onto a piste we came out and found ourselves half way down a huge valley with nothing to see but trees everywhere. No lifts, no roads, no people, no tracks, no nothing...but trees. 

I'm not going to lie, I was a little worried. The only option was to carry on skiing. It was a bit scary, but still unbelievably amazing! We just kept on going, not really knowing what to do until we finally found a track. Luckily it took us to a trail that led us back to a piste.

A little bit sketchy, but literally the best day ever.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I couldn't get any pictures.

blackcomb glacier bowl

after 5 days straight of daytime work and a week without skiing properly i finally got the chance to get back on the mountain. So me and jamie decided to head up the Glacier lift and make the short hike up to the blackcomb glacier bowl, a massive wide open expanse with some amazing snow.

As we were skiing down the mountain we came across a huge area of untouched powder, so being the big kids we are we decided to have a bit of a play!

and in case you were wondering how we filmed it, well, i built the best tripod in history!

Such a good day, amazing weather, amazing snow, amazing skiing.