20 January 2006 (Friday)

A Brief Update
I’ve spent the better part of this week hobbling around, my left knee injured in an unfortunate skiing mishap. (I wonder if the furrow I made is still there?) Of course, this hasn’t managed to cramp either my working or social lives, but it’s still been an annoying impediment. Bragging rights compensate a little, but people have been too busy skiing to spare any real sympathy ;)

As far as the mountain goes, it has continued to be relatively quiet, with regular snowfall continuing to build our snowbase. Last night we scored another 14cm, and the forecast is for more of the same for the coming days.

Big White news:

• The job market: As the trickle of employees leaving the mountain increases we are getting more and more jobs being advertised (just checkout http://www.bigwhite.com!). This week we had another hire in tickets and Steve has suggested that he’s lining up another. I wonder if he’s aware of . . .
• New skis: Dave is the proud owner of a new set of Rossignol Z5s. He’s officially christened them on the Easter Chutes down the back of the Bullet / Black Forest (although Dave would claim that the christening occurred when he licked them, but I won’t go there).
• Silverstar bus: There is a free greyhound bus for staff running to Silverstar on Monday. My knee is still a bit stiff, but I’m considering signing up, assuming there are spaces left. Could be a good day out. Dave made it the other week and he said that the runs were steeper but more haphazard. Hmmm…

14 January, 2006 (Saturday)
Popped my head out into a brilliant morning – the sky was clear and there was a mountain of fresh powder gathered on our balcony. I immediately set out to getting myself functional and within half an hour headed out with Josh to make some fresh tracks.

Fresh tracks
Of course, being a Saturday we had lots of tourists and locals heading up to spend their weekend in snow-covered bliss. Weekends tend to be busy on-mountain as it is, and this brilliant Saturday was no exception. There was a ten-minute wait on the Ridge quad-chair and a further 20 minute on the Powder tri-chair. On the way down to Powder Josh and I glided through the trees off Serwa’s, getting stuck in hip deep powder stashes and making new tracks. The trees were clothed in thick white, and the snow was light and fluffy, requiring some pace to avoid getting bogged down.

Powder Keg was (reliably) fantastic, its steep sides a little tracked but still relatively even. We both flew down, making small turns and hardly bleeding off any speed. At the chair, even the singles line took a long time to move along. The view once on the lift was breath-taking. If you were feeling a bit imaginative you could make out figures and shapes in the snow-covered trees. I saw a pirate with a parrot on his shoulder and a pair of sumo wrestlers facing off. Weird.

Pelted down Corkscrew, which was much more manageable with the rocks and big bumps smoothed out by snowfall. I then ran off Corkscrew into Blackout and then into Gem via the Ogo Slow cat trail. No major falls, although parts of both runs got hairy with steeper gradient slopes and out-hanging tree branches.

Gem Delay
The Gem was packed out, a swarming mass of humanity slipping and sliding their way along. Joining the lift line it took a few minutes to realize that things didn’t seem to be moving. Indeed after ten minutes we came to the conclusion that the lift was spending more time stationary than moving people along.

At first we assumed it was just bad lift management, but as we got closer the story filtered through that in fact it was a technical issue with the lifts themselves. Apparently the sun and warmth was melting ice at the top of the lift towers, which was breaking off icicles that were in turn interfering with the safety forks. The forks ensure that the lift lines are holding, so each time an icicle broke and fell the fork assumed that the lift line had been cut and stopped the lift. Resetting the forks is a manual process, so each time it occurred a maintenance guy on a skidoo had to race down to the tower, climb up and fix the fork before they could start the lift again.

Anyway, as a result of this technical glitch the line hardly seemed to move and I spent a goodly 50 minutes standing in line, getting increasingly impatient as I was due into the Lift Tickets office by 1pm for my afternoon Cabin shift.

Eventually we managed to get on the lift, which only stopped once (and then briefly) on the way up. Up top it was chilly (as you’d expect from the top of a mountain) but clear. Awe inspiring snow-capped vistas and low hanging cloud had me freezing my fingers as I brought the camera out.

