29 November, 2005 (Tuesday)

In summary
Yes, I'm finally on the mountain, although our internet access hasn't been the best. Today is the first in a few days that it has been up (at least since I got up here on Sunday morning). I think that wireless suffers from the snow (it's snowing now, and it keeps on dropping out!). Yesterday was my first day of work for Big White, and today my first skiing. I think I'm going to sleep well tonight.

I'm now fully kitted out with ski gear. Today I finished off by spending a further $700 CAD for skis, bindings and poles – apparently they’ll last me the season. We can hope. Being in holiday mode expenditure has run higher than expected. Not looking forward to my next credit card statement.

If I can say one thing about Canada it is that the country’s banking rules are archaic. I currently have withdrawal limits of $200 CAD per day, and the closest bank ATM is an hour’s drive away in Kelowna. With the Australian dollar losing against North America I’m not keen on conducting all my major transactions from my Australian accounts. A budgeting conundrum to consider tomorrow.

Time has definitely sped up. I feel like I've been her a lot longer than 6 days. Unfortunately I haven’t met many REAL Canucks.. . but I'm hoping that will change sometime.

It has been snowing on and off all day - “Great champagne powder, eh?”. We can hope. There are only 2 chairlifts open right now, 4 groomed runs.

So what’s been happening?

Hmmm.. A lot I think. But where to begin?

November 26, 2005 (Saturday)
Flew one hour to Kelowna, the closest town to our resort. The view in flight was awe inspiring – Canada is a very beautiful country, with low hanging cloud and picturesque tree dotted mountains topped with snow.

Kelowna is located in the Okanagan valley, one of Canada’s prime produce / wine areas, and is known for it’s beautiful lakes. It is a bit of a crossroads town - an amazing amount of traffic passes through. During summer Kelowna booms as a tourist destination, tripling in size (to somewhere in the region of 300,000 people) with wakeboarding and other summer water events.

I spent the afternoon shopping at Orchard Park. It’s a huge shopping area with a mall and a few blocks of shops. Unfortunately for me it’s also quite spread out. After a lot of walking around the main mall block, I bought some ski gear (Oakley Wisdom goggles and a helmet) and other miscellaneous items. I’m also now cell phone enabled – I’ll email details through soon.

That evening I managed to meet up with Trish, a local Kelowna gal, who was kind enough to give me an evening tour of the hot places in town. We ate at this classy little chain restaurant called Moxies, and then hit a few of the bars. Tonics is like a Cheers-style sports bar, with a few flat screens showing Hockey (the national obsession). Nice vibe to it, although sitting next to the window was a little chilly (it was 2 degrees outside)! Docs is just a block away. It is a little grungier than Tonics and while the table service isn’t as good it still has a really nice laid-back feel to it. The Doc’s Coffee I had wasn’t half bad (frangelico and baileys).

No sleep that night. I was sharing in the Samesun backpackers with 4 other guys. . . 3 of whom were competing in a snoring medley. I probably should have just got up and stuffed their mouths.

November 27, 2005 (Sunday)
Got the 8:00am shuttle bus up to the Mountain. Met up with Jae, one of the guys who I’m sharing with, around 9:30am in front of our place. After dumping my things he took me for the Big White tour.

It was good to get a feel for the place - Jae seems to know half the people working on the mountain. Right now I’m struggling to remember 3 names! After 2 hours sleep had a few drinks indoors (my duty free Laphroaig, a 10 year aged single malt whiskey, drinks like water), then went to our local bar located across the road – Snowshoe Sam’s. The night wasn’t too busy, but for some reason I quick sculled a few drinks and then alcohol and sleep deprivation caught up, having me almost fell asleep on the table.

I wandered across the road back to the apartment and somehow thought I’d lost my passport, so I went back down to the bar and had half the patrons looking for it. . . Jae found the passport the next morning on a chair in our apartment. Oops. I’m still getting ribbed for it now.

November 28, 2005 (Monday)
Turned up at 9am for work a bit worse for wear. I’m on ticket sales for the season. The first hour was spent reading a staff manual while Steve, my boss, tried to work out why we couldn't process any credit card payments. He then gave me a quick debrief and set me loose to learn from Lesley (from NZ) and Zia (a native who has been with Big White for 7 years). The day went fast with on-the-job training. Apparently our peak period will be mid-December through to New Years, and Presidents Day week. Can't wait.

Crashed at home for a bit and then ended up back at the pub with Dave and drank beer (Granville Honey) until 1am with Cass and Owen (wedded Tasmanian couple) and Suze (from Scotland). It was Owen’s birthday. We’re going to eat chicken wings at the pub on Wednesday night.

November 29, 2005 (Tuesday)
My first day on the slopes. I spent the morning setting up skis with Lindsay, Dave’s boss and resident ski and board expert. In the end I settled on a pair of Head Monsters (163cm) which should compliment the Nordica X6 boots I got in Vancouver. The three hours on the mountain was great – I’d forgotten how good it feels to ski. It was snowing for most of the afternoon which meant next to no visibility – I had trouble seeing half a metre in front of me. My first half-dozen runs were more by feel as a result, as I took my new gear through the strides.

Mainly I skied Easy Street, a green run, which takes a good 20 minutes to get down. When it stopped snowing and visibility cleared I was able to put on a bit more speed and gun it a little more stably down the slopes – a few early tumbles but no out of control stacks. I’m aiming for a few of those on Thursday (my next day off).

Which takes me to now - I’ve just got through half a tin of soup and am thinking of seeing what Snowshoes has to offer. It’s just past 5:30pm here and people should be off work. Oh, did I mention it was -10 degrees today? Brrrrr...