Travel Day

Thursday was the day we headed back to Toronto. It started by looking out the window and not being able to see across the yard. It was socked in real good. So we figured that we should leave a bit early to head down the mountain in case the driving was bad. As it turned out once we were down a couple of km the fog lifted and the road was good all the way to Kelowna. Checking in was smooth as it had been on the way out and the flight to Toronto was faster than going out. We stayed in a hotel in Toronto overnight and everyone had a long sleep, and just now starting to wake . The body still thinks it 6 am. Today should be a relaxing day and it looks like a good day to drive home.

Day Four. Last Ski Day

You know it's a good day ont he hill when you have to beg the Ski Patrol to let you up before the lift closes. We skied long and hard today and Keega'n, Trevor and Ken found the Sun Ripe Bowl where the skiing was great. Today's Pictures are from the Bowl. Holly signed up for the Ladie's Day and went off with a bunch of girls and a French Ski Instructor. Sounds like an interesting combination. She received two hours of instruction and then they had a roast beef dinner and wine. So everyone had a good last day. We've booked the hotel sauna for ourselves later so we can wind down before heading out tomorrow. We all agree that we have to come back again.
Todays picures give an idea of the pitch in the bowl area. It's great as long as you don't hit a tree.

Day three is a relaxing day

After looking at what the local grocery store had to offer and the prices, we decided to run in to Kelowna this morning and stock up on some fresh fruit and get some bread products. The price difference makes it worthwhile and we got to visit the local mall. By the time we got back it was decided to do night skiing from 4 to 8 rather than try to fit in 2 hours of afternoon skiing.
I've added a couple of pictures of Keegan and Trevor up at the snow ghosts from yesterday, and also a picute of the bottom of one of the main lifts. This one was taken at 1 pm today. Notice that there is no line up at all. It's pretty amazing and the ski time is far better than you woul dget at a place like Tremblant. I had to add this as I looked at the Tremblant web cam and the lift lines were unbelievable. And it's snowing here again.
The top picture shows our hotel on the left and the village square next to it. It truly is ski-in/ski out.

Day two in Paradise

Ok, so maybe it's not paradise but from a skiing point of view it's pretty darn close, especially since we hear that it's 14 degrees in Collingwood. We didn't get any big new snow fall last night so we didn't ski in powder today but it's snowing now and tomorrow we probably will have more great powder to try. The one good thing today was that it was sunny so we could get some nice pictures up in the area called the snow ghosts. It's a great area where you ski in the snow covered trees. Trevor and Keegan found a route from one end of the hill to the other and it took 45 minutes of non-stop skiing to get back to the Village. You can ski til you drop, which is about where we're at as we relax after the day on the slopes.

Day one on the big hill

Today was probably the best skiing that we've ever had and it sure beats Tremblant or Collingwood. They have a program out here where there are people called Snow Hosts. Sort of like a tour guide of the hill. We decided that since we didn't know the hill that this was the way to go. We got the boys teamed up with a Snow Host who would take them on the more challenging parts of the hill and Holly and I had a retired guy named John all to our selves and what we learned in three hours with him was absolutely amazing. He showed us some great routes and explained where the better areas are when it gets busy and even where it gets busy when the weather is a certain way. The info will help us the rest of the week. We even had Holly skiing powder in the trees. She came out with a big smile and wanted to do it again. Unfortunately we didn't have the camera so I'll get some shots tomorrow to post.
The North Bay K1 team is off to the provincials this week so good luck to all of them.

Well we made it to Big White after a long day of travel. We got to Kelowna at 8pm and by the time we left the airport it was 8:30. The Budget rental lady was really nice and was sympathetic to our large amount of gear so she gave us a SUV for half the normal price. We just couldn't see hauling everything in a car. It was raining when we left Kelowna, clear sky heading into the mountains and snowing as we got closer to Big White. The road up isn't for the faint hearted. We were totally drained by the time we arrived and the staff here were great at helping us. So by the time we got to bed it was 10:30 local time. The morning brought the great view out our window and we're looking forward to a good day on the hill.

Well we are sitting here in the Calgary airport waiting for the \kelowna flight. The trip through Toronto was actually painless. We parked at the hotel, got on the shuttle 10 minutes later, got to the Westjet checkin andf there were maybe five people ahead of us. I guess Saturday afternoon is a good time to leave. Going through security was the only hickup in the process. My computer bag at times doubles as a tool pouch, so it ended up at the "we want to look inside" lady. She thought I had a hair straitener inside from the xray. Seems I forgot that I had my RJ-45 crimper still in the bag. They didn't like the small cutting blades on it so wouldn't let me take it on. So I sacrificed one for the team. We're pretty tired at this point and can't wait to get to the hotel at Big White.
Stay tuned for more exciting news as it happens.

It's Friday night and everything is packed and ready to go. I hope we didn't forget everything. It's amazing how much stuff you need for 7 days.