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. 

christmas time!

so, my first christmas away from home! A little different to say the least.

I started the day at 6.30 to get to work for 7.30 for the first day of my temporary new job as a ticket validator, basically just scanning everyones ticket at the bottom of a gondola. Good times.
After 6 hours of non-stop laughs it was time to go for a christmas day ski! A novelty or what?

A ski back to our house later and after some pre-meal snacks it was finally christmas dinner time. A sumptuous stuffed turkey with all the trimmings and pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert, good good times.

 

us with our two guests, minus a dane

Après dinner we had some good old fashioned fun with games of charades, the love/hate game and the sorts. Secret santa dished out his presents. I myself was given a disc-golf frisbee from chris (amazing present), which i'll use nearer the spring time when the disc-golf course opens in whistler!

And so another christmas came to an end!

 photo courtesy of www.annalengstrand.com ;)