The Playground
Josh and I dropped off the lip of the back of Gem into a double black called Playground. It had a few steep drops, followed by a sharply curved funnel. A few stray rocks were still jutting out and the narrowness of the run precluded leisurely turning. So as Josh edged his way down I got impatient and took it at a decent speed. Going down I managed to get bogged only once or twice in the hip thick powder (avoiding other more cautious punters). From there we dropped into the Falcon Chair and made our way to the Ridge and then down to the main Village. A hurried change and I managed to make it into work with a few minutes to spare.

The evening at the cabin was steadily busy. Jared and Morgan (lifties) popped in to chat a few times. A quick night with few hassles.


15 January, 2006 (Sunday)
Kelowna
I had booked with Jae to catch the staff shuttle down into Kelowna to do a touch of shopping and maybe have lunch with Trish (if she was about and able to separate herself from the books). The bus left promptly at 9am with the hour drive absorbed by the movie Dodgeball.

Kelowna was quiet on a Sunday, with most of the shops still closed when I did my first round of Orchard Plaza at 10am. Jae and I ended up at Chapters, the local book chain, where indulged myself and stocked up on a half-dozen gems, most of them pulp. To round off my nerd shopping I popped into Future Shop (like Harvey Norman).

Trish met up with us at 1pm and we lunched at a local restaurant - Whitespot. After a quick meal we split, with Trish generously offering Jae a lift to the airport to greet and pickup his friend who had just arrived. I made my way back up with a loaded bag to Big White.

Tickets Party
The Big White Tickets crew were booked in at Happy Valley Day Lodge for afternoon ‘appreciation’ drinks at 4pm. Most of the crew had by this time recovered from the flu and were raring for a night out. Rolling out of the shopping bus I hurried into the skating rentals area and looked to see who was about.

Tanya, Gabbi, Tim and myself were seated and waiting for the alcohol to flow right on 4pm. The rest of the group trickled in soon after, with Steve and Zia dragging a full plastic bag of mystery items. These turned out to be our Big White staff hats, which came at the price of sitting through the usual listing of ticketing dos and don’ts. Rivetting.

A few jugs of beer and a pile of multi-hued nachos later (courtesy of Steve, our glorious leader) we were finding our own way to the bar to restock. The department bar tab lasted only a few rounds and everybody was ready to blow off a bit of steam. The rest of the night blurred into mixing it up at Happy Valley. At one point I popped down to the skating rentals area to see if Sam needed any help (she was left to hold the fort, being the newest recruit), but soon found my way back upstairs.

From Happy Valley the majority of the group found their way to Sam’s (as you’d expect). On the way back to the apartment to drop off my backpack load of shopping I found my way into 306 who were eating cake for Luke’s birthday. The cake was tasty.

Back at Sam’s Sarah and Tim were partying it up hard, with Tim flashing the camera at any opportunity. The end of the night found everybody strutting their stuff on a packed dance floor. A good but expensive night out with the crew. Is that what living on a ski resort is supposed to be about?


16 January, 2006 (Monday)
Being my second day off of course I slept in. When I rose it looked a little foggy out, but Josh soon persuaded me that I needed to get on the slopes. We did a few warm-up runs before meeting up with Commissionaire Jess. (I’d first met Jess outside Sam’s one night, boarding down the icy hill into the main village. She offered me a go and I promptly stacked it. Three tries later I made it two-thirds of the way down, but the dog was still doing better. Since then I’ve ran into her on a couple of occasions, including New Years when she cleared out the Moguls party and one day at Happy where she inquired about our Avalanche Awareness weekend.)

With visibility still average we ended up riding through the Black Forest, cutting through trees and jumping between runs. I only lasted an hour and a half before begging out on account of tiredness. Josh and Jess kept on going on.

Back at home I did the usual ‘Ben the house mom’ act, cleaning up and making the place smell nice. It’s amazing how long things can be left around with nobody making an attempt to clean up. Heck, since I’ve been here I think we’ve vacuumed once, and I’m pretty sure that my full bathroom job on Christmas day is the only time it’s been done from bath to bench top. Yes, it’s hard having a defined standard in cleanliness.

