19 December, 2005 (Monday)

Quick Update
Still alive and kicking, although this cough is taking its toll - I swear I've coughed up a lung in the last day. Nevertheless, I'm riding it out and after a 2 hour ski session yesterday between my split shifts actually seem to have progressed to the stage of moving beyond involuntary coughing fits. Big win! Otherwise things have been more of the same - still working a lot, getting out skiing more and mixing it in with the other mountain natives.

Snow has finally returned to the mountain, with flurries progressing to real snowfall today. Apparently the current forecast is for snow over the next few days, looking outside at a misty Big White village, I think there is some hope.

Big White news:

• Alpine T-bar opened today... which of course meant Josh and I had to be in the first group to give it a go. Unfortunately, we chose to give it a try halfway through a snow storm, which meant that we could barely see our own hands. In bumping down the mountain I managed to go over some rocks, so I think Dave is going to be pretty pissed off with me after the repair and tune job he did on my skis on Saturday.
• Big White reaches capacity: The mountain is apparently 100% booked by Wednesday. It's starting to get crowded on the mountain already, with tourists camping in the middle of runs. My dodging skills are improving.
• It's snowing!: Finally, much promised snow has hit the mountain just in time for the holiday season. Apparently we need another 40cm worth to start opening the big chair lifts on the left side of the mountain. The snow is so dry here we don't need drying rooms. It's great.

15 December, 2005 (Thursday)
It's sad to admit that I can barely remember back this far! The days are starting to blur a bit and bleed into one another. The daily churn of work, eat, ski and sleep interspersed with social activity mixes things a bit. Part of the problem is the variability in schedules, so there's no clear differentiation between a week day or weekend.

Thursday highlight - quiet day at Happy Valley bonding with Kiwi Kate, swapping life stories and selling skating tickets to our outdoor rink. A quiet night in.

16 December, 2005 (Friday)
My weekly shift at the main ticket office in the Village. Got into trouble from Zia for arriving 2 minutes late to work - apparently my $8 an hour includes an expectation that I have my till setup for 8am. Finished shift too late to make proper use of the ski lifts.

17 December, 2005 (Saturday)
Managed to get in a decent morning's worth of skiing with Josh. We zoomed down from the Ridge and Bullet lifts carving up Exhibition and Sundance. In the tubing cabin from mid-afternoon until night. It was a quiet session where I finished my instructive How to be a Canadian primer. I am now ready to be a Canadian!

Chatted to an Australian group up from near Byron Bay and Oately while they took cover from the cold (it hit around -16 degrees that night) about their Big White experience so far. They confessed that they were spoilt be a week at our sister resort SilverStar, and said that generally they found that the staff were better trained and prepared there. SilverStar has had better snow retention that us, with 9/11 lifts open, and close to 100 runs. Here at Big White we've barely got 1/3 of our mountain open and about half our lifts. Then again, the capacity at SilverStar is about a third of ours, so could make it a little easier to run a tight ship. Arguable really.

After work headed to the Coor's Lite (American beer?) White party at Sam's - the premise being that attendees are required to wear full white (and drink lots of alcohol). By the time I arrived at quarter to 10 the place was really packing out. It was a pretty big night all around, with lots of familiar faces about - Josh (who arrived a bit late, after losing a hockey game bet and having to do a boxers run around the village in the -10 degree cold) and Dave (of course), the tickets crew (Tim, Lesley, Kate, Sarah, Tanya), the retail gals (Grace, Marissa, Sarah) and the usual mix of other mountian folk. Party ended at 1am when they kicked us all out of the pub. Dave and I toddled off to bed while Josh headed to work.

18 December, 2005 (Sunday)
Split shift day, starting at 8am at the Ridge with Aenne (pronounced "Anna"). The morning passed quickly, although not a whole lot of customers.

Aenne had some good stories about her university lecturers. Apparently the other semester for English literature her lecturer gave them haiku topics - they had to write poems about sacks, flowers, a window... When the class asked the lecturer how he came up with these topics he told them that they just came to him when he got high. Role model material! Then she started telling me about this other lecturer who was married with 5 kids and had a habit of having relationships with his students. At one time he was dating two students at the same time. Apparently it's against faculty policy, but he gets away with it anyway.

When the first part of my shift finished at 11:30 (it took me half an hour to work out that I was 1c out) I headed up the Ridge and skiied for a few hours. The cold air helped wash away any remaining tiredness from the previous night as well as ease my cough (somehow).

Second half of my shift started at 4pm in Happy Valley, working with Gabbi and Sarah. First time working with Sarah so I plied her with the usual work 50 questions. She was a little worse for wear from the night before.

The Sarah story: Sarah is tall and blonde with slight brunette streaks leaking through. 23, she hails from Bendigo and likes to spend her summer's at the beach. Sarah majored in marketing before doing her Dip Ed. She's at Big White to learn how to board and made the choice to come here from her cousin's experience last year (where apparently she won Employee of the Year in Tickets - Wow!). Since starting the other week Sarah has managed to make it in with a hangover at least every second day.

19 December, 2005 (Monday)
Day off today. Managed to sleep in until midday (first time to sleep in properly since I arrived here!), then a lazy midday grabbing something to eat and skiing for a bit with Josh. The Alpine T-bar opened today, so we had to check it out. After a long drag up the mountain, we arrived at the top and couldn't see a foot in front of us. Normally a green run, the way down was a little on the challenging-side when we couldn't even see which way to go. Managed to run over more than a few rocks - my poor, poor skis!

A quiet afternoon eating, before making it out for night skiing. Night skiing runs from 5pm to 8pm at night from the Bullet and Plaza chairs. Josh and I found our way down to the Bullet around 6pm, but by the time we were half-way up the mountain we could barely make out the chair in front of us. Snow was blowing around at the top and it was a bit chilly. The extra layer provided by my baby blue pyjama flannel bottoms kept me toasty warm. The way the lights were spaced out - just far enough to let us see the next one ahead, meant that we had to go goggle-less. Cold eyes.

The first run down was tricky, feeling our way down... but after that it got easier. Our eyelashes were white with snowflakes, and we soon had a coating of rime but it was fun bumping our way down from one spot of light to the next. By the end we were coated in fresh ice but still grinning. No major stacks or faceplants. A successful first night ski!

Reasons for a Mountain Experience
I enjoy finding out people's stories on the mountain. There's a whole range of people from all different places, and, while a lot share the same kind of background - just out of university or following the snow, there are enough quirks and personalities to keep things interesting.

I'm slowly searching out the good stories - tales of illict romance, long distance relationships, weird and wacky past job experiences and foreign climes. It's more than just asking the set of stock standard questions though, it's trying to get into their head a little and understand what makes them tick. For some it's simply a matter of escapism. Others it gets more complicated and emotionally involved. The trick now is to separate the wheat from the chaff and find someway to capture it all!