Friday 20th November 2009

Today had been planned as my first snow day. Despite still needing to buy loads of equipment and sort a bunch of other stuff out, the calling of the mountain was too much. There are 3 busses running to the open resort of Sunshine Village, the first at 8.30, then 9.50 and finally 11.10. Due to the drinks the night before and still adjusting to the time difference, getting up to walk into town to collect my lift pass anytime before 9.30 wasnt going to happen so I arranged with housemate Kira that i'd go up with her on the 11.10 bus while everyone else took the earlier bus. So as they were all preparing to head to the bus stop, up I got to make the walk into town, arriving at the pass collection centre I received some bad news. All season passes were issued with a photo and so once again my hat had to come off. So much for hiding the damage - the gitls behind the desk exchanged some furtive mirthful glances but didnt say anything to my obvious discomfort or my slightly turned angle for the photograph. They did however "somehow" mess up the first attempt so my pass was printed with a black square instead of a picture, meaning once again the hat came off for another photo! Once finished up getting my pass I decided to start browsing for 5 minutes before heading home to gear up, only to be tapped on the shoulder by the course co-ordinator Emily as she had recognised me. 15 minutes of chatting later I was once again true to form running late and had to break of the conversation to dash home for the bus. Arriving to gear up just as Kira had decided she couldnt wait any longer we were very shortly on our way to the bus stop. Catching a bus to get to a ski slope was a new experience for me, all my previous ski trips were ski in/ski out of within a short walk of the slope. Sunshine Village is a 20 minute bus journey away, plus extra time for loading people on at all the stops but by 12 we arrived at resort, and made it up the gondola to the village part of the mountain. Sunshine is home to the areas only ski in/ski out hotel as well as having plenty of facilities for people arriving on the mountain just to ski. Kira was suffering from a damaged knee so headed off on her own to gently test it, while I set out to find the others while easing myself back into being on Ski's. a few runs later and i started pushing it harder and harder, eventually working up to a powder stack in the late afternoon. 3 hours of skiing later I still hadn't found the other guys, but having reached the limit of how hard I could push without injuring myself I headed down the mountain and got back onto the coach, only to be joined moments later by the elusive housemates who I'd been looking for all day! It certainly is a different way to end the days ski, being more used to hitting a bar for some apres ski before dinner or making sure everyone knew about dinner on the university trips - here I was able to just rest and nearly fall asleep.

Once home, it was time to cook and relax before heading out to meet the new arrivals for the course due to arrive from the group flight about 6. However, delays on their flights and transports meant they were late arriving and a message was left with 2 girls who had been in town a while so that they could come and join us at the pub after they arrived to help the jetlag. When we turned up to the bar they were nowhere to be seen and when eventually the group did show up it was only people who had been in resort previously anyway so there was no newcomers. Still, we got right onto the drinking, and as things always go - we ended up on the pool table. Through sheer luck and some incredibly fluky shots, when the group left for the night club, I was still winning and in control of the table. Having promised to follow along, nearly an hour later i gracefully retired, handing the reins over to a worthy component who lost out only to peculiarities of Canadian rules. Heading off, the group has seriously diminished when I arrived at one of 2 night clubs in Banff, Hoodoos. Perhaps this was due to the ...interesting... dj skills, who's tracks included dance remixes of The Beatles and Black Sabbath. Another late night later, it was time to head home for the course to start tomorrow with a technical briefing session at 9am.