In the afternoon Josh, Jae and I helped out Jerry (the apartment caretaker) clear the roof of snow. The Ptarmigan has a flat roof, perhaps a legacy of the mid-70s design, which requires regular clearing. As such, we can access the roof via a ladder and access hatch in our back stairwell.

Jerry had us variously break up packed snow, clear the cornices and shovel snow off the top. Meanwhile he wandered the roof with his trusty snowblower launching big gouts of snow up and onto the three metre high (and building) snow bank to the side of our building. We were warned not to get too close to the edge as, 3 stories up, it is a long drop down. Jae however, in a fit of enthustic shovelling, managed to throw a plastic shovel off the top (but thankfully not himself). Luckily nobody was walking underneath at the time.

It was an intense hour and a half of work, but we managed to clear a goodly part of the build-up. Of course, next snowfall we can expect more of the same. I have to admit that there is something satisfying about the sound of a shovel full of snow hitting the ground 14 metres below you. The sliding sound as it leaves your shovel and the solid whumph as it impacts brings a big cheery grin to my face. All part of the Canadian experience I guess.

That night we had guests. Amy and Mel, a pair of sisters from Sydney who used to live down the corridor, dropped down for some chips and conversation which extended to dinner. Jae and I owed them a dinner in any case, having imposed on their hospitality at their SnowPines house the other week. From dinner (Jae cooking – pasta, tomato-based sauce with mushrooms and garlic honey chicken) we went to dessert (my treat!) with apple strudel, pancakes and an aborted attempt at brownies (sorry Mel!). We finished late into the night after more chatting.


17 January, 2006 (Tuesday)
The day started with thick fog early on. I closed my eyes, only to open them an hour later to a beautiful day. The fog had burnt off to reveal an open sky and still day. So of course in Big White Ptarmigan Inn apartment 311 tradition I went out with Josh, with the intention of catching Tanya at Gem.

The usual routine
As usual we went up the Rocket and then down Powder Keg. From the Powder chair I got a bit adventurous and skied fast down two quick drops and off a jump to land on my back in thick powder. Got to learn how to stick those!

We bumped down Corkscrew and then peeled off left into the glades; spaced trees in untracked hip-deep powder. Dodging in and out both Josh and I found ourselves stuck more than a few times before popping back onto the main run.

Leading off Corkscrew we bumped down Blackout. Going at speed I leaned in, hitting a v-shaped gully. Going downslope was fun, however with my weight still forward I impacted on the upslopes and came over my skis. Most of the force collected into my left knee, compacting the joint and leaving me rolling in agony. Josh came by and, being the sympathetic soul that he is, started laughing. When he’d finished he asked if I was alright. “No. It hurts. A lot.”

I limped the rest of the way home (thankfully not as steep or nasty), down Gem then Green runned it into the village. Movement kept the joint functional, but it still throbbed most of the way down. Back at the apartment I settled myself in, ate and then gimped my way to Happy Valley for my evening shift.

Pimping it up
Back home at 9:30pm, I’d only got in the door when Mel and Amy rang the buzzer. No sooner had I let them in than Josh arose, bleary eyed but ready to spiff it up for Sam’s annual “Pimps & Ho’s night”. Josh dressed in all black while I donned my green and red bowling shoes, got my leather jacket out of the cupboard, slicked my hair back with a criminal amount of product and flipped out my rose coloured pimp glasses (a great investment).

We arrived outside Sam’s at 10:30 to a line up outside the door. It was cold out and we huddled close, the girls not really clothed for sub-zero temperatures. It was freezing. Literally.

After only 5 minutes we managed to weasel our way inside the foyer, but spent the next 45 minutes waiting to get in to the bar (held back by egotistical bouncesr on the pretence of the bar reaching capacity). The crowd behind us had a bit too much alcohol and testosterone going, boisterously pushing, yelling and proving how annoying they could be. Despite pushing, yelling and hassling the bouncers they managed to get a few of their number in before us. We passed Dave who was on his way out – he wasn’t overly impressed by the party. Too much of the same apparently, although I believe that was his sixth night straight.

