Revelling in it!

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use. ~ Galileo Galilei (born 15 February 1564)


What a busy few days it's been since last I blogged. Well over a week into lent and not a drop of booze so far. To be honest I have been having so much fun I've hardly noticed. Last Friday Victoria and I went our separate ways to enjoy two very different weekends. She departed with the girl guides for a winter camp at which there was singing, gaming and the building of "Quinzys" (a type of rudimentary snow shelter). I left to get on a tour bus with Gavin and Nickie and a load of other Edmonton University post grads for a ski trip to Revelstoke, a new mountain in B.C. (I say new mountain, obviously only the ski facilities are new, the mountain itself has been there for thousands of years). The arranged pick up was at the legendary Peter's-Drive-In in Calgary, famous for 2 things, one good and one bad. The good thing is that every burger comes with one and a half burgers in it, 50% extra beefiness for your money. They sure were yummy burgers and top-notch fries too. The bad thing is that there is no indoors. Normally this is ok, you just eat in your car, but I got dropped off by taxi so I had to wait outside. Now, I'm a hardy sort of chap not given over to moaning (well, sort of...) but last Friday it was -28 degrees out plus wind-chill. I could put up with this for a bit, and I was 20 minutes early so I expected to get a little chilly and I had dressed up warm with my thick winter parka on. When the bus was an hour and a half late due to the over cautious driving of an inexperienced driver unused to winter conditions I was a little annoyed. I have never ever been that cold in my life. The women working the counter in Peters kept looking at me, whispering and pointing. I believe that if I hadn't been carrying a pair of skis they’d have called the police because only someone mentally unbalanced would be stood out in that kind of cold for that long.


Anyway, the bus finally arrived and we eventually got to Revelstoke at 4.00 AM, our cautious driver taking no chances on the winter roads through the snow bound passes through the Rockies. After 3 hours sleep we got back in our smelly bus (some of the early drinking had got out of hand on the back seat and out of stomach too) and sallied forth to greet the fresh snow at Revelstoke Mountain resort. It was awesome, simply awesome. If you do ski and you can get there, then go. Acres and acres of untracked powder straight off the main lift. Steep and high and fluffy, even I, a usually piste bound runner of blues found myself throwing myself down the mountain through the trees up to my knees in snow with abandon, joy and ever increasing confidence and skill. Double black diamonds all the way, baby! No limits (within reason!). The solitary blue run I did in order to get my aching legs back down to lunch seemed tame. I have been converted to big mountain skiing. I loved the wild raw nature of being off piste, finding my own lines through ungroomed powder, not following the lines of a piste dictated by a resort manager. I truly can't wait to go back and I look forward to more of the same at Kicking Horse next weekend.


The downside of the weekend is that one of our group, Eli, didn’t make it down on Saturday. It turns out he got stuck on the mountain outside the ski boundary in a gully he couldn't walk out of, but we didn't know what had happened. We worried and prayed all night for him, trying to think the best but as time wore on, only expecting the worst. It kept the party in a somber mood as you can imagine. The relief the following morning when he was found by a rescue helicopter alive and well was unbelievable. I did not expect that anyone out on a mountain alone at night would survive. Thankfully it was not too cold, only about -5 degrees and he was well equipped with good snow clothes. No cotton! After that good news we all skied hard, safe in the knowledge that a more experienced bus driver and a clean bus had been dispatched to take us home. I got in at 2.00 AM on Sunday morning and Vicky picked me up. That's real love, getting out of bed to get me from a skiing weekend she would have loved to have gone on. I felt sorry for the Edmonton guys who got home at 5.00AM, no time for more than 40 winks before work on Monday. Still, it was worth it all for skiing that good, and much easier to get a 10 hour bus ride that have to drive that long across winter roads in the dark. Thanks to all at Backside tours for making it so good, especially Rahul and Erin.

I promise to continue tomorrow with tales of this last weeknds frolics; dog sledding, cross-country skiing and snow-shoeing. Here's a joke Ben told be on Friday night to keep you going, but probably only the Brits will appreciate it:

One gent to another in a Korean restaurant: These meatballs really are the dog's B*****ks!