When we finally got in it was past 11pm. The freaks were out in force, with some guys taking the occasion as an excuse to dress up in drag (smudged lipstick with a 5 o’clock shadow has never been considered attractive as far as I know). There were also a lot of people about who had obviously not even bothered. The place was definitely not at capacity, with the back smoking room, front side and pool table areas practically empty. While it’s likely that the bouncers were still smarting from Sam’s being fined the past weekend for exceeding capacity and under-age drinkers, they could at least have made an effort to regulate the lines more effectively. Too busy playing with the hair I guess, eh Jessie?

Quite a few girls wandering around in little more than eye liner and makeup. Guys tend to either go for bling (there was a guy wandering around with an over-sized clock) or bath robes. I think Heff would take offense if he thought he was categorized as a pimp. (I always thought of him as more a gentleman of leisure than a pimp.) Still, lots of familiar faces were about. I circulated for the night, moving between groups of mountain people.

We stayed until close. There was some mention of after parties, but they were slow to move. Amy ended up coming back to our place for pancakes. The three of us sat around the kitchen table and talked about home, family and relationships until about 2:30am. Then we all crashed out.


18 January, 2006 (Wednesday)
Due in for 8am at Happy. I cooked a quick breakfast of bacon and eggs (been missing those fried breakfasts) and ran out the door.

Happy was relatively quiet. A nice shift, although the day sometimes drags when it’s like that. For a change I had a quiet night. The whole house was still tired from the night before.


19 January, 2006 (Thursday)
Started my 8am shift at the Village, but Jess had called in sick (again!), so at 8:30 I was sent down to the Ridge. It was cold and snowing outside, and my first Ridge shift that I hadn’t skied down. Usually ticket staff walk down Hummingbird, the main run down to the Ridge Rocket, but I decided to trek through the side of the village and down. The trek through the deepening snow was cold and slippery, but I made it in 10 minutes.

I had time to setup and get comfortable before the rush came. Coopers vouchers were at a premium (a discount voucher available in Kelowna which provides a day ticket at a $13 discount to buying on mountain – very popular with locals). The day passed steadily. I had a group from Hawaii purchase tickets as well as a variety of locals and visitors from Washington State (Seattle way) and Ontario (Toronto way).

I balanced.


20 January, 2006 (Friday)
Just another day. Slept in and eventually found my way over to 306 to do the online essentials.

I made it to my cabin shift in the afternoon. It was a quiet evening with Freaky Friday unleashed. Only a few families and the odd group of youths. I managed to get a few pages through my book between chatting to the lifties who work the tube park. Seems like Jared (who runs the lifties at the tub park) will be staying around for a bit longer. Apparently due to liability concerns Big White does not condone any use of sleds or toboggans on the mountain. We’re big on liability here.

Morgan: Morgan is a local who works in the Tube Park. He’s of average height and medium build with round rimmed glasses and dreadlocks. Overall his look is somewhere between Rastafarian and gun snowboarder. This is Morgan’s second season here at the Big White working lifts. He’s generally allocated out to the mini-snowmobiles (known around here as ‘Mini Zs’) which he seems pretty happy about, it is, as he puts it, “pretty chill”.
Morgan belongs to a local snowboarding group called the ‘Renegades’. They’re pretty well known in these parts for being snowboarders par excellence, and have recently released their own video (with a big launch party earlier in the season at Raakels).
I often find myself chatting to Morgan when I’m working the tubing cabin. Most week days it isn’t too busy with the Mini Zs so he likes to pop into the cabin and cram packet French Fries into his face.
The other week Morgan shared with me his philosophy of snowboarding. He claims to meditate prior to boarding each day, and likes to load himself up with lots of positive energy prior to getting out on snow (this is done by ingesting a lot of sugar and red bull). On the snow Morgan claims to be searching for some sort of zen, mind / no-mind, state when he is snowboarding. A place where he is only acting and that he is “one” with his snowboard. To assist this he abstains from alcohol and substances which may interfere with his quest for snowboarding nirvana.

After my shift finished I found myself with the Ptarmigan Regulars (Dave, Liz and Caleb) at Sam’s. We lasted until 12:30am then went our separate ways. Dave was a little